An Offering of Thanksgiving?

   God is so good. He is faithful, and his love and mercy is unfailing. Have your ever wondered if God cares about the little things in life? I have a lot actually. I know beyond a shadow of doubt that he cares about everything. IF he knows when a sparrow falls and how many hairs I have on my head, why would he not care about a small, insignificant things? This post, is random...lol...I am thankful, very thankful today. I don't always articulate the best what I'm thinking, but there are a couple things I'm excited about and thankful for. Last night I was reading a book called "Kitchen Table Counseling" and the author quoted the following verse:  

What shall I render to the Lord

For all His benefits toward me? 

I shall lift up the cup of salvation 

And call upon the name of the Lord. 

I shall pay my vows to the Lord, 

Oh may it be in the presence of all His people. 

Precious in the sight of the Lord 

Is the death of His godly ones. 

O Lord, surely I am Your servant, 

I am Your servant, the son of Your handmaid, 

You have loosed my bonds. 

To You I shall offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, 

And call upon the name of the Lord. 

(Ps. 116:12-17)

Hmmm...read it again.

     For all the benefits of God towards me, I will give You a sacrifice of Thanksgiving. Benefits? Yeah, the good deeds or whatever enhances well-being. But you know, sometimes the circumstances we don't ask for, can be enhancing moments too. Thanksgiving, by definition, is: the act of giving thanks, a prayer expressing gratitude and a public acknowledgment or celebration of divine goodness. There are no "buts" in thanksgiving. We don't just thank God for the things that are good and praiseworthy in our lives, we should thank God across the board for what he's done with our lives, through our lives and in our lives.

    God understands our hearts, he understands our hurts, and disappointments, he understands our joys, and our trials and temptations. When we offer thanksgiving to God, we aren't just thanking a spiritual being or someone that gives us everything we want or, haha, sometimes don't want. We are thanking and expressing gratitude to God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. God formed the universe! He carved mountains and valleys, splashed the milkway into existence, showered a cliff with a waterfall, lit the night skies with stars, and warmed the earth with the sun.

 He designed the human body and he intricately made each and every plant and flower. He crafted birds with wings and animals with fur and hair. He made the universe and cares about each and every worry or joy of his children. He hears us and answers us, every single time we talk to him, God hears us and listens. Walk through the Bible this week and look for instances where God interacted with someone's life, Old and New Testament. Make a list...and I can promise you, it will continue to grow and grow, especially if you continue walking up through history, past Bible times and up to the present.

 He cares. He will always care. He will always love and show mercy and justice. He is the Good shepherd, he is the Ransomed of Heaven, he is the suffering servant, He is I AM, He is bigger than any problem and cares about a simple sparrow falling to the ground. There are moments to be angry, joyful, penitential, praising, and etc in talking to God, be thankful today. :)

  Thank God today. Start with praising him for WHO He is, thank Him for Jesus and Jesus in your life. Then thank him for the benefits and for the things you don't understand. Give those things up to Him and let him turn them into enhancing moments too.

May the grace and love of God be with you all.

A Taste of Art

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh 1889. 

Current Location: The Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

His Mercies are New Every Morning...

    "Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.” The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth. Let him sit alone and be silent since He has laid it on him. Let him put his mouth in the dust, perhaps there is hope. Let him give his cheek to the smiter, let him be filled with reproach.

    For the Lord will not reject forever, for if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness. For He does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men. To crush under His feet all the prisoners of the land, to deprive a man of justice in the presence of the Most High, to defraud a man in his lawsuit—Of these things the Lord does not approve. Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?" -Lamentations 3:19-38

Missed but Not Forgotten :)

  It is weird being back in the states and going about the seemingly normal things and activities. I put together a box to send back to Simon, Pam and the kids. As my Mom and I were filling it with ranch dressing packets, m&ms, starburst, and chocolate chips, I told my mom several stories about them and realized how blessed I was to spend a month with this family I met two years ago in the Middle East.

