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Hope · 12-12-2009, 12:53 PM

Tonight we are having a special event for our gospel friends, the Bhutanese refugees. We will have a Thanksgiving meal for them. There will be about 25-30 of the Bhutanese and about the same number of believers. We will have food that is American, East Indian, Chinese, and Bhutanese.

The sister who has arranged this is a German lady who spent three years in the refugee camps with these folks. She has secured a good facility at a Presbyterian church for the event. Her name is Frauke. She is fluent in their language and is truly a great blessing from the Lord to them. Another key player is Amar. He was an orphan in Nepal in a Christian orphanage. He came to Durham about 20 years ago. He is a strong believer. He speaks the language as his native language and has a heart for these people that is so big and caring. There are a few others such as Diana and Dave who spend hours every week caring for their needs and sharing the love of Christ and the good news with them. Through these believers it is so easy to see that truly God does so love the world.

I will give a very brief sharing on the story of Thanksgiving. The story is quite a stirring testimony of God’s work. I was inspired by what happen while I prepared. I will pass out the attached one page account. While we will not have a direct gospel message, we are praying that the facts of the testimony of the pilgrims will work in the hearts of our friends.

Hope

Here is the handout:
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God’s New Covenant
Heb 8:10-12, This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

The Story of Thanksgiving

In England in the early 1600s, the Church of England was the official state religion. If you were born an Englishman you were born into the Church of England. A small group of believers in Jesus Christ in the city of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, England desired to follow the New Covenant of the New Testament. That is they did not believe they needed the strict religious ceremonies of the Church of England and its special priest class but rather they could know God directly for themselves. They believed they could pray directly to God and that through Jesus Christ they were forgiven of their sins and did not need the ceremonies of the Church of England for their sins to be forgiven.
During the Hampton Court Conference, King James I had declared them and others to be undesirable, and, in 1607 Tobias Matthew, Archbishop of York, raided homes and imprisoned several members of the congregation. The congregation then left England and immigrated to the Netherlands, first to Amsterdam and then to Leiden, in 1609.

The Pilgrims were still not free from the persecutions of the English Crown; in 1618, English authorities came to Leiden to arrest one of their leaders William Brewster. Though Brewster escaped arrest, the events spurred the congregation to move even farther from England.
They secured a ship, the May Flower and after much delay they left on September 6, 1620 for the New World. There were around 120 persons in total. They had an agreement from a trading company to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River along the shore of what is now New Jersey. But due to bad weather the ship landed much further north in what is New England close to where Boston is now located. They landed on November 11, 1620.

They found an area where the forest had already been cleared, by whom they did not know. They built a few cabins but about half of their number died during the very hard winter. Then in the early spring they experienced a wonderful miracle. A single Indian named Squanto came to their little village. He could speak English. He was the only survivor of a tribe that had lived on the very spot they had settled.
Squanto as a young boy had been captured by English explorers and taken to England. He lived there for about 12 years and became a believer in Jesus Christ. The family for whom he worked in England arranged for him to be returned to his home in 1619. When he arrived, he learned that the entire tribe had died of a plague the year before.

Squanto taught the pilgrims how to farm in the new world and when to plant. As a result they harvested 20 acres of Indian corn that fall. Squanto also introduced the pilgrims to other Indian tribes and they thus had peace with the Indians for over 50 years. The pilgrims were so happy and joyful that God had saved them and provided for them in such a wonderful way that they called for a celebration of thanks. They invited their Indian friends and prepared a feast of both English and Indian food. They especially offered thanks to God for His care and provision for them and that they were now free to know and worship God as they desired.

12-12-2009, 12:53 PM	#42
Hope Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: Durham, North Carolina Posts: 313	Re: Way down South... Tonight we are having a special event for our gospel friends, the Bhutanese refugees. We will have a Thanksgiving meal for them. There will be about 25-30 of the Bhutanese and about the same number of believers. We will have food that is American, East Indian, Chinese, and Bhutanese. The sister who has arranged this is a German lady who spent three years in the refugee camps with these folks. She has secured a good facility at a Presbyterian church for the event. Her name is Frauke. She is fluent in their language and is truly a great blessing from the Lord to them. Another key player is Amar. He was an orphan in Nepal in a Christian orphanage. He came to Durham about 20 years ago. He is a strong believer. He speaks the language as his native language and has a heart for these people that is so big and caring. There are a few others such as Diana and Dave who spend hours every week caring for their needs and sharing the love of Christ and the good news with them. Through these believers it is so easy to see that truly God does so love the world. I will give a very brief sharing on the story of Thanksgiving. The story is quite a stirring testimony of God’s work. I was inspired by what happen while I prepared. I will pass out the attached one page account. While we will not have a direct gospel message, we are praying that the facts of the testimony of the pilgrims will work in the hearts of our friends. Hope Here is the handout: ---------------------------------------------------------------- God’s New Covenant Heb 8:10-12, This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." The Story of Thanksgiving In England in the early 1600s, the Church of England was the official state religion. If you were born an Englishman you were born into the Church of England. A small group of believers in Jesus Christ in the city of Scrooby in Nottinghamshire, England desired to follow the New Covenant of the New Testament. That is they did not believe they needed the strict religious ceremonies of the Church of England and its special priest class but rather they could know God directly for themselves. They believed they could pray directly to God and that through Jesus Christ they were forgiven of their sins and did not need the ceremonies of the Church of England for their sins to be forgiven. During the Hampton Court Conference, King James I had declared them and others to be undesirable, and, in 1607 Tobias Matthew, Archbishop of York, raided homes and imprisoned several members of the congregation. The congregation then left England and immigrated to the Netherlands, first to Amsterdam and then to Leiden, in 1609. The Pilgrims were still not free from the persecutions of the English Crown; in 1618, English authorities came to Leiden to arrest one of their leaders William Brewster. Though Brewster escaped arrest, the events spurred the congregation to move even farther from England. They secured a ship, the May Flower and after much delay they left on September 6, 1620 for the New World. There were around 120 persons in total. They had an agreement from a trading company to settle at the mouth of the Hudson River along the shore of what is now New Jersey. But due to bad weather the ship landed much further north in what is New England close to where Boston is now located. They landed on November 11, 1620. They found an area where the forest had already been cleared, by whom they did not know. They built a few cabins but about half of their number died during the very hard winter. Then in the early spring they experienced a wonderful miracle. A single Indian named Squanto came to their little village. He could speak English. He was the only survivor of a tribe that had lived on the very spot they had settled. Squanto as a young boy had been captured by English explorers and taken to England. He lived there for about 12 years and became a believer in Jesus Christ. The family for whom he worked in England arranged for him to be returned to his home in 1619. When he arrived, he learned that the entire tribe had died of a plague the year before. Squanto taught the pilgrims how to farm in the new world and when to plant. As a result they harvested 20 acres of Indian corn that fall. Squanto also introduced the pilgrims to other Indian tribes and they thus had peace with the Indians for over 50 years. The pilgrims were so happy and joyful that God had saved them and provided for them in such a wonderful way that they called for a celebration of thanks. They invited their Indian friends and prepared a feast of both English and Indian food. They especially offered thanks to God for His care and provision for them and that they were now free to know and worship God as they desired.