I come in preparationfor this thanksgiving weekend and give great thanks, glory and honour to Godfor His many and varied gifts to each of us. We receive these gifts asindividuals in ways that from the Holy Spirit are unique to us. We receivethese gifts when, like individuals, we wait on God in expectation that He willbe faithful. We experience these gifts from God as churches when we consciouslyengage in our collective worship and culture in the act of giving thanks.

This letter marks wellwith gratefulness the goodness of God. I am thankful for things that can benumbered; like the encouraging growth that we have mentioned before that hascome from Urban Camping under Rod Olson, where we may well by the end of theyear, having doubled the participants from 2007 to over 850. I am thankful whenDavid Holten tells me that over 20 churches have grasped the vision of the CanadianBaptist of Western Canada collection of churches by increasing theircontributions over last year. I am also thankful for the good work of the BCY Regionexecutive, Laura Nelson and Ian Grant, as they have aided and encouraged ahealthy transition of Rob Ogilvie into his new place of Regional Minister ofthe BCY Region.

With these good giftsand so many more, there comes the task of stewardship and giving to others. Theevents around world food security that are being organized and made availableto us from the Sharing Way and Sam Chaise of the William Carey Institute alongwith CBWC’s support and encouragement.  This particular topic can be found at http://www.williamcarey.ca/images/stories/pdf/hungerforchange.pdf.It deals with the obvious issue that in uncertain economic times that those whoare hungry go hungrier still. It is most important, however, that we recognizethe lack of secure safe and inexpensive source of food for the poor amongst us.Those hungry folk are found in the most unlikely of places and often are ourneighbours in rural and in urban settings. Jodi Spargur, from KitsilanoCommunity Church, in Vancouver, represents that church in a group thataddresses the urban hungry on the West side of Vancouver. She described thatchurches’ commitment to this issue rather appropriately in her thanksgivingletter.

As much as God is goodand faithful, we must be responsible and generous. Please receive and celebratethe following prayers from Gathering for Worship that I came across this week.

So, we respond togetherto a living, gracious, loving and just God who is faithful to us. May we befaithful and generous in response.  

Warmly,

In Christ,

Jeremy Bell

Thanksgiving

Creator God

maker ofall that is:

in creationwe see

theglorious outworking

of yourimagination.

Everycreature,

throughyour life-giving Spirit,

is spokeninto existence

and lovedinto eternity.

For thegift of life

wepraise and thank you.

GenerousGod

giver ofall good things;

in your Sonwe see

the wonderand the cost of love.

In hisliving and dying

we feelyour compassion

and seeyour purpose.

In hisglorious resurrection

we knowdeath

not only asending

but asbeginnings.

For thepromise of life eternal

wepraise and thank you.

Life-givingGod,

by yourSpirit you brought creation out of chaos

and gavelife to the world.

Now yousustain all things

and stillyou give life to the lifeless.

You havefound us and changed us,

awoken usand inspired us.

You havegiven us new life in Jesus Christ:

you havewooed us in love

and createdlove within us.

God ourcreator, redeemer and sustainer,

we give youthanks and praise.