Saying Goodbye...Saying Hello...

Saying Goodbye

Last night was our last night for our summer Bible study on the book of Esther. The group requested a recipe that is one of my family's favorite recipes. Normally, this recipe calls for a 3-layer cake. Feeling creative, decided to try my trifle bowl. It was a hit! So here you go:

Mandarin Orange Cake

1-Duncan Hines Butter Yellow Cake Mix

4 eggs

11 oz. can of Mandrain Oranges plus juice

3/4 cup canola oil

Mix ingredients gently together in a classic batter bowl. Once mixed together, pour into three round cake pans.

Note: Since I was using my trifle bowl, the cake mixture was poured into a 9 x 13 prepared baking dish.

Bake at 350 until done - roughly 30 or so minutes. Check it with a cake tester for doness. Allow to cool thoroughly before icing. If you try to ice it before the cake cools, you will find your icing sliding effortlessly off the cake and onto your countertop!

While your cake is baking mix your icing.

Icing includes:

1-15oz. can crushed pineapple (drained)

1 large package Instant Vanilla Pudding mix

1 large container of Cool Whip

Mix pineapple and pudding together first. (Note: do not add water!) After the pineapple and pudding are incorporated, fold in the Cool Whip. Keep in refrigerator until ready to use.

Note: Keep cake chilled until time for serving.

New Beginnnings

Our neighborhood is growing!!! Three new babies are expected very soon...in fact, one of our expectant moms delivered early. This mom was very pleased! So, to welcome Miss Elizabeth "Ellie" Bradley Hoover to our neighborhood, I made her some Red Velvet Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting. While Miss Ellie will not be able to enjoy her cupcakes right now, I am thinking her mommy and daddy are going to be very excited! We will go over tonight to meet our newest neighbor and deliver our "Welcome to the Neighborhood" gift! Here is a sampling of Ellie's cupcakes!

Something to Smile About

He was a man’s man. He did it his way. His decisions were always about him and how he wanted it to go down. He was also a man that knew his mother, sisters and his mom’s Bible study class was praying for him. By all appearances it seemed he would die unchanged, unrepentant, and stubborn…bent on doing it “his way” until the end. Over the years, the prayers did not diminish…I believe they intensified. About a month ago, all the prayers that had been offered on his behalf burst forth with a resounding, “Yes!” This man’s man returned to God! He rededicated his life and was reconciling with family and friends. Then, this morning the Lord took him “His” way. This man’s man passed away very peacefully. One of his sisters reported that when she and her mom were allowed to see him following his death. They were both concerned at what he might look like. But, there he was…there was no signs of strife…no signs of a struggle. To their amazement and blessing he was not smiling…he was grinning from ear to ear. Two of his most faithful prayer warriors stood over him with amazement wondering, “Who was it that God sent to take him home that would have left his face glowing and grinning from ear-to-ear?”

Yesterday I dropped by to deliver a cake to the family. While visiting with them, the mother told me that she and her daughter found her son’s Bible after they got home from the hospital. My friend handed me her brother’s Bible. She opened to the place where he had marked and had last read in scripture. Then she asked me to read the passage to her and her mom. Noting it was in the book of Jeremiah, I did take the time to check the chapter. The place he had left marked began, “This is what the LORD says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back from captivity.^a]'> I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile’.” As I read this scripture to the hurting and longing hearts of his mother and sister, I could not help but pause and draw in a deep breath as I read, “when you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, “declares the Lord.” Both of these godly women knew without a doubt God intended for them to find his Bible and to see the scripture he had been reading. It was a love letter meant for them to find!

So, dear and faithful prayer warriors, do not be discouraged when you think that your prayers are not being heard and not making it past your ceilings. They most assuredly are! God hears every word and every prayer that you offer! His heart is not hardened against your request…nor is it lost in the midst of all the other prayers spoken. However, God will not interfere with our free will. He will allow the recipient of our prayers to go his/her own way. Know that God joins you at the throne greeting each request you make…every prayer you offer with unending love. And, when the recipient of your prayers turns back to God, all Heaven celebrates. Can you imagine the celebration this morning as this man’s man stepped into the arms of Jesus? Now, that is something to smile about!

“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner

who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” Luke 15:6-8