Thanksgiving Day JV Style

I hope your Thanksgiving Day started out as sweet as mine!

Caleb, Haley and our grandson, Charlie, arrived last night from a trip to Albania where they confirmed that this is the country God is leading them to serve in with Josiah Venture! Definitely more on that later.

But on to Thanksgiving...how blessed we were to have a gorgeous day here in our corner of the Czech Republic as we gathered with 170 JV adults and children to celebrate!

One of these days I'll get the photo that shows all of us!

This was the nicest weather we've had in Czech for at least a month! And definitely the nicest weather we've ever had for a JV Thanksgiving.

Because the weather was beautiful, and because there were so many of us gathered this year, we had our word from Dave, sharing with one another, singing and a prayer of thanksgiving, as well as the introductions of new people, outside on the terrace.

It's the first JV Thanksgiving Caleb's been to in six years, and Haley and Charlie's first one ever!

You can't imagine how fun it is to gather for Thanksgiving with these dear ones who love each other and serve together on the same team.

Twenty five years ago, I celebrated the first JV Thanksgiving with this dear one!

It was 1993 and Dan and Laura, Dave and I, along with Tyler and Caleb, had just moved to Czech and Poland two weeks earlier. But we gathered at Dan and Laura's house in Ustron, Poland to celebrate Thanksgiving together that year.

I'm sad Laura isn't in this picture, and that this is the only one I have of this momentous occasion - our first holiday, of many, spent together.

But we gathered around one of the many tables set up for this Thanksgiving, twenty five years later, with our dear friends, and Caleb and Haley to celebrate this one.

What I love is how God has grown our JV family through the years, that we are 320 strong now. And two of those are Charlie's other grandparents!!

Mark and Amy Chase, Haley's mom and dad, live and serve in Bratislava, Slovakia. How cool is that, that Charlie has both his grandparents here in Europe to love on him?

Thanksgiving wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a football game to watch, good conversations and some naps. All of that happened here too.

And the day wouldn't be complete without connecting with some of our family! We got in some good face time with Tyler, Lara, Judah and Asher ... who delighted us all by asking, "Where's Papa?"

Believe me, I went to get him right away!

And then there was a sweet catch up with Claire as she was on the road to Minneapolis where she was spending Thanksgiving with friends.

As the sun set over the Beskydy range, we grabbed our leftovers for dinner, and then headed downstairs for our annual JV Kid's Talent Show.

With acts like original piano compositions, ukulele playing, drum solos, folk dancing, cake decorating ....

... sibling duets, friend duets, violin playing, classical guitar solos, tips on how to safely use a machete (yes, even this!), stop motion videos, a game with twins and a magic show, it was an incredible evening enjoying the gifts and talents of our JV Kids!

It's an incredible thought to know that one day I'll have some grandkids who will be JV Kids performing at this talent show!

Curious what Charlie's talent will be someday!

What a wonderful day of giving thanks to the Lord for his goodness, faithfulness, kindness and love to us all!