Cupcake encouragements! (and Gaucamole!) : )

This summer has been filled with SOOOOO very many blessings!

Some have been HUGE ones and some have been smaller ones! Some of the smaller ones (in size, but definitely not in impact!!!) have been cupcakes and guacamole! Ive always wanted to know how to cook (as im definitely very bad at it) hahah but this summer ive been going crazy with baking cupcakes and making guacamole whenever the ingredients are on sale!

 

Yeah Lauren!

Smashing a cupcake in Laurens face!

mmm.... sweet yummy goodness!

These next cupcakes are from the Fourth of July (my momma found some boxes of cupcakes mix and frosting for only $1.00!)

Happy 4th of July!

This last week we were able to have a movie marathon with my young cousins Johnny, Zack and Caroline and our neighbor Morgan and we made Pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and little chocolate chips on top!

THEY ARE SCRUMTRILESCENT!!!! : )

 







hahahah Caroline and Morgan!







A pure bundle of yesness!




 

Amazing Forgiveness!

This story of a Muslim man named Rais Bhuiyan is such a beautiful example of love, compassion and forgiveness! What an example! I pray that i could show even a hint of such forgiveness as Jesus has so amazingly forgiven every single human being when He so lovingly died on the cross for our sins, taking and paying our debt completely, so that we can now be free, free from the penalty of sin, free from the bondage and burdan to sin! We once were dead because of our trespasses and sins, but PRAISE THE LORD we are now alive in Him!

"For while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!"  Romans 5:8

Hallelujah, what a Savior! What a most precious blessing!

Link to the article!: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/07/18/rais-bhuiyan-pleads-to-spare-mark-stroman_n_902137.html

Hand and Cloth! : )

 What a precious Saturday! Just yesterday i was able to spend the day with my momma as we went to Ten Thousand Villages located in Geln Ellen for a Hand&Cloth get together with Hand&Cloth as well as an organization called As Our Own (i also have the link to these organizations at the top of the blog website to click on!)
It was SUCH a blessing to be able to see Sarah and such an encouragement to see and hear from those whose hearts are soooo full of love for these women who are now set free from sex trafficking and able to have the hope that is only found in the Lord Jesus Christ, our loving Lord and Savior!
While there my momma and i were able to drop off a thank you for the woman who had so preciously made my Kantha quilt, as well as look around in the Ten Thousands Villages store while eating pumpin cupcakes! Oh Lord thank you, what a blessing and encouragement!
p.s. my momma and i were also able to find some good buys at a resale shop while we were downtown Glen Ellen as well! : )

The thank you note as well as my new Kantha Quilt!

With love from Chicago to Bangladesh!!! : )

Making pancakes with LAURA GRUBBSKI!

One of Laura's marvelously precious pancakes!



This last weekend was SUCH a blessing having such a dear friend of mine, Laura Grubb, over at our house!
We were able to take it easy, make pancakes and play BINGO with my grandma and grandpa, where Laura won a stunningly beautiful apron that used to be my grandmas as we also had home made spaghetti made by my grandma!
hahahah the whole weekend was such a blessing and i will definitely miss my dear precious friend until we are able to return back to Emmaus Lord willing in the Fall! : )



hahahah Laura!

LAURA!

















 

Prayers for Egypt...

An update on Egypt and the believers undergoing much persecution and hardship... but still remaining faithful to God's word and even praying for our country that many would come to accept Christ as their personal Savior! Hallelujah!

http://www.cmml.us/news/2011-07-13/update-egypt

The King of Kings! What a blessing!

Today i was watching Gangland on TV, as gangsters have really been on my heart a lot this past year, and the featured gang was the Latin Kings.           

I remember being hit most by a phrase that one young boy had said as he was talking of the community his gang provided and his thoughts about God. He said, "I don't believe in God, what has He ever done for me? The nation is my God!" and then shot up some gang signs while shouting

"Amor de rey" (Kings love)

I was so saddened by this and couldnt help but think of how these men, many young men, need the LORD so very badly in their lives, that they could see the light in the darkness, and that they could know the truth instead of the lies this world has for them...

Its amazing how everyone in the gang life it seems is looking, amongst many others things, overall for community, respect, to be feared and to be number one on top.

