Prayer

 “Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.”

J. Sidlow Baxter (1903-1999)

~ Posted by Betsy

Recipe--Hot Fudge Cake

During the cold winter months, a special treat for dessert is hot fudge cake. And for those in our family on a diet, this recipe makes just enough for all of us to have a serving, which means no leftovers. J Serve this deliciously hot cake with a scoop of vanilla or black walnut ice cream and enjoy!

Hot Fudge Cake

1 cup all-purpose flour

¾ cup sugar

6 tablespoons unsweetened baking cocoa, divided

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

½ cup milk

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 ¾ cups hot water

Whipped cream or ice cream (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine flour, sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in the milk, oil and vanilla until smooth. Spread in an ungreased 9-in. square baking pan. Combine brown sugar and remaining cocoa; sprinkle over batter. Pour hot water over all; DO NOT STIR! Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes. Serve warm. Top with whipped cream or ice cream if desired. Yield: 9 servings. Enjoy!

Friday Flashbacks: Animal Games

As young kids, Ben and I loved playing with stuffed animals together. One of our favorite games was loading them up in the Barbie® cars and driving them around the house. We drove them “up the mountain” (the stairs) and to the hotel (underneath the dining room table.

Unfortunately, a damper was put on our stuffed animal games when an accident occurred and I ended up with a crushed growth plate in my left pinkie. But we still have fond memories of the many hours spent playing with the animals!

*What toys/games did you like to play growing up? Please share in the comments!*

The Beauty of Truthfulness. . .

(Posted by Roma—from an essay in my Beautiful Girlhood Study)

Truthfulness is a very good character quality to have. If you are not truthful, how could you ever have anyone put their trust in you, and feel safe with you? If you are not truthful, you could get yourself into a lot of trouble you would have never wanted to get into in the first place.

The root cause of a lie is cowardice. You think that you can get out of trouble by lying, when really, you are taking the hard way. The easy way out of every situation is to be truthful. When we are tempted to lie, we should always remember that if you want to be trusted by others, and you want to have good character, and you want to please God, you must tell the truth.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob each lied. In Genesis 12:10-20, it talks about Abraham going to Egypt with his family because there was a great famine where he lived. And Abraham realized that the Egyptian men would like Sarah because she was very beautiful. So Abraham told Sarah to lie and say she was his sister, because he thought they would kill him if they knew she was his wife. If affected Sarah’s life, because Pharaoh almost took Sarah to be his wife.

Genesis 26:1-11 talks about Isaac doing the same thing Abraham did. He and Rebekah went to Abimelek, king of the Philistines, in Gerar. Isaac told the king Rebekah was his sister, because he was afraid he might lose his life on account of her. This affected the king’s life, because he said that it would have brought guilt among him and his people.

Jacob lied to his father, Isaac. Isaac had given Jacob’s brother Esau a blessing, and Isaac was old, and didn’t have good eyesight, so Jacob disguised himself as Esau, and took that blessing from Esau. Jacob did a very terrible thing, but God does forgive.

The most common lie is where you lie because you are afraid of the consequences you will get if you tell the truth. So you think you can just hide your faults, and forget about the whole thing. But that guiltiness won’t go away. When I was younger, I would always be so afraid of telling the truth, because I didn’t want to get in trouble for it. But I always tried to remember that the truth will set you free.

The meanest lie, is when you deliberately tell a lie just to hurt someone. For example, you might tell your friend that the new girl in school has terrible clothes, hair, and is overweight. But what if that wasn’t true? God wouldn’t see this girl that way. He would see her as a beautiful child of God. If you have ever said any unkind word about someone, you should make things right with that person now.

The silliest kind of lie, is where you lie about yourself, and you act like you have fame, riches, and you pretend. I remember one girl who wore the fanciest clothing, high heels, and acted like she was the best. She would ask others—including me—what was their house like; that way she could compare their house to hers. I don’t know that she does that anymore, though. These kind of lies are just being prideful, and it isn’t worth it.

“He who permits himself to tell a lie once,

finds it much easier to do it a second and

third time, till at length it becomes

habitual…this falsehood of the tongue leads

to that of the heart.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

A Year in Review: 2011

It’s that time of year again! Time for our annual “Year in Review” post! Describing this past year is like trying to fit the ocean in a cup. It was full of first-time sagas which brought good and bad moments, lots of evidence of God’s faithfulness to us, and lots of wonderful memories.

As most of you know, 2011 started out with a house flood on January 7^th. Our house sustained a fair amount of damage, and the next few months were filled with repairs and workers coming in and out of the house. We were blessed to have Christian men working for us!

We spent lots of time in a hotel while repairs were going on. Looking back on it now, we had a lot of fun together!

I was blessed with the opportunity to teach at Bright Lights a few times during the year. Being a part of this ministry has helped me grow so much spiritually!

We celebrated Mommy’s birthday with our best friends in Midland in January. We look forward to celebrating many more birthdays in the future!

