Happy Camp Wishes you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving


Thanksgiving in America
Someone has said, “One thing we won’t agree about is the beginning of Thanksgiving” that we will celebrate this week. But it has always been known years ago, from an eyewitness report, a letter Edward Winslow wrote December 1621 at Plymouth colony in Massachusetts; Edward Winslow wrote a letter told about the buildings and the crops they had sown, for which they had been taught by Squanto and Massasoit “according to the manner of the Indians.”

“Our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, that so we might after a special manner rejoice together….at which time,, amongst other recreations, we exercised our arms, many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and fested, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation…

”And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty. We hae found the Indians very faithful in their covenant of peace with us; some ever loving and ready to pleasure us… we often go to them, and they come to us…

Beginning the Holiday Season
The Holiday season, a time of Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas and the New Year should all be a time of us all working together for peace and reconciliation, gratefulness for our blessings and sharing with others. The outside gift wrap and glitter isn’t the core of the holidays, it is love within our hearts and serving each other. We have different colors, creeds and backgrounds, but we are all members of the human family, one blood, one Creator, and we need to act like a loving family. There have been times that have been this way, times after great suffering and starvation in Plymouth colony, times of wildfires and discord on a national election, but if we read the instructions of our Creator, we must realize that if we love Him most of all, we must also love our neighbors, even if they voted a different way than we did.

Happy Camp Celebrates
The Happy Camp Giving program is full steam ahead and Happy Camp community Center is collecting for gifts for children whose families can’t provide that for them. They are also providing food for the Thanksgiving dinner that Nell Sakota and helpers will cook up at the Karuk Multipurpose Room on Second Avenue (where you voted, I hope!) at two o’clock on Thursday afternoon. In order to do this they need your donations for Thanksgiving and for Christmas. This is an opportunity to celebrate from the heart!

Christmas is coming
The Christmas season can make us feel pressured to give the perfect gift or feel let down when we don’t receive what we were hoping for. One local church in Charlotte tried to combat those feelings with a simple message – be grateful for the gifts you already have.
Pastor Blue shared with us a little poem with a big message, Thank God for Little Things.

Thank you God for Little Things,
That often come our way.
The things we take for granted,
But Don’t mention when we pray;
The unexpected courtesy,
The thoughtful kindly deed,
A hand reached out to help us,
In the time of sudden need!
Oh, make us more aware, dear God,
of little daily graces,
That come to us with sweet surprise,
From never dreamed of places

Happy Thanksgiving to you and may it be the beginning of a blessed Holiday season for you and your family and all our friends and neighbors along the wild Klamath River!!