From My Kitchen and From My Heart

If you like pumpkin spice sugared doughnuts, you are going to love me.

Last Saturday I had a great afternoon spending some time baking in my kitchen. Baking is one of my very favorite ways to spend Saturday afternoons this time of year, and even more so now that I am a working gal during the week. I knew I wanted to make something pumpkin, but something different than my usual pumpkin-chip muffins or pumpkin bread. I decided to try this recipe for Pumpkin Donut Mini-Muffins that I had saved to my Pinterest board, and oh my! They are SO good! Very light and moist on the inside with a sugared exterior, they taste exactly like a pumpkin donut. Make sure that you finish them by dipping them in the melted butter and then the cinnamon/sugar mixture (I know, I know!) because that is what makes them good! I should add that they freeze really well. I froze them in a zip-lock freezer bag (after I got finished eating 2 or 3 or...) and if you take out a couple when you want them, they take less than 30 seconds in the microwave and they are warm and fresh!

Pumpkin Donut Mini-Muffins

1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup pumpkin puree (not pie filling)
1 cup flour (note to my GF friends - I made another batch using all purpose GF flour and they turned out great!)
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. allspice (note: I didn't have any so omitted it. I added a little extra cinnamon.)

Topping - 1/4 cup butter, melted
                 1/3 cup sugar
                 1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

With mixer, blend softened butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat until creamy. Blend in pumpkin puree. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and allspice.

Fill a sprayed mini-muffin pan. You will get 20-24 mini-muffins, depending on how full you fill them. I used a small scoop, filling them about 2/3 full. Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool. Meanwhile, mix cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl and melt butter in a separate bowl. Dip each muffin in melted butter, then into the cinnamon sugar mix. Repeat until all muffins are dipped. Makes 20-24 mini muffins.

I do hope you will try them. I promise you they will quickly become a favorite. My husband loves them too!

This week was a somewhat difficult week of transition for me, as I began my new job as an administrative assistant. The job itself is easy enough, my co-workers are nice, and the hours are great. But now every day is a fresh reminder of how different my life is from when I used to spend my days teaching Bible study classes, writing SS lesson material for my teen girls, planning events and fellowships, and helping my husband in the ministry. But although I miss ministry, I am reminded that my daily life can still make a difference by glorifying God, no matter how I am spending my days. You don't have to be a ministry wife to be used of God! Even amidst the seemingly mundane tasks of life, I need to have the attitude of remembering that God put me here, and because of that every task is a service to the Lord. I have this in my journal that I have referred to often:

I am here by God's appointment
In His care
Under His training
For His purpose.

Also this week someone who was very special to us went home to heaven. Dr. David Yearick was our pastor the years my husband was in school in Greenville, as well as his mentor. My husband served his pastoral internship under Pastor Yearick and was ordained by him and the ordination council there. Pastor Yearick was a true pastor - a shepherd-leader with a passion for people. He attended little kids' birthday parties, music recitals, and ball games. He spent hours with families going through surgeries and praying with people through trials. I am proud that my husband was also that kind of pastor, having a true pastor's heart, something that is very rare these days. Pastor and Mrs. Yearick will always hold a special place in our hearts for all we learned under their ministry and their influence on us and our family. Jeremiah 3:15 - "And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding."

Til next week,
Kathi

Navigating the New and Different

Last week the Lord provided another one of those "special gifts" for me, in the form of getting to spend a few days with our son, his wife and our 4 sweet grandchildren followed by a surprise 1-day trip to New York City with our son! My husband and I had planned to be gone for only Saturday and Sunday, as my husband had to come home in time for being at work early Monday morning. But I was able to stay on and help out with our grandkids for a couple days, as well as do some cooking, baking, and other things to lighten our daughter-in-law's load. On Wednesday our son was taking his Honor Society students from the Christian school where he teaches Bible on their annual trip to New York City, and he invited me to come with them! I was so excited!

