A New Challenge for the New Year

For the last several months I have had a health problem that has dramatically affected my life and work.  The blood test ruled out many suspected diagnoses, which left me feeling confused and helpless.  However another doctor found some case studies here in Ireland that gave some insight and direction for how to proceed next.

The treatment begins with a dietary detox and continues on restrictions for three months to allow the system to heal.  It will not be easy, but I know the Lord is in this, so I have peace.   Because of the demands of the holiday season,  I had decided not to start the program until January 1, 2011.

When I saw this challenge of reading the Bible in its entirety, and that it lasted the same duration of my treatment program, I decided I would give it a try.  While some might think that adding such a challenge to an already intense season might make life more difficult, I'm inclined to believe that the more of God's Word I read, the more manageable life will be.  It is sustaining.

Maybe you'd like to take the 90-day challenge too.  

Just click on the image to read more.

Happy Christmas 2010

The greatest gift man will ever know was Jesus, the Christ, God with us.

We celebrate Him today.

May we live everyday proclaiming the good news of the King!

Happy Christmas!

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Expecting the Coming of the Lord

Here we are, just a day or so before we celebrate the birth of Christ, God with us.  It is a day for which we wait in expectation.  Of course we know the rest of the story.  It is hard to imagine what that would have been like to believe beforehand, that this pregnancy was the one that would bring about the foretold Messiah.  God sent an angel to both Mary and Joseph separately in order to tell them, which definitely built their faith and courage to obey.

Yet we learn in Luke chapter 1, months before the birth of Jesus, both Elizabeth and Zechariah would surely be waiting in expectation as well, because of their experiences with Mary and their own son.  For when Elizabeth met Mary, she was filled with the Holy Spirit proclaiming blessing and in doing so calling the child in Mary's womb her Lord. (v. 43)  Then when John was born, Zechariah, being filled with the Holy Spirit he prophesied. The song began with praises for fulfilled prophesies, for salvation, for mercy and for God that has come (v. 68) to enable us to serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all of our days. (v. 75)  Zechariah was prophesying the Christ.

Zechariah continued, prophesying over his newborn son's life.  John would be called "a prophet of the Most High."  He would prepare the way for the Lord.    My favorite part comes at the end of his song.

"because of the tender mercy of our God, 

by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven
to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, 

to guide our feet into the path of peace." (v78-9)

I love this because it shows even then, before Christ was born in Bethlehem, how He had come for everyone, from God's own people (v. 71) to the lost of the world (v 78).  It was God's mercy that gave foreknowledge to them in regards to the coming of the Lord to empower them for the purpose He had set before them.  It is God's mercy that brought Christ to us so that we may fulfill the purpose He has set before us now.  Let us celebrate with great expectation!

Happy Christmas!

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Gifts from the Father

It was a gift from my father when I went off to college, my grandpa's guitar.  He got it when my grandfather died and had since stopped playing it himself.  I loved the history, the mellow sound and the musty smell of the instrument, but struggled with my own deficiencies as I taught myself.  These deficiencies, of course, were a natural result of lack of practice and diligence.  Despite this, I have always enjoyed playing and have tried to keep it up to a certain degree, but have never become as proficient as I felt a guitar of this quality deserved.  So the sound has remained muffled, shared only with close friends or with such a quiet strum that only I could hear as a result of the lack of confidence.  My precious gift too often collected dust.

Since becoming worship leader at DCF almost two years ago, I have led vocally.  At times we have had a full worship team and other times just one on the guitar (def not me!).  I have even led a few times a capella when we haven't had any musicians.  Worship comes from the heart, not the expression.  We worship in spirit and in truth and God is glorified.  This is why when the couple who play guitar and drum left for holiday in the States, I didn't worry... until I realized what could potentially be done. 

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

2 Corinthians 12:9-11

As a church family, we didn't need a guitar to bring God praise, but I knew there was a gift God had given that was going unused.  As a leader, I want to encourage others to use the gifts God gave them so that we as a body will bear fruit.  I began to practice the guitar.  How many times do we forsake the things God has given us because of fear and insecurities?  True worship however means taking the focus off ourselves and putting it on Christ where it belongs.  For me, this was about sacrificing perfectionism in order to bring the sacrifice of praise.  In that vulnerability, Christ revealed His strength and we worshiped.

My prayer is that ye will be encouraged to dust off the gifts He gave you for His glory.  May ye put aside fears and insecurities and allow God to work in those weaknesses.  Today, when my fingers stumbled across the strings, I kept going back to the words resonating from my own mouth and became overcome with joy to praise Him.  "You are my strength when I am weak... You are my all in all."  It was a spiritual stretching for me for sure, but a sweet stretching.   His grace really is sufficient.

