Simple is Better - My Favorite thanksgiving

Gratitude Day 970

Proverbs 3:5-7: Trust in the Lord completely, and do not rely on your own opinions. With all your heart rely on him to guide you, and he will lead you in every decision you make. Become intimate with him in whatever you do, and he will lead you wherever you go. Don’t think for a moment that you know it all, for wisdom comes when you adore him with undivided devotion and avoid everything that’s wrong.

Today is Thanksgiving Day. A day when we are encouraged to count our blessings and embrace the things in life that we count as special.

When I think of my favorite Thanksgiving celebration, I quickly remember the year that I truly discovered what Thanksgiving means.

It happened the year that I lived overseas in Kazakstan. Kazakstan was part of the former Soviet Union. For one school year in the late 1990’s, I taught English at a state university as a missionary. This was several years after the break-up of the Soviet Union. While Kazakstan was an independent county, these former USSR republics were still finding their footing as their own countries. Most everything we needed could be found; it just took a while to find it and most often, it didn’t look like what we would see in the United States.

I lived and taught with another American, Amy. Our contract with the university stipulated that we would only teach at the university two days during Thanksgiving week. This would allow us to get together with about 30 other teachers who were teaching English in Central Asia and celebrate a combined Thanksgiving/Christmas.

Amy and I traveled from Almaty, Kazakstan to the neighboring country of Kyrgyzstan. It was a 4-5-hour bus ride to the capital of Bishkek. We rode in a 1950’s Soviet era bus with some other teachers who had arrived in Almaty from northern Kazakstan. It was cold. The bus had no heat. Think really old school bus with very worn seats, no shocks and very frosty windows. We bounced and rambled through the hills south of Almaty for hours. It was dark by the time we arrived at the main bus station in Bishkek.

For the next few days, we would be staying in apartments owned by local residents. Because of the size of our group, several apartments in the same area had been secured. Now, we just needed to find the apartments and the other teachers.

With no GPS and relying on local taxi drivers that knew limited English, I was less than optimistic we would find the right location. It took a while, but amazingly, we did. Our group of teachers was the last one to arrive. It was late. Yet we were excited to see American teachers we had not seen for several months.

The next day was Thanksgiving. Some of the teachers headed off to the local open-air market to find turkeys for our Thanksgiving meal. They brought back some type of birds. I’m not sure they were turkeys, but they would be our Thanksgiving dinners. The people staying in each of the apartments were assigned food to prepare for our Thanksgiving meal. Using very small Soviet, apartment size stoves, I cooked two “turkeys” in a dinky oven. Our apartment also made gravy and potatoes. Other groups made the rest of the food for the meal.

Late afternoon, we gathered in the courtyard in the center of the apartment complex to plan our strategy for dinner. A large room was reserved in a business building where we would eat together. Taxis were enlisted and groups of people started going to the building. The first arrivals would set-up the space for Thanksgiving dinner. Finding the right building and room was no small feat. The whole process was beyond confusing. Long before the days of cell phones, communication was an issue. After two hours of figuring out how to get everyone to the right location, the last of the American teachers arrived.

By now, all the hot food was cold. There was no way to heat it up. A large buffet table filled with a variety of food stood ready. Per local tradition, we ate off of dessert size plates. As evening arrived, we gathered around a make-shift set-up of tables to eat. There were no fancy decorations. We each had one piece of silverware to make do with. It really didn’t matter how cold the hot food was nor how warm the cold food should not have been. We were together. And we were eating food that looked much more American than most of us had eaten in months.

After dinner, we went around the table and everyone shared what they were thankful for this Thanksgiving. No one mentioned the nice things they left behind in America. Our blessings list were extremely focused. It was having heat in the room where we taught English . . . some of the time. Or hot water to bath in once or twice a week. A letter or rare phone call from the U.S. which brightened a day and provided longed-for information from back home. It was the hospitality a local family or student extended us. Some of us had email access at times and we cherished the few lines we received in a rather archaic version of email brought up on a dial-up Russian-style phone.

Every single teacher shared some little thing that deeply touched their heart and soul. Most of us could relate to every shared blessing because we may have experienced something remarkably similar. As the room became darker, we took the necessary time and space for people to share their stories. Each person’s sharing was deeply personal, beautiful and yet raw with emotion and feeling.

The room had a window of walls on one side. By the time everyone had shared their blessing, it was very dark outside. In the room, a single light bulb provided elimination for the entire space, along with a few candles on the tables. There were a few moments of silence after the last teacher shared. And then, someone began to sing “Silent Night.” Yes, it was Thanksgiving … not Christmas. But we knew that this was our celebration for both holidays, as we would not be together again before Christmas.

It didn’t take long for all of the teachers to join in. We sang completely acapella and slowly. Harmony filled in the main melody. It didn’t matter if you were a “good” singer or not. Everyone joined in. Everyone participated. It was impossible to see everyone’s faces in the room, I’m quite confident there was not a dry eye present.

Whether you have one, two, four or six at your Thanksgiving table, I pray that you will take a few moments and share your blessings. From your heart. Those terribly personal, beautiful and yet raw blessings shared with emotion and feeling. Even in the midst of uncertainty, there are many reasons to trust in the Lord. Lean not on our own understanding but to trust in God’s wisdom.

What is YOUR favorite Thanksgiving memory? May God guide your blessing and your sharing with your loved ones this week. Have a blessed Thanksgiving.  

Blessings –

Dianne

Dear God – As we count our blessings today, I pray that we have so many more than we can count. May we appreciate all the big and little things of life and honor those things terribly important to us. Thank you for an opportunity to slow down and be thankful. Amen.

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