I found it interesting that a Latin King had said this, and later found this graffiti writing stating

"Jesus, King of Kings!"

Praise the LORD that this is 100% true, and will always be!

No matter how strong, how big or how powerful a gang may be in this world, even if the Latin Kings, they are in NO comparison to my King,

the TRUE King, the King of Kings!

What a blessing that our God can never and will never be replaced, we never have to live in fear, as the world does, that we will lose our place as serving the number one, on top, LORD of LORDs and King of Kings!

Hallelujah what a Savior, what a blessing!!!

Prayer journals filled with THANKSGIVING!

This summer i have definitely been struggling in writing in my prayer journal prayers of thanksgiving, but i was just really inspired by these journals, all so unique and all so beautiful, just like everyone in whom the LORD has so intricately and so uniquelly created!

If anyone has never written in a prayer journal before or ever started one, i would definitely strongly encourage you to!!!

Ive never been a huge fan of just journalling, but its such an encouragement to journal your prayers ro the LORD, prayers of thanksgiving!

Its such an encouragment to see how the LORD is working and a beautiful way to remember all that He has done already, so that, unlike the Israelites who had forgotten over and over all that the LORD had done for them (as i do everyday!) in saving them from slavery and captivity in Egypt... to then feeding them JUST what they needed everyday with manna, and water to survive, and sooo much more... Having a prayer journal is a wonderful way to remember all that He has done, and that is a HUGE blessing in itself! : )

HOPE!

This summer so far, everyday, you can see the word "Hope" everywhere! There has not even been one single day where i havent seen "Hope!"

Its been on commercials like the American Cancer Society, my little beenie baby named Hope, a willow tree figure named Hope and even Derrick Rose from the Bulls has the tattoo HOPE on his arm! hahah : )

Its everywhere, but how?

Because God is everywhere!

There is no such thing as a hopeless situation, just people who think hopelessly, and with the LORD we can KNOW that...

"...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurances produces character, and character produces HOPE, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who have been given to us!" (Romans 5:3-5)

The LORD is soooo amazing, has such a sense of humor and is always so faithful in His encouragements and kindness, everyday! And because of HIM we can always have HOPE!!!!!

"For i consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us!" (Romans 8:18)

The HOPE that we know that no matter what comes today or tomorrow, we will always have HOPE that the LORD one day will lovingly return, and we can be with HIM in glory!!!! : )

Hallelujah what a Savior, what a blessing!!!

Hand & Cloth

handandcloth.org

What a blessing!

Just a few days ago, while heading out to do some extreme couponing at the Dollar General, i had received a long awaited phone call that i was able to pick up my kantha quilt made by a precious woman from Bangladesh through hand&cloth.org!

With each purchase everyone receives a card that says this:
"Thank you for purchasing a Hand & Cloth blanket. Your purchase provides dignified work, school scholarships, and a loving community to formerly prostituted women and girls-at-risk in Bangladesh.
It is our prayer that the woman who handmade your blanket would come to know that she also has been handmade by God.
Blankets handmade by women / women handmade by God!

AMEN! : ) oh how precious and what a blessing!!!!

Iron Sharpens Iron!

What a blessing this book is! While at ISI Kati and I were able to go to Emmaus for Iron Sharpens Iron for free! WOAH!

And even beyond that, while at ISI a woman named Mrs. Susana had baught this book for us as a gift, what a blessing from the LORD!

And there is soooo veyr much more to this story..... : )

Mi primero blogo (hahahah i think?) : )

FREEDOOOOOOMMMM.... to write just like how i think... maybe F- material when it comes to college paper writing, but i pray hopfully more so in the C or B- area of blessing maybe even one person!

Sorry Dr. Van Dine, there will probably be no MLA formating to this blog... i fear that my writing skills are definitely in the more-so lacking side of being formatted and organized (just like my thoughts! hahah) so im so very sorry to everyone if they are confused by my blogs, unfortunately there will probably be 20 million miss-spelled words (like that last one) hahah and probably zero periods, with 40 thousand commas and infinite amounts of exclemation points (oh goodness, already two misspelled words!)

And now it begins.... : )