~
There's JOY in the Kitchen ~
~When we realize that ~
If the roots are deep and strong the tree needn't
worry about the wind.
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A weekly newsletter from Sarah's Tent, an online
ministry tailored towards Pastor's Wives.
_______________________Isa 51:1-2 / Isa 54:2-3
/ Heb 10:24 ,25
______________________
JoyfulArt Goes To Earth
By JoyfulArt
There is this little town out in the middle of
no where...okay, so it's not to far from Mule
Shoe...where there are cotton fields and corn
fields. My dear husband came from this little
town full of farmers, and his experiences on the
tractor and out in the fields has enriched his
sermons greatly. The town is not the town it was
when he was a boy, but nevertheless, there is a
strong sturdy stock of people who's sense of
family and community is strong and refreshing.
As hard as it is for this city girl to
understand, there is a quiet healthy peace to be
had in this little town out in the 'boonies'.
When you don't have a movie theater, a grocery
store, a department store, let alone a
mall....you are forced to get creative!! The
stars at night are brighter, and the life is
slower paced where quiet is actually something
that you can hear! Frogs out in the fields drown
out conversations in the evening, and the
mosquitoes will carry away your kids if you don't
keep an eye out! Neighbors come in and out of the
house when they hear there is a visitor and bring
extra 'vittles' and goodies to help with the
visitors stay.
This rich little town, at first glance seems
to be nothing but a few boarded up memories and
distant farmers out in the fields. But up close
is the basis of many sermons on sowing and
reaping that have been preached from not only our
home pulpit, but many other ministers who have
had the pleasure to have been raised in such an
environment. That is where I and my family are
this week. Learning how to relax, and drink in
the quiet and God's voice. Who knows?? Maybe when
I return from Earth, I'll actually have my
thoughts gathered in nice little rows just
waiting to be harvested!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Gen 1:10 And God called the dry land
Earth, . . . And God saw that it was good. (NKJ)
(no pun intended, hehe)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
How Does YOUR Garden Grow?
By BHale7904
Have you ever raised a garden? Do you remember
the work that went into it? For today's thought
lets consider a garden.
First the ground had to be prepared but you
couldn't do this anytime that you wanted, you had
to wait until the ground was ready. You couldn't
plow and work the ground while it was still
frozen, you had to wait until it was softened.
Now matter how hard that you try, it is extremely
hard to plow a garden when it is frozen hard in
the winter. No matter how anxious you are to
plant the seeds you have to wait until the time
is right otherwise you are throwing away good
seeds. This is the same way with a sinners heart.
No matter how much you want to plant the seeds of
the gospel there, until that heart is softened by
God the heart won't receive those seeds.
Okay, now the time has come, the ground has
softened so it can be broken with a plow. Will
that ground break itself up ready to receive the
seed? No, it will not. A plow can't be run
without someone to drive it or run it. Even if
you do not use a plow and only use a hoe that hoe
can do nothing without a person who knows how to
use it. The plow is a tool as is the word of God
a tool. A tool that is in the hands of someone
that doesn't know how to use it is a dangerous
thing. You would not send a child out who has
never driven a plow before to plow up a huge
field for planting. Neither does God send out
someone that has never learned how to use the
word of God, to break up the ground on a sinners
heart that is softening. If you plow when the
ground is too dry, its very hard to break up, if
you plow when it is too wet then the dirt will
just clump up and will not be suitable ground for
planting and you will have to plow again. This is
what so often happens. A preacher or some other
Christian sees a sinner beginning to soften and
they rush in and try to break up that ground
before its really ready to be plowed. If we get
in too much of a hurry then we get out of God's
timing and the seeds that we do plant will not
grow.
To everything there is a season, and a time to
every purpose under the heaven Ecclesiastes 3:1
Now the time has come to plant the seeds. The
ground is soft and fertile and is ready to
receive what we are to plant. The temperature has
warmed and the season is right. We take our seeds
to the garden. Do we just throw them randomly and
see where they will fall and hope they will grow?
Too often this is what we see Christians do. When
we plant our garden we take our seeds and
carefully put them where we want them to grow. We
don't jump up and down on them and try to drive
them deeply into the ground but we gently place
them in the ground that has been prepared to
receive them. We don't want to leave them on top
of the ground for the water to wash away or move
them to a more unsuitable area but we put them
under the ground and into the soil that is ready
to receive them. We gently cover the soil back
over top of them and then we wait on God to cause
them to grow. We do not have the power to make
those seeds grow, only God does. just like we
don't have the power to make someone come and
serve God. All we can do is what is required in
God's garden on his timing to see the seeds of
the gospel spring forth.
