Thanksgiving

Last night we celebrated Thanksgiving by hosting a dinner for our house group. Everyone brought something for the meal. We had chicken instead of turkey as turkey is very expensive here. We didn't have pumpkin pie either so it wasn't a particularly traditional thanksgiving meal but wonderful all the same.

After the main course. We each took it in turns to share some things that we are thankful for from the past year. The overriding theme was the body of Christ - by which we mean the family of believers and community of friends that we have in our local Church and the wider Church. That was a big thing for me as it has been so amazing to come to the other side of the world and slot into a family here who are just as wonderful as the Church family we left behind in Bristol - but we still miss all you guys in Bristol!

I also wrote everyone's name on a card (some of Ian's 250 business cards that are now scrap!) and invited everyone to pull one out of a bowl and then pray about that person and write on the card a verse or encouraging words that God might have for that person. At the end of the evening we pulled the completed cards out of the bowl again and read them out. We included the children in that too. It was very encouraging and great fun!

All in all a lovely evening. This morning we have swimming, en famille. This time Ian gets to swim while I take Ethan to his class then we have a family spa. Then Ian is off to the city for a meeting. He has had one every day this week and a few more lined up for next week. Several people have prayed for him and said that they feel that the next job will be an unusual one, not a run of the mill regular job. Sounds exciting!