Thanksgiving last year in Texas

Homeschool day 60 of 180 (One third of the way done. WOO-HOO!)
Government school day 49 of 170

We are going to have the family Thanksgiving at our house this year. There will be lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends at the house for dinner–about 30 in all. We were not together for Thanksgiving last year. I was in Texas while Lorena was here trying to get the house sold. I was pretty sad to be away from my family, but actually had a very, very nice time at a community Thanksgiving there. Many of the people with whom I met for Wednesday night bible study and Sunday morning fellowship meeting did not originally come from Texas. One of them, Ray Nerpel, rented the hall in the housing community where he lived and invited everyone who did not have family to go there for a Thanksgiving dinner potluck. At that dinner, I started getting just a small picture of what a tight-knit community my family was going to enter when they got to Texas a couple of weeks later.

There were the Larsons from Minnesota and Michigan, the Nerpels from one of the Dakotas, the Krigbaums from Canada and Oregon, the Parrishes from California, etc. etc. They were rich and poor, blue and white collar, and of every type of personality you can imagine. All of them welcomed me to the party with open arms. All we did was sit around, talk, eat, and watch the kids play. It was not about what we were doing, but the fellowship we enjoyed. It was an exceptional group of people who had no other connection than their love of Christ. What I did not know is that this group did not just get together for church meetings and special occasions. They got together whenever they got the chance and everyone was included. I was in Texas for only six months this time and the family was there for only three, but we feel a great debt of gratitude to those people for the example they gave to us in their hospitality and kindness in including them in their “family”.