I had a WONDERFUL day in New York City, and experienced more in one day than most people get to see in three days. We took the ferry from Hoboken, NJ, and I got my first glimpse of the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline. Our first stop was Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange district, and Federal Hall. That was followed by visiting old Trinity Church ( a National landmark rebuilt in 1846 and also where the movie National Treasure was filmed), and the 9-11 Memorial, which was a highlight of the day for me. After that we walked through both Chinatown and Little Italy, having lunch in Little Italy at the first pizza parlor in New York.

After lunch we boarded the subway for the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which is so huge you could easily spend a couple days just there) which borders Central Park. After spending a couple hours at the art museum we boarded another subway train and then walked to Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center and the NBC Studio building, Radio City Music Hall, and Carnegie Hall. Across the street from Carnegie Hall at the Carnegie Deli we indulged in the best cheesecake I have EVER had, as well as some much-needed coffee! By then it was almost time to begin the subway trek back to the ferry station, but we walked through the Broadway district on our way back to the subway station. An after-dark ferry ride that gave us magnificent views of the city lit up at night completed our day.

All in all, according to my pedometer I walked 10.25 miles. And I felt like it that night!

To someone who is not a "city girl" (I'm not) and had never been to New York (I hadn't), it could be a little scary. Before we arrived I had mixed feelings of excited anticipation and nervousness. I thought of all the bad things that could happen! But once I was there, I absolutely loved it! And as I reflected on the day, much of the reason was due to the excellent guide I had in the form of my son. As someone who has been there many times and has guided many groups through the streets of the city, it was obvious he knew his way around! He knew exactly what sights we needed to see, where they were, and the fastest way to get there. He knew the ins and the outs of things like the subway system and the ferry and buying tickets and keeping ourselves safe. I was amazed at the way he zipped around, took shortcuts, led the students and was such an excellent tour guide. I simply had to trust his knowledge and follow.

As we continue in this season of uncertainty that the Lord has placed us in following the events of this summer, and as I struggle with trusting God (some days more than others), I realize that in the Lord I have the perfect guide and that it's really very simple: if I will just trust Him, He will navigate me through these unknown waters. He knows where I am, and where I am going. I only have to place my faith and trust in Him and realize that I have no reason to fear because He is right there with me. He loves me, He has a plan for me and He will accomplish it.

A verse that has been very familiar to me for many years and that I have memorized and recited many, many times is Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God." This week I have broken that verse down phrase by phrase, and as I have meditated on each phrase it has become even more precious to me. "Be still" means to "cease striving." It has the idea of laying down your weapons. It also means to stop fretting and worrying and trying to figure everything out. It means to quiet your soul. "and know" - be absolutely confident in. In what? "that I am God." All that God is and all He does - His wisdom, His power, His goodness, His faithfulness, and more. We can be still, and be absolutely confident in God, because of all He is.

One more thing - when it comes to navigating through the new and different, I wanted to let my readers know that in a couple days I will be starting something else new - a job as an administrative assistant. This is going to be a big change for me, but I know that the Lord is there for me and will help navigate me through this adjustment too, if I trust Him. I hope to continue to have time to keep writing this blog, so please stay tuned! And remember that in your Heavenly Father, you have the best guide possible to navigate you through the new and different.

Love,
Kathi

Times of Refreshment

This morning was the first morning that when going for my walk, I put on a light jacket! It is finally feeling a little more like fall around here. The cooler mornings and evenings are so refreshing after a long, hot summer!

Refreshment is something we all need. Whether we have been immersed in a season of busyness, or just in the mundane daily details of living, a weekend or even a day away provides a much-needed change of scenery, rest, and refreshment. When we have been working outside in the yard or out running errands on a hot summer day, that tall cold glass of iced tea or bottle of water sure hits the spot. I am reminded this week that just as we all need physical refreshment, we need spiritual refreshing, sometimes even more than physical.

