2011 Thanksgiving Letter

Happy Thanksgiving to all of members and friends at Bernardsville UMC!

     May God bless you and your family as they gather at such a wonderful time of the year! How beautiful it is to see family members get together in spirit of Thanksgiving!

     When we moved to the U.S in 1999, Grace and I celebrated our first Thanksgiving. Back then, we were married for only four months and we were total strangers to the American life style. Being new to this country, we had no place to go, and no family to get together with over Thanksgiving weekend. All the dorms at Drew University were closed and all of the students left for their home. When I woke up Thanksgiving morning, I realized that it would be a vcry lonely Thanksgiving Day for us.

     However, at that moment, I got a phone call from one of my friends, Hae-Jung. HaeJung had been invited to dinner and invited Grace and me to join him. When Hae-Jung got the invitation for his family, he mentioned Grace and me: a young married couple who just came from Korea. The host, Rev. Kye-Ho Kim who was a Methodist pastor in Catskill, NY area, was willing to extend his invitation to us. We had never met Rev. Kim before. We were total strangers to Rev. Kim’s family, but he was gracious enough to welcome strangers to his Thanksgiving table. At that dinner, Grace and I first tasted the American Thanksgiving dishes including roasted Turkey and mashed potatoes (with lots of gravy! !). We enjoyed the food, but definitely enjoyed the hospitality of Rev. Kim and Haejing’s family more. They remembered to reach out to us when we were left out from the joy of Thanksgiving. Leaving Rev. Kim’s that night, I made up my mind to extend my hospitality to strangers every Thanksgiving.

     The spirit of Thanksgiving is hospitality. At very first Thanksgiving, our ancestors extended their hospitality to the American Indians who were hostile to them. With that radical hospitality, everyone at the Thanksgiving table became one in giving thanks to God. In this wonderful season of Thanksgiving, I would like to gently challenge you to look for anyone who is being left out from the joy of Thanksgi ving.

     As one way of extending our hospitality, our church is collecting frozen turkeys for the homeless in New York City. The turkeys will be cooked and on Thanksgiving day, the homeless people will be fed a hot Thanksgiving meal at Trinity Church in New York City. If you want to know more about this drive or if you want to donate a frozen Turkey or other Thanksgiving ingredients, please contact Laura Cole before November 19^th (908-766-6130). This is one way to extend our hospitality, but if you have another way to do so, I strongly encourage you to be diligent in extending your Thanksgiving hospitality to those who are not as fortunate as as we are.

     Isn’t “Thank You” a magic word? When you say it, everything that surrounds you turns out to be the very reasons for thanks. In this Thanksgiving season, why don’t you say “Thank you” to the people or for the things that you have not been thankful for in a while. To your spouse, children, or parent, how about saying: “Thank you for being a great companion in my life?” I know it will be little awkward if you have not done it for a long time. But, if you can break that awkwardness, you will get a chance to show your true heart to those who you love. So … in this Thanksgiving, Say it, brother! Say it sisters. Thank you and Thank you very much!

     As a pastor of this great church at Bernardsville, I thank you all for being such good companions of our ministry. Thank you and Thank you very much!

     From Han’s family to yours: Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Your friend in Christ,
Myung