Hearts in Service

Our denomination has a world-wide ministry and I was asked to speak for a Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration that the Alliance World Fellowship of Women's Ministries was hosting. That took place this morning and the theme was Jesus, the Light of the World. I put together a video for them to use as part of the zoom celebration.  There were women gathered from all over the world and it was neat to see a group from the Congo, Gabon and Burkina Faso there.  I sent the video back at the beginning of November so the leadership had time to translate it into French and Spanish. It also allieviated the stress of my internet not working at a crucial moment. I do have to say that it was hard to video myself speaking to an empty room! I definitely enjoy having a live audience better.  However, I thought I'd share the message here which was Reflect the Light of Jesus to a Dark World . You can click on the link to watch it. 

The tree is up and looking beautiful I blame this sign on the lake effect snow warning we have for this morning through Wednesday. Thanksgiving was wonderful. I made pumpkin soup at my son's request. Delicious! Dan and the boys had Stromboli the other night for dinner. By the end of Thanksgiving weekend everyone is a bit tired of leftovers so I made a vegetarian chili last night. Thanksgiving is over and we are hurtling towards December 1st and Christmas. The tradition in our family is putting up the tree and Christmas decorations the day after Thanksgiving. It's very different now that the kids are grown and not always here.  I probably would have waited, but Stephen was here and asking about it, so up it went. He did help me get the ornaments on it so it went fast. I'll put the rest of the decorations out a bit at a time. It's been a busy week because not only did we celebrate Thanksgiving and get our decorations out, but on Saturday we were at the church putting up t...

  I was busy yesterday, cooking and baking and preparing for today. I was on my feet for most of the day and was up early this morning. However, in the middle of the busyness I want to  stop give thanks for many things in my life. 💓 Thank you to my blog readers, many of you have been with me since I began back in 2008. A lot of the photos I used back then no longer show up since Photobucket hijacked them, but you can always go back and read. Thank you. Many have become dear friends. 💓 I'm thankful for my husband who very sweetly bought me flowers as he knows this is a hard time of year. The 3-year anniversary of my mom's passing is tomorrow. He is so supportive. Of course, things have been so busy that it took me a day before I even noticed that they were sitting on our buffet! lol 💓 I'm thankful for my children who all work hard. I love that they call me a few times a week just to chat about their day. 💓 God continues to shape and mold me into a woman who He wants to u...

"We tend to take all the gifts and pleasures and happiness and the joy without saying much to God. We take our health and strength, our food and clothing and our loved ones, all for granted; but the moment anything goes wrong we start grumbling and complaining and we say 'Why should God do this to me, why should this happen to me?' How slow we are to thank and swift to grumble." ~ Martyn Lloyd-Jones I was part of a small group this fall and we studied the passage in John 15 Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The topic of the study was abiding in Christ so He can bear fruit through us. Yesterday, I concluded the class by bringing in a special treat for the women and we had a time of discussion and fellowship. One of the things I did was read Psalm 115-118 as that would have been the concluding hymn that Jesus and His disciples sang at the Passover supper. There is a verse in there in Psalm 118 that is familiar to most: "This is the day that the Lord has ma...

I've been thinking about Thanksgiving and working on a plan that includes my new way of eating. As I was putting the menu together tonight and seeing what things I could tweak or add, I realized something. I told Dan that I don't want to stuff myself with food, even the foods I can have.  So my menu will include what my family would like, but a couple of things I can have such as the sweet potato, salad and squash.  I'm not feeling the need to eat anymore than I do on a regular day.  I will make myself a treat that I normally don't have, but one that is plant-based. Over the past weekend I made some things for church, but then also did some pre-Thanksgiving prepping.  I had leftover cookies from a children's event on Saturday so I put those in the freezer to pull out. While I was baking a pie for church today, I made my crusts for Thanksgiving pies and put those in the freezer to pull out on Tuesday so they are ready when I make the pies. Then I made three loaves of...

 Despite the sun there is a chill in the air that reminds me that winter is on the way. However, we had snow at this time last year so I'm thankful for the sunshine. It allows me to get outside and do what I love best, walk through the woods and fields. There is something within me that communes better with the Lord in those wide open spaces. When I'm feeling down, Dan will often nudge me out the door and outside to walk. As I walk, my spirits lift, I am able to better pray and hear from God. Leaves are still stubbornly clinging to some trees. Everything has changed from looking like a patchwork quilt, to being brown and dry. But there is a beauty even in the muted browns and the dying leaves.  The same is true of our lives. Even in our hard times there can be beauty as we see the Lord working in our circumstances. Each day for the past two weeks I've read Facebook memories of the time three years ago when I was caring for my mother who was dying of cancer. They are hard me...

I turned the page to September and life got crazy all of the sudden. I've been busy working on multiple projects and events and my head is spinning a bit. So this blog has been on a the quiet side.  I spent yesterday morning writing as I was asked to submit a month's worth of Advent devotions for a women's group, Empower, that is partnered with our denomination. Empower is a developmental program that is designed to help women to be equipped, inspired, and prepared to grow in ministry. That deadline is coming up so I'm feeling that crunch. I am speaking at another church this Sunday so I put together that talk this week. I still need to run through that a few times and am feeling the crunch there. Our church's annual meeting is next Sunday after church and I've been trying to get things ready for that as well. For some reason I kept thinking there was a whole week in between. I realized last night that there isn't. Yikes! Crunch time. Then there are multiple...

It has been such a busy week and while I thought perhaps November would slow down a bit, it seems to be just as busy. I'm thankful though that as I continue to step out in faith in different ways in my life, the Lord is continuing to guide my steps.  Tuesday night our church had an outreach, passing out candy to all the trick-or-treaters that stopped by the church. Our city has set hours for this so we set up two tents and parked ourselves on the front lawn. We had over a hundred children and their families pick up a goody bag and a cup of hot chocolate. It was a wonderful way to connect with the community in a positive way.  Thursday was spent recording a talk I'm doing for our denomination's world-wide fellowship at the end of November. They wanted it by today along with the transcript so they could translate it into Spanish and French. By the way, it's really not easy talking to a camera in an empty room and I felt a bit stilted.  A few months ago, I began to pray...