Dear Compass Checkers,

Greetings! By the time you receive this issue of Compass Check, you will likely already be back in school, whether it be in-person, virtual or home schooled. Perhaps part of the “new normal” for returning to school or church has been to have your temperature checked. This of course is done to see if you have a fever, one of the early warning signs of covid-19. While we normally don’t want to have a fever, there is a type of fever that I hope you soon contract. It’s not one that’s measured with a thermometer or infrared camera, although it’s one you can definitely feel—it’s Feast Fever!

Feast Fever is that feeling of anticipation we begin to have as we think about going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles each year. Other symptoms of Feast Fever are not losing your sense of taste or smell. For example, if you can begin to taste a special meal you plan on sharing with family at the Feast, or smell the ocean breeze as you imagine spending time with friends on the beach, you have tested positive for Feast Fever!

Feast Fever comes down to one simple feeling—it can’t get here soon enough! And when you think about what the Feast of Tabernacles represents—the beginning of the Kingdom of God, starting with a 1,000-year reign of Christ and the saints on Earth—I think the connection is clear. I am so over the trials of 2020, anger among people and politics, aren’t you? I need to get to the Feast this year to help keep my vision focused on the establishment of the Kingdom of God here on Earth so we can have real peace, justice and love for everyone!

If you haven’t started feeling Feast Fever yet, no worries, this issue of Compass Check has been produced specially to help you start preparing for God’s annual fall Festivals. Instead of receiving a teen booklet at the Feast when you arrive this year, it has been incorporated into the center of this issue of Compass Check. These special articles have been written from personal perspectives about experiences at the Feast and the lessons learned there, as well as how some have found creative ways to serve not only the brethren, but the community they kept the Feast in.

Even if you are unable to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in-person this year, you can still catch Feast Fever. Take time to reflect on what the Feast represents, and hopefully share some nice meals and fun activities with family and friends. Wherever you keep the Feast this year, I pray it is a very physically, emotionally and spiritually fulfilled one!