When our family first came to America in 1973, we had to start with almost nothing. My father was pastoring a church that could not afford to pay him a salary, so he worked nights to support our family. My mother worked at a box-making factory run by Japanese owners. Back then, there was something called “piecework,” which allowed workers to bring unfinished work home from the factory. After dinner, my two brothers and I would help our mother assemble boxes.

Going out to Kentucky Fried Chicken once a month was a special treat for us. Not long after we arrived in America, a deacon from our church took the three of us to Dunkin’ Donuts and bought each of us a donut. My youngest brother finished his in no time and then excitedly asked me, “Big brother, is this the best bakery in the whole world?”

More than fifty years have passed since then. The life we enjoy today is far more comfortable and abundant than anything we could have imagined during those early immigrant years. When I think back to my younger days, starting a small church in my mid-twenties and ministering to college students and young adults while facing hardships, struggles, and sometimes humiliating experiences, I realize how abundantly God has blessed my ministry in ways I could never have imagined. Yet I find myself asking: Am I more grateful today than I was back then?

Looking back, I have so much to be thankful for. I am grateful for my family, who stood together through every circumstance of life. I am grateful for every church and every congregation I have had the privilege of serving. Above all, I am overwhelmed by God’s grace in calling someone as inadequate as me and allowing me to continue in ministry all these years.

These days, I am also discovering new reasons to be thankful through our recently launched Healing Prayer Ministry. I am especially grateful for those church members who, having experienced pain and suffering themselves, cannot turn away from the suffering of others and come to pray for them. Watching these faithful people, I am reminded that this is how God’s grace overflows from one life into another. And for that, I am deeply thankful.

As we enter this season of thanksgiving in November, my prayer is that we may offer God our deepest and most heartfelt gratitude.