So many people, families, and teams pour their hearts into Mission Arlington until it becomes a mighty rushing river of God’s love and mercy spread throughout our community.

Psalms 46:4 “There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God.”

Viewed from a second story window, multiple groups of volunteers come together as one strong team, building boxes of food for people in need. These boxes will go out on Thanksgiving Day.

The scientific word for the places where two bodies of water merge together is called a “confluence.”  A confluence describes the way a smaller stream of water, or tributary, feeds into a larger stream, or river, known as the “main stem.”  For example, the Ohio river is a tributary which flows into the larger Mississippi river.

At other times, a confluence can be the location where two smaller streams or rivers merge to become the source of a new river. In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for example, the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers merge to create the Ohio river.

As Thanksgiving approaches, it is evident to us that Mission Arlington^® is at the end of a “confluence of good will” which flows as a resource to meet the physical needs of people on Thanksgiving day. Working together as a community, as is evident here, supplies a type of synergistic energy, such that the end result is bigger than the individual input of each part.

We are watching it happen every day, all across our community. One post on our Facebook about a need for turkeys was shared by viewers 372 times, going to 22,831 people. Off Facebook, those people share with others, and also many people began to pray. In a span of one week’s time, we went from about 800 turkeys to 6,000. This isn’t humanly possible, but it happened.

In this past week, we have seen people purchase turkeys, then contact others to drive them down. Some, as they have purchased turkeys, decided to add water and chips and other Thanksgiving food. Volunteers who have been here through the years continue to come back, knowing that their help is crucial, but they have also spread the word out, using their influence to bring others with them. As a result, hundreds of people have been here every day, as a mighty force, lifting the load.  We are humbled, and amazed.

“Come thou Fount of Every Blessing” is a hymn written by the 18th century pastor and and song-writer Robert Robinson who penned these words in 1757 at the age of 22. There is a line to the lyrics in this great hymn which mentions “streams of mercy never ceasing,” referencing the ever-flowing love of God.  As your gifts flow into and through our place, we see the way God uses those gifts to provide strength, hope, and even revival, to individuals and families all across our community. The most abiding image of Thanksgiving for some of us is the one of families at their own kitchen table, surrounded by loved ones, giving thanks to God.

Only He could have put all of this together. No amount of energy or marketing could have resourced this work, nor turned the physical gifts of a Thanksgiving meal into a stream of  help into hope for real people in need.  Truly, from all of us, this calls for “songs of loudest praise.”

We are grateful for you. All glory to God!