I continue to be amazed, even though I shouldn't be, how God always anticipates and provides for our every need. This week an evangelist friend of ours and his wife are in our area, and we have been so privileged to sit under his preaching in services all week long. We were excited to learn they were coming because we knew that we needed the spiritual refreshment. But we needed it even more than we knew we did. The messages from the Word have hit home every single service. The work that God did in our hearts, confirming once again His faithfulness to us, and fellowship time with our friends has been like balm to our souls.

As I reflected on these things being so refreshing to us when we needed it so much, my thoughts went to a verse of Scripture. Acts 3:19b says "that the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." This time of waiting on the Lord for His will and provision in our lives is becoming a sweet time of refreshment and renewing, because true refreshment only comes from the presence of the Lord. We are learning, among other things, that it is more about the journey then it is about the destination.

There is another verse which relates to refreshment and renewal that I have come to understand in a whole new way. Isaiah 40:31 tells us, "They who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint." I have known this verse for decades, yet I have gained a whole new insight into what renewal means. During this season of waiting that God has placed us in, we have to first of all truly wait upon the Lord. That means not pushing. It means being willing to yield ourselves to God's leading and timing for what He has for us, and being content with where He has us right now, while waiting for Him to reveal His plan to us. According to this verse, that is how we truly are renewed, or refreshed.

You might not have an opportunity to attend a week of revival services, retreat, or other special event. I know many times I have wished I could! That doesn't mean that you can't receive refreshment. Make the effort to spend quality time with the Lord. Really study your Bible, not just skim through it. Journal your thoughts and insights. Let God and His Word bring refreshment to your soul!

Thoughtfully,
Kathi

Living in Uncertainty

The title of this post seems to be the overriding theme of my life these days. Things continue to be much the same as they have been, which means we continue living in a state of uncertainty and "in limbo" where our future is concerned. We are in our fourth month of this journey into the unknown, and I can honestly say that I am learning so much. My journal is filled with special verses of Scripture, promises, lessons, and blessings from my times with the Lord. I think one of the main lessons God has been teaching me is that waiting is more about the journey, about focusing on God and who He is during the wait, than it is about the end result. That being said, living in uncertainty is difficult because it affects every area of our daily life, down to the smallest decision. How much do we unpack and get re-settled in our house? We have moved in the big pieces of furniture in order to stage the house for showing,  and a lot of my kitchen items, so we are definitely more comfortable. But I miss things like our family pictures and my books....if we knew we would soon be getting an offer on the house and moving, it is best to leave them packed, but if we are going to be living here awhile I sure would like them. The same goes for everything from furnishing our upstairs again to what quantities of things to buy (more to move!) to where I should apply for jobs.

As I was reflecting on this one morning while I was out walking, I was trying to think of an example of a woman in the Bible who must have lived with a lot of uncertainty, and my mind went to Jochabed, the mother of Moses. Her story is told in Exodus chapter 2. We aren't told that much about her, but we know enough to know that she lived with a lot of uncertainty. It began when her son was born and his life was threatened because of the order of the Pharaoh that all baby boys should be put to death. The Bible says she kept him hidden for 3 months. That must have been a daily exercise of trusting God in uncertainty - as she tried her best to keep him quiet and hidden, she must have lived every day wondering if this would be the day he would be discovered and taken away from her. Then when she couldn't hide him anymore, she made a basket and put her precious son it and hid him in the bulrushes of the river. Can you imagine - putting your 3 month old in a basket in the river, not knowing what would happen and for how long he would be safe? Even if she was able to keep him safe for awhile, what would happen when he got old enough to move and to walk? Then when Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh and was given back to Jochabed to nurse and raise her son, she would have lived with the uncertainty of not knowing just how long she might have him! I'm sure she probably took advantage of every moment, not knowing whether it may be her last with her son.

