{"id":19575,"date":"2025-11-14T10:13:03","date_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:13:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/?p=19575"},"modified":"2025-11-14T10:13:03","modified_gmt":"2025-11-14T15:13:03","slug":"so-many-reasons-to-give-thanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/so-many-reasons-to-give-thanks\/","title":{"rendered":"So Many Reasons to Give Thanks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hope Church will gather on <strong>Wednesday, November 26, at 7 p.m.<\/strong> in the Chapel for a service of <strong>Thanksgiving and Communion<\/strong>. With scripture, song, poetry, and prayer, we will speak to God the gratitude that fills our hearts, and by celebrating Communion together we will affirm what ties us together as the body of Christ in this place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What are we thankful for?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a loving God who is present with us and loves and cares for us<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a full staff in place to lead the congregation in worship and ministry with grace and love<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dedicated consistory and ministry volunteers to encourage our efforts to live out our faith in the way that uses our gifts to serve others<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">excellent community partners to show us the way to do that effectively in the wider community<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">gifted leaders who help guide our children in their spiritual growth<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">wonderful small groups that enable us to experience true friendship and support for one another<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">open hearts willing to see and treat everyone as a child of God<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the chance to welcome refugee families into our hearts and support them as they integrate into the community<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The N* family has made tremendous progress since arriving about a year ago, and the joy and love they radiate lifts the hearts of all who know them. The second family, who arrived recently, is busy with all the initial work of settling into a new place and looking for employment. Many Hope members have been vital in assisting the assimilation of these families into the Holland community, and each one will say what a joy it is to be part of this endeavor.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You may not be able to help with rides, medical appointments, or shopping, but you can still support these families by designating a check or online gift with the memo: THANKSGIVING OFFERING. Your donations will pay for major medical expenses and ease the burden of extra household expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As the pastors often say in worship, \u201cWith hearts overflowing with gratitude, let us present our gifts and lives to God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hope Church will gather on Wednesday, November 26, at 7 p.m. in the Chapel for a service of Thanksgiving and Communion. With scripture, song, poetry, and prayer, we will speak to God the gratitude that fills our hearts, and by celebrating Communion together we will affirm what ties us together as the body of Christ [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19576,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,155],"tags":[169,193,163],"class_list":["post-19575","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mission-and-social-justice","category-worship-and-spiritual-formation","tag-community","tag-thanksgiving","tag-worship"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19575","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19575"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19577,"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19575\/revisions\/19577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19576"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopechurchrca.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}