Truly Full Of Thanks

Thanksgiving, the day, will be a bit anti-climatic for us this year. I lay awake, thinking about it, it seems that trying to recreate an American holiday here feels a bit flat. So much can be reproduced but there are dear faces in our minds that can’t be replaced. 

Thankfully, God has given us many dear faces here. The original Thanksgiving was about the American Indians welcoming and blessing the Pilgrims and then mutual celebration. In light of this, tomorrow, we’ve invited five of the families who have blessed us (the pilgrims who weren’t going to survive the winter) to do a meal. There will be no turkey but plates piled high with injera, shiro, vegetable stew and flowing pots of coffee. (It’s fasting time for Ethiopian Orthodox and though we would love to bless with meat, I AM SO GLAD I DON’T HAVE ANY BUTCHERING TO DO!) 

I did bring a small frozen turkey breast back to Ethiopia. We will eat it on Monday night when a Canadian family comes through. Canadians don’t have the same Thanksgiving date as Americans but they have agreed to be thankful with us.

A few exceptional reasons for which we praise God:

This. All summer I prayed God would give the girls friends in Addis Ababa as well as Injibara. Yesterday in the pasture, there was so much love and fun to be had, Thank you, Lord!

And this. Another kid at the guest house in Addis Ababa, who happens to be a boy and also happens to love to play prince to these two princesses. He has also proclaimed he will marry them both. They are okay with this as they could always be together. Jon and I are less okay with it but think we can talk sense into the situation, at least by the time they are teens. 

In another huge praise, Not-So-Little-A has decided it is time she learns Amharic. The girls have seemed to have had a mental wall to learning the language and after pushing, pleading and prodding, we backed off until it was girl initiated!  Now, onto language learning.

 

Psalm 136, is amazing in it’s entirety. Here are the beginning 4 verses to whet our appetites.

“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. 

Give thanks to the God of gods, for his steadfast love endures forever. 

Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his steadfast love endures forever; 

to him who alone does great wonders, for his steadfast love endures forever. "

Happy, Happy Thanksgiving!