But you can't read this story without seeing God's hand of providence over and over again. If you go back to chapter 1, we see that God worked in the hearts of the midwives who had been commanded to put baby boys to death immediately upon their delivery. It says that the midwives "feared God," and it was God that led them to stand up to Pharaoh and come up with an explanation as to why they didn't follow through. If they had, Moses would never have lived. We see God's providence again when Moses WAS safe for his first three months. We see it when he was discovered by the daughter of Pharaoh and how God must have worked in her heart to have compassion and love for Moses, rather than turning him over to her father to have him killed as she could have done. And perhaps most obviously, we see God's hand of providence in the quick thinking of Moses' sister Miriam, who came up with the idea of offering the services of her own mother to nurse and raise Moses for the princess. And Jochabed even got paid for it!

My point in all of this (Yes, I DO have a point!) is that times of uncertainty are accompanied by God's providence. God does have a plan. Nothing can stop His plan from being executed. Eccl. 3:14 - " I know that whatsover God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it, and God does it that men should fear before Him." Job 42:2 - "I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." God in His providence intervenes in the right ways at the right times to accomplish His purposes. His purposes are always for our good and His glory. Romans 8:28 - "And we know that all things work together for good to them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

There are some things we do not have to be uncertain about! One of them is our salvation. 1 John 5:13 tells us that "these things are written that ye may KNOW that ye have eternal life". If you have never come to the place where you realize that you are a sinner and that those sins separate you from God, and have not accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can make that decision and never have to live in uncertainty concerning your eternal destiny! Another thing we can know is God's love for us, even in uncertain times. Again in Romans 8, verses 38-39: "For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Even in these uncertain times we live in, you can be certain of God's love and provision for you!

Lovingly,
Kathi

When it Doesn't Make Sense

I am writing this on the first day of fall! Fall is my favorite season of the year and I welcome all it brings - the cooler temperatures, colorful leaves, apples, and baking all things pumpkin. This fall is quite different than most, however, as we still are in a state of limbo as I write this - living in our house which we had thought was sold, my husband commuting daily to his job, not having a church home, and having no idea what the future holds for us. At least we are no longer living in an empty house. We decided that since we have no idea how long we will be here, and it was becoming increasingly difficult to function in a house with no furniture and an empty kitchen, that as much as we hated to do it that it made sense to bring our belongings back from storage. The main factor in this decision was having to pay monthly rent on a large storage unit. And while I learned that we can definitely get along with a lot less,  I admit that I am really enjoying having a sofa, my own bed, and the pleasure of staging the house (since it is available for showings again) with fall decorations.

A lot of my thoughts the last two weeks have revolved around one main theme: "This doesn't make any sense." So many things about our situation don't make any sense to us. Why would our house sell the first week it was listed, and then fall through two days before closing? Why did it have to be at the last minute, after we had already moved everything out? Why would the Lord leave us living here, in a house that we need to sell and that requires my husband to drive two hours a day for work? When it means that we are a 45 minute to 1 hour drive from a good church, which keeps us from being able to get settled in a church and acquainted with people, involved, and serve in a ministry - when we could have been living a few short minutes away? Not knowing how long we are going to be here makes it difficult to know so many things, from where I should apply for jobs to how much of our stuff we should unpack. To our minds, the whole thing just doesn't make sense.

It was with these thoughts that I read Jeremiah 32. The Lord blessed me with so many good thoughts on the subject of when life doesn't make sense. In case you are not familiar with the story, at this time Jerusalem had been under siege for a year.  God had told the prophet Jeremiah to buy a particular piece of land. But the field that God instructed him to purchase was in a territory that was occupied by the enemy. And furthermore, Jeremiah was in prison. I am sure Jeremiah must have wondered why in the world God was telling him to buy a piece of land when he was imprisoned, and a piece of land that looked like he would never benefit from anyway. It didn't make any sense. But as I studied this passage, the Lord brought several things to my attention:

1. Jeremiah had to go to a lot of trouble to trust God. Verses 9-14 list all the steps that he had to take to buy this land: he had to obtain the money and weigh it accurately on scales, sign the deed, seal it, plus have another open copy. He had to find witnesses. He had to deliver the sealed deed with the terms and conditions of the purchase to the proper person, in the presence of his cousin who owned the land, the witnesses he had gathered, and in the presence of those who sat in the court of the guard. He had to give the proper instructions. This is a lot of work to go through for something that probably didn't seem to make a lot of sense. It reminds me of all the work we went through packing and moving all our belongings to storage, only to have to move them back again and unpack the boxes we had just packed. We had to call to have our utilities changed and then call all of them again to reverse it. We had to stop the change of address at the Post Office, and cancel the movers.

It also reminds me that God never said that everything He does was going to make sense to us. He also never said that His will was going to be convenient. Trusting God when it doesn't make any sense isn't easy!

2. Jeremiah had faith that God would keep His promises. v. 15 - " For thus saith the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land." Jeremiah focused on trusting in the promises and goodness of God.

3. Jeremiah still praised God for being the powerful Creator of all.  v. 17 - "Ah, Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for You!"  God Himself said in v. 27 - "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?" This gives us assurance that nothing is impossible to God! Just because it doesn't make sense to us doesn't mean that God is limited.

4. Jeremiah recognized God as being great in wisdom, and that He is aware of our situation. This is one of the most comforting things for me to remember - God not only knows all about it, but this is part of His plan for us. v. 19 - "Great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings."

5. God had a good plan for His people, even when it didn't look like it. v. 41 - "I will rejoice in them doing good, and I will plant them in faithfulness, with all my heart and soul."

In all of this, I was reminded that God's will doesn't have to make sense. His ways and thoughts are far higher than ours. When we dwell on His power, His wisdom, and His goodness, it makes all the difference. Even when things don't make sense.

Thoughtfully,
Kathi

Love and Gifts, part 2

This is going to be a longer than usual post.

In my last blog post, I wrote about what God has been doing in my life in teaching me about His love for me. When I am walking through a dark time in my life, as I have been this summer, it doesn't mean that God doesn't love me. God does not have to prove His love for us by the gifts He chooses to give us, or the ways He chooses to bless us. He did that at Calvary. But at the same time, because God does love us, He delights in giving us special gifts and blessings along the way to encourage us, and I told you that I would write about those in my next post.

I had no idea.

When I wrote that, I had no idea that we were about to enter a new phase of this journey, and that God was going to bless and encourage us in ways that were beyond my comprehension. Those ways are continuing even now, in ways that are most sweet and precious.

A few days after I posted, on the day we had an appointment to sign the lease for our new apartment, and the day before we were scheduled to completely move out of our house, we got a phone call that turned our world upside-down. Our buyer was unable to close on our house because the buyer of their house had been denied their financing. Here we were, my husband already working at a new job and we had already moved everything out of our house except for a very few items, and suddenly the sale of our house was NOT going to happen. I can't tell you the panic and the feelings that we experienced in those moments.

I can tell you the ways God intervened and blessed us.

When we got the call that our closing was not going to happen, we were literally ten minutes from signing the lease on the apartment. We had re-scheduled our appointment that day. Due to the busyness of last-minute packing tasks and errands, I had been rushed all day and could see that I was running behind. I asked my husband to call the apartment management office and see if they could take us later, and they changed our appointment from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. We got the phone call at 2:50 p.m. If God had not intervened and led us to reschedule our appointment, it would have been too late. We would have already signed the lease on our apartment and been committed to it for a year, thus having both mortgage payments and rent.

A few weeks ago when we were looking for places to live, on the same day we found the apartment we also found a house to rent. It was smaller than our house, but a house, and I thought it preferable to rent a house rather than an apartment because I thought it would be an easier transition. One of the big pluses for renting this particular house was that it was available immediately - we could sign the lease and move in right away, rather than having to put everything into storage and wait for the apartment to be available. However, my husband did not feel like it was the right decision so we didn't take it. Again, the Lord had intervened. If we had taken it, we would have been already moved in and committed for at least a year.

Matthew 7:11 reminds us that as God's children, He delights in giving us gifts: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" God has sent us so many blessings during this time that we started writing them down in a journal.

The very week that my husband left his position as pastor was the same week our younger son and his family came for an extended visit. The timing of that visit had been selected and planned months ago. I sincerely don't know how we would have gotten through that time without them.

Our other son and his wife, as well as our daughter and her husband, both opened their homes for us (because they live closer to us than our younger son does) to come and stay as often and for as long as we wished. This gave us a place to go, to think and pray, and to be with family.

Our daughter drove up while our younger son was here, and we all gathered at our oldest son's home for a weekend. This was the first time we had all been together in 4 years, other than a few hours at my mother-in-law's funeral. It was such a sweet blessing that God knew how much it would mean to me.

God has given us family that is unfailingly loving, praying, and supportive of us. He has given me some dear friends who regularly text, call, and pray for me.

A few weeks ago, God gave us an unexpected weekend away at the Outer Banks for our anniversary at a very low cost. The place where we were able to stay was available at the very last minute. We sat on the beach, watched the ocean, explored the area, talked, and prayed. The church service we attended while we were there was God-designed exactly for us. The message was one of the best I have ever heard on "Waiting on God."

God has given me a new friend, through a friendship with my sister that was established 28 years ago! Who ever would have thought that God was going to use that friendship to bless us now! This new friend has been such a blessing and encouragement, and also has made their home available to us any time we need it because it is closer to my husband's work and makes it possible for us to go to church without driving for an hour. (And we can enjoy furniture and TV!)

These are some of the tangible blessings. The greater ones are the intangible ones. My husband and I are enjoying a sweeter, more meaningful spiritual dimension to our marriage. And God is teaching me new lessons through extended times in His Word and prayer. I sometimes wake up with a hymn, chorus, or Scripture verse on my mind, and I wonder why. As I meditate on it, I realize it is exactly what God has for me that day. I am filling up my journal quickly!

This doesn't mean that this isn't hard. It is the hardest time we have ever been through in 41 years of marriage. We are living in a nearly-empty house with the bare essentials. We are waiting on God and trusting Him to provide for us, to sell our house at the right time, to reveal His plan to us, and lead us to a place of His choosing. We miss ministry.  We desperately miss not having a church home. This is the first time in my whole life I have not had a church or a pastor. This is the first time in our marriage we have not been involved in ANY type of ministry - we have been involved in one or more aspects of service since we were dating. We have no idea what lies ahead. But a quote I saw this week says it well: "Faith is confidence in the kindness of God no matter the confusion of circumstances."

Prayerfully,
Kathi

Love and Gifts, part 2

This is going to be a longer than usual post.

In my last blog post, I wrote about what God has been doing in my life in teaching me about His love for me. When I am walking through a dark time in my life, as I have been this summer, it doesn't mean that God doesn't love me. God does not have to prove His love for us by the gifts He chooses to give us, or the ways He chooses to bless us. He did that at Calvary. But at the same time, because God does love us, He delights in giving us special gifts and blessings along the way to encourage us, and I told you that I would write about those in my next post.

I had no idea.

When I wrote that, I had no idea that we were about to enter a new phase of this journey, and that God was going to bless and encourage us in ways that were beyond my comprehension. Those ways are continuing even now, in ways that are most sweet and precious.

A few days after I posted, on the day we had an appointment to sign the lease for our new apartment, and the day before we were scheduled to completely move out of our house, we got a phone call that turned our world upside-down. Our buyer was unable to close on our house because the buyer of their house had been denied their financing. Here we were, my husband already working at a new job and we had already moved everything out of our house except for a very few items, and suddenly the sale of our house was NOT going to happen. I can't tell you the panic and the feelings that we experienced in those moments.

I can tell you the ways God intervened and blessed us.

When we got the call that our closing was not going to happen, we were literally ten minutes from signing the lease on the apartment. We had re-scheduled our appointment that day. Due to the busyness of last-minute packing tasks and errands, I had been rushed all day and could see that I was running behind. I asked my husband to call the apartment management office and see if they could take us later, and they changed our appointment from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. We got the phone call at 2:50 p.m. If God had not intervened and led us to reschedule our appointment, it would have been too late. We would have already signed the lease on our apartment and been committed to it for a year, thus having both mortgage payments and rent.

A few weeks ago when we were looking for places to live, on the same day we found the apartment we also found a house to rent. It was smaller than our house, but a house, and I thought it preferable to rent a house rather than an apartment because I thought it would be an easier transition. One of the big pluses for renting this particular house was that it was available immediately - we could sign the lease and move in right away, rather than having to put everything into storage and wait for the apartment to be available. However, my husband did not feel like it was the right decision so we didn't take it. Again, the Lord had intervened. If we had taken it, we would have been already moved in and committed for at least a year.

Matthew 7:11 reminds us that as God's children, He delights in giving us gifts: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him?" God has sent us so many blessings during this time that we started writing them down in a journal.

The very week that my husband left his position as pastor was the same week our younger son and his family came for an extended visit. The timing of that visit had been selected and planned months ago. I sincerely don't know how we would have gotten through that time without them.

Our other son and his wife, as well as our daughter and her husband, both opened their homes for us (because they live closer to us than our younger son does) to come and stay as often and for as long as we wished. This gave us a place to go, to think and pray, and to be with family.

Our daughter drove up while our younger son was here, and we all gathered at our oldest son's home for a weekend. This was the first time we had all been together in 4 years, other than a few hours at my mother-in-law's funeral. It was such a sweet blessing that God knew how much it would mean to me.

God has given us family that is unfailingly loving, praying, and supportive of us. He has given me some dear friends who regularly text, call, and pray for me.

A few weeks ago, God gave us an unexpected weekend away at the Outer Banks for our anniversary at a very low cost. The place where we were able to stay was available at the very last minute. We sat on the beach, watched the ocean, explored the area, talked, and prayed. The church service we attended while we were there was God-designed exactly for us. The message was one of the best I have ever heard on "Waiting on God."

God has given me a new friend, through a friendship with my sister that was established 28 years ago! Who ever would have thought that God was going to use that friendship to bless us now! This new friend has been such a blessing and encouragement, and also has made their home available to us any time we need it because it is closer to my husband's work and makes it possible for us to go to church without driving for an hour. (And we can enjoy furniture and TV!)

These are some of the tangible blessings. The greater ones are the intangible ones. My husband and I are enjoying a sweeter, more meaningful spiritual dimension to our marriage. And God is teaching me new lessons through extended times in His Word and prayer. I sometimes wake up with a hymn, chorus, or Scripture verse on my mind, and I wonder why. As I meditate on it, I realize it is exactly what God has for me that day. I am filling up my journal quickly!

This doesn't mean that this isn't hard. It is the hardest time we have ever been through in 41 years of marriage. We are living in a nearly-empty house with the bare essentials. We are waiting on God and trusting Him to provide for us, to sell our house at the right time, to reveal His plan to us, and lead us to a place of His choosing. We miss ministry.  We desperately miss not having a church home. This is the first time in my whole life I have not had a church or a pastor. This is the first time in our marriage we have not been involved in ANY type of ministry - we have been involved in one or more aspects of service since we were dating. We have no idea what lies ahead. But a quote I saw this week says it well: "Faith is confidence in the kindness of God no matter the confusion of circumstances."

Prayerfully,
Kathi