Thinking Thanking Change

CHSC LINK: Change Thanking Thinking

PDF Version: AWA Weekly 211120.PDF

 

 

Thinking to Change Thanking

Substitute Squash for pumpkin.
 Does anyone know its name?

On Thanksgiving Day, we plan to eat dinner with an American father and two children who moved into our neighborhood. Some dishes will require some creative thinking before the traditional thanking starts!! Pumpkin is rarely available here, so we use a large gourd with dark orange flesh to simulate pumpkin pie and sweet potato casserole. Both dishes taste amazingly like their American counterparts. We will prepare a Thanksgiving Day story or historical document to share, to demonstrate how thanks are transgenerational and therapeutic. Happy Thanksgiving! During family togetherness, games, and tables loaded with food, may we each remember and thank the Author of our many blessings. May the day develop or reinforce daily habits of rejoicing in Him.

Thanking to Change Thinking

Although the Thanksgiving Day celebration stems from a Christian worldview and is greatly loved by our family, a growing dichotomy puzzles us. Social media remains abuzz with people posting about their blessings as if it were the only occasion to do so. A good number of the same people spend eleven months of the year in rabid debates. They grouse about politics, gas prices, aches and pains, and other difficulties of life, as tempts us all. Of course, the freedom of civil discourse is a good thing that lets us discuss and develop efficient ways to address problems like COVID-19. (Links to great home treatment protocol model for CHE adaptation). What happens now in our country seems quite another. How sad when we as Christians succumb to frenzy rather than always rejoicing in public to find solutions while offering sacrifices of praise. Have we forgotten that as we think, so we become?

Romans 1:21 (ESV) offers insight into our propensity to complain. The passage gives a sober warning about the downward spiral taken by people groups who eventually abandon God. The first two characteristics listed are that they no longer glorify God as God nor give Him thanks. Daily counting our blessings changes who we are. The practice actually rewires brain circuits. Neuroscientists now study the impact of expressed gratitude on health, sleep, work capacity, relationships, etc. It is fascinating stuff (PT). (Other resources: AHA – NIH1 - NIH2 – NIH3 - NIH4.) However, there is something much more awe-inspiring. Trusting God’s entire revelation is a more reliable witness. Many people practiced the habitude of gratitude before any scientist explored the idea. The Lord knew our need to give thanks from the moment He created us!! He had reasons for instructing us to give thanks and rejoice. The question is, do we honestly believe Him and obey His Word?

[A few hours before posting this, Debbie’s beloved mother was taken to the ER because she could not talk. Sandra stayed in the hospital overnight to have testing today, Saturday. Thank you for praying that the source of the problem will be found.]

Prayer & Praise

• 🙏 In awe of King Jesus, Who only provides and commands what is good for us!
   
  
• 🙏 Thankful for our families who love the Lord and have fully supported us all our years of ministry!
   
  
• 🙏 Thankful for your unceasing prayers and giving that together make ministry possible!
   
  
• 🙏 Thankful that Verlin’s mother’s abdominal infection does not appear to need surgery at this time!
   
  
• 🙏 Pray with us for Debbie’s mother, Sandra Payne. She was taken to the hospital on Friday evening, unable to talk. She is to have an MRI on Saturday, and hopefully, we will know more soon.
   
  

Your Partners in the Gospel,

Verlin and Debbie

Christian Health Service Corps (CHSC) is a mission of dedicated medical professionals who participate in the CHE Global Network. Together, in a loose affiliation of individuals, churches, denominational, and nondenominational agencies, we share God's Light and Truth through Community Health Evangelism (CHE). Verlin and Debbie accept donor partners to contribute as led to provide support as we maintain residential ministry to expand CHE ministries in Cote d'Ivoire under the auspices of CHSC & Ivorian partners. Tax-deductible contributions by check are to be made payable to the CHSC with Andersons #0118 written on the memo line. Mail to CHSC - PO Box 132 - Fruitvale, TX 75127. Give online via the CHSC @ www.che4a.org (3% fee) or TDF (0% fee).

Prior: Reboot Life - 211106 PDF
Prior Videos: PA Come & Go
          - Cleanup Champs

2021 Q3 Report: Door Dynamics
  -  Anderson_Report_21_11_13 PDF

2021 Budget Info:
CHSC-0118_ANDERSON-2021-Budget.pdf

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