Thanksgiving In Hawaii

JJ was born in Korea, was a prima ballerina and speaks four languages. She has also recovered from a heart attack that left her without a heart-beat in the emergency room.

Dorothy was born in mainland China, has nearly recovered from a stroke and just returned from a trip to China where she keeps in touch with members of her family. As always, she took plenty of Christian Chinese literature to give away to Christians there....(she knows people in both the state-endorsed and the unapproved and often persecuted house churches).

Sean was, a few years ago, a member of the Hawaii State Champion High School Football Team at St. Louis High School in Honolulu.

Quinton and Kalen are brothers who are swim champions and Eagle Scouts. Kalen is also a triathlon and cross-country champion in his age group.

Barry is an expert on submarines

Judy leads and teaches the Hawaii Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) in Honolulu.

Not to mention a U.S. Navy officer, a tile and ceramic wholesaler, four nurses, a university faculty member, a retired military meteorologist, a church organist, an administrative assistant (for a US Congressional-sponsored international relations project that brings future political, diplomatic and military leaders together for seminar training from the Pacific Basin, South and South-East Asia and the Middle East), a U.S. Postal Service employee (aka "mailman" or "letter carrier"), and an assortment of children and young people.

And me, Bird of Paradise (aka "Pastor").

What a great group of people to share Thanksgiving Dinner with this year.

As you can imagine, there were plenty of interesting conversations taking place around the various tables.

Everyone filled out a card and listed something they were thankful for:

The most frequent reason for being thankful was family, followed by knowing God's saving love in Jesus Christ, being a part of a loving church family and then a mix of health and other assorted blessings.

What are your reasons for being thankful this year?

Ordinarily my Wonderful Wife and I host the "open-invitation" dinner at our home each year. With my wife still recovering from a hospital stay less than two weeks ago, the Submarine guy and his BSF/nurse wife were kind enough to offer their home instead.

So....the bad news is that we didn't get to keep all the left-overs when everyone left....but...the good news is we didn't have to set up the house and clean it up afterwards!

Usually I have a snack in the evening before going to bed. Tonight I am too filled with turkey and the blessings of friends and family to even think of adding anything more.