11/21/12 - Midweek News

11/21/12 Dear Family of faith, Happy Thanksgiving! I hope that you spend the day feeling very blessed to know God’s love and care in your life. Jill and I have 69 “family” members from the church who are joining us tomorrow in the Fellowship Hall for great food and fellowship. I even have an after-dinner game planned! I was listening to someone on the radio speak about Thanksgiving and learned that it is just an urban legend that turkey makes you fall asleep. Actually chicken breast and cheese have more sleep-inducing chemicals than turkey. The real reason most of us crash after Thanksgiving Dinner is that we consume twice as many carbs as we normally do so our body goes into “hibernation mode.” Speaking of carbs, it is a sad day today—Hostess Bread Company filed for bankruptcy—so there go all the Twinkies! Oh well, I’m sure we’ll find something else to eat ourselves to death with. (Personally I’d be much more upset if Oreos were taken off the market!) On the other hand, it is a great day for a certain young basketball player from Grinnell College who, in last night’s NCAA Division 3 game scored a whopping 138 points—besting the previous record by 25 points, a record not broken since 1954! When asked how he could have averaged scoring a basket every 20 seconds of the game, the new record holder, Jack Taylor, replied, “The team just kept passing me the ball. Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to do it.” Now that’s what I call teamwork—no jealousy, no selfishness, just a desire to see their teammate excel! If only all the world would be like that! It certainly is a model for us Christians—to make others look good without regard to our own aggrandizement. Last Sunday during my sermon I spoke about a dream I had to have a ‘Beautiful Fund’ in our congregation for the sole purpose of giving people a little boost in tough times by sending a bouquet of flowers or a box of candy or some token that we cared. Lo and behold, I received a donation yesterday to that fund (and I have already used some of it to get a gift for those in need of encouragement)! That’s what I like about you people—you are generous and caring, just like a family should be! Thanks to whomever gave the donation anonymously! You have been a blessing in this season of blessings! Have you ever heard anyone say, “The youth these days don’t amount to anything!”? Well, I read this past week with fascination about a young man named Sean Chapman, a student at Springstead High School, who was chosen to be the first Student Representative on the Hernando County School Board. Not only does the senior have a 4.4 GPA; he also scored a perfect score on the ACT science exam and the SAT math exam! What impressed me even more, though, was that he is the son of two immigrant parents and, because of tough times during his sophomore year, the family went the entire winter without heat. He also is responsible for starting an anti-bullying club at Challenger School! He’s applied to MIT, and I, for one, hope he gets in! Next time you think about “this younger generation,” think of Sean! There are some pretty amazing kids out there...and we have some in our congregation, too! My prayer is that all of you be blessed in this season of Thanksgiving; and more than that, that you are grateful for your blessings! See you on Sunday! With affection, Pastor Carlan