November 2016

​Greetings to all we enter November and the approaching holiday season! We are grateful to those who joined us for an evening of food and fellowship on October 30th. Many new volunteers attended this event and enjoyed camaraderie with members of our ministry. Thanks to those who prepared food, decorated tables, and arranged beautiful baskets for our raffles. Special thanks to Melissa Bravo for sharing her moving memoir with us! 
 
Air conditioning/heating units have been installed at the house, as well as a new toilet and vanity in guest bathroom. We were able to complete this work with funds from two grants, as well as a generous donation in memory of a former volunteer, Marie Coll. 
 
We hope to welcome a guest sometime soon, and perhaps share the holidays with a family in need of comfort and care. As always, our sincere thanks to each one of you for the gifts you freely share with the Samaritan House. 
 
Our best wishes to all for a beautiful and blessed Thanksgiving. 
 
An Excerpt for "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp:
 
"Trust is the bridge from yesterday to tomorrow, built with planks of thanks. Remembering frames up gratitude. Gratitude lays out the planks of trust. I can walk the planks - from known to unknown - and know: He holds. 
 
Is that why the Israelite's kept recounting their past - to trust God to their future? Remembering is an act of thanksgiving, a way of thanksgiving, this turn of the heart over time's shoulder to see all the long way His arms have carried. Gratitude is not only the memories of our heart; gratitude is a memory of God's heart and to thank is to remember God. 
 
This is the crux of Christianity: to remember and give thanks, eucharisteo. 
 
Because remembering with thanks is what causes us to trust -- to really believe.”

Thank you, Lord, for autumn days, for grateful hearts, for psalms of praise. 
Thank you, Lord, for food to share, for family times of faith and prayer. 
Thank you, Lord, for all these things, and every joy Thanksgiving brings. 
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