Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. So, approaching Thanksgiving this year I had to prepare myself that it was going to look a lot different. I don’t have many traditions back home surrounding thanksgiving, but I always loved to have a reason to eat yummy food and recount all the reasons why I am thankful. It always filled me with J O Y.
In Honduras, Thanksgiving morning our whole squad didn’t go to ministry like normal. Instead, we went on a prayer walk and collected rocks. However, these weren’t just any normal rocks, they were intended to be our thankful rocks. We would take then with us for the rest of The Race, and be reminded of what we are thankful for when times get h a r d.
Then, we traveled about half a mile to a hotel called Posada Del Angel where we met 2 other squads for a retreat called THE AWAKENING. An Awakening is a special event that happens on the World Race, where multiple squads are in the same country during the same month. During this time, squads typically gather to be in community with one another, worship together, and rest. Our retreat s t r e t c h e d from November 22nd-25th. We did end up getting to have a sit down thanksgiving dinner. Our Thanksgiving dinner consisted of chicken, mashed potatoes, and green beans. I did, PTL (praise the Lord), get to have apple pie, which is my favorite (see the pictures below). It was a special and memorable Thanksgiving for sure.
Now you are thinking, spending Thanksgiving weekend with a bunch of people you don’t know might seem weird or uncomfortable right?. Yes, BUT the cool thing though was it wasn’t. During our first night all together, we had a hour session where we got to sing and worship God. It was in that moment, where I had this amazing o v e r w h e l m i n g sense of belonging and unity. I don’t know any of these people, but I know we all have one thing in common and that is our love for Jesus. In that moment I didn’t miss home on Thanksgiving like I thought I would. Instead, in that moment, I was overcome with J O Y and I knew that this was exactly where I was suppose to be. And for that, I am thankful.
I hope you had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving surrounded with family, yummy food and thankfulness.
Blessings,
B
