This weekend we observe Veterans Day. It is an opportunity to express our gratitude to those who have served our nation to protect and preserve our freedom. Tomorrow, Saturday, there will be veterans observances in a number of communities. I would encourage us to take an hour and participate in one of these. If you live in Plaistow, or if your community does not have it’s own observance, I would invite you to join us at the Plaistow Town Hall at 9:30 AM. This year, they will be honoring 4 Purple Heart recipients, including our own Dave Peabody.
On Sunday, at all locations, we will take time in our services to honor our veterans. This is a GREAT opportunity for outreach. If you know someone who has served in the military, please extend an invitation to them to join us Sunday morning at any of our locations. This is also a great opportunity to invite families who have a husband or wife away on active duty. But don’t just invite them, invite them to attend WITH you. Maybe plan to have breakfast or lunch together. Everyone needs Jesus, and there is no more effective first step than a personal invitation.
I want to let you know about a couple of other great opportunities coming up in the next couple of weeks. Next Saturday, Nov. 18 we will be having a special fund raising dinner for our Texas Mission Trip. As you probably know, the Houston Texas area experienced record flooding at the end of August. Thousands of homes were destroyed. We will be sending a mission team to that area in February to assist in the rebuilding effort. This dinner will help with material costs for the reconstruction. I hope you will be able to join us at our Sandown campus between 5-7 p.m.
Another new outreach that I am very excited about is our Thanksgiving Dinner. For the first time ever, as an extension of our Care Ministry and the "For Our Community" initiative we will offer a free full Thanksgiving Dinner on Thanksgiving day from 11:30 to 1:00 p.m. Who might attend a community Thanksgiving Dinner?
· Those who are struggling financially.
· Those who have no family near by.
· The homeless.
· Singles or couples who don’t want to fix a full meal for one or two people.
· The Elderly.
· People who just love being in community with their friends and neighbors.
If you would like to attend the dinner, it would be great if you could register at www.thanksgiving-dinner.org to give us a rough idea of the amount of food we need to prepare. If you would like to help with the meal in any way, you can sign up at this link.
From Veterans Day to Thanksgiving, this is a great time of year to express gratitude to God and to others for all that we have been blessed to receive. I look forward to having you join us this Sunday as we express gratitude to our veterans and as we continue this great series “Deeper.”
God Bless,
Pastor Steve