SHALOM TO YOU AT THIS THANKSGIVING SEASON! by Steve Cohen
While many in our country gear up for the busy shopping season after Thanksgiving, we at The Apple of is Eye are taking time to reflect upon the bounty God has given and our thankfulness to you, our supporters.

Now this is the law of the sacrifice of peace offerings which shall be presented to the LORD. If
he offers it by way of thanksgiving, then along with the sacrifice of thanksgiving he shall offer
unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil, and cakes of well
stirred fine flour mixed with oil. – Leviticus 17:11-12
The Old Testament chronicles the various offerings made by the priests at the Tabernacle in the wilderness and
Temple in Jerusalem. There were sin offerings, trespass offerings, wave offerings and peace offerings. The
biblical thanksgiving offering was one which was not offered at set or prescribed times. These were over and
above voluntary offerings given in thanks for the fellowship with the Lord when the offerer and God were at
peace with one another. The offerer expressed his thankfulness to God by a special voluntary offering.

In 1970, I met Alan Rither during basic training at Lackland Air Force Base in
San Antonio, Texas. He discovered that we were assigned to he same base in Tacoma,
Washington where we would be together one weekend a month and two weeks in the
summer for the next six years. In the context of building a relationship with me, Alan prayed
daily that I would be willing to consider Jesus.

I first met Alan Butterworth at Hanukkah while broadsiding at an Amy Grant
concert in Downtown St. Louis in the mid-1990’s. It was freezing cold out, but we stood
our posts to share the good news with concert goers.

Joyce Rottmann was one of the first volunteers to assist us in our mission. As we were
starting, she was looking for something to do. Anyone who knows me knows that if someone
is looking for something to do, we can certainly find it for them in our ministry.

Civilla Durfee Martin was born in Nova Scotia in 1866. She wrote many gospel hymns
before she died in 1948, one year before I was born. One that has caught the ear of many
is “His Eye is on the Sparrow” written on the occasion following the visit to a special
family,

Why should I feel discouraged, why should the shadows come
Why should my heart be lonely, and long for heaven and home,
When Jesus is my portion? My constant friend is He:
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me;
His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.

Jan and I met on a blind date at the University of Washington in Seattle
on February 24, 1971. Jan was already an accomplished vocalist as she was
soloist for the University of Washington Chorale. Music played a vital role in
her life, and mine, too. The moment I met her I somehow knew that this was the
one for me, and two years after that first date we were married in Gig Harbor,
Washington at a friends home.

However, we could very easily become discouraged and disheartened as Jan continues to lose ground to
Huntington’s Disease. The numerous falls, the loss of abilities, ever simple words now come only after a
great deal of effort. Neither of us fully understood the difficulties that awaited and the hardships that would be
encountered. But we know the Lord, we know His grace and mercy and we know that his eye is on the sparrow,
so he cares for us, too. We are eternally grateful to the Lord for our times together, even the ones that are more
difficult.

FROM ALAN BUTTERWORTH What a blessing it is to have the privilege to share this good news with an earthly family! My parents were not
believers. Neither my brothers, Tom and Chuck, nor their wives, Libby and Debby (who is Jewish), nor any of their
children, nor their spouses, believe in Jesus! What a blessing that I was called out of the darkness into His marvelous
light!

The Apple of His Eye is an equal
opportunity involver: gentiles are
welcome to join in the adventure
of telling the world that Jesus is the
Messiah!!!

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