Fudgesicles

I know this post will not be very interesting to those experiencing cool weather right now but for those who live in hot climates such as us you may want to try this.  October is the hottest month here in Zambia.  There are no clouds, it's dry, and it is very hot!  The other day Hannah came to me and said, "Mom, I just want something cold."  So, I looked up a recipe to make something cold and we landed on fudgesicles.  Here is the recipe:

Fudgesicles
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tblsp.cornflour
3 Tblsp. cocoa
2 1/2 cups milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 Tblsp. butter

Cook sugar, cornflour, cocoa and milk until thickened, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat; add vanilla and butter.  Freeze in small paper cups or popsicle molds.  (Makes 6 1/2 cup popsicles) 
Then enjoy on a hot day!!

Lottie Moon Christmas Offering

The 2011 theme is “His heart, His voice, His hands – I am Southern Baptist missions.” It reminds us that as followers of Jesus, we – the Church – are called to be the body of Christ. We are His heart, His hands and His voice in the midst of a world filled with unreached peoples. We are part of the task to fulfill the Great Commission. And although we Southern Baptists have been praying, giving and going for 160 years, the task is far from finished.


Now is the time to take a fresh look at the challenges ahead and be ready to finish the task of reaching all peoples. Here’s a global snapshot of the work ahead of us:

• 6,744 people groups are considered unreached (less than 2 percent profess a personal relationship with Jesus Christ; as reported April 2011)
• 3,789 people groups are not engaged at all with the Gospel (as reported April 2011)
• More than half the world’s people live in cities. Most unreached people groups likely are represented in the world’s urban centers.
• 1.5 billion Muslims make up 22 percent of the world’s population

There is much work to be done. With more than 45,000 churches in the Southern Baptist Convention, the task is doable, but it will take all of us – starting with our your church!

Think your gift to the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® won’t make a difference? Every penny given to Lottie Moon is used to help support about 5,000 Southern Baptist missionaries serving overseas. Last year, those missionaries reported 360,876 baptisms and 29,237 new churches!  That is great news!  Don't you want to be a part of that?

The 2011 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering® goal is $175 million. That was also the goal for 2010 and 2009, but receipts for those years totaled $145.6 million and $148.9 million, respectively. These offering shortfalls have resulted in restriction of new missionaries being appointed.

I know it may seem early to be thinking about giving to The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering but really it will be here before you know it.  Please prayerfully ask God what He would have you to give this year to this offering.

To give online you can visit: 

https://netcommunity.imb.org/SSLPage.aspx?pid=229

What is your Giant?

For most of us, we go through seasons in our life when we are insecure about who we are, what we look like, or maybe we worry about what our future will hold.  We learn from the Bible that God has a purpose and plan for our lives.  We all face trials and challenges in our faith.  Being a Christian does not mean we will not have problems.  We don't get a "pass" on trials and neither should we want to.  It is through these trials that we grow closer to God and become more like Him.  Yesterday, I went to Bethlehem Baptist Church in one of the compounds of Lusaka.  I was so excited to be teaching women again.  It is something I have really missed since moving from Chongwe.  There were 20 women in attendance.  As we sang together I couldn't help but smile.  I was where I was supposed to be! 
I shared the story of David and Goliath and talked about how we as Christians are sometimes like the children of Israel in that when we hear threats of evil we often cry and retreat so we do not have to face our problems.  I tried to portray to these women that God is in control of each day of our lives and he can empower us to defeat any enemy which comes against us.  We only need to cry out to Him and trust that He is able to deliver us. 
The bible says that Goliath was 9 ft. tall.  That is a huge giant!  I can imagine that the children of Israel were afraid of him.  I would have been too!  However, David made the choice to not look at the size of the giant but at the size of His God.  So, instead of running away in fear, he went out to meet his enemy.  We all know that because David did not run away, Goliath was killed.  So, if God was big enough and powerful enough to bring down David's giant, He's still big enough and powerful enough to bring down our giants.  God has not changed.  He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow!  If we choose to focus on the giants in our life-we will stumble and fall but if we focus on God-our giants will fall.  
I had the women write on a piece of paper whatever they felt like was a giant in their life and they brought them up and placed them face down.  I taped them to a box and read them out loud.  We then all got on our knees and prayed for God's strength and help to defeat these giants in our lives.  After we prayed we went outside for a little visual and hands on reminder.  I brought with me a slingshot and some stones.  We then all took turns aiming at the box with all of our giants taped to it.  As you can see from the pictures below we drew quite a crowd of kids.  The women loved doing this and they were so funny.  They would cheer for one another when they would hit the box and slap hands with one another.  Then if they missed they would say, "second chance, second chance."  What a beautiful picture of how we should be as Christians encouraging those around us to face those giants and not run in fear or give up.  Let us cheer one another along in our Christian journeys.

 The women wrote down things like poverty, sickness, alcohol in the family, worry, and fear for their giants.

 They were so excited when they would hit the box!

As a side note I wanted to share something that happened earlier in the day before I went to teach.  As I was preparing to go I needed some good stones to take with me so I went out in our driveway and asked Anton are yard worker and man who just prayed to receive Christ a few weeks ago if he would help me to find some good stones for a slingshot.  I'm sure he thought I may have been a little weird so I did what I normally do and started talking to him explaining what I was doing.  I asked him if he had ever heard of the story of David and Goliath and he had not.  I then shared that story with him.  Here are his words to me after hearing the story. "Can you tell me where it is in the Bible so I can go and read it again. This is a very good story.  I see from that story that God used a young boy to defeat that giant.  That means even me, I can be strong in the Lord if I put my trust in Him.  David wasn't old or well educated and he was able to bring down that giant.  I am very encouraged by this story."  Praise God!!  Please continue to pray for Anton to grow in his relationship with Christ.  Also, pray for these women of Bethlehem Baptist Church to remember that mental picture of using a slingshot to bring down their giants the next time they find themselves face to face with another giant.