Here is an old blog from Nov 2006 that we had on Xanga – now we’re blogging here, and I only wrote two things on that other blog, so I thought I would move it over here:
Nov 2006 -
We just got back from a weekend in Los Angeles. It was Thanksgiving at it's best - 30 people crammed into my grandmother's house, all catching up on 5 years of life that we haven't shared together. My extended family is very loving when we're together, but not very good at visiting each other, other than when someone like our grandmother calls us all together.
My Grandma told us stories about her childhood in the old south, about the gifts of the Spirit, and about how she forgave her father. She spoke in tongues for the first time when she was 45. Soon after, she felt a heavy pressure on her heart to forgive her father and apologize for the mean things she had said to him when she was young about his drinking. It was really wonderful to see how God moved in her life to bring reconciliation and healing to her family. The day she apologized to her father, he stopped drinking and never drank again.
She told us stories about my Dad and his brothers throwing mice into the maid's room to keep her trapped there while they rampaged through the house -- decorating the windowsills with crayon drawings, drawing on the walls, and knocking things over around the house. They were throwing things out the windows when my grandma showed up to give them a serious spanking. My uncle said that once they realized they were going to be in trouble and get spanked within and inch of their life, they decided, what the heck, why not just keep doing more fun stuff until we get caught?" My grandma said she used to invite her to eat with her at lunch time at the same table, and she never told my grandfather (who passed away 7 years ago) because he wouldn't have approved of such a thing. I don't think she ever protested for civil rights in public, but I was glad to hear that she treated people like human beings in the privacy of her home.
We got a chance to play concerts at a church in Upland and a Calvary Chapel in Redlands. We had a blast playing our songs, and it was wonderful to hear people come up after the concerts and say "I don't know if you were here for any other reason, but I know for sure that you were here to play that one song just for me -- it was exactly the message God wanted me to hear today." Nothing makes our day more worthwhile than to hear that.
Grandma's stories and playing concerts - all in all, not a bad way to spend Thanksgiving at all.
Nathan
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