Happy Thanksgiving!

A very Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope and pray that you have (and are having) a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. It has been a great weekend over here in Brampton-town. Went over to family on Friday night. Saturday, helped the Jones family move into some new apartments. I got to be the driver. It was fun. Drove a 16' diesel cube van. Fun stuff. Not as fun as driving a 5-speed standard Mitsubishi truck loaded with 16 hyper Dominican niños going to a vacation bible school, but very fun nonetheless! In the evening we had a worship service at Bramalea Baptist - it went great! We had people from a bunch of different churches come out. Praise the Lord that we can forget about denominational "lines" and just worship Jesus! Sunday after church (which was excellent - terrific message on missions by Pastor Campbell), we had family (17 in total methinks) over for turkey dinner. This morning we went on our traditional Thanksgiving family hike on the Bruce Trail. Always so beautiful to walk through the forest and see the brilliantly-coloured leaves. God is such an incredible painter!

But Thanksgiving... "Praise be to the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits!" When I read this verse, I thought 'just how true this is'. God has loaded on the benefits. And He keeps on loading them on. We merit not a single blessing or benefit from Him, and yet He daily supplies us with food, clothing, breath in our lungs, our next heartbeat, a beautiful, free country, friends, family, and so far more importantly: salvation in Jesus Christ, eternal life through Him, His never-changing, always faithful Word, joy, peace, and the list could go on and on. Wow. Praise God. Thank God. To whom much is given much is required. Sometimes I look at the "things" that I have and wonder in amazement just how much of this is just so unnecessary. I pray, though, that we may think upon the huge benefits and blessings that God has given to us, and actively use these things to glorify Him and see His kingdom move forwards.

In some ways, it will be refreshing to move from this very materialistic society to a much simpler one in the Dominican Republic (and I just bought my ticket - :) - check the next paragraph for details). Not to say that they are not effected by materialism in some sense, but society there is not driven by the desire to get the newest and best of this and that. Something in me too, I think, cries out a "less is better" kind of a principle. Not to say that having a nice car isn't good. But I think there are far more important things in life. I was also thinking about the whole prosperity preaching movement. God wants us to be blessed. Indeed. That I cannot argue. But when the focus and coversations and preaching are always moving around money and this and that to do with money... it tires me. Blessings don't have to come monetarily. The better blessings in life are the ones that are not so tangible. Material focus leads to trouble. Whether in a church or not. Talking about investing money wisely and investing it for kingdom purposes and reasons is good. Talking constantly about money and how God wants us to be blessed financially... that is overdoing it. Especially when that becomes the driving force of any church movement. But enough about that. :) May we pursue the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and He will make sure that all the things we need will be amply supplied. Without a doubt.

Oh yes!! And guess what? I booked my ticket to the Dominican Republic!! Yay!! :) I leave for the island of Hispaniola on January 10, 2007. I got an amazingly good deal flying with Jetblue out of Buffalo. Thanks to Shannon (who is also heading down there very soon) who pointed out that incredible deal to me. Sweet. So I fly into Santiago and then drive out (as the plan stands at the moment) to the Nagua area to begin my ministry there. Needless to say, but I am very, very excited.

Hope you all have a wonderful day and may God bless you richly in every way as you serve Him.

For His glory,

Ryan