November 2019

Dear members and friends of Suamico Church,
Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus!

Farmers are people of faith. In the spring they plant seeds with the faith that the seeds will sprout, grow, and bear fruit. God blesses them with the sunlight and rain. In the fall they harvest their crops and celebrate Thanksgiving.

Like the farmers, we plant the seeds of our hope and human effort, and God blesses us with many blessings. We are blessed with family and friends, food and shelter, freedom and health. We ought to thank God and the people who have blessed our lives. The old hymn goes, “Count your many blessings. Name them one by one. And you will be surprised what the Lord has done.”

One day a sad looking man came to see a doctor. The doctor examined him and found nothing physically wrong with the man. Still the man was depressed and pessimistic about life. So the doctor prescribed him a “Thank You Therapy.” The doctor said to the man, “Sincerely thank people who do good for you and then come back to see me in six weeks.” The man said to the doctor, “What if nobody does any good deed for me?” The doctor said, “Seek and you will find.” After six weeks of practicing the “Thank You Therapy”, the man came back to the doctor and reported, “I am now a much happier person.”

Anglican Church priest William Law said, “The greatest saint in the world is not he who prays most, fasts most or even gives the most alms, but he who is most thankful to God.”

As we celebrate Thanksgiving Day, let us not only thank God for the many blessings that we enjoy but also think about the less fortunate people in the world. We ought to pray and act to advocate for the poor and the excluded in our society.

God wants justice and peace for all the people in the world. We, as Christians, are called to be coworkers of God so that the voiceless and the powerless may thank God for our kind words and good deeds for them.

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless you richly!
​Pastor Jerry