thought for today...a birthday verse

Have you ever been given a verse for your birthday?  

One of the precious gifts that I received yesterday was Zephaniah 3:17.  What a treasure!  Just like the priceless young woman who gave it to me.  She wrote that she was praying these words over my life.  And I am blown away by her thoughtfulness.  Her message went on to say:

"Praying you feel his celebration and delight over your life more and more."

This present arrived the night before my birthday.  A gift from a country eleven and a half hours ahead of the time here in Belize.  I fell asleep contemplating this verse and awoke to the melodic sounds of much needed rain.  God's singing was refreshing the dry earth and bringing with it a cooler temperature.  Such a joy after the long hot days of the dry season that we have endured over the past few months.  

I don't think that I am the only one who needs to feel celebrated and delighted over by Him.  I think many of us need that.  Just as she blessed me...I want to bless you.  Isn't God's word powerful enough to bless and feed us all?  It reaches out to where we are, touching our hearts, and filling our souls.  His word is the spiritual DNA that transforms us to the core.  If we give it room inside of us to do its work....it will rejuvenate us and make us fit for Him. 

May you feel His celebration and delight over you more and more. 

May He quiet your mind with His love 

so that you can hear even the faintest notes of His glorious singing over you!

linking up with:

Happy 49th Birthday to me!

As it is after midnight and I just ate strawberry flavored frozen yogurt topped with bananas and chocolate syrup.

I have a Spanish class today and a date with Tom. 

 And perhaps a bit more frozen yogurt...who knows?!! 

the gift of surprise and other blessings

I have never been fond of surprises.  But, Tom keeps trying to change that...and he just might succeed!  He entered a contest with BelmopanCityOnline and won a Mather's Day gift for me.  Here is his winning entry:

"Alida has been a great wife of 30 years, mother of two grown sons & now helps people who have been abused or rescued from sex trafficking. She has been giving to others all her life & deserves a month of receiving!"

The prize is a month of free housecleaning...I am glad he entered and excited about the redeeming the prize!

Gifts from the week:
741.  Tom's surprise Mother's Day gift.
742.  Spencer taking me out for ice cream.
743.  Nathan's Facebook messages.
744.  doing well on the mid term in Tom's counseling class.
745.  two new counselors working with us at CDF.

746.  taking pictures of the guys for no reason.

747.  Harley's faithfulness to Tom.

Gifts from Sunday:

748.  a baby dedication on Mother's Day  

749.   a Bible in Chinese

750.   children playing in the field

752.  vibrant colors from God's paintbrush.

753.  a cross hung high

754.  a loving church family
755.  potluck dinners with plenty of food for all.
756.  lots of real food choices at the potluck so this gluten free girl didn't feel deprived.

Gifts found during my time in the Word:
757.  His Spirit helps us in our weakness Romans 8:26
758.  He intercedes for us  Romans 8:26
759.  He works for the good of those who love Him Romans 8:28
760.  He gave up His son for us Romans 8:32
761.  We are more than conquerors through Him  Romans 8:37

 joining in with the gratitude community:

Mothers...generous, resilient and tenacious

Have you ever set out to do something for someone but they ended up blessing you instead?

I went to visit someone and took over some fruit from our yard.  She recognized them immediately and called them "bluggos".  Her husband explained that they are a cross between a banana and plantain. And he told me that if you have bluggos in your yard you will never go hungry.

I left their house that day with all of this:

Those little bananas, plantains, the mami fruit, plums, the cashew fruit, and the cactus were all growing in their yard.  The cassava and cocos were harder to come by.  She had walked and hitch hiked and walked some more with a friend to a village several miles away where the friend's family farm was located.  They picked the 'ground food' so that they would have something for dinner.  She was actually cooking when I got to her house.  She explained various recipes to me while gently teasing me about giving me a Belizean education.  Tears fill my eyes when I think of  how much I don't know.  And not just about Belizean food.

What impressed and overwhelmed me that day was her generosity.

