Message from Pastor Mori
Happy Thanksgiving !!
This year we have been so deeply affected by disasters and violence in our world. So when preparing for a Thanksgiving prayer for a clergy retreat, I was a little concerned that the time spent announcing our prayers of thanks might be quiet. However, the prayers were full as people shared how they had been blessed in 2022. There were so many thanksgiving prayers: family, community, beautiful natures, friendship and food and society and ministries…
Thanksgiving gives us to time remember Psalm 136:1 "Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for his steadfast love endures forever."
John Wesley also said:
"Thanksgiving is inseparable from true prayer; it is almost essentially connected with it. One who always prays is ever giving praise, whether in ease or pain both for prosperity and for the greatest adversity. He blesses God for all things, looks on them as coming from Him, and receive them for His sake – not choosing nor refusing, liking or disliking, anything but only as it is agreeable or disagreeable to His perfect will."
Thanksgiving is a time to pray with a grateful heart, a time to pray to God for life and for loved ones and God's loving mercy that God stands with us on the path of our spiritual journey.
This thanksgiving means a lot to me. We have weathered the storm of COVID-19 for these two years, but we have been not giving up our ministry. Rather, we have tried new ministries in this Ravenswood Fellowship. I am thankful to God for each of you! It is a joy and a privilege to minister together in Christ. Through the ministry at RFUMC, I have learned that God provides us with true blessings in abundance. God encourages us to move forward and gives us hope where there is doubt. God comforts when we have tears or broken hearts. God leads us to a place of prayer and helps us continue to become disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
With a thankful heart, I want to invite you to Stewardship Sunday. This year's emphasis is on our continual stewardship of God's bounty on Ravenswood Fellowship UMC.
We will be celebrating these gifts on Sunday, December 4, during which we will rejoice and express our gratitude tother during this yearly celebration for all that our Lord has done among the RFUMC family. For your lunch order, please RSVP by Sunday, November 27.
Here are ways to RSVP:
I hope I can join with all of you on Stewardship Sunday to give thanks to the Lord with a grateful heart as we pray and celebrate together the next steps of our ministry! Happy Thanksgiving !! Pastor Mori | 
