Thanksgiving and Tabaski(Festival of Sacrifice)
First of all, I trust that all of you had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. It is normally a time that family gets together to give thanks and fellowship with each other. I have had many missionaries say that holidays are some of the hardest times to be away from family. I understand what they are saying, and we do miss our family in America, but we decided that God has given us another family here in Burkina Faso. We celebrated this with our young men in training and a few others. It was a wonderful time to share what we are thankful for.
This morning, I went to the church at 7:00 to pray with our young preachers. After prayer we planned some upcoming events. Then I came back to the house to work. I saw many people outside of their houses with a knife and a sheep. It is tabaski here. The Muslims were preparing their sacrifices. There were two thoughts that came to my mind:
1) I praise the Lord that Jesus is my sacrifice. I don’t need to find a lamb and slit his throat. John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
2) I truly had mixed emotions. Although I was filled with joy because of what Jesus has done for me, I was sad because of seeing what people are trying to do to get a place in heaven. Jesus already paid the price, but others continue to attempt to pay the price.
