YOUTH CHAPLAIN : Rev. Jess M. George
Dearly beloved in Christ,
Let us praise God for the next few months of celebrations through various events. November and December are special to us. In November, we celebrate World Sunday School Day. Let us thank God for the ministry of Sunday School. Our challenge should be to not enable only one hour per week of Sunday School, but even in everyday life, we should teach the children how to live to love and fear God. Our children are watching and listening to us, they learn from us more than we verbally teach them. Let us live out the Sunday School experience all throughout our lives.
We also commemorate November with the nation’s festival of Thanksgiving, I always look forward to this season with the great feast and the gathering of wonderful family and friends. The first Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World in October of 1621. It was a time when the pilgrims were thankful for the new world and the harvests of the seasons and being able to enjoy the fruits of their hard labor. Looking into today’s time, of all the ways God journeys with us, enabling us as a migrant community and seeing the blessings of generations being born and raised here, how good our God is, and how much He was with us every single step of the way.
Our first generation came to this country and started with nothing. Look at now how much we prospered and be able to see the fruits of the labor. We must constantly realize God as the source of our blessings whether we see it great or small. With whatever we have, let us thank God for it. Thanksgiving comes not just through words, but it is a constant act of appreciation that requires the ones who are thankful to be full of respect and love. Every morning when we wake up, let us celebrate it as thanksgiving and recall our blessings and name them one by one and be agents to bless others around us.
As we are thankful, let us also know the reason why we are thankful as understood in our lectionary, November is preparing us for December. We are preparing ourselves in the celebration of Christmas through commemorating the annunciation to Zachariah and the Virgin Mary, as well as the sharing of the Good News through the blessed visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. Let us remind ourselves through meditating this month that the coming of our Savior is the instilling of the Hope God gives us that He will NEVER leave us.
Let us continue to put our trust and hope in Him. Let us be thankful that we exist in this world and be thankful in all the circumstances that come our way because God chose for us to exist because He loves us unconditionally. Immanuel- God with us!
Wishing all of you a blessed three months ahead!May the Lord be with us
Much love,
Rev. Jess M. George