Thanksgiving

There is no doubt in my mind that my house is the best smelling house on the entire African continent. Amanda's been busy working in the kitchen all morning preparing for our Thanksgiving meal with several of our good friends here in Senegal. So far she's made (all gluten free, mind you) 2 pumpkin pies, squash casserole and green bean casserole. She also did the prep work on the turkey, which is now cooking at our friend's house. This afternoon we'll head over and have a very international Thanksgiving.

I was thinking this morning about our previous Thanksgivings here in Africa. The first was in 2005, when Americans were a minority around the table. Of the 13 people there, only 2 others besides Amanda and I were from the USA! In 2006 Amanda's dad and girlfriend visited us and made it a very special first Thanksgiving with our twin daughters.

In 2007 we were in the midst of a year in Bamako where we didn't have any American colleagues around us. We invited our Malian pastor's family over for that most American of meals - pizza! - and I got to share (in French, of course) the story of the Pilgrims and why we celebrate Thanksgiving.

In 2008 we were visiting Dakar, Senegal to get immigration visas for the twins to become Americans during Thanksgiving weekend. The following year we were actually living in Senegal and spending Thanksgiving with our new team here. Last year we sat out the community time but we're really excited for spending this time together with so many of our teammates. I know that it won't be all Americans as we'll have (at least) Dutch and Australian teammates there.

I'm so thankful this year for many things. First on my mind is how much Hannah and Miriam are growing - physically, mentally, spiritually. Unprompted, we often hear them praying for our family members that don't know Jesus. We see them excelling in their school work and love watching them grow their personalities. I'm also thankful for the teammates we have in Senegal. This would be a very, very difficult place to be without them. I'm thankful for Amanda and the practical ways she shows her love for her family and I'm thankful for the Lord using us in ministry and letting us be a part of His work in Africa.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!