It's T-H-A-N-K-S-G-I-V-I-N-G!-!-!-!

THANKSGIVING is Brent's favorite holiday. I'm not sure why, but it seems fitting that a day that is rather quiet, homey, relaxed & full of family, food & football should be his favorite day.

This year in the Congo was pretty different. No football, turkey, dressing, yams, cranberries, pumpkin pies. or parades to be found here. Nobody we talked to had even heard of Thanksgiving nor did they get it when we explained it to them. But we had a great day!

I must admit that I was feeling a bit down about the whole holiday season. No family around, no traditional foods, no way to send gifts to our family or friends. I even missed football. It was all a little sad to me, despite the fact that I am thankful to be a missionary this year.

So, we decided to do something to make it better. We made some Rice Krispy treats (which are fast becoming a Congolese favorite) for three brothers who help us, delivered them, told them about Thanksgiving and that we were thankful for their help.

Then Brent offered to take me to a fabric store. Those of you who know Brent will know how desperate he was to help me feel happier. He gets a rash when I suggest we go to a fabric store at home. But, that was the offer. What a great guy! So we headed downtown.

We had no police harassment. This day was looking up!

Stores are mostly very small (smaller than most Circle K's). They all look alike to me, so we walked slowly down the street looking for the word "tissu" (Fabric in French). We found it. But just beyond it, I saw an appliance store. I thought that we might be able to find a generator there, so we went to look. Our power went out last night in the middle of baking banana bread and the bread barely survived. It was out from 5-11pm. So.........we're getting serious about this generator. We've only had six days in November without some kind of power outage. But, there was no generator. However, it was also a grocery, housewares, etc store.

Walmart-Congo style.

It had Chinese food items, tortilla like chips, jello, sheets, dishes and other things we haven’t seen before. Then we found CHICKEN BREASTS! This was a big find. We haven't even found whole chickens lately. We walked around the store and also found this big, nice crock pot!! It had obviously been sitting on the shelf for a long time just waiting for us, because it was very dusty and dirty, but it works.

What a find! Two great things in one day!

And then, by the check-out stand, we found a tiny "Charlie Brown" tree and blue and silver Chinese ornaments.

I was thrilled. What a nice blessing!

And it was all on their "Christmas sale" 15% off.

Black Friday in the Congo!!

Two grandsons, Isaac and Trevor,

made pictures, scanned & sent them to us.

We put them up on our missionary board.

We had a grand Thanksgiving feast.

We even had cherry pie with ice cream that we found last week. It’s usually hard to find and about $12 a half gallon. This was the only one marked down to $3. We thought it was just for our Thanksgiving. We had chicken rolls, potatoes and gravy, carrots and peas (the peas were another great find and Brent’s favorite), and sliced French bread. We sat at our big 7 ft. dining room table, just the two of us. We must have looked pretty funny, but it was a wonderful Thanksgiving feast.

Then that night, we watched a new TV show that Scott sent us. He took it off the computer and shrunk it down so that it was small enough to send to us. We had a little pie and ice cream and a movie at the end of the day. It’s really the first day we have taken away from missionary work since we got here. It was a fabulous day! We talked to our kids on Skype when they were all together at our house Thanksgiving night . (5 am Friday our time) It was just the usual WONDERFUL chaos of the whole group together. The girls were spread out on the floor studying the ads and getting ready for shopping at 5am on Fri. The cousins were running all over. The guys were sitting on the couch looking totally content in the midst of the craziness. It was so good to feel like we were right there. We talked and the we just watched for a long time.

I felt badly for getting discouraged. I didn't have enough faith that the Lord would help His missionaries have a good day. But He sure did! All these things may seem of little consequence in ordinary life, but here, they were a great blessing! I will try to remember this day the next time I anticipate disappointment.

This, our first day off since we came to the Congo, was perfect! It was so good to "unstring our bows" and enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving.