Thanksgiving Postcard from God Devotional

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Thanksgiving Postcard from God Devotional

It was 10:00 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving. In just a few hours the doors to our inner-city church would open, and we would host our urban neighbors, many of whom were Native Americans, to a free Thanksgiving dinner.

We were making last-minute preparations when we heard a loud knock at the front door. Another interruption, we thought as we trudged toward the door. When we opened the door, we were greeted by two delivery men from Sears.

"Will you sign for this?" one of the men asked as he shoved a clipboard our way.

"Sure, what is it?"

"A freezer," he answered.

"We didn't order a freezer."

"Someone did," he said. With that, he and his burly partner pushed past us and wheeled a full-length deep freeze up the steep steps and into our church.

As we studied the invoice, we discovered a sister church, New Hope Church in Crystal, MN, had purchased the appliance for us. That's strange, we thought. They never told us it was coming.

Our minds returned to the Thanksgiving dinner. Within a few hours, the first flakes of snow started coming down. In Minnesota in late November, that can mean anything from a dusting to three-foot snow drifts. On this particular day, it meant the worst. By 4:00 p.m., the flakes had turned into a major-league blizzard. The timing couldn't have been worse. By that late hour, all the food for our dinner had been prepared—a dozen turkeys, nearly a hundred pounds of mashed potatoes, and scores of piping-hot pies.

But we had no one to eat any of it. All our food and effort was about to go to waste.

That's when we remembered the gift we had received only hours earlier. We wrapped the food and carried it upstairs to our new storage freezer. One week later we held the postponed dinner and served a hot Thanksgiving meal to a church packed with grateful neighbors and needy friends.

Looking back, we realize we received more than an appliance from a department store that day. We received a postcard from God.

What's a postcard from God? It's one of those providential, serendipitous events that appear in our lives, marriage and family—a reminder that God has not forgotten us. For us, it's like receiving a short note that reads, "Dear Cheryl and Bob, I was thinking of you today. Just thought I'd let you know. Love, Your heavenly Father."

The ways in which he sends these timely postcards are as unpredictable as they are amazing. The net effect seems always the same: to encourage and strengthen us, often when we need it the most.

Piles of unwanted junk mail are delivered daily. As catalogs, sales brochures, newspapers, and a host of other materials accumulate on our desks, our goal is to dispose of the piles as quickly as possible. In the same way, our lives, our marriages, our families, and schedules can become cluttered with carpools, shopping, taking care of kids, exercising, committee meetings, weekly deadlines, and urgent calls to make. Our goal can become simply to get through the day.

In the midst of sorting through such clutter, it's easy to overlook the simple notes our heavenly Father sends to remind us of his love. When we take the time to sort through "coincidences" of my life, we discover simple but much-needed messages reminding us, "I love you. I haven't forgotten you."

Signed, Your God.



By Cheryl and Bob Moeller

8 Reasons to Stay Home on Thanksgiving and Black Friday

I have never been shopping on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday.
Here's my 8 reasons why:


1. With deals not all that great, the retailers are not winning and neither are the
shoppers. 
2. It's crazy dangerous for three thirty something sisters, reunited Thanksgiving week to
be out shopping at 2:00 a.m.  
3. The thrill seeking of shopping super deals is lessened knowing that you have just run in front of a
single mom who won't get a toy for her child if you grab the deal first.
4. It's not safe nor smart to wrestle someone to the ground for a free sample of cheese spray.
5. Thanksgiving has always been "it's a gift to be simple celebration." The harvest is in
and we give thanks to God with a grateful heart. Let's keep it that way or cancel it
6. It's an intergenerational holiday gathering to unconditionally love your friends and family.
7. Its hard to run or walk in the mall after a Thanksgiving killer family football game.
8.  Missions need you the other 364 days of the year also, but volunteering on the day of
thanksgiving with your family is about as pure and sweet as it gets. This year start a meaningful holiday tradition your children will never forget and will repeat. Your Thankgiving dinner will taste better because others will have a Thanksgiving Dinner, love, hugs, and the Gospel message.

Remember the dangers involved in shopping the sales?  Instead risk it for something important.  

The only way retailers are going to close Thanksgiving Day is if no one
shops.  If I don't go, I am voting that the stores will stay closed until Thanksgiving
is officially over.

3rd Anniversary of the Homegoing of my Dad

 Rev. Roy Webster was a Tennessee boy but ministered from 1949-1996 in the Midwest.  

My dad went home to be with his Lord and Savior on a Sunday morning. He loved to go to church and Sunday, December 13, 2011, he walked into the presence of the Lord during the Sunday morning worship hour.

He told me when I was ten years old that he wanted to make it to 80 years of age and he passed away at 81 3/4 years. God blessed him with a long life. 

He loved football and senior year his team at Clinton High School, Clinton, TN were undefeated.He was a young soldier serving during the era of WWII because he joined the U.S. Army at 14 years of age in 1943. He rode on a bus from TN on an unpaved dirt road (common in 1943) all the way to TX. The army thought he was 18. He envied his older brothers serving our country and he decided to join them. He became a Sargent at 15.  He was found in 1944 at the age of 15 while standing in line to board a ship in CA headed to Japan.  A boat that did not return.  His family had been searching for him through the Red Cross.  He went back to play football for two years for Clinton High School.  He then served in the National Guard from 1947-1949 as he attended Eastern Tennessee University.  He was called to duty several times in the state of Tennessee for a prison riot and hostage situation and civil unrest in another major city.

While some in Hollywood boast of being married 61 days, my dad was married for 61 years mid-century (August 25, 1950) mid-America (to a Michigan girl), the love of his life Gladys Windquist, he met at Owosso Bible College in Owosso, Michigan.

                         Rev. Roy Webster in Pastor's Study, Warren Wesleyan Church

                                                       The Four Webster Daughters

Dad and Mom were married 61 years and here they are at their 25th wedding anniversary party at Flint First Wesleyan Church in Flint, Michigan









He never turned on a computer, but he had more friends than most of us will ever hope to have on Facebook. He never met a person that he did not like.

My dad really did love his mom (and dad), baseball (and football), and apple pie. Oh yes, and automobiles.

He loved wining the grandfather with the most grandchildren on Father’s Day for several years in a row.

And, then to know that he had 2 great-grandsons. (Now, he has 4 great-grandchildren.)

He spent the last decade of his life, calling and talking with members of his former churches that he was not sure of their salvation. He would present the Gospel and give them a chance once again to respond to the claims of Christ. And, he kept calling them until they trusted in Christ as their Lord and Savior. 

Raised in the hills of TN, he was blessed to minister in east Michigan where many southerners had come up to work in the hey day of the car industry. When he retired in 1996 from the pastorate, he wanted nothing more than to go back to his people in Tennessee. And, that is from where Sunday morning, November 13, 2014, he went to be with the Lord, among the twiggy dogwood trees, soft biscuits with sweet honey, good old southern gospel quartet singing, and his people. Now he is singing with his much loved family members and friends who went on before him.

My Hyperemesis Gravidarum was not glamorous and neither is Princess Kate's

My Hyperemesis Gravidarum was not glamorous and neither is Princess Kate's.

                                                          by Cheryl Moeller


The tabloids have whispered Princess Kate is trying to get attention with her inability to handle morning sickness.  I can tell you Hyperemesis Gravidarum is not morning sickness, unless it's morning sickness on steroids.

I threw up non-stop for a total of 24 months of my life.  On the ground, aisle #6 in the grocery store, padded church pew, hospital floors, friend's purses, and in my own lap.  This went on for at least four to five months with each of my six pregnancies, except for my second one which was less.

I learned the most wonderful people in the world love and care about me during my non-stop lock-ins.  For when I trembled as if the end was near, a loving person would make sure it was not the end.

With #6, as with the others, I was literally penned in my upstairs bedroom and unable to walk without aid.  Needled to my IV's and feeding machine, I thought I heard vacuuming.  I opened my eyes and there was the school crossing guard vacuuming our upstairs halfway.  She said, "Go back to sleep.  It's okay I got worried because I hadn't seen you for a while."

My gorgeous sister-friend and neighbor, Cecelia Feicht, R.N., came over daily with shots when I finally was allowed to be at home.
                                             

Cecelia Feicht

Faint from throwing up 1,000 times, a friend, family member, or stranger would give me the hope to continue.  They always went beyond "just showing up" by giving of themselves with acts of service, hugs, food, and gifts.

Hundreds of people helped our family, including me, in 1981, 1984. 1986, 1987, 1996, 1998.  I will stand up and thank them again.

Bob, my husband, and our children always went to great lengths to make sure I was watched.  Bob was the ever present friend and prayer warrior.

The kids all had to do things most children don't learn so young like knowing when to summon adult help, washing the same sheets for the fifth time in one day, and washing a sink full of really grimy pots and pans.

God always exceeded expectations.  For example with #4 pregnancy, the former Director of the Home Economics Board in the state of Ohio, volunteered to cook for three months.  Because I could not smell food, Virginia Wiley cooked at her home and delivered meals each day with her husband E.B.

There are so many friends and family that deserved to have one of our children named after them.  I apologize for not doing that and you know who you are.  Maybe I can sneak in your name for a grandchild's name.  For you, I will try.

And, I love the name Princess Kate.

                                          Worth it all and but, by the Grace of God alone.
                                                                RJ and Melissa
                                                                Mackenzie and Megan
                                                                Andrew and Brent