Being Thankful on my First Thanksgiving Away From Home

I'm going to be honest--today was quite a difficult day for me. I did not expect to be so affected by being away from home for this holiday, but from the moment I woke up today I had an huge ache in my heart. This is the first major holiday that I have spent away from home, and I definitely missed being with my family and celebrating this day. As a result of my heart and soul being overwhelmed, I sought to find comfort in my Lord and master. I read through many Psalms and prayed to the Lord about the heaviness of my heart. One of the Psalms I was reading was talking about the Lord being the only feast the Psalm writer wanted. I was praying "Lord, please help me to remember that you and following your will is much more important than any Thanksgiving feast I might share with my family. Help me to desire you more than anything. May you always be what I long for most. May I find satisfaction in only you."

One of the beautiful things about being in a country so far from home and living solely among people from a different culture is that you are constantly being forced to draw your strength and encouragement from the Lord. I do not expect any of the people here to understand how I am feeling on this Thanksgiving Day. (Many of them do not even have their parents to celebrate a holiday with, and most of them have never even celebrated Christmas.) I know that I am living in a whole different world than I am accustomed to. More importantly, I realize that Jesus is the only one who truly understands the adjustments I am facing and the feelings that sometimes overwhelm me. I am very thankful that He is with me and that I can find rest, peace, and hope in Him. I know that I have to keep my eyes on Him, and He will sustain me through it all. I am confident He will never fail me.

Another thing that brought me comfort on this day was contemplating how many things I have to be thankful for-even in the midst of my loneliness. When you see and evaluate the neediness of others, it always puts your life in perspective. I am very thankful that I even have a loving family to miss, and I'm extremely thankful I have both of my parents alive. I have been visiting many children in the past month who have no parents living because they both died of AIDS when the children were young. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have neither one of my parents alive to raise me. I know that there has to be a large ache in these children's hearts because they either spent very few or no precious moments with their parents. I am thankful that I have been given the opportunity to celebrate the holidays with my family over the years and build beautiful memories on those days, which I can now look back and reflect on. There are many children who are never given, nor will ever be given, the opportunity to celebrate a holiday and enjoy its festivities. I am thankful that I have shared an abundance of food on Thanksgiving Day throughout the years. I realize that for many people in Uganda having an abundance of food is an impossibility. Their prayer is to have enough food to feed their family for one day. Finally, I am truly thankful that I have been given the opportunity to serve others in Africa. I know that God has sent me here, and I count myself as truly privileged to give up my comforts to improve the lives of others. I know that my life will never be the same because I have moved to Africa, but it is my prayer that the lives of many African children and people will also never be the same because I have moved to Africa. I believe that their lives will be made better because I have come to minister the love, hope, and compassion of Jesus to them.

I know that the periods of loneliness and homesickness will come and go, but I am truly grateful that the promises of the Lord will always remain true, steadfast, and unfailing. I am thankful that everything God purposes to do in me and through me will come to pass, and I am thankful that hope will be brought to Kyenjojo.