She didn't have much but she wanted to share what she had.  She shared her knowledge, the fruits of her garden, and the food that she labored to bring home for her family's meal.  I had asked her to braid my hair.  I thought I would help her earn a bit of money so that her family could buy food.  She taught me about the resiliency and tenacity of Belizean women.  She was not sitting around whining or waiting for a missionary handout.  She got up early to search for food...to make sure that her children would eat that day.  

I have met other women here who are doing the same thing in their own way...

Women here, just like in the US, who work full time and go to school in the evening.  Some are working on Bachelor's degrees while others are trying to finish up high school.  Some sell what they can, they bake, clean houses,  sew, or do crafts.  I see them hard at work in the market.  Most days my neighbors have clothes already on the line as I am getting out of bed.  They work outside and inside the home.  They stretch dollars and kiss ouchies.  

Women, mothers, are so industrious...all around the world.  

Mothers do whatever they need to do to keep their homes and put food on the table.  They make sure their kids get what they need.  I met a single mom this week who has a son with hydrocephalus.  She goes to his school regularly to learn from his teacher how best to help him with his school work.  A tenacious mom trying to make sure her son gets the best education he can get.  There are foster moms here who have not given birth to their own children but their home and their hearts are open to children in need.   There are grandmothers here who make hot lunches everyday for neighborhood children whose parents cannot get home during the noon break from school.

As Mother's day draws near I think of my mother's work ethic, my grandmother's hands that were never still.  My aunts, my sister in laws and my cousins...all hard working women with children making sure that the kids get what they need.  Generous women. Resilient and tenacious women.  I am grateful to be a part of that lineage.  And I am grateful to be a part of a sisterhood of mothers that spans the globe.

Paul's thorn in the flesh?

thought for today...LOVE is the point!

Agape love came to earth in the form of Christ to reconcile us with God. 

It is this love, according to Richard Foster, that “transforms our lives and gives us true spiritual substance as persons.” It is not how much Bible knowledge we have that transforms the world but the quality of love we show to those in our sphere of influence. Foster goes on to state that this is “the test of whether or not we have really gotten the point of the Bible.”

Have we really gotten the point? 

Does the word of Christ dwell in us so richly that it is metabolized in our hearts and souls as love for others? As it is written in Colossians 3:12-14 as God's chosen people we are to clothe ourselves with “compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” We are to “bear with each other” and “forgive whatever grievances” we have with one another. And finally we are also told that over all these virtues we are “to put on love.”

Love is the point. 

The reason we read and study the word should not be just to collect knowledge but to become like Him. 

And God is love.  

linking up with:

and

Gluten Free Pizza Crust

 

I heard that Dominoes Pizza now offers a gluten free crust.  But, there is no Dominoes here.  So we have to make our own crusts that are safe for me to eat.

When we first moved to Russia a good pizza was hard to find.  So I learned how to make it myself.  I made the crusts and the guys chose the toppings.    That was part of our Friday night ritual.  And we were happy with my recipe.  But that was before I went gluten free...so it is time for a new recipe.

Our other issue is that Tom has been trying to avoid tomato based sauces.  That part was easy to fix.  I bought some fresh basil and made a pesto sauce.  

I found several different pizza crust recipes online.  I chose the least complicated one I could find and then I had to modify it based on what I had on hand. 

Almond Flour Pizza Crust

2 cups almond flour

2 eggs

1 cup grated mozzarella cheese

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp spaghetti seasoning

1/4 tsp salt

1 Tbsp olive oil

Mix all ingredients together.  The dough will be the consistency of cookie dough.   Place dough on wax paper and put another piece on top to roll out thinly.  Transfer to greased pizza pan.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes and take out of oven and add the toppings* of your choice.  Return to oven for for another 8-10 minutes.  

*I used pesto sauce as the base, then a thin layer of mozzarella, and finished it off with pepperonis.  

This crust had a soft cracker-like texture.  And we really enjoyed it.  It will not be the same as the pizza crusts you are used to but it is tasty and very filling.   The photo above shows the pizza I made...I took a bite before I remembered that I needed a picture.  Enjoy!