Calvary's Love

“If interruptions annoy me,

And private cares make me impatient;

If I shadow the souls about me

Because I myself am shadowed,

Then I know nothing of Calvary’s love.”

(Amy Carmichael)

~ Posted by Betsy

Recipe--Cheeseburger Pie

One of our long-time recipe favorites is cheeseburger pie. It’s a fairly simple meal and easy to make. Just make the pie, pair it with vegetables, and you have dinner!

Cheeseburger Pie

 

1 lb ground beef or turkey

1 cup chopped onion

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

½ cup Bisquick or other baking mix

1 cup milk

2 eggs

Heat oven to 400°F. Grease 9 inch pie plate. Cook ground beef and onion until beef is brown; drain. (Season beef however you normally do while it is cooking.) Stir in salt. Spread in pie plate; sprinkle with cheese.

Stir remaining ingredients with fork until blended. Pour into pie plate over beef. Bake for 25 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Makes 6-8 servings. Enjoy!

Missions Trips

Homes nestled in the mountains of Honduras.

God has blessed my Dad—and in turn our family—with a passion for world missions. My Dad made a goal to take each of us kids on a short term trip missions trip to another country before we graduate from high school. He has encouraged all of us to study great missionaries, financially support current missionaries serving around the world, and to actually be the missionaries whether that is for only a week, or as a permanent lifestyle one day. He has encouraged us to look beyond the comforts and pleasures offered to us as American-born children, and to consider the physical and spiritual needs of others.

I thought I would share some photos from the missions trips our family has participated in. Daddy was the first one in our family to go on a missions trip. He spent 10 days in Honduras participating in building/construction projects, and doing medical care with the missionaries down there. They also had the opportunity to go to church in Honduras.

One of the small towns the team visited.

Daddy is holding the head of the Honduran patient in this picture, while the dentist performs the extraction. They did lots of teeth-pulling while on this trip!

Dad was very excited after his trip to Honduras, and about a year later my Mom and I joined him and others from our church on a trip to Mexico.

This is the church building in the town we were at. You can see the sign for our hotel behind it. As a 10-year-old, this trip really opened my eyes to the reality of life outside the U.S.A. The poverty is extreme, and the spiritual need even greater.

During our week there, we served in a soup kitchen across the street from a local hospital. This photo was taken during our morning devotions over breakfast.

We also worked on cleaning green-space, and painting rooms at the local Middle School. Since there were lots of kids and teens on our team, we played with many of the local children! Some of them are pictured in the photo above.

One day during our stay there, we went to a local Mexican woman’s house to learn how to make tamales! We made over 200 tamales that day!

Several years ago, Dad and Ben went on a missions trip to the Bahamas. Some may not think of the Bahamas as a place in need of missions, but it is. Behind all of the tourist shops and the Atlantis resort, there is great poverty. I’m afraid that I can’t find the disk with the majority of the pictures on it, so the above one will have to suffice! They took one day to go snorkeling on their trip, and Ben is pictured above.

During their time in the Bahamas, Dad and Ben worked with others from our church going door-to-door and sharing the gospel with people. In the evenings they did park ministry. This consisted of making balloons for children, playing basketball with the young men, performing “The Redeemer” drama, and sharing the gospel with all the people assembled.

We are very excited to have the opportunity to go on another family missions trip later this year! Lord willing, several members of our family will be serving in some of the poorest areas of Haiti. Haiti was the poorest country in the western hemisphere even before January 2010, when the country was hit with a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. The physical and spiritual needs of the country are still enormous. We are very excited to be able to serve in this way! Please pray for us as we prepare for this trip.

*Have you ever been on a missions trip? If so, what was an experience that stands out in your memory, or really changed your perspective on something? We’d love to hear your story!*

Josiah's Birthday

Several weeks ago, we celebrated Josiah’s birthday! Because of the timing of other events around his birthday, the celebration was spread over several days. Below are some pictures from when our family celebrated with a birthday trip:

In keeping with tradition, Josiah enjoyed a muffin for his breakfast in bed.

While the rest of us ate breakfast, he was allowed to open a few of his gifts. He was very pleased with some cowboy action figures and rubber ammo for his rifle.

After breakfast, we packed a snack-type lunch and left for his birthday trip.

Does anyone recognize this place? It’s the Midland Center for the Arts! Some of us older kids have memories of visiting this center when we were younger, but Josiah had never been.