Well, now some time has past and we go out to
check on our garden. We have been watching it
everyday, anxiously awaiting our garden to bring
forth life. Just as we are about to give up and
think the seeds we planted must not have been
good, we go out and look and behold the seeds
have started to grow. We get excited. Our garden
is growing!!! Do we then immediately rush in and
start preparing for the harvest? How many times
have you seen a church have some new seeds come
up and immediately they are ready to send those
out to work? That new little plant will not
immediately bring forth fruit. It must still be
tended and taken care of. It must receive food
and water, if it doesn't it will die. If a new
Christian isn't given the right kind of food then
they will die. Just has you can overfertilize a
new plant, thinking you are helping it by giving
it nutrients it needs, so can a new Christian
become overwhelmed also.
The garden continues to grow but look!!! There
are weeds in our garden. They are trying to choke
out our little plants. What can we do? Well when
our garden gets weeds, we don't wait until they
are big weeds before we remove them , we get them
while they are small. Have you very tried to
uproot a big weed in a garden? Lots of times it
will also uproot everything around it. Weeds
often have large root systems and to uproot the
weed it takes messing up a lot of ground. This
happens especially if you have let the weed get
too large before you try to remove it. But if you
remove those weeds before they can hinder the
growth of the little seeds you planted then those
weeds don't have time to put down good roots to
make it hard to get out. A gardener knows the
difference between a weed and a plant even when
they are very small so he knows which to pull and
which to leave in his garden.
Now the garden has grown. The seeds have
developed into strong plants that have good root
systems of there own. They are firmly rooted in
the ground. They are receiving the water and food
they need to thrive, so we should be seeing
fruits off our seeds. We have seen the flowers
come on and then develop into the fruit. But the
fruit isn't ready at the time we first start
seeing it. With some fruits it takes longer than
others. We may have planted radishes and tomatoes
and beans all at the same time but we will see
radishes develop before the tomatoes and beans.
It is the same with the fruits we see on a new
Christian. Some of the fruits we will see before
others. We may see the joy before we see the
meekness. We may see peace before we see
longsuffering. We may see goodness before we see
faith. Fruits do not all develop at the same rate
and they do not develop on a plant that is not
mature enough to bear fruit. Fruit will feed
others but a plant that isn't mature enough to
bear fruit is not mature enough to give food to
others it still needs to be fed itself.
Now let me add this. Just because a plant is
bearing fruit and producing does not mean it no
longer needs fed. It does. It still needs to get
the nutrients to keep producing that fruit. If
the source of the food is no longer there the
plant will die and the fruit it produces will go
away. A gardener doesn't neglect his care of the
plants just because they have reached the
productive stage. He knows that to keep them
producing for as long as possible he still has to
take care of those plants. The insects will come
in and try to damage the fruit so it is the
gardeners job to watch for the insects. An insect
is like some of the things Satan will do to a new
Christian, trying to make the fruit look bad so
others will not want it. If he hasn't succeeded
in destroying the plants while they were young,
then he will will try to destroy their fruits so
no one will want the fruits. This means the
gardener must be ever ready and on the alert for
things that could harm his garden.
And I leave you with this thought, the seeds
that you plant do it with wisdom. Don't throw
them on the ground that isn't ready. Don't plant
them and then forget about them. If you truly
want to see a good harvest then be willing to do
what is necessary. Don't go in and try to harvest
in someone else's garden. Be willing to start
from scratch. Have a blessed day.
Gal 6:7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked;
for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
(NKJ)
~ ~ ~ ~
Update From Ghana
Sarah's Tent member, Dacia and her
husband John update their ministry to the deaf in
Ghana.
Yes, we are still alive and well. It has been
a busy time for us. We have been doing a lot of
traveling. The end of April we went to Takoradi.
Takoradi is one of Ghana's major seaports. We
went there so that John could meet with a deaf
man who is interested in starting a Bible study
for other deaf people in the area.
And then the first week of May we went to the
annual retreat for the Lutheran Missionaries in
Togo and Ghana. We met for some R&R in Kara,
a city in the northern part of Togo. Would you
believe that John met a deaf boy there?
Our son Joseph recently brought home a deaf
boy that he met. The boy lives just down the
street from us. He is about 7 years old and has
not been to school. He has no language skills. We
are working to get him into the deaf school in
Jamasi.
