Every year the Interfaith Clergy Alliance (ICA) and Interfaith CommUNITY of South County (ICSC) host a Thanksgiving service on the Sunday before the Thanksgiving holiday. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for those who live in the southern parts of Santa Clara County to gather to celebrate our diversity and to recognize what we all have in common.
This year’s theme is “Gratitude Rooted in Faith.” We hope to explore how each of our faith traditions can foster the sense of thanksgiving in our lives even in times of difficulty, when life’s trials make it difficult to see the good that’s all around us.
This brings to mind an experience a dear friend of mine related a few years ago. When my wife and I bought our first home, we became fast friends with a neighbor and his wife. We were both just starting our families. My wife and I had two preschool children and they had a son between the ages of our kids.
It was about this time when he was diagnosed with leukemia. As it progressed, he learned that he would need a bone marrow transplant. He was lucky to find a match but had to travel about 150 miles to the nearest cancer center.
The process would take a couple months and would require being alone much of the time due to distance and to protect him from being exposed to disease while his immune system is compromised. During the initial stages of his treatment they had to, in essence, kill his own diseased bone marrow in order to introduce the new healthy donated marrow.
He shared with me that the treatments were especially difficult compounded by his isolation, causing him to begin to slip into depression and self pity. He remembered that he hadn’t ever felt this low before.
It was at this moment that he remembered that he had brought a book of scripture with him, so he decided to try to read what he could.
What he then shared surprised me.
He told me that as he began, the sense of being alone began to fade. He felt a heavenly presence with him. He could feel God’s love for him and his despair turned to hope.
This whole experience was so profound that he stated that he was grateful for the experience and wouldn’t trade it for anything.
I have taken my friend’s experience and applied its principles to my own life. And, I have found them to be true. When I welcome God to help shoulder my struggles, He helps lighten my load and He often gives me a new perspective which frequently changes how I see the trial.
It’s exactly this that the Interfaith Community wants to celebrate this year. Please join us as we celebrate “Gratitude Rooted in Faith.” This year’s service will be held at 3pm on Sunday, Nov. 23at at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Gilroy, 7999 Miller Ave.
Mark D. Fullmer is High Councilor in the Morgan Hill Stake, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is an active member of the Interfaith Clergy Alliance of South County and can be reached at 1d******@***il.com.
Gratitude rooted in faith
Join the community and the South County Interfaith Clergy Alliance for a Thanksgiving service at 3pm Nov. 23 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 7999 Miller Ave. in Gilroy.
