Week of Prayer

No Cookie Baking Night tonight. We're having a focused week of prayer at our church this week with a prayer meeting scheduled Monday night thru Thursday night. I canceled cookie baking night, so I can participate in the prayer meetings. Look for a report of the next Cookie Baking Night on March 28.

You can expect a bit of a detour from the regularly scheduled blog this week as well.

My Favorite Podcasts

There are several Christian podcasts that I listen to weekly (some of them daily), and I enjoy them very much. I thought I would share them with you today. Each podcast I list will contain a link to the website associated with the ministry, and you can find out more information about it from the website if you wish. Most of the podcasts I listen to, I located through iTunes, so that is another option for you.

The Christian Worldview is a weekly podcast (with host David Wheaton) that focuses on viewing all of life's circumstances through a biblical lens. Their tag line is "Think Biblically, Live Accordingly". I highly recommend this podcast for every Christian.

Wretched Radio is a daily podcast (2-hour show), with host Todd Friel, that focuses on theology and evangelism in every day life. This particular podcast is not free, there is a monthly membership fee involved, which I find to be worth it.

Revive Our Hearts is a daily podcast (30-minute broadcast) with host Nancy Leigh DeMoss. This podcast is a teaching ministry for women. It offers many opportunities for practical application of the Scripture in our daily lives.

The White Horse Inn podcast is a weekly (30-minute) theology podcast with several hosts, each from a different Christian tradition. Each year, this program picks a theme to work through on the show. This year the theme is the The Great Commission. It is definitely worth tuning into.

The Please Convince Me podcast is a weekly (60-minute) apologetic podcast with host J Warner Wallace. The host was an atheist until he was in his 30's, and he is a cold-case homicide defective, so he brings a unique perspective to his apologetic ministry. It is definitely worth tuning into.

The Bible Baptist Church podcast is another one of my favorites. It is a podcast of the teaching and preaching ministry of the church at which I am a member. There is a podcast offered for the Sunday morning service, Christian Education (CE) hour, Sunday evening service, and Thursday evening Bible Study each week. It is biblically sound teaching, I highly recommend checking it out.

Any you would care to share with me?

Cookie Baking Night 02/28/11

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night, and it was a full night of activity. In attendance this evening: Emily, Ethan, and Carissa. Tonight I decided to let the kids make supper (we've done this one time before, and I want to continue to add it to our evenings). We made grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Emily and Ethan worked together to make the tomato soup. They took turns stirring it while it was heating up.

Ethan unwrapped the cheese slices (which he found to be a little trickier than he thought it would be).

Carissa buttered the bread slices and put a piece of cheese between the two slices.

Emily grilled the sandwiches (with supervision). She did a great job. It's a bit of a tricky task grilling 7 sandwiches at once, but she managed it.

After supper, we made Chex Bars for our treat for the evening.

Here's the recipe. It's a very tasty treat:

Chex Bars:

4 cups Chex cereal or Crispix cereal (variety of choice)

1 cup peanuts (or nut of choice)

1 cup M&Ms

Mix cereal mixture together in large bowl.

In medium saucepan, combine:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup light corn syrup

2 tablespoons flour

Melt ingredients over medium heat. Bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. Pour caramel mixture over cereal mixture. Stir well (until all ingredients are coated).

Spread into a 9x13 pan. Let cool. Cut into bars. Enjoy!

Our evening was also filled with a lesson from Leading Little Ones to God by Marian Schoolland. We're on Lesson 42 "Jesus Showed Himself to His Friends". We had some good discussion around the lesson. Since Emily hasn't been here for a few weeks, she read for us from John 21:1-8.

We also managed to squeeze in some drawing. We're working on a picture of a city. We're thinking of hanging it on the wall when we're done.

After the drawing time, by popular request, we played a few games of air hockey, then a couple hands of Mickey Mouse Uno and it was time to get our coats on because "here comes Mom."

As usual, a fun time was had by all.

Prisoner Alert-VOM

Today I commend to you, again, the Voice of the Martyrs website. I recommend signing up for the Prisoner Alert e-mails (there will be a tab to the left hand side of the home page titled "Prisoner Alert" that will give you more information on how to do this). Voice of the Martyrs will send you e-mails about persecuted Christians around the world who are currently in prison for their faith. They offer the opportunity to send letters to them in prison by making available a tool that allows you to pick phrases in their language and then compose an entire letter with these phrases. They walk you through the entire process from beginning to end (including postage suggestions). The updates will also inform you of persecuted Christians facing death sentences and will instruct you on how to write letters to officials of that country. It is valuable in these cases to show support for persecuted Christians from other countries around the world.

I highly recommend checking out the website and signing up for the Prisoner Alert e-mails.

Cookie Baking Night 02/14/11

Tonight was Cookie Baking Night. In attendance this evening: Ethan and Carissa. Since it was Valentine's Day today we made a special Valentine treat. We made Valentine Lollipops (aka Oreo Truffles on a stick decorated with candy hearts).

First, we crushed the Oreo cookies, added cream cheese, rolled them into balls, and put them in the refrigerator to chill.

Next, we picked out the hearts we wanted to use to decorate our lollipops.

Then we put lollipop sticks in the refrigerated truffle mixture.

Now it was time to dip them in the white almond bark and decorate them with candy hearts.

Ahh, the finished product! Next, we wrapped them and sent them home for distribution.

As usual, fun was had by all this Valentine Cookie Baking Night.

Back Home 02/12/11

We have returned from the Biblical Counseling Conference in Lafayette, Indiana. It was a great time! Pictured above is the gang that attended from our church this year (left to right: Joe, Kim, Marc, Katrina, Greg). The picture was taken on our last day, so we were dressed in our travel clothes, van was packed, we had two sessions to attend that morning, and then we hit the road.

We stayed with Mrs. Goode again this year. Her husband pastored Faith Baptist Church (where the conference was held) for many years and was instrumental in starting the Biblical Counseling Ministry, which is a huge part of the church still today. Mrs. Goode was a joy to stay with and taught us a lot about following the Lord and about hospitality during our stay with her.

Biblical Counseling

I interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to attend the Biblical Counseling Conference in Lafayette, Indiana. This year, my friend Kim and I returned to the conference and our husbands joined us (as well as another friend from our church). It's a busy week of attending classes 8:00 am until 6:00 pm (and later) every day. We look forward to all that we'll be learning this week. Posts will be sporadic this week. Stay tuned.