Happy Thanksgiving

November 23, 2005
Aloha and Happy Thanksgiving!!!
This week in preschool, I have been teaching my little ones about the first thanksgiving and it made me realize how much we have to be thankful for.
First of all I have to say thank you for all of the encouragement, prayers, and support over the past couple of weeks. God has been faithful to provide and He has used many of you to do that!!! I am feeling much better. I am up to 11 children in preschool. God has been carrying me through each day by His grace. Still looking for a full time preschool assistant come January and now I am also looking for a secretary as our is moving to Hilo in December. AND after a week of open-hood surgery, my Jeep is back up and running very nicely with a new radiator. I am thrilled to have a mode of transportation!!!!
During this season when everyone is talking about what they are thankful for, I would like to ask, what are you thankful for???
I was humbled while I was talking to a friend who grew up outside of the US. She was blown away when she walked into a normal American kitchen and saw all of the cabinets full of packaged food and refrigerators filled with food ready to eat. Growing up her family had to work all day in order to have an evening meal. She was thankful to go to school where she was given breakfast and lunch. How many of us can truly say we are thankful for food when most of us don’t know what it is like to go an entire day without food because we don’t have any?
Have you ever read the book Jesus Freak by DC Talk??? It is a collection of stories by Christians who are persecuted for their faith. Do you realize the freedom we have to say that we are Christians? The most persecution we, as Americans, have to worry about is being laughed at. There are Christian brothers and sisters all over the world that will permanently live with the emotional, social, and physical scars they received for standing up for what they believe in. Check out http://www.persecution.com/ for more information on how to pray for these individuals.
So what am I most thankful for???

- Freedom from my sins!! Jesus Christ paid the ultimate sacrifice with his life to give us eternal life. All we have to do is confess we are sinners, believe Jesus for what he did on the cross, and you are saved from the penalty of your sins, which is eternity away from Jesus (aka Hell).
Ultimately that is what thanksgiving is all about. Giving thanks to God for what He has done for us. That is why Abraham Lincoln set this day in November as a holiday every year for us to celebrate and give thanks.
For you history buffs- Here is the 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation…
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

Abraham Lincoln
So I wish for you a very Happy Thanksgiving!!! Enjoy the time with family and friends and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers.
Much love and God’s blessings,
Angela Calhoun