my hands

These words ring true in my soul...

I have held many things in my hands,

and have lost them all;

but whatever I have placed in God's hands,

that I still posess.

~Martin Luther

A Taste of the Season

Try this one out! We think you'll love it!

SPICED PUMPKIN BREAD

*3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

*3 cups sugar

*2 teaspoons baking soda

*2 teaspoons salt

*2 teaspoons ground allspice

*1 teaspoon baking powder

*1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

*1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

*1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

*4 eggs

*1 can (15 oz.) solid-pack pumpkin

*3/4 cup vegetable oil

*2/3 cup water

In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another bowl, combine the eggs, pumpkin, oil, and water, mix well. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Pour into three greased 8 in. x 4 in. x 2 in. loaf pans.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before transferring from pans to wire racks to cool completely before slicing. (Makes 3 loaves.)

Have fun eating!! :o)

He's a keeper ;o)

Sunday night we arrived home from visiting The Farm. It had been a sad afternoon for me. We had decided that unless he showed some sudden and dramatic improvement, my sweet old gelding needed to be put to sleep some time this week. He has just been suffering too much with severe leg pain. So, we had made the trip down to see him so I could spend some time with him and say good-bye. (The sadness of putting down my horse cannot be compared with the tragedy of human suffering of course. Still, I felt weary and the lump in my throat lingered as we came home. It was a hard thing to say good-bye to my boy.)

As I was putting away our jackets, I heard the tub running. I was surprised that Steve would have decided to give the kids a bath, as they were very sleepy and ready for bed. I walked toward the bathroom and was met by Steve, who, much to my delight, said that he would put both kids to bed while I took a hot bath. Oh, what a perfect gift on such a night.

Then, yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending the day visiting with two dear friends I don't get to see very often. My handsome hubby stayed home with our kiddos so I could be out of the house for a while and enjoy some adult conversation. While visiting with Heather, I received a curious phone call from Steve, asking me to "not come home until about six that evening". A very unusual request, but I was happy to take a little extra time shopping by myself before heading home.

Once home, after parking the little Saturn, I walked through our gate to see this...


My thoughtful guy had brought Seth and Haddie down to his folks, bought groceries for supper, cleaned the house, dressed up, and was grilling (not burgers, but orange glazed salmon on cedar planks! Yum, it was so delicious!!)

Later that night, I asked why all the fuss. Steve replied that things have been so busy lately and we hadn't been able to spend a whole lot of time together, just enjoying each other's company without working on church things or whatever. "I just don't want you to feel like you are only getting my leftovers," he said. Aawwww. :o)

I'm so thankful for this man!

I'd say he's a keeper! ;o)

a thought for the day

"If you act like you've only got fifteen minutes, it'll take all day. Act like you've got all day and it'll take fifteen minutes."


~Monty Roberts





I read this quote today and immediately thought about my typical Sunday mornings. Steve often leaves the house before the rest of us are up, in order to get to church early, set out his music, pray, get prepared for the service etc. This is all understandable and necessary. However, it leaves me to get the kids and myself prepared for church all on my own. Again, this is just the way it is, and that's ok. Many, many moms do this every day. ..... It's just that I don't always do it, um.... gracefully. ;o)




I'm getting so much better at stocking my purse, writing out the offering check, and setting out our clothes the night before. We even are getting pretty good at being home on Saturday evenings with plenty of time to bathe the kids so I don't have to do it Sunday mornings (that one took a lot of effort for us, as we so easily succumb to the "go go go" mentality, and we are often not home 'til late on the weekends!)....



Alas, when the sky is still dark and I faintly feel Steve slip out of bed on Sunday mornings, my typical response is to roll on to my stomach and flatten my face against the mattress, intent on capturing twenty more delicious minutes of sleep before I hit the day running.
(Um, yeah... I think it would serve me well to drag my sleepy body out of bed simultaneously with Steve... I'm pretty sure it would help me avoid even needing to write this post in the first place... I'll be working on that one!!)



...Anyway, now that you've got the background to my simple story, here's the point I was getting at....



...It rarely fails that I find myself sitting on the living room floor on those mornings, trying to wrangle a squirmy, sleepy kid (yes, they can be both of those things at once, can't they?!) with peanut butter on their face, wash cloth in one of my hands, toothbrush in the other. Much whining and pleading take place. And the kids do the same. Haha. ;o)


"Please hurry!" I often exclaim, "We are going to be late," as I forcibly struggle to tidy up Seth and Haddie against their wills. Maybe it's some law of physics (or at least of parenting) that the more I try to hurry us, and the more intensely I communicate how the minutes until we need to be seated in church are dwindling, the more the kids balk at getting ready....


