Thanksgiving Day this year will look much different than any in our past. Brian will have work at the church during the day, and Karsee will be counselling in the evening. Maddie will have school as usual, and Joseph will have his first “visitation” day at the Nursery he’ll soon attend. Thinking about how different this day of festivities will be has made us thoughtful about the many things for which we are thankful.
God has brought us on this magnificent journey and he has shown us his faithfulness, his perfect timing and his grace all along the way. Over these first six months in Scotland, he has smoothed our paths in some places, taught us patience in others, surrounded us with brothers and sisters to encourage us, challenged our expectations and revealed our fears. He has taught us new things about the depth and breadth of our sin and its effects while at the same time reminding us of his unending, unfathomable and undeserved love for us.
As we look through the names of our supporters and friends this week, we are so thankful for all of the ways you have faithfully supported us over the last few years of fund-raising and, now, service on the field. We’re reminded of the family who prays every Wednesday for us, and the friend whose little boy prays for “Maddie’s mama and papa in Scotland,” of those of you who periodically FaceTime, iChat or Skype with us to check in and let us know you’re praying. The blog comments, the emails and the texts all encourage us. Every single one.
As we continue to settle here in Scotland, we’re so thankful for our new family and friends in Dundee who have already cared for us in amazing ways and in a variety of circumstances. We’re developing some incredible friendships here that make our hearts glad and confirm our sense of call to this place. And how fitting that in this week of Thanksgiving, our friend and pastor David Robertson has made significant steps on the road to recovery: he’s out of ICU, breathing on his own and getting back to being “David” again. God heard and honoured your prayers to spare his life and we are very blessed to be able to have him here with us for a while longer.
We’ll be celebrating Thanksgiving here with a meal on Friday evening and will be introducing some new foods to some of our Scottish friends. Though we’ll miss our extended family and friends, and the lounging, and the football, and the turkey induced comas, we are looking forward to sharing a bit of this tradition with this new family God has given us here; and to ponder and share about our Father’s faithfulness.
