We have done all the measurements and concluded that Thanksgiving Turkeys just don’t fit in a FEMA camper oven. While memories of past Thanksgiving meals in homes now swept away by hurricane Katrina will no doubt bring some sentimental tears, we rejoice at the abundance of grace and provision that God continues to pour out on our storm ravaged community.
In the tradition of the first Thanksgiving, Lakeshore Baptist Church will gather at 9:00 am on the last Thursday of November to render thanksgiving to our Almighty God for all His blessings. We will begin with a short prayer service at 9:00 followed by crafts for the kids and other things. At 11:00 we will hold a full worship service with the preaching of God’s Word leading us to magnify the goodness and glory of God, our supreme treasure. We will enjoy an authentic pilgrim Thanksgiving feast catered by West Congregational Church of Haverhill Massachusetts.
To All Ye Pilgrims
Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as He has protected us from the ravages of savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our conscience; now, I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November ye 29th of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor, and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
–A Thanksgiving Proclamation Attributed to Governor William Bradford
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Brother Don: Is anybody videotaping your services? If they are, I would be happy to buy copies. I am glad to see so many people stepping up to help LBC and it’s family.—Grady Thornton, Birmingham, AL
Pastor Elbourne, we will read your “Thanksgiving in Lakeshore” post to our own Chapel on the Hill congregation here in New Jersey on Thanksgiving morning. We will be thinking of you all and praying for you. The other night at our “Mississippi Gathering” (of the team members and their families who went in October) the guys looked at pictures on Stephen Ake’s blog, and they were all so psyched to go back – they had the map and calendar out, planning it all. It was a joy to see! Of the 8, at least 6 can definitely return, maybe more, and perhaps others will join them. But we will all join them in spirit and support -and we are looking forward to doing all we can to make Christmas in Lakeshore better. Happy Thanksgiving – as we focus on what God has done, but most of all on who He is!