Spanish Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all enjoyed a sunny day with family and friends and remembering the most wonderful blessings we have. Life is really a wonderful thing to be enjoyed and lived and not just struggled through. Take time to enjoy it!

I just got home from the greatest Thanksgiving I could have asked for while away from Albuquerque! Even though it's 1:00am, I wanted to write it all down while it was fresh. It all started a week ago when I received an e-vite for "It's Turkey Day!" at Margaret's house. Margaret is an amazing missionary from California who has been in Spain a few years. She has a great knowledge of Spain culture and history and I've learned a lot from her servant heart and smiling face! She's also my fellow American, so I was very grateful that she hosted a traditional American Thanksgiving meal and invited the whole WEC team to enjoy it together.

I didn't know much about what Margaret was planning, but when I arrived I was given the job of setting the table. Which is great, because that's my job at home too! We made the napkins pretty and I had to be told (again) which side of the plate the fork goes on. Then we decided to make place cards for people...and we made tent cards that had really beautiful Thanksgiving prayers on them that Margaret found online.

The guest list included: Karen (WEC, Canada), Ruben and Debbie (short term WEC from Belgium), Sjaak and Mija (WEC, Holland), Esther (short term WEC, Germany), Margaret (WEC, USA), Steve and Coralie (WEC, Australia), Tiny (WEC, South Africa), and Lisa (short term WEC, USA). YAY! As you can imagine, a wealth of diversity!! I loved it. We started off playing a game as we waited for Karen to get back from praise team practice. Then we sat down to eat and Margaret spent a few moments to share a bit of Thanksgiving history and why we celebrate. The great Abraham Lincoln said it was a special day to give thanks to our Great God for His innumerable blessings. Then we read aloud the prayers we had printed up. Prayers about the great meadows that yell of God's greatness and the freedoms we have and the breath in our lungs and how we want to spread his Word to the nations and serve those less fortunate. It was a beautiful thing to read these prayers aloud with so many of those nations present and know that everyone was praying these things in agreement with the same Spirit.

In true Trujillo home style, Margaret even asked that we go around the table and each share something they are grateful for from the last year. At a table full of missionaries, you hear stuff like the blessing of full funding and support and new workers to share the load and safe travels. =)

Then we ate! Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and bread and salad. It was great!! Not quite the gluttonous gorge like in America, but perfect nonetheless. Dessert was a delicious English trifle made by Tiny. (I half expected there to be beef in it...) Also, we had a taste of Turkish Delight (authentic and from Turkey!) Margaret didn't make pumpkin pie because neither of us really like it. =) But the great thing is that if I had said I loved pumpkin pie and would miss it...then they would have done everything in their power to have pumpkin pie there today. Now that's love.

The predominate conversation at the table? The diverse English language and different expressions we each use in our own countries that can either elicit a laugh or a scowl from people from other countries. Don't say "I'm rooting for you!" to an Australian because it doesn't mean the same thing to them as it does in the USA. And they get a kick out of my Texan accent. I love it when a table full of people can all talk together and laugh and joke and laugh and learn. It was wonderful to laugh. Laugh so hard I cried and then laugh some more.

God is continually teaching me and proving his faithfulness. That a person can travel half way around the world and have family and belonging all because of the bond of Christ. For this, I'm thankful.

Me and Margaret at the beautifully set table:


Carving the Turkey!


Steve and Coralie:


Esther and Margaret:


Ruben and Debbie (She is grateful that they are going to have a baby!!!):


Sjaak and Mija:


Tiny, Lisa, Esther, Karen: