On the Move: Thanksgiving in Lisboa

This is our third year to celebrate Thanksgiving away from our family: two years ago we were in Israel, last year we were in Vancouver, and this year we were at our home in Lisbon. A few weeks ago we thought we could be spending Thanksgiving alone. While it's always hard to be away from family during the holidays, the idea of the three of us having Thanksgiving dinner alone while our big, loud family gathered together was almost unbearable.

God knows our deepest desires, though, and wants to bless us. He answers our prayers--even things as little as giving us a houseful of guests for Thanksgiving. Instead of spending Thanksgiving alone, we went to 2 Thanksgiving events--both crowded with lots and lots of friendly, loud people. It felt just like home!

The week before Thanksgiving, we helped our teammates throw a Thanksgiving dinner for their friends. They had about 15 Portuguese adults, lots of kids, and a few Americans join them at a Presbyterian church where their small group meets for a big meal. We cooked all day to help prepare for this event. We even made our first turkey by ourselves. We had a lot of fun.

On Thanksgiving day it was our turn. We had 12 Portuguese friends come join us for our Thanksgiving dinner. This was the first Thanksgiving meal we've ever hosted completely by ourselves. We cooked, and cooked and cooked and cleaned, and cleaned, and cleaned. This is definitely not an easy feat with a 3 month old, but we survived and got it all done. B. woke up Thanksgiving morning completely voiceless and really sick. At one point we thought we'd have to cancel. We prayed about it and decided to go ahead with the event anyway. J. really had to step up and help a lot. He was such a rockstar and is turning into quite the cook.

14 people and a baby gathered together to celebrate Thanksgiving. We shared a little about what we were most thankful for and shared briefly about the reason for Thanksgiving. Then people impromptu began to share what they were thankful for. We prayed and ate (after explaining what everything was). They couldn't quite get over the fact that sweet potato casserole wasn't a dessert. Not many people knew each other--they only knew J. and me--but everyone got along and talked for hours.

A couple from our church joined us and could not believe that everyone had just met that night. They were excited about the event and want to help us host an outing to go look at Christmas lights. On Saturday two couples from the event invited us to join them for a birthday dinner, which is super exciting for us.

We prayed to have people to celebrate Thanksgiving with. God answered. We prayed that this event would give us opportunities to share. He answered. We prayed that relationships would deepen because of this event, and we'd begin to make friends. He answered that too.

Happy Thanksgiving from Lisbon. We hope your day was full of food, fun, family, thanksgiving, and faith.

Pictures below are from Thanksgiving in our home: