Radiate 2010

Wow! What a wild night! Our church (FBC Malakoff) is in the middle of an awesome revival! Our pastor has been telling us about an evangelist, Ronnie Hill, for several months. He's been telling us to pray, and he even challenged us to a fast for the past 40 days leading up to this revival. He kept telling us that God is going to do something big and we better get ready! He wasn't kidding!

Yesterday was an awesome day at church...wonderful worship, excellent message, sweet fellowship. Today, Ronnie Hill came to our high school and elementary school to do a presentation. He even challenged 6 kids to roll a basketball down the court & make it stop in the half circle. If anyone could, he/she would win $100! One of my students WON!! She was THRILLED!

Tonight was children's night...and boy did they come!! We think there were over 400 people at church tonight & about 180 of those were children! And I think about 50 decisions were made. They picked up 89 people on the buses tonight! Amazing!

Supper time was CRAZY!!! The people just kept coming in...children & adults! I've never seen so much pizza! Evan passed out tickets to the entire 5th grade & a bunch of them came! He was so excited that his two closest friends at school finally got to come. Zach (the youth associate) did an excellent job with this white board demonstration of the gospel story after they ate pizza in the youth room. The kids were really well behaved too! I was very impressed! (And I'm still not sure how that man in the wheel-chair got up those stairs but he did.) They were very organized after we ate too...they grouped us by grades & we took them to the restrooms & then sat with them in church...talk about packing a pew! We sat 2 kids to a seat!

It's so amazing to be a part of something so wonderful! I felt very convicted to be a part of the "counseling/encouraging" group this time...I've never done that before & feel it is VERY much outside my comfort zone. I had the opportunity to visit with a 9th grader last night & a 7-year-old (with her dad) tonight. I felt very inadequate but did the best I could. I'm praying that God will continue to work on their hearts.

So 3 services and about 70 decisions already--we still have 2 more nights...pizza with the youth + a car to give away tomorrow night and then steak dinners on Wed. night! I can't wait to see how God works in the next few days! Let's pray to see even more hearts changed!

Memory Verse #4

I got the idea for my next verse a few weeks ago from my friend, Kim P. I've read Proverbs so many times but I haven't really thought of how important this little gem is. I'm going to really try to apply this to my life now.

Proverbs 12:16
"A fool shows his annoyance at once,
but a prudent man overlooks an insult."

Ouch! I guess I'm going to have to ignore a lot of my student's comments on an hourly basis! :)

I also wanted to share this neat website I found through our Sunday School literature. It's called the Purple Bracelet Challenge and it goes along with one of my memory verses from last year, Philippians 2:14-15. "Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless & pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe."

The challenge is go for 21 days WITHOUT complaining. If you end up complaining, you have to start over with day 1 again until you make it a habit by NOT complaining for 21 days in a row. I wonder if I could actually do this? It will take a LOT of discipline.

What verse are you memorizing this month? I hope to hear from some of you!

Snow Day!

We LOVE the snow...something we don't get to see very much "around these parts!" My relatives in Illinois would laugh at us for how we overreact with just a little snow! It is such a blessing that we get to enjoy it for a few days! I think Evan has changed his clothes at least 4 times already this morning from getting so wet & cold! He was outside playing by 7 am, I think! We just took a walk down the road, so we could see the beautiful sights! Here are a few pictures from yesterday & today. Enjoy!

Thursday morning before school...do you see Eli in the window? He's been enjoying the snow too!

Ethan didn't really like the snow falling on his head!

One of Evan's attempt at a snow man.

Eric took a few pictures around our street this morning...it was so beautiful!

Evan was DYING to have a snow ball fight with his daddy! He finally got the chance before Eric had to go to work.

I think Daddy won the snow ball fight!

Ethan's all bundled up & ready to go on a ride.

I couldn't resist this picture...they were trying to give each other a kiss!

Evan's 2nd attempt at a snow man.

The view outside our house...so pretty!

