Last night was the first annual Soup and Sing of the Family Bible Fellowship.  Since it seems like we don't do enough for the Easter holiday, which should be a very important one for us as Christians, we planned this event as a time to sing and enjoy fellowship, remembering the time of Christ's resurrection.  Each family was able to choose a favorite hymn or praise song to be sung after the soup and before the dessert.  Each family also brought a pot of soup to share, and there were quite a few great ones to choose from.  I tried several, and being a particular fan of soup in general, went back for seconds, thirds, and I think fourths, making me the last person to finish eating.  Hey, a starving bachelor like me has to stock up whenever I can.  I never know where my next meal is coming from.

Half the families also brought desserts and the other half brought bread.  I decided on a dessert and took the opportunity to hone my pie baking skills and made a fresh apple pie from scratch.  My mother makes the best pies anyone has ever tasted, becoming especially adept at making apple pie when she would make one every week for my grandpa when he would come for dinner.  She made a few hundred pies during those years.  So a while back it came to me that her incredible pie baking skills would be lost forever unless someone were to learn all about her secrets for making a perfect pie.  So I asked her to pass on her secrets to me, in hopes that I could keep them alive for future generations.  She started off telling me that she simply used the recipe in the Betty Crocker cookbook, so I got that out and followed along while I watched her make the pie.  Well, I'll tell you that almost none of the instructions were the same.  She had varied the ingredient amounts slightly and modified the technique over the years until she found what worked best.  She was not even aware of how much different her recipe now was.  So I diligently wrote a revised version in the cookbook, while noting everything she did, and that is what I referred to Tuesday night as I put the pie together.  At least this time I remembered to cut the dough in half before rolling it out (for the top and bottom crust), but I didn't quite get it divided evenly and so I ran a little shy on dough for the top crust.  My mom came to the rescue though and showed me how to do a really cute lattice crust, which saved on the amount of dough and looks rather more attractive, I think.  It was fun weaving all those layers in and out like a basket.  I never thought about the fact that this was the way these were made.



As you can see, it doesn't quite look professionally done and a few strips ran a bit short at the end, but the flavor was still very tasty.  I used nice crisp Fuji apples from Costco which make a really good tasting pie, with just the right amount of sweet and tart and retain their texture well.  Everyone else must have enjoyed it too, because it was all gone before I knew it and someone scraped the last crumbs out of the bottom, leaving me with a nice clean dish to take home.

There were quite a few other tasty desserts there too, including peanut butter fudge, a berry dish, a cherry dessert, and various chocolate delicacies which I didn't try since I knew I didn't need any more chocolate this month.  I actually prefer other things like asparagus or spinach to chocolate and it certainly makes me feel better.  I like nuts a lot though (and as everyone knows I am a big fan of peanut butter).  In fact I have been feasting this week on some delicious nutty treats made especially for me by a very thoughtful friend at church.  It reminds me of the wonderful concoctions Lucy would make up for me when she was feeling especially generous.  I would buy the nuts and Lucy would make the treat, usually making up the recipe as she went along.  Alas, Lucy is off to Bible school in Oregon now, so no more of that.  But the good news is that we will see her this weekend when she comes home for Easter.  From what I've heard, she is having a delightful time down there and is learning a lot.

Tags: church
Current Music: Haley Browder - Who Is Like You, O Lord?

Tonight I enjoyed a very interesting and entertaining evening at Manchester Community Church where a group from Pensacola Christian College gave a presentation of drama and music.  This is the first year for this group to tour with a drama team.  Usually they just have the choir, though they have often had little skits along with their music which was a highlight.  Tonight they mixed a little serious drama, re-telling tales of George Mueller and My Heart Christ's Home in little skits, along with some enjoyable music and some extremely funny skits at the very end, including a version of Phonetic Punctuation where the young man you see below would use extreme gestures and sound effects to "emphasize" the punctuation marks in the little story the young lady was telling.  You can see him doing a question mark here, though without the sound effects you probably can't quite tell what is going on.



After the drama and music we had a nice little soup and sandwich potluck and took advantage of the wonderful weather to eat outside.  Besides that what other church has such as fabulous view of Seattle like this?  The mountains and sky made for a lovely backdrop to our outdoor potluck on the deck of the church fellowship hall.

Tags: church, concert

I don't have a lot to write today, but figured I ought to at least jot down what I did this weekend.  Saturday was mostly rainy in Hoodsport, but I drove up to Staircase and found beautiful blue sky and no clouds so I took a 2-hour leisurely walk, enjoying the lush new Spring growth of moss, ferns and early flowers.  The trilliums are starting to go pink and purple as they die, the johnny-jump-ups (wood violets) are everywhere and I even happened upon a few sweet-smelling fairy slippers (calypso orchids).  The rain forest is just stunning this time of year and despite the dreary rain in Hoodsport was quite warm and dry.

