Thanksgiving is upon us!

Next week we will gather in many ways to celebrate this unique American holiday. Of paramount importance is to give thanks to God for the many blessings in our lives. I hope you can join us on Wednesday at 7pm for our Thanksgiving Eve service, which will give each of us to give thanks to God and to worship together. We will celebrate the Lord’s Supper as part of the service, which is always an appropriate act of Thanksgiving.

I want to share one of the things I am quite thankful for. I have been blessed with a very important lifelong friendship. I have a friend named Michael who is almost exactly one year younger than me (his birthday is two days from mine!). Our families attended the same church through middle school. We played together, skipped worship together, and got in trouble together.

In high school, Michael and I ran in the same group of friends, and later we both attended Penn State. I was a year ahead of Michael, and I remember the night I reconnected with him. We were in his dorm room, and I was being nosy, looking through his cassette tapes (!). He had a stunning collection of Christian music. I said, “Dude, are you a Christian?” For the next three years, we were able to encourage each other as we navigated the challenges of early adulthood amid our new-found faith in Christ.

After a career in teaching spanning more than two decades, Michael and his wife, Cathy, are answering God’s call to serve as missionaries to Swaziland. You can learn more about their work here. Swaziland is a nation that is desperate need of the light of Christ. I urge you to pray for Michael and Cathy as they engage more fully in this work.

I have so much for which to be thankful: My family, my ministry, and of course, my faith in Christ Jesus. This year, though, I am extremely thankful that a man I have considered a brother my whole life, who shares in the grace of our Lord Jesus, has now heard and answered Christ’s call to serve in international missions!

Thanks be to God!

-Pastor John