One reason we were drawn to visit is because the current aviation art exhibit had model airplanes. J

Watching a movie on the making of a B-24 Liberator.

There were so many displays to see at the MCFTA! We saw a traveling exhibit on costume designs; a display with cloud photos; lots of Michigan history, and more!

The kids really enjoyed the space exhibit since they have been studying astronomy this year.

We had fun building with materials in the architecture display. Midland is home to many unique buildings built by Alden B. Dow.

There’s a funny story behind this picture. J In the logging display, there is a machine that stamps an imprint on little wooden blocks that you can take home. (The display was talking about how loggers stamped their wood.) Josiah was trying to stamp his piece of wood, and he just wasn’t strong/heavy enough, despite his chin up on the bar! J Daddy had to give him a little help!

After spending several hours at the museum we headed towards our next stop. We pulled up at a Big Boy’s restaurant, and Dad told us we were going to have some appetizers and desserts since we didn’t really have lunch. As we got out of the car, who drives up smiling but some of our dear friends! We were so excited to see them!

The twins and our friend, K. We had lots of appetizers at the restaurant including BBQ quesadillas, chicken quesadillas, mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers, and more.

For dessert, almost all of us ordered hot fudge cake. When they brought Josiah’s out, it was covered in sprinkles and the wait-staff sang “Happy Birthday” to him. This picture was nice but. . .

. . . this is how he really felt! J

After enjoying our food and fellowship, we had to say goodbye. L We hope to see our friends soon, and we were so glad they could join us!

When we got home, Josiah wanted to open his presents. He received many nice things including this Western play set.

We were all so full from eating at the restaurant, that we just had popcorn for dinner. We watched “Cars 2” while we ate, and then it was time for bed! Josiah’s birthday celebration continued for a few more days though. Come back next week to hear more!

Sunday Walk

This past Sunday afternoon, the weather was perfect for taking a family walk. The weather has been usually pleasant lately with the temperatures being in the 50’s and 60’s. We are really enjoying it!

‘Though many of us wore coats, they were shed after the first mile!

After walking our usual route, we decided to go exploring. There is some farmland behind our neighborhood, and we decided to take a closer look. When this picture was taken, Mikey was refusing to walk through an area with brambles. Since Ben couldn’t convince him to walk through, he got carried fireman-style! Unfortunately we didn’t get a picture of that, but you can imagine it! J

Looking out into the field.

I LOVE wide open spaces! It makes me want to hop on a horse and go riding.

An old path through the field.

The kids had lots of fun running around and looking for new things.

They found the creek that runs behind our house. It goes quite a ways!

Rubia and Mikey beside the creek.

On our way back, we saw a hawk circling overhead.

All of us kids and Mikey at the end of our walk. We really enjoyed ourselves and look forward to taking more walks later this spring and summer.

February Pictures

To my chagrin, I completely forgot about my nature photo challenge I mentioned in January. I frantically searched for pictures I may have taken outdoors in February, but alas, I don’t have a single one. I could blame it on the fact that everything outside is brown, wet, and cold, but that’s simply an excuse. In keeping with my challenge, I decided to post a few photos even though they weren’t taken in February and aren’t all necessarily “nature” photos. I hope you still enjoy them, and I promise to do better at taking photos in March!

This photo was taken on January 31^st, so it’s almost February! We went on a lovely walk that felt like springtime!

A bouquet of Valentine’s Day flowers brightened our house for several weeks.

A picture of our in-house predator and his road-kill. Just kidding! Mikey (the dog) has a crate full of toys next to Zack (the cat.) Zack looked like one of Mikey’s discarded toys as he lay there taking a nap!

What a spoiled, spoiled kitty!

Fire

Photo Credit: Naomi.

Some of you may remember friends of ours who visited us just a few short weeks ago for dinner and a birthday celebration. We ask that you would join us in praying for their family. Late Saturday night, their barn went up in flames. Over a six-hour period, it burned to the ground. Thankfully, all of them are safe, but they have also lost a lot. As farmers, their barn held a lot of equipment, animals, and other important things. Three other outbuildings were also reduced to smoldering piles. Please pray for them as they determine their next course of action and as they recover from this huge loss. If you’d like to read more, you can read the account on Amy’s blog here. Thank you for your prayers!

Boundaries

(Photo by Rubia)

“Do not move the ancient boundary
Which your fathers have set.”

(Prov. 22:28)

~ Posted by Betsy