Ethan & Evan decided to attack the snowman since it was melting anyway.

Evan just had to throw some snow into the lake!

Ethan was ok with throwing snowballs at Evan but he did NOT want Evan throwing them back at him!

What should we do with these huge snowballs?

Eat them!!!

Cooking, Cooking, Cooking

For some reason, the cooking bug bit me around the beginning of the year. Maybe it was because I saw the “Eat from the Pantry Challenge” and thought that it would be a good idea to find some new recipes to make with all of the food in my pantry & freezer. I have enjoyed trying several new recipes as well as cooking some of our old favorites.

A few of them include:
Beef Stew
BBQ Ribs
Sweet & Sour Meat Loaf
Cheeseburger Macaroni Casserole
Chicken Curry

Roast with Carrots & Potatoes


Tonight I made one of our favorites…Sweet & Sour Meatloaf. I got this recipe from one of my sweet friends that I met the semester that I lived in Memphis and attended graduate school. I had a great time meeting some wonderful friends at Bellevue Baptist Church, one of which was Laura (Wood) Drury…and come to find out she had gone to Ouachita the year before I did and was really good friends with my college roommate (what a small world). Anyway, I remember her sweet mom making this for us and I LOVED it! We have made it numerous times over the past 18 years! (I can’t believe I’ve been out of college for 18 years now! How old am I???)

So here’s the recipe and a few pictures of how it turned out tonight. I served it with broccoli & roasted red potatoes. And I’m happy to report that Evan ate every bit of it. Maybe he’ll stop being so picky soon, but his little brother is picking up his bad habits and wouldn’t try any of it!

Sweet & Sour Meat Loaf
(From Laura Wood Drury)

1½ lb. ground beef
1 c. dry bread crumbs
1 t. salt
¼ t. pepper
2 eggs
1 t. instant minced onions
1 can (15 oz.) tomato sauce, divided

Topping/Sauce
½ of the can of tomato sauce
2 T. brown sugar
2 T. vinegar
½ c. sugar
2 t. prepared mustard

Mix together beef, bread, salt, pepper, and eggs. Add onion & ½ of tomato sauce. Form into loaf in 9x5x3 pan. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes. In saucepan, combing topping ingredients. Bring to boil. Pour over meatloaf after the 50 minutes and bake 10 minutes more. (Makes about 6 servings)

I’ll have to post some of the other recipes soon. Will you let me know what your favorite recipe is? I’d love to try some more new recipes.

Memory Verse #3

Wow! I can’t believe it’s already FEBRUARY 1, 2010! I’m so excited to share our family’s next verse to memorize! Here's what I put on my "dress-me-up" plate in the kitchen, so I'll see it every time I'm in there:

Psalm 119:9-11 (NIV)
How can young man keep his way pure?
By living according to Your word.
I seek You with all my heart;
Do not let me stray from Your commands.
I have hidden Your word in my heart
That I might not sin against You.

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of learning so many things about Psalm 119 from Beth Moore at the SMT Celebration. One of the things she talked about was how we needed to learn to live our lives more for Jesus. She said by memorizing His word, we will know how to live better. She talked about the parable of the sower and the seed and how the good seed was pressed into the soil to grow and flourish. She said that these verses made her think about how we need to press the Word into our hearts and let it soak in and change our hearts. She then talked about Psalm 119:9-11.

I remember memorizing verse 11 when I was little, but I haven’t thought about the 3 verses together. She talked about how we can teach our children to grow as Christians (verse 9), so I thought this would be the perfect passage to work on with Evan and Ethan this month. Sometimes I think Ethan is too young to memorize but he can sing just about any little song that he hears over & over, so I don’t give him enough credit.

Here are my two precious responsibilities that I must "train up" for Jesus!


So what verse are you memorizing this month? Will you please share it with me…either by the McLinky or with a comment? I’d love to hear it!

Drawing closer to Him in 2010!
Kim