Sunday I went up to the Brinnon Community Church to visit and had a nice potluck giving me a chance to talk with old friends like the Burts who invited me to join them for a game night next Saturday.  The weather was nice for the drive up the canal and back.  Back home I enjoyed dinner with Mom and Dad and later ice cream with Cylwicks and their relatives so I got plenty of opportunities to eat today.  I took a nice 90 minute walk on the trails in Hoodsport Trail State Park this afternoon to walk it off and got back just in time for church at Family Bible Fellowship where we had three different men giving short sermons on God's commandments.  Afterward I wore myself out playing tag with the children and then went up to Endicotts for a rousing game of Boggle and then Knock.  Kara and Krysten and Allan came down to join us.  It was so nice to have them come down since they haven't been in quite a long time.  That lasted until almost 11pm.

I am now officially sponsoring a child through Compassion International (today is Compassion Sunday so it is a perfect time to announce this).  My child's name is Carla Leonela Mendoza Chica.  She is 9 years old and lives on the plains of El Guabo, Ecuador.  I am thrilled to be able share some of my resources to help this child from an underdeveloped part of a poor country.  I will be able to write to Carla and translators will translate and forward my letter to her family.  I would highly recommend you seriously consider helping a child somewhere in the world in this way.  Your small monthly contribution makes a huge difference in the life of someone in a third-world country.  Click on the link above for more information.

Tags: church

I am really getting behind on this journal.  But this week I finally finished the major data conversion for Nyssa School District and spent the afternoon digging through the stack of papers on my desk.  I can actually see some of the surface now.

Last Sunday I decided to try Manchester Community Church for the Easter service since I love their music and thought it would be nice to see what they did for Easter.  It turns out their big Easter Cantata was last Sunday and I missed it.  Too bad.  I heard it was really good.  Little Andrew petitioned me to sit in the Eddy row and help him figure out the children's bulletin so, since the grandparents weren't there to take up the far end of the row, I sat down there and maintained some semblance of quiet despite the excitement of sitting with Mr. Gray.

The choir sang two songs from the cantata which were lovely and the message from Pastor Eddy was interesting and insightful as usual.  As a special treat we got to hear Emily play her harp for the prelude and offertory which was worth the whole trip to Port Orchard.  The harp sounded great in the large room accompanied by some of the cantata orchestra.

Sunday was a very pleasant, warm day and I couldn't resist taking a little Sunday afternoon drive after church so I headed up toward Silverdale and across the Hood Canal Bridge, stopping for a nice break in Port Gamble.  Crossing over the Hood Canal Bridge I drove up the Beaver Valley Road and turned off on Egg and I Road named after the book of the same title written by Betty MacDonald who lived on a farm on this road (click the link for a very interesting article).  I just happened to find this farm near the bottom of the hill where the road disappears into the trees and I think it well might be the very MacDonald farm written about in the book.  The white farmhouse, red barn and black and white cows look straight out of a story book.  I couldn't resist stopping for a picture.



I lingered around the valley for some time, just taking in the idyllic scenery until I decided it was time to head for home and so continued down toward Hoodsport just in time for a short nap before going to church.  All in all it turned out to be a very nice day.

Tuesday was a surprise 50th birthday party for Sheryl at Auntie Shari's home.  It was a very nice evening to spend on the canal sitting on the porch looking out at the sunset.  There was a pretty good sized crowd, about 30 people, that turned out to celebrate and Sheryl was completely surprised.  The food was great, especially Lucy's special rice dish which she later admitted was nothing more than the previous night's leftover fried rice spruced up with some fresh ingredients like sausage and mushrooms.  Everyone loved it.  There was also homemade peach and berry pie from Aunt Rachel, and fresh-baked cinnamon rolls from Sheryl's mom.  Could anything be better?

Mom and Katie are home from visiting Gina.  Dad went down to pick them up tonight.  I'm sure they had a wonderful time and it was really nice how it worked out for both of them to be able to go on the standby tickets from a friend who works for the airline.

I am considering sponsoring a child through Compassion International which the Robys have supported and recommend.  Lucy came back from the Robys and has been encouraging me to do that.  I've already researched the organization and found them to be a very reputable charity.  For just  $32 a month you can sponsor a child in a third-world country and help them to learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Tags: church

Another busy weekend. The weather was quite nice so I spent Saturday up at Fort Flagler exploring new areas and discovering new things such as the old power house, anti-aircraft emplacements and submarine listening station. I walked most of the trails putting in about 7 miles altogether and got back to the car just as it was turning dark. On the way home I was pretty hungry so I stopped in at the Hungry Bear Cafe. The waitress took one look at my scruffy clothes and the fir needles hanging in my hair and told me with a shudder to get out of the doorway. You see someone had just pulled up in a BMW and the Hungry Bear is now a highfalutin restaurant for city folks visiting Hood Canal. If it hadn't been for the fact that the Parsons family was dining there and invited me to join them at their table I would have been relegated to a back corner of the bar where none of their fine clientele would notice me. I still managed to raise the eyebrows of the waitress when she found me seated with some of her fine, loyal customers.

