The holidays have arrived!

Blessings to you! The summer zipped by and it’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is right around the corner.

Soon I will be dropping off boxes to be decorated by the kids in the preschool, I can’t wait to see all the colorful scenes of turkeys and pilgrims. Just imagine how well received they will be when they arrive in Haiti or the Dominican republic! We are already receiving confirmation letters from the missionaries. “Oh yes count me in!” or  “Woo we are so exited to be a recipient of this gift!” It all makes for an electric atmosphere.

“Oh yes,

count me in!”

So what does a can of pumpkin pie mix , a box of stuffing and some cranberry sauce stir so much excitement?

First you have to ask where are these folks serving, and who? Then you start to gain some light into why this is so special.

Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere. What does that mean?

· 90% of Haitians don’t have running water.

· Most live on less than $2 a day

· Most eat once a day.

The missionaries that serve in Haiti give of themselves all the time, whether it’s through church building, clinics, or orphanages these folks are hard at God’s work. So you can imagine when someone offers a thanksgiving meal what a blessing it must be. It also makes these servants of God feel connected and loved.

It’s hard enough to serve in a mission filed like Haiti, and if this small gesture gives them encouragement, then I’m all for it.

For many , Agape means a connection to loved ones back home and a reliable way to keep in touch with their sending organizations.

We all have our role to play in God’s plan and I feel so honored to be a part of it. Those of you who have heard the voice of the Holy Spirit and joined in this ministry, I say, “thank you, you too are the hands and feet of Christ Jesus.”

It’s  that time of the season!

When things start to get crazy around here, the holydays have officially started for us at Agape.

The Missionary  Thanksgiving Dinner project is under way.

Please consider stretching your Thanksgiving guest list to include a missionary family. Your $80.00 gift helps to deliver a turkey and all the trimmings to one missionary family in Haiti, the Bahamas or the Dominican Republic. Thanksgiving dinners are lovingly boxed by Agape volunteers and delivered by our pilots.

Here are some of the letters that we got from the missionaries  last year.

“We wanted to express our thanks for all your work to make our Thanksgiving very special! We have a tradition of sharing our meal together as a missionary community and this year we have 110 people at our home! Everyone brought a variety of traditional Thanksgiving dishes, thanks to the special ingredients our families received from your generous donors. It took 6 turkeys to feed that many people! We had 6 nationalities represented to celebrate our American Thanksgiving feast. The fun part is that giving thanks to God transcends all nationalities. It was truly a special day. Thank you for the huge part that you played to make this special day possible for us.”

Serving Him,

Becky Thompson

Or.

“Please let everyone who had a part in financially contributing, shopping, packing , decorating and loading the boxes know,- - WE THANK GOD FOR YOU! There is Thanksgiving fever in the building in our communities Santo Domingo and beyond. Recipes, plans,  swapping sweet potatoes for stuffing or pie mix, make our get togethers a very special time for all of us”.

Cindy & Tom Darnell’

Dominican Republic.