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Another Birthday!

That's right!  My mother is also a December gal.  So today I just want to give a lil' shout out to a fabulous woman whom I love dearly.  Happy Birthday Mum!!!

I'm How Old? That Can't Be Right!

Well, yippee tai yai yo!  It's my birthday!  We actually celebrated last night with a girls night full of ice-skating, chats, pizza and a movie.  It was so much fun.  I am still waiting to see pics of us on the ice, although I am a little nervous about those pics...  At least I didn't fall!

Today I got to start my day off in a great way with a special email from my sis and a skype video call with my mum.  That put me in a good mood for the whole day.

The day was predominantly quiet, which was nice because I was a bit tired after yesterday.  I saw some friends, and ran some errands and even managed a nap in between.  Tonight I celebrated quietly and contently with a special little dinner.  A few weeks ago I saw these frozen lobsters at Lidl for just a fiver.  Now I'd never had lobster, so I instantly thought this would make a great treat for my birthday.  I had some onions and mushrooms sizzling in the skillet as well.  These were for the fried potatoes that would accompany my lil' lobster. 

Okay, let's be honest now.  There is something about these creatures that beg for silliness.  I can neither confirm nor deny that video exists of this lobster going into the pot all while speaking in some unrecognizable accent that was anything but Canadian, which was the specified origin on the packaging.  Perhaps there's more of a story here, but again, I can neither confirm nor deny.   Now the lobster was already cooked, so I simply had to thaw it and then drop it in boiling water for no more than five minutes.  Gotta love that.  Five euro, five minutes, one fancy fine meal!

Complete with pan-fried potatoes and garlic-parsley melted butter.

Okay, I'll admit I had to look up on the internet to find out how exactly to go about eating it, but there's no shame in that.  It was such a fun thing to do and it actually tasted really good.  I love crab meat and this was like a sweeter version of that.  Speaking of sweet, I finished of my birthday dinner with a rich piece of Chocolate-Chocolate cake I brought home from Ormand's, my favorite place on the square. 

Sweet dreams now, folks.  Thanks for sharing my birthday with me.  God bless :)

Why Not! White Chili

I'll probably post about the Thanksgiving Feast at DCF tomorrow, once I have some pics loaded.  Because we were feeding a huge group, we had two turkeys and a ham.  My 22lb bird was the second to be eaten after the first disappeared completely within the first 45 minutes.  This means that I got to bring home any leftover bits.  It looked well-devoured, but there's a lot of meat in a bird that size.  Five days later, I have been eating nothing but turkey and still have a bowl full left.

We are in the midst of a freak cold snap here in Ireland, so anything that warms the body is appealing.  So for some variety (and warmth!), I decided a white chili would be ideal.  Afterall, it's turning white outside.  Why not inside too!

 

Since this chili is made with turkey and uses a white sauce instead of a beef/tomato combo,  I didn't need to have such a robust bean as the kidney bean.  I chose butter beans which would suit the milder flavors.  You could use any white bean really.  Just because it's white chili doesn't mean it ALL has to be white, so why not also have a tin of mixed beans for color and flavor?  The red pepper is also a bit sweeter than green, so I chose this to complement the poultry.  I also don't know if many folk put mushrooms in their chili, but I love them in almost anything, so why not put them in too!

I started by sweating the onions, garlic, chili and mushrooms in a tsp of oil in the bottom of my soup pan.  I'm all about one-pot wonders.  

Then I made a roux.  I added a TBSP of each butter and flour right into the mix with the sweated veg and slowly added small bits of milk stirring vigorously as I did.  You'll see the sauce begin to thicken straight away.  I'm sure most folk would use turkey stock instead of milk to thicken, but I haven't yet made my stock.  So milk worked fine and still got thick.   I also added salt and a good bit of cumin.

Next I added the turkey, the tins of beans, and a tin of sweet corn.  This is where you would add more stock slowly while stirring to bring more liquid into the large amount of ingredients.  As I said before, I haven't made stock yet, so I just used some of the homemade gravy leftover from the turkey and then water.  Why not.  It worked fine.  I added more cumin, chili, salt and pepper as needed and let it simmer away for a while.

 

Topped off with some white cheddar (because I like my cheese without artificial colors) and sour cream, the only thing it is missing is some fresh cilantro and avocado.  I'm out of the cilantro and my avocado isn't ripe yet, but I'm hungry so I'm going ahead and eating.  Why not!

It may look meek and mild, but don't be fooled.  This chili can pack some heat which is just perfect for this white weather.  And it used up some of those leftovers!  Yipee tai yai yo!