Thanksgiving Blessings

We had an absolutely wonderful Thanksgiving this year! Before we dismissed school for the holidays, our students did a Thanksgiving play and we enjoyed a Feast with all of our school families. My students did a presentation called "Cardboard Testimonies" and it moved the audience to tears! Each of my students wrote a short testimony of something God had done in their life and then I took their testimonies and wrote them in black marker on a piece of cardboard - the negative situation on one side, and the positive outcome on the other side. As we played a worship song about how much God loves us, each of my students walked to the center of the stage and held up the "bad" side of their cardboard testimony for the audience to read, then flipped it over and showed the "good" that had resulted. I stood behind stage and wept at how God had worked in the lives of my students. I really felt completely overwhelmed at how many "miracle stories" we have in our classroom! God has truly been good. We started our Thanksgiving Day at the Salvation Army, helping to prepare meals, wash dishes, and then delivering plates to those who were homebound. It was wonderful to see my children knocking on doors with a big smile and a cheery "Happy Thanksgiving!" to those who either had no one with whom to share the day or could not get out due to physical and financial impossibilites. Once again, we were reminded of how blessed we are. Later, we met at my grandparents' house for an afternoon meal of turkey, pork loin, dressing, gravy, sweet potato casserole, green beans, carrot souffle, butter beans, creamed corn, yeast rolls, broccoli salad, fruit salad, lime jello salad, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, mocha cookies, praline strips, sugar cookies, and blueberry yum-yum. Mmmmm, good! After dinner we enoyed the beautiful weather, took pictures, and played games until it got dark. Then we started up again inside - Scrabble, Bible Scattergories, Mad Gab, and chess.

The guys started pulling out their guitars and soon we were all sitting around picking and singing. Before we went our separate ways, my MawMaw called for family prayer. As we all joined hands and started to pray, the Holy Ghost just moved right in! For over an hour we wept, we worshipped, and we enjoyed the sweet presence of God. I watched as my uncle and two cousins interceded in the Holy Ghost (something I have never witnessed before), and another aunt and cousin wept under the power of the Holy Ghost (something that hasn't happened in 20 years). Although my family walked through the valley of the shadow of death one year ago, God has brought something beautiful from it all. I can't wait to see what He does next!