No Better Time. . .

Last night, our family was blessed to be a part of a talent show at a nursing facility. One of my friends is a hospice care coordinator and is very active in this field of their family's ministry. Before going, however, we had a feeling that the experience would end up being more of a blessing to us than us being a blessing to them. We were right. We saw elderly and disabled people who were aching so badly for just five minutes of attention that it tore my heart apart. I remembered how my grandma was in a place like this just months ago and how she is no longer in this world. That will hold true for those people we saw last night.

After the show, I started talking to one lady there. She grabbed my hand with her wrinkled, soft, frail hands and held on until she felt we had to go. They would give anything just to have someone come and show them that their life is worth something to someone before they leave this world. I realize, too, that it's not just about us going there and helping them "get saved." It's about us finding our purpose and place in God's plan by serving "the least of these."

When we look at the world around us, we all question whether or not the last days are here. For good reason, too. Many theologians suspect that Jesus will be coming back anytime. Whether or not that's true, the Bible tells us to live as though it is. We are warned not to have him come back only to find us living like he's not coming back anytime soon. It's hard not to, though. We find so much "comfort" in going on, buying and shopping, going on expensive vacations, investing more money into the homes we have. . . I don't want to say anything's wrong with that. When we were homeless, I ached for those kinds of traditions. I just want to point out that the harvest is still very plentiful and the workers are few.

Can I just encourage some of you to reach out to this part of our community? Our society devalues human life so much that these people are left to live out their last days as a number in a cold, sterilized environment. Go there once and you'll see what I mean. Bring your favorite card game, your favorite photo album, or just your listening ear and see what a difference it makes in your life and theirs. When you involve your children, it'll make the biggest difference in the way they perceive life and our mission in this life.

Another issue along these lines I hope some of you come to be aware of is homelessness. We see videos of people curled up on the street with ragged clothes and dirty, matted hair, and think, "What can I do?" To begin with, you can understand that that is not what all homeless people look like. You may have sat next to one, or even a whole family, last week in church. Many people did around us just months ago and only few knew we were homeless.

Some of you remember when I did the Padilla benefit dinner at church years back. It wasn't until a newspaper reported their situation that we knew our closest neighbors, a family of 8, were going to be homeless. How could they have lived next to us for over a year and we never knew this? Honestly, we didn't take the time to know. Thankfully, God gave us an opportunity to make up for that fact and has given us the blessing of going through that with them and seeing His deliverance.

Please, consider praying about this. Is there somewhere God wants you to invest your time and/or money? Could there be people right in your town that would love your attention? Are there people in your church that are facing homelessness? I guarantee that if you heart desires to face these needs, God will show them to you. Our Tulsa area Meals-on-Wheels is just one example of an organization committed to helping people that, in a country full of "Christians," can't get enough volunteer help.

You can also check out this website about a man who experienced homelessness and is now helping show people what the homeless look like, what their stories are, and what they need. The "about" page has very good but graphic videos of homelessness at its worst. There is too much going on out there for us to live like Jesus isn't coming back soon. Here's the link: http://invisiblepeople.tv/blog.

I would also like to thank the people who were such a huge blessing to us last Christmas. In the midst of a declining economy, our friends from POCC and ROL sacrificially gave to us and provided a way for us to get to a home in Oklahoma. Without that, we would not have made it. Thank you for answering God's call to help us. We're forever grateful!

I pray you're encouraged to get out and start working the harvest.

Culinary Adventures

Since I haven't posted some of my latest culinary adventures in a while, I thought now would be a good time. I've really gone out of my normal box and leaped into completely homemade, from scratch items. Here's an example:

I made my normal veggie burgers, but this time I made homemade maple baked beans and baked onion rings. From scratch, I mean that I bought dried beans (much cheaper) and cooked and froze them ahead of time for later use. The onion rings were still a little greasy but baked is still better than fried! The best part: this whole meal, to feed our family of six plus Papa AND have leftovers, cost around $10 total! (Oh-that's some homemade honey mustard on the side.)

Because of the summer-like weather we've had, I thought it would be a good time to make homemade frozen fruit pops. No objections from the kids here!

(Dylan's facial expression in this picture is hilarious! And now it is also obvious that we need the Lord to provide a few bucks for new pants for Dylan!)

Toasted cinnamon raisin bread is our family's Sunday morning tradition. It's a special but quick breakfast to have before church. Unfortunately, it can get expensive, especially when you want the whole wheat stuff without high-fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils! After a few different recipes, I finally found one that we liked the best. It's a whole wheat cinnamon raisin swirl bread. For mine and Pete's loaf (the recipe makes two loaves), I add sunflower nuts.

Here's my favorite dessert though: homemade angel food cake with fresh, sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream made with fresh (as in from a milked cow in the last day or two) raw cream from the dairy farm! It makes much better whipped cream and it whips so much easier. This was my first time making homemade angel food cake, and it proved to be a bit of a science. I didn't read the directions exactly right and had to throw out the first batch. 20 eggs later and we have a delicious dessert!Hopefully, your mouth is watering at this point!

Tulsa Zoo!

This last Sunday, we had the wonderful pleasure of visiting the Tulsa Zoo. It was even better because Papa (my dad) came with! The weather was pretty nice and this zoo is huge! (Can you see the elephants in the background?)
This tiger gave us quite a show. It was only laying down for a minute. Papa started making some weird, low, growling sounds and it seemed to trigger a really strange reaction with the tiger. Every time Papa would make his sound, the tiger would start walking straight towards us, glaring at Papa, and would do his own low growl. It was almost scary the way Papa's growl triggered such a reaction.
This HUGE iguana also acted really strange towards us. The sign said that when threatened, they bob their head up and down. When we came up to him, he came as close to us as he could and laid completely on his belly as if in total submission. The kids thought he would make a good pet, except for the fact that he's about 4 or 5 feet long!
And of course, the boys' favorite attraction. In the rainforest attraction, they have an exhibit where the poison dart frogs are hopping around in a rocky soil area without any glass or wall separating the viewer from the frogs. They've occasionally hopped out but there are workers there to watch. Of course, you're not supposed to touch them because they're "poison" dart frogs. (Although, being the homeschoolers that we are, we know that these frogs wouldn't be poisonous. It's only the ones living in their native environment because their natural, native diet is what makes them poisonous! Mom also scored bonus points for knowing the name of certain monkeys' tails-"prehensile." That goes to show that the best teachers are the ones learning along with the kids, learning the things they forget or never learned in their own school days!)