The First Thanksgiving

During October, November, and December, Jessie, Elizabeth, and Esther are helping to host holiday parties in four local elementary and junior high schools. This past month, of course, we have focused on the history of the first Thanksgiving in the colonies. We have shared ALOT about why the pilgrims decided to leave England and make the perilous journey to the New World. We have also shared about the difficulties they faced that first winter and the help given them by Father through the Native Americans.
At the beginning of each party, we introduce new vocabulary words. Then, we tell a story or do a skit about the first Thanksgiving.

For most of these students, it is their first time to celebrate Thanksgiving, and they are very eager and excited to listen and participate.

We always give the students time to ask questions and to review what they have learned.
We explain to them how we use the Thanksgiving season to thank Father for all the things He has done for us throughout the year. Then, using a web of gratitude, we let the students tell us how they are thankful. They have given some interesting responses: baseball, parents, teachers, us, pizza, butterflies, money, vacations, etc. When we tell them that students in America get out of school for Thanksgiving, they DEFINITELY think their country should start celebrating this holiday too.
We end the party by letting the students participate in a game of Pictionary, reviewing the new vocabulary words. We are very happy to have the opportunity to host these parties in the public schools here. We really look forward to sharing the TRUE meaning of Christmas during next month's parties.

Harvest Time

During the past week, we have had the opportunity of a lifetime. We all four were involved in the F. G. Festival held in our city. Each day started around 4 pm and ended around 4 am. During the actual services, it was amazing to see HIStory freely proclaimed and nationals invited to publically come forward to accept the invitation to New Life. We could only do counseling in English, but we had opportunity to share with folks from the Philippines and Swaziland. Thousands of national siblings counseled in the native language.

Each evening after the services, we all four helped with follow-up. All decision cards had to be tallied, entered into a data base, sorted, assembled, labeled, and mailed. Several hundred nationals worked into the "wee hours" of the morning every night. Again, we could only help with the jobs that required no reading of the native language. So, mostly we helped with data entry for the English-speaking decisions, assembling, labeling, and mailing. All of that experience working on state convention newspapers really paid off.

Now, it is up to the local clubs to contact every person that made a decision, and get them invovled in obedience-based discipleship. This is a VERY CRUICAL part. Please remember the local clubs as they seek to take care of more than 13,000 new babes in Him. It was definitely Harvest Time on our little island. Please, ask for more workers to assist in the Follow-up Time.