Hmmmm... what was that one again?....



"If you act like you've only got fifteen minutes, it'll take all day. Act like you've got all day and it'll take fifteen minutes."

Yep. I see the truth in that one and I believe I'll be trying to put it into practice at our place!

(I found it a bit humorous that I found this quote in my mom's horse club newsletter! :o) I guess some truths are universal, whether they be regarding interactions between humans and horses or parents and children!!)

Living Up To Her Name

Cinderella has been living up to her name around here lately... ;o)



This little lady was playing in the "paddle boat" (a jar with a candle in the bottom of it) and got a little sooty today. (In her wedding dress - can you imagine that!?)

So she had to take a bath.

Cinderella is happy to be "all fresh and clean" again. (And another little girl in this house is happy about that too!) ;o)

Mmmmm

I can't remember if it was Nancy or Jen who first introduced this great little salad to our family gatherings some years ago. It was a hit right away - fresh and tasty, easy to fix ahead of time and then toss together right before serving, and full of color so it looks pretty in the food line-up too! ;o) I have since acquired the recipe and enjoy sharing it at pot-lucks from time to time! Maybe you'll enjoy it too! Here's the recipe...

Ramen/Cabbage Salad

*2 pkgs Oriental Noodles (save seasoning packets)
*Half cup butter
*Half cup slivered almonds
*Half cup sunflower seeds

*Half cup dry cranberries
*1 bag chopped cabbage
*6 green onions, chopped

*1 cup vegetable oil
*Half cup white vinegar
*1 cup sugar
*2 teaspoons soy sauce

Layout of ingredients (plus soy sauce and vegetable oil, which aren't pictured.)

Instructions
*First, crush the noodles (do not cook them according to directions on package!) and mix in the seasoning.

*Next, melt the butter in a pan.

*Add noodle mixture, sunflower seeds and almonds.

*Saute until toasted.

*Drain on paper towel and set aside to cool.

*Now, in a separate container that can be covered and shaken, mix the dressing (the dressing ingredients are italicized).

*Next, combine the shredded cabbage, cranberries, and green onions with the toasted noodle mixture.

*Finally, right before you are ready to serve, shake up the dressing container.

*Pour over salad and toss. (You probably won't need to use quite all of the dressing - I don't when I make this salad. Pour slowly so you can see where you want to stop.)

*Serve.

Hope you enjoy!

A New Thing...

God has been working out a new thing in our lives...

Hello friends,

Today we want to share with you the story about something the Lord has been creating in our lives for the past five years. If you want to skip over the details of our journey, just scroll down until the words are black again. If not, put your feet up, maybe grab a cup of coffee or some chocolate ;o) and keep reading as we tell you about how we came to this point...

(Steve will give his perspective in blue and mine will be in red.)

Around daybreak on a brisk October morning almost five years ago, we, along with our senior pastor and his wife, piled into a van (Steve had joined the church as a full time youth pastor the previous spring). We were headed to our conference's annual "family gathering" weekend. We chatted about small things and big things and enjoyed our ride together. We were looking forward to this weekend, as it was the first time we had attended the family gathering...

I never imagined something would ignite a spark and an interest inside me that weekend which would change the course of our future.

While we were at the family gathering we all had the opportunity to learn more about ministry initiatives our conference had been working on. One evening featured a progressive dinner, where we were encouraged to eat different courses of our meal in specified rooms. Each room focused on a different ministry. In the rooms we learned about ministry work in the Philippines and Ukraine, as well as an outreach for inner-city children, and our conference's church planting (starting new churches) focus. They were all great ministries, but the room featuring church planting attracted my attention.

In between programs that weekend we had the chance to visit with other people from all over the state. I had been encouraged to start making connections with other people in ministry and I was eager to do so. One of my many conversations that weekend stands out in my memory. I was talking with Mark, a man who I later discovered is the "coach" for church planters in the northern and central part of the state for our conference. During that conversation, Mark apparently saw something in me and encouraged me to think about church planting in the future. The idea of church planting was exciting and intriguing to me, but since we had just started at our church, the idea was filed away for some later time.

We had a wonderful weekend. When we got home, Steve casually brought up the idea of planting a church some time in the future. I was not only uninterested in the idea, I was very opposed. We had just purchased a home, I was expecting our first child, and I knew we both agreed that serving our present ministries was God's will for our life at that time. I didn't even want to think about (or talk about) what other things God might have in store for us in years to come!

I agreed that God wanted us to be where we were. I put the idea to rest and we continued to pour ourselves into youth ministry. Interestingly enough, and un-initiated by me, the topic of church planting continued to pop up in conversations I had with people at various events and locations. It seemed like everywhere I turned, people were approaching me about considering church planting in my future. From the things other people were saying, it seemed like God may have wired me to be involved in planting a church. However, the idea of church planting was still something I considered to be for "down the road".