Sunday morning started with a lovely drive to Port Orchard for a wonderful time of worship with the folks at Manchester Community Church. I joined them again for the evening service and a message on 1 Corinthians 7 from Pastor Eddy. Back home in Hoodsport I was able to enjoy the last of the party at the Endicotts where Koko-ra-el, along with her sister and mother were visiting from Japan.

Tags: church, weekends

Sunday ended much better than it started with my visit to Manchester Community Church to watch the talent show preceding their evening service.  Several young people sang, played instruments or recited scripture and all did a fine job.  Sarah started off the show with her first recital on the harp since taking lessons from Emily.  There was an outstanding performance on the violin as the grand finale and a truly beautiful flute duet.  These made up for the cacophony that assaulted my ears Sunday morning.  And the sweet, willing spirit of the children playing their instruments and reciting scripture or just looking cute (in the case of Tabitha or David) more than made up for the offensive barrage of worldliness of FBC.

After the show, the pastor departed from his usual 1 Corinthians text and spoke on talent and humility, using the talent show as his object lesson.  Mostly he spoke from Phillippians 2, speaking of how Jesus had everything to claim as His own, yet considered Himself nothing.

Tags: church, concert

OK, dinner is done, I am full and the strains of lovely Mantovani music are wafting through the house providing much needed peace in the midst of a stressful weekend. I will continue the story of my FBC experience.

After singing the usual 7-11 praise songs (7 words repeated 11 times) until we were all worked up into a frenzy - clapping, hooting, shaking and generally abdicating any control of our bodies or emotions, it was time to introduce the sermon. Using the technological marvels that excel at this church, a portion of some R-rated movie was displayed on the overhead screens. A scene showing Satan (or some demon) trying to attack Christ was shown with graphic, vivid detail. The music was appropriately demonic to set the mood, the scene was dark and evil and the demonic creature took on various forms like a human skeleton (or something similar. It was dark and hard to see thankfully) and then finally a serpent which slithered around trying to attack Christ at the foot and finally being crushed by His foot. I'm not sure how much of this is Biblical, but it doesn't matter at FBC as long as the general message gets across.

In this case the general message was how Satan disguises in various forms to trick the human race, but ultimately will be (or rather I would think has been) defeated by Christ. My eyes went out to the young children in the audience since I was so shocked by the evil imagery I was concerned it would bother some of the younger children. But it seems they must have become used to this sort of thing in church (or hardened to it) and seemed to either enjoy the excitement or pay little attention. I can tell you that no child of mine would ever be permitted to see such scenes which destroy that tender, sweet innocence that allows a child to be a child and to mature and grow in God's timing, not being exposed to evil adult themes until God finds it necessary to help him or her learn to deal with them.

Finally the video was over and the sermon began with the usual mantra of Christian spiritual warfare which is, "we need to know everything we can about the enemy in order to fight him". The comparison to modern earthly warfare of gaining intelligence about the enemy in order to defeat them was given. I had to think about this for a moment because, although I truly believe it is not correct to learn more about Satan to defeat him, I acknowledge that is a great help in human war to know all about the enemy. Why didn't this analogy carry over then? Immediately I realized that God knows everything there is to know about Satan and his tactics. Only God will truly be capable of defeating this enemy and all the knowledge in the world about him will not help us to combat him in any way. Only as we put our trust in God to defend us against Satan and the attacks he brings our way will we be victorious. It is really as though we are helpless children out on the battle field and would be utterly wiped out except that we put ourselves under God's protection, and under the protection of the defensive armor He gives us. As soon as we get the notion that we are to go forth in battle pushing forward to the front lines to take on Satan we are headed for destruction. Only by God's mercy will we be saved then.

The service ended and the most unfriendly group of people started to make their way out the doors. Of course who could fellowship after 90 minutes of what we had gone through, but it struck me how cold and unhappy and disturbed these people were. Normally I would like to hang around and see if I can get in on a conversation or find someone I know, but I just wanted out of there in a hurry and back out into the fresh, clean goodness of the outdoors to rest my soul from this attack of evil that some would substitute for church.

I am looking forward to a hopefully much more positive time of fellowship tonight as I once again visit Manchester Community Church and hear the pastor speak on 1 Corinthians 7 once more. I will be leaving early in order to attend some sort of talent show that the Eddy children were excited for me to see. Sarah will be playing the harp, Andrew will be reciting something and others are going to be singing. Ahh, the dear, sweet, precious, tenderhearted goodness of children brought up in a Godly home and church.

Tags: church
Current Mood: content
Current Music: Mantovani - Autumn Leaves