Peanut Butter and Brown Sugar

So this afternoon I was in the mood for peanut butter cookies. Whle you can find creamy peanut butter here, it is in a teeny tiny jar and costs about $5.00. So we make our own by putting roasted peanuts (which are cheap) into our food processor, adding a little oil and grinding it into peanut butter. We love it for sandwiches, but it does not make a good cookie. For that, I needed the creamy kind with all the partially-hydrogenated shortening added. Someone brought a jar from the States at some point and as I saw it sitting on the shelf today, I decided to use it for the cookies. David and Rachel are away at elementary camp this week so I enlisted Mathis's help, which he was more than happy to provide, and we made cookies. As I skimmed the list of ingredients needed, I came to brown sugar. You cannot buy brown sugar here. It is not difficult to make your own, but it does take time and effort to mix the white sugar with molasses. I usually make a few cups at a time and keep it in the cupboard, but today we were out. So I made one cup of brown sugar, added it in and proceeded to make delicious peanut butter cookies. Mathis enjoyed using a fork to make the criss crosses.

All that to say that today I was thinking about how I make peanut butter and make brown sugar and make salsa and all kinds of other things from scratch here out of necessity and I got excited about the prospect of going to the grocery store in Chattanooga and just buying a bag of brown sugar and a jar of natural peanut butter. I'm looking forward to it.

Trusting

As most of you probably know by now, we made the final decision last week to return back to the U.S. this summer instead of staying in Spain for a third year. The seeming bottom line is that we just did not have the financial support to stay another year. I say "seeming," because although that is the circumstance that propelled us to make the move, the true bottom line is that we and many of you had been praying that God would make it clear to us what we should do and it was pretty clear once we started really looking at our options. The Lord is leading us home. That is the true bottom line.

We are sad to leave here. I keep thinking back to the weeks and months in 2008 before we left to come here, how 2 years seemed like such a long time to leave everyone and everything. And yet, now on the other side of those 2 years, I cannot believe how fast it has gone by. My kids were 2 and 4 and now they are 4 and 6. It really seems like just yesterday.

We have loved our work here. It has not always been an easy job or an easy life, as anyone who has moved their family overseas can attest, but the Lord continues to amaze me with the blessings I could never have expected or imagined. He has stripped and refined all of us and has proven time and time again that He can be trusted. I really have nothing to fear.

We are returning home with no job, no house, no idea really what the next year(s) will look like for us, but I know it will all work out. Because He can be trusted.

A Mighty Fortress

This is a castle we went to a couple Saturdays ago. It is about an hour from our house. While living in Spain, we have been privileged to see a number of castles, cathedrals and very very old buildings, some of which date back to the time of Christ. This particular castle was built in the 1500s and is still very much intact. We did not go inside this one, but walked around the outside and let the kids explore the towers and lookouts.

Over the last few weeks we have been teaching Rachel and Mathis the words to the hymn A Mighty Fortress is our God. A few nights ago Rachel came into our room after bedtime and said that she was afraid. I went to comfort her and we talked for a while about the castle we had visited and the meaning of the word "fortress." It was so great to be able to share the experience of a real castle used to protect and defend the king and his soldiers. We reviewed the words to the hymn and I reminded her that we have a wall of protection around us that we can't see, but that is certainly there and assured her that the enemy cannot penetrate it.

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

One more of the many blessings I never expected but am so thankful for.

Spirit Week / Track and Field Day

Last week was Spirit Week at ECA. Each day the students dressed up in a different theme. (click on the pictures to enlarge)For “Movie Day” the First Grade class dressed as 101 Dalmatians. Aren’t they cute?

Thursday was “Nerd Day.” Above is Miss Applegarth and Rachel dressed as nerds.

Then Friday was the all-school track and field day at a local sports complex.

Rachel doing the standing long jump.

Ready to run the 50 meter.

Jump rope endurance.

Rachel won 3rd in the Jump Rope endurance.

And the First grade class with their ribbons.

This morning in a conversation with one of the moms from ECA, she was asking me to pray for her elementary aged son who has suddenly begun having severe anxiety and she didn't know what was causing it. As we talked, she was also telling me about some recent things that had been happening in their ministry. They are a family whose primarily ministry is teaching English to Spaniards, hosting English camps and leading Bible studies with seekers and new believers. She told me of one couple in particular where the wife was a believer but her husband was not and he had been having an affair on her. They had shown the movie Fireproof several weeks ago and 2 weeks after seeing it, the husband repented and returned to his wife and has now accepted Jesus. In his own words, "If I had not seen the movie, I would not have had any hope for reconciliation."

That is just one example among several where the power of the Holy Spirit is working through the missionaries in our community. It is so exciting to be a part of His work here. At the same time, though, this dear friend has been seeing what we believe to be attacks on her children by the enemy, who is furious at the ground he is losing. I told her about other situations I know of where those in ministry have experienced spiritual warfare, specifically in the lives of their children, and how effective the enemy can be when he gets to our children because he knows that is where a mother's heart is.

Please join us in praying for the children in our school, children of missionaries who have seen and are experiencing spiritual warfare. There is a very evident battle, but we rest assured that the Lord has the last move.

Re: Facing a big decision

From the book Shadow of the Almighty by E. Elliott

“I pray for you, that all your misgivings will be melted to thanksgivings.  Remember that the shadow a thing casts often far exceeds the size of the thing itself (especially if the light be low on the horizon) and though some future fear may strut brave darkness as you approach, the thing itself will be but a speck when seen from beyond.  On that He would restore us often with that aspect from beyond, to see a thing as He sees it, to remember that He dealeth with us as with sons.  Amy Carmichael’s words come to me:

He hath never failed thee yet.

Never will his love forget.

O fret not thyself nor let

Thy heart be troubled.

Neither let it be afraid.

A long overdue post.

How are we doing? In short, we’re doing ok. Suddenly I (Keri) have found myself in a dichotomy of not knowing what next year will hold while at the same time completely resting in the belief that God will provide for us in His time and in His way. Last night as I was praying, I was thankful that I am not anxious – RARE for me! We are hoping to be able to stay here another year but our finances and support aren’t looking great at this point, but we’ll see. We are going home in June and hope to have a decision by then. I told David last night how it’s hard to know sometimes which direction God is working from – like are we not exercising enough faith that He will provide the support we need for another year when we both so strongly felt that we should stay or is it a God-thing that we happened to look at our finances the other night, which is leading us to explore other possibilities job-wise for next year that may not be available had we waited until the end of summer? Either way – we agree that the Lord has always provided for us and says in his Word that he will graciously give us all things, so we have no reason to expect otherwise even though we can’t see into the future. Of course, David feels the weight of it more than I do because he feels a responsibility to provide for his family. He came home the other day notably weighted down by it all and I tried to encourage him, and he said, “You worry about hotels burning down and planes crashing and I worry about not being able to provide for my family.” I reminded him that the things I worry about never happen anyway so his probably wouldn’t happen either. :)

Anyway. So pray for us in all of that, if you think about it.