  This is Simon, Pam, Joshua, and Zara. I stayed with them two and a half weeks in Kampala at the beginning of my trip and then the last weekend before heading home. I met this family while in Dubai working at a guest house in 2010. Amazing family. They were there three of the four weeks I worked and we got to be good friends. Pam and I have kept in contact and became close friends over the past two years. She asked me to come out now and then. :) I was talking with her on facebook in November when we started discussing the possibility of me joining them for this summer. By God's direction, I did join them and spent a month with them and then a month with on of their good friends. This is such an amazing family!

   After boxing up the package for Simon and Pam, I addressed a box to Luan's mom with a gift from Luan. I stayed with George and Luan a little over a month and they too are awesome. I got an email from Luan just this past Friday asking how the trip back went, accompanied by the endearing phrase, "sister". Also she asked how my folks were, and if they were glad I was finally home. She then said they missed me much but were managing as always. She is just so much fun. George is wonderful, we watched a movie or tv show every night (when we had power) till he went to bed. It was simple but fun...and I know he is probably missing my "Called it!" remarks as much as I miss him making fun of me. :) Luan and I had good conversations and would make comments to each other...making fun of the other...and many times now while writing, I think of her.

    I am so thankful I had the opportunity to live with these two missionary couples and do ministry alongside them. I pray God blesses them in their diligence and heart for service and that He guides them in all their steps.

            

Palm Oil Fumes, Peroxide Plumes, and Homemade Soap Perfumes- July 17-19, 2012

  So I have enjoyed this week, even though we didn’t have power, therefore, no shower for four days. I went to bed smelling like would smoke and soap three nights as Luan and I were training the women’s group to make soap.

   The days were fun, but long, especially the first two days. Every day we left at 9:30 to drive about 15 minutes to the house we met at across town and out in another village. The first two days, we got back around 4:30 and the last day, we got back at 3:30. It always took longer because of the translating and because we were training. Wednesday, they provided lunch. Luan and I can make a batch of soap in 2-3 hours when not training, so the women were encouraged that it doesn’t take as long as the days did! :)

Shot of the women watching Luan stir soap.

    The first day, we started at 11:00, thank you African time, and we had six women. By 12:45, the group had grown to twenty. We had the same on Wednesday and Thursday we had 12-15. The first day, Luan and I trained them and showed them how to make soap after going over all the directions and precautions with them. And even though…lol…we added only a little bit, we had the peroxide explode again. Beautiful! Haha. Luan had printed handouts with all the information for making soap and buying the products as well as safety precautions and ingredients substitutes. Due to the heat difference between our stove and the open fire, every day, we boiled out more oil, therefore we only made three sixteen inch bars, instead of three and a half. Also palm oil has horrible smoke fumes…as does the wood. It instantly makes eyes water and coughing.

   Olive and Abolee were the two that wanted to make the soap on Wednesday. On Wednesday, the women made soap and we helped them and directed them. These two women were great. And it was fun to see what they learned. They wanted to add dye and perfume, so they added lots of blue and the scent was citra-nilla. It keeps mosquitos away and they all loved the smell…I thought it smelled horrible. Because of the oil in the dye, it made the soap more grainy feeling and the consistency was different from the other soap we had made.

Abolee and Luan mixing the soap.

 

Another shot of the women watching the soap making and fellowshipping.

  The last day, two other women made the soap and we also cut the heat way back. The women are used to rolling boils and lots of heat so it took a lot of reminding not to add wood and to use very little heat because the pot heated quickly and when it gets too hot, the soap separates. The women wanted to add dye, they LOVE color, and perfume again so Luan and I troubleshot the dye. We added it straight into the palm oil and thankfully, it totally came out better! And as we still had a little yellow in the oil after adding the peroxide, upon adding the dye, they got a different shade of blue.

Amooti Roseline is the main leader and translator of the women’s subgroups. She is spreading two of the three bars smooth into the molds. You can see the two shades of blue. The dark blue was the first batch the women made on their own and the other one was the second. Both batches came out well, but the women, including Luan and myself, liked the consistency and feel of the light blue much better. They did a very fine job!