The next time church planting came up was three years ago, when we were approached by some people about taking the lead pastor position in a new church plant in our state.

I had been very closed to the notion of church planting up until the summer Steve was approached about this particular possibility. Earlier that same summer I had a miscarriage. Through the pain of that event, God did a work in me and softened my heart toward many things. I saw clearly for the first time how my priorities were off. I had been clinging so tightly to the things of the world (like our home and living in such a nice little town) that I hadn't even been open to the possibility that God might bring us elsewhere at some point. I was comfortable and the things around me were familiar. And I was scared to be disrupted from that comfort and familiarity.

Ultimately, I came to the point of surrendering my own will and confessing honestly to the Lord and to Steve that I would go wherever God lead us. I wanted to go where He lead, and I knew I could be content and satisfied as long as I had Him. I wanted to serve with Steve and to be used mightily by the Lord to do great things for His glory. Wherever that might be.

This offer three years ago was the first time we considered the idea of church planting to be a real possibility in our lives. It was now more than just a neat idea... and we had a decision to make. It was something Nat and I prayed earnestly about for about the span of a month. At the end of that time, we were able to confidently say that taking this new position would have meant disobedience to God. The right thing for us to do was to stay where we were. God wasn't done with us there yet...

Following that decision, we were blessed to see God reward our obedience. We have experienced much joy and we've been humbled to see how the Lord graciously allowed our ministry to be fruitful. We have deeply enjoyed our time here and have grown in our affections toward the people in our church and community. We also believe our ministry has been maturing under godly leadership, guidance, and opportunities during our time here. We have often commented about how thankful we are to the Lord for allowing us to begin in ministry here, where we have felt so cared for by the church body.

Church planting didn't become a consideration again until last summer. At that time we were encouraged to attend a national assessment center for church planting hopefuls. The center is a four day, highly intensive, observation period where multiple assessors scrutinize personality traits, giftings, as well as the spiritual, emotional, and relational health of the assessees. Natalie and I prayerfully considered going to the assessment center and came to the conclusion that we should indeed go. In late March we went to Orlando, Florida for our assessment.

Often since Steve's introduction to the idea of church planting, we have commented that we believe God would work in our hearts individually so we would know his plans for our life and ultimately be on the same page about it. Interestingly, last summer we began to have hearts and minds aligned in regards to our desire to plant a church some day. That alignment and confidence in His plan has continued to increase as we attended the assessment center (and also since we've returned home).

The assessment center gives each candidate one of four recommendations including"Not Recommended", "Recommended with Strong Conditions", "Recommend with Some Conditions" and "Fully Recommended". We anxiously awaited the final day when we would find out if we were recommended to start a church.

I had been very sick off and on during this time, beginning about an hour before Steve and I were supposed to begin our flight to Florida. The nausea was so extreme by our last morning at assessment that I couldn't make it to the final meeting to discover our outcome. Steve left the hotel room that morning as I was curled up in a ball on the bed, clutching the garbage can beside me. Weary from the intensity of the week and the nausea that plagued me, I quietly prayed that God would affirm our desire to plant a church or else lead us clearly in another direction.

A few hours later Steve returned. As Steve knelt beside the bed where I laid, his expression was hard to discern. My eyes silently asked the question we had both been wondering all week.

"We were fully recommended," he said with a smile. Relief and happiness washed over me.

I still had many concerns about how this would all work out. We have so much yet to learn about how to start a new church, and so much would be out of my comfort zone. Yet, I was glad.

"I told you, my child, this is right. You don't have to be afraid. I am with you in this" another voice gently spoke to me. Although the voice wasn't audible, I knew it and trusted it...

...We were going to plant a church!

So, that was in March. In between then and now we have prayed and traveled, waited, prayed, and traveled some more, seeking to find the town where God would have us start a new ministry. After logging many miles and seeking wisdom from many godly friends, as well as listening to God's spirit in our own hearts, we have come to a decision we feel peace about. Lord willing, we will stay here through the school year and then at the end of May embark on this new adventure to plant a church. The town we have chosen is within a couple hours from here. We're still a little uncertain whether we will disclose the location on our blog or not, but if you happen to be interested right now, you can leave a note in the comment section or email us (snkrier@live.com) and we will let you know personally where we will be moving to!

Thanks for sticking with us through this story! Isn't it interesting how God works in our lives, preparing us for His purposes? And how sometimes He changes our hearts so that the very thing we were against or scared of becomes the thing we long to do?

We think so. ;o)