Calvin's Thanksgiving Potluck

Every church has it's set of traditions. Here at Calvin we often offer a fellowship pot-luck meal on the Sunday of Thanksgiving. It allows those who may not have family to go to, or simply want to fellowship together with fellow Calvinites to have a place to be on Thanksgiving.

This year we had a good turnout of about 20 or so. It was good to see these people come out, and I trust it was good for them to be with others on Thanksgiving. The food was awesome, and I'm always amazed to see how we always seem to have enough, and in the right variety. See the pics below to get a taste of our time together.

People getting to know each other.

...continuing to get to know each other as food is being warmed, etc.

The kitchen was humming with activity as food was being prepared by all who came. I stayed out of the kitchen... : ) Here we all are after our great meal, and settling in for dessert.

A shot from the other side of the table.

My daughter gave a thumbs up to the desserts...they were yummy!

I too liked the desserts, and the coffee to go with it. I think I have my mouth full of food here.....one of the few times it's not flapping with something to say... : )

As we now move away from Thanksgiving weekend, may we continue to hold each other up as a community of faith, especially those who are lonely and/or without family to fall back on.

C.I.A. & R.A.K.E.

This year we are dividing our Tuesday evenings up into ETM and C.I.A. nights. Every other week we will meet with only our CIA (grade 9 & 10) group. On opposite weeks we will meet with our grade 7 - 10's together. During our C.I.A. meetings, we will be going out of our youth room in church and engaging our world in different ways of service. Last night we began by doing a simple R.A.K.E. or Random Act of Kindness Everywhere. We gave away Hot Chocolate and Tea. I always like doing R.A.K.E.'s because they show our young people many different things. 1. That people need kindness in their lives. Often times people are lonely and a simply act of kindness goes a long way in instilling new hope in people's lives. 2. That not all people like the church, or any reference to it. Often times people reject the offer of a free gift. 3. That often times people think that the church wants something from them. Many times (and again on Tuesday) people hand out money to the kids, even though they specifically wanted nothing, but wanted to give them a free gift. 4. That this little exercises has a lot to do with how people think of the gospel message as well. The gift of eternal life is a free gift; no strings attached. Something to be accepted only. God offers it to us freely, and we need to decide if we want what he's offering without thinking we need to give him something in return. Too many people don't understand the gospel message and are confused about it's terms. It is my hope that as we go out into the world this year as C.I.A. we will begin to see the world in a different ways. Jesus is everywhere, even in the faces of the people we met last night.

We began our time in the rain. Ready to go!

Nice umbrella David. Hey, that's my daughter's......

The group debriefing afterwards.