What it is All About...

My Favorite Tradition

Later today, after church is done, my church family will do one of the things churches do best, we will come together in the evening and as a body, we will break bread together. 

Not as communion, or Eucharist, but as a Thanksgiving meal shared with the people we have prayed with, laughed with, studied with and served with all this last year. 

While we chow down it won't be about the feast, though that in and of itself is amazing and worthy of some attention. No, it will be about the talk across the table. It will be about the 15 third through fifth grade girls who I teach on Sunday nights sitting around me, giggling and basking in the special moment as they eat pie and cookies.  

It will be about the woman who has battled cancer all year, who battles still, sharing her joy and sweet presence with the rest of us who love her and pray for her. About the woman who lost her husband suddenly and found herself alone just a few short months ago. It is about sharing a meal with a family who is about to embark on one of the biggest adventures of a lifetime as they soon leave to plant a new church of their own. 

It will be about the kid who just got saved, and loves my daughter in that sweet and peculiar way first loves do - sitting with us for the first time at a holiday meal. 

It is about saying thank you to the people who have tolerated my loud laugh and quirky sense of humor. To the women who have laughed until they cried because I got the giggles. To the women who have opened their hearts and lives to me and my family. 

It is about celebrating and saying thank you to one of the finest pastors I have had the privilege of sitting under. It is a time of thanks giving. 

You may be thinking, Thanksgiving is a few weeks away, or I live in another country and do not celebrate thanksgiving as a holiday. Both of these may be true, but it does not change the fact that we can take a moment, a meal, a day and be thankful. 

We can deliberately express to our loved ones, the ones kin by birth and those kin by the blood of the Lamb, our gratitude. In the presence of our brothers and sisters, we can share our hearts as we share a meal. 

Most of all, it is a time to thank our Maker, who is matchless in His faithfulness and generous beyond anything we have ever known. 

It is about honoring those who have done all they could to secure all we have. It is about an attitude of gratitude. 

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What have you got to be thankful for? 

Ministry Highlight - BIG LOVE!

We have all at one time or another asked the fateful question Why me? Well, why not you? The word says it rains on the just and the unjust.  None know this better than the families fighting cancer, especially when the battle is for the life of a little one.  Jesus said that children have a special place in the kingdom and he took special care to pay attention to them. He also said we are to minister to those who are in need, hurting, and that is exactly what Big Love Cancer Care does!

The whole family is affected when there is a diagnosis of cancer for a child. Everything from family dynamics to finances changes. Big Love provides services like phone cards, parking cards, toiletries, groceries, prayers, and foremost love and understanding for parents who are stuck in the hospital with their children while the kids undergo treatment.

I began this blog in part to highlight ministries that I believe in. I give to this ministry myself through my offerings at my home church, but I want to encourage you, please give. As little as $11 can pay for parking for a day: $20 can provide meals for a family. God gives seed to the sower. I believe that there is a reason you are reading this.

2 Corinthians 9:8-11 The Message (MSG) says: 8-11 God can pour on the blessings in astonishing ways so that you're ready for anything and everything, more than just ready to do what needs to be done. As one psalmist puts it, He throws caution to the winds, giving to the needy in reckless abandon. His right-living, right-giving ways never run out, never wear out. This most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes bread for your meals is more than extravagant with you. He gives you something you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust in God, wealthy in every way, so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God.

I stand on this scripture. I know that this blog is seed, and as I sow into you, won’t you in turn sow into Big Love? Now abides faith, hope, and LOVE, but the greatest of these is LOVE. (I Corinthians 13:13)

Be blessed and BE A BLESSING! Love is a verb!