We also enjoyed celebrating Super Bowl this year. We ate many delicious treats, and enjoyed watching the game even though the Steelers didn’t win.

Michigan provided lots of snow for sledding last year! We love having a small slope in our backyard to use during the long winter months.

Our family made the decision to change our eating habits early in the year. As a part of that, we began ordering foods from a health coop. Here, we pick up our order.

Meanwhile, the flood saga continued. While our floors were being refinished, the living room was full of furniture from the first floor. I had to do school somewhere! J

For Josiah’s birthday trip in March, we went out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant and visited the Castle Museum.

Roma purchased her first camera in March. She has honed her photography skills with her new Canon!

Daddy and I flew to Georgia to attend the annual Father Daughter Retreat hosted by Vision Forum. We enjoyed a delightful weekend together listening to speakers, enjoying high tea, and taking in the beautiful Calloway Gardens.

We were very excited to celebrate the baptism of Rubia and Roma in April! They have both shown spiritual growth and desired to take this next step.

In May, we celebrated their birthday with a trip to the zoo.

For Ben’s birthday, we visited the Michigan Historical Society, toured the state capitol, and ate dinner in an antique train car!

Father’s Day weekend found us in Pennsylvania to visit with Grandparents and cousins from Virginia. We enjoyed showing the cousins around town during their visit.

Mommy and Daddy enjoyed a get-away for their anniversary in late June. They toured Amish Country in Ohio together.

Over summer break we spent several days in Pennsylvania with our Grandparents over the Fourth of July as well as several days in Ohio with family.

We celebrated Daddy’s birthday by taking him out to lunch at a Mexican restaurant. Doesn’t he look good in a sombrero? J

My surprise birthday trip led us to northern Michigan to spend the weekend at our friend’s cottage on the lake. We had a marvelous time together!

I was very excited to pass Driver’s Ed this summer as well. Watch out world! Here I come! J

We all helped out during Vacation Bible School at church in late July. We had a record-breaking number of kids attend!

Throughout the summer, we attended several park days with our homeschooling friends.

Ben and Dad were blessed with the opportunity to attend a Promise Keepers conference in August. They enjoyed their time together and learned a lot!

Most of us participated in multiple road races this summer. We really enjoyed training and racing together!

School started once again in the fall with lots of new subjects for all of us. We have definitely kept busy!

We had our first—of what will hopefully become our annual—sibling tea party in September. We had lots of fun being prim and proper and enjoying delicious treats.

Ben enjoyed his Rite of Passage celebration with his mentors in October. We are so proud to see him officially enter the world of manhood!

We took our annual trip to the orchard in late October. It was lots of fun picking apples, playing on the playground, going through a corn maze, and eating cider and donuts!

We were relieved to be reunited with Dad after his scary experience on a business trip to Asia. We are so thankful to have him safely home!

One new extra-curricular activity this school year is attending Keepers Coop. We have been studying all about medicinal herbs and have loved it! So far, we’ve made salves (above), tinctures, capsules, and lots more!

We’ve had several opportunities to minister through worship dance this past year. God has opened so many doors for the dance ministry!

We celebrated our family Christmas early so that we could travel later in the week. Here we are early Christmas morning.

We spent a few days in Ohio celebrating with family. Here is a picture of all the grandkids together.

Our last stop for Christmas was to Pennsylvania to visit with Dad’s side of the family. We had a great time together! And that is 2011 in a nutshell! We are immensely looking forward to all the plans God has for our family in 2012!

Hear From Heaven

My siblings and I were blessed with the opportunity to minister to our church family this past Sunday. We have a Brian Doerksen DVD called “Today” (that we love!) and one of the songs—“Hear From Heaven”—had sign language motions to go with it. We decided to learn it and share it at church.

The lyrics to the song are very powerful. It is based on 2 Chronicles 7:14 which says, “If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”:

We are your people called by your Name

We humble ourselves and pray

We are your people called by your Name

We humble ourselves and pray

We turn from our sin and come to seek your face

Hear from heaven and forgive our wicked ways

Hear from heaven and heal our land today.

As Christians in America, we desperately need to humble ourselves and earnestly seek the Lord’s face through prayer. We must turn from our wicked ways and THEN He will hear from heaven and forgive us and bring healing to our land! We need to search our hearts and make sure that we are humble, prayerful, and repentant towards the Lord.

For Amy

As I stepped outside of the car, the wind stung my cheeks, and the cold air bit through my layers of clothing. When I approached the shoreline, the sound of the breakers deafened me and my face felt completely numb. Surveying the scenery, I thought, “Amy would love this. I should take pictures for her.” And that is how this series of photos came to be. I hope you enjoy them!

The bay was fairly calm the day we visited.

The lighthouse at the pier.

The shoreline.

The beach.

Breakers coming in on the lake.

Many Waters

“Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it…”

(Song of Solomon 8:7a)

“You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

(Micah 7:19)

Photo by Roma

“…He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul…” (Psalm 23:3b-4a)

~ Posted by Betsy