   One of the old grandmas in the group, Abwoli, knew how to make liquid soap and made herbal soaps by buying soap bars, melting them down and then adding her own herbs she collects and then remaking it. She bought a long bar of soap for 2000 shillings and after adding her own scents and herbs, resold it for 5000 shillings because they are herbal/perfumed. She brought the perfumes and medicinal herbs and plants she used for Luan and I to see. They are pictured below...

Perfumes                       Medicinal 

  Perfumes left to right: lemon grass, lemon leaves, night rose, meetch (local), and Rosemary.

  Medicinal left to right: Aloe vera, and the rest...I can't pronounce nor write down. Sorry!

   The women really enjoyed making the soap, it will be interesting to see how many of the women start making soap. But, most soaps are sold 1500 shillings or more, so by making better quality, quantity, colorful, and scented bars the women stand to have good business.

   I really enjoyed the days as I got to know the women more and hear stories. They had given me the Empaka name, Amooti (Ah-mo-tee), a couple weeks ago which means “for the King” or “for royalty”. So it was fun to be teased by “Amooti” and “Emma” and then also they tried teaching me small Ratorro phrases. Just really fun and memorable. One of the ladies, a different Abolee, had her granddaughter one day. Akiiki (Haa-ki-ke) was a beautiful little Muslim girl of eight months and she absolutely loved me! Most times, Ugandan children don’t want to be held by a mzungu. When I gave her back, she started crying so after a bit, I took her from Abolee again and she stopped crying. But when I left…her tears came again. 

Akiiki and I 

Amabere Falls and Hike- July 14, 2012

Amabere Falls

   Luan and I went hiking at Amabere (Ahm-bae-ree) Falls. The waterfall was really gorgeous and to get to it, we had to follow a small path through the jungle. The waterfall is from one of the small rivers from the Rwenzori (Ren-zor-ee) Mountains. The Rwenzori mountains can be seen in the background of some of the pictures.

Also, we could walk behind the waterfall! It was super cool! Never walked behind a waterfall before and as Apollos, our guide, took our picture, Luan and I laughed about always reading about going behind waterfalls and the hidden pathways under waterfalls. It was fun and super slippery. :)

Also with the falls was a hike, the whole thing took between 3-4 hours. The hike took us between three crater lakes, one no longer full of water, but grass instead, and the other two huge and still full. We climbed a big hill, and Apollos was amazed that I didn’t have hills like Africa’s where I live. It was fun and a really great way to see the countryside. Absolutely gorgeous.

One of the crater lakes, we climbed that hill over there...it was high! :)

 This shot is from the top of that big hill. And we walked on the road below. The view was totally worth it and plus, I love hiking more and more as I get to do it. :D It has been fun and good these past two weeks to get to go do something just to exercise and get away. 

Another shot is also from the top of another one of the lakes. 

Decorating Cakes and Selling Most of Them!- July 12, 2012

   Luan and I met with her discipleship women group to teach them how to make buttercream and royal icing. The women had made cakes beforehand and when we got there, we set to teaching them and showing them some designs through the decorating tips. Then we stepped aside and let them practice and then decorate the cakes. When talking with the women, they said that several people asked if they could buy the cakes when they were on the way to the meeting.

    The women told them they would decorate them and then bring them back. So basically they had already sold cakes before the people even saw the finished product! AWESOME!! Our intent in teaching them to bake and decorate cakes is to turn around and sell them to make a little income, plus the cakes that are made are sold for extreme amounts of money, are dry, and taste like dirt. So it’s good that they are starting to make cakes, and hopefully, some of them will continue to do this and create business.

One of the cakes the women decorated is pictured below. This one has a buttercream covering and the pink is buttercream, the flowers are royal icing. I made several flowers, swirls, shells, and other designs with royal frosting a couple days before to show the women how it hardens to a candy consistency. It still tastes gross though! 

Here are some of the women with the cakes they decorated.