John will be officiating at a wedding in Accra
before we leave. On June 14 Akorful, one of the
evangelists will be getting married. He and his
bride have wanted to get married for a while now;
but circumstances wouldn't allow it. But they
have decided that they would like to have it done
while we are still here. Akorful will then be
moving to Accra so that he can accept full
responsibility for going to Adamarobe (the deaf
village near Accra). He will also be doing some
church planting in the Accra/Tema area. Please
pray for Akorful and Joyce.
Because Akorful will be assuming
responsibility for Adamarobe the other
evangelists have decided that they would like to
do some church planting in some of the other
areas around Kumasi. They are planning on
starting several Bible studies in the surrounding
communities. They will also start some Bible
classes at the deaf schools.
We are starting to look forward to coming home
soon. We will leave Ghana on Thursday, June 18
and will arrive in Minneapolis on June 19. We
will spend some time visiting with our families
and attending various meetings and conferences
after which we will be back in Nebraska some time
around July 20.
We would like to take this opportunity to
thank all of you who have supported us with your
words of encouragement, gifts of money, and (most
importantly) your prayers.
Blessings, John & Dacia
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Dalton J. Noack djnoack@africaonline.com.gh
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~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Luke 9:2 He sent them to preach the
kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
(NKJ)
BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
FREE NEWSLETTER!
Born Again Marriages now has a quarterly
newspaper called, "The Marriage
Encourager" that we would like to make
available for No Charge to any members of Sarah's
Tent for one full year.
This 20-24 page newspaper has wonderful
stories of marriages that made it through
difficult times, poems, encouraging words, and
more. To subscribe please E-mail to us and give
us your snail mail address: Directors@bornagainmarriages.org
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
THE ONLY PREPARATION FOR TOMORROW IS THE
RIGHT USE OF TODAY.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
POT LUCK!
Hummingbird Cake
2 cups white flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon soda
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups Crisco oil (or your brand)
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups chopped bananas
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
1 cup chopped apples
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup shredded coconut
Mix together flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon,
soda. Mix eggs, Crisco oil and vanilla. Blend all
ingredients, then add bananas, pineapple, apples,
pecans and coconut. Grease bundt pan with
shortening (not oil) and flour it lightly. Bake
at 350 degrees for 70-75 minutes. Allow to cool
30 minutes before turning out of pan. Frost with
cream cheese frosting.
Cream Cheese Frosting
1 8-ounce package cream cheese
1 stick butter plus 1 teaspoon full
1 box confectioner sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Mix the ingredients and spread on cake.
Be sure to check out ministry tested recipes
at: Doffycook's
Nethome
For even MORE recipes, click on these!! More
Recipes and Once-a-Month
Cooking (OAMC)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
It takes more to plow a field than merely
turning it over in your mind.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NEEDING PRAYER?
Contact Sarah's Tent at SarahsTent@aol.com
, and not only will we pray, but your request
will be sent to the proper prayer chains as well.
Just be sure to send your praise report when God
moves on your behalf!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
CHUCKLES
Sent in by Mymindgone
"If you Love Something"
Set it free
If it comes back, it was and always will be
yours.
If it never returns, it was never yours to
begin with.
If it just sits in your Living Room, messes up
your Stuff, eats your Food, uses your Telephone,
takes your Money, and it never appeared that you
actually set it free in the first place.
You either Married it, or gave Birth to it!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Pattie's Picks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had these in once before, but considering
the topic flow of this newsletter thought it to
be appropriate for repeating. Have Fun!! This
week's Gardening Web Picks are from Lambiee: Hi,
I'm Tina Oakley. =) I ran across a really
terrific gardening website that has planting
instructions for every imaginable vegetable, VERY
inexpensive seeds for sale, and so many other
tips on the website, and books to buy; everything
from building a log cabin to raising chickens to
buying horses.....you name it! If its outdoors,
this site deals with it! I thought that if any of
the ladies were interested in this sort of thing,
like I am, this may be a good website to put in
the newsletter. (Hmmm.....I'm not sure if these
two are connected; they both say Dan's garden,
but I couldn't get from one to the other,
so....I'll put them both in.)
ONLINE
GARDENING CATALOG (Click on
"index", it's FULL of stuff!)
VEGETABLE
GARDENING (This is where the gardening tips
are; very helpful)
If you have any web sites you would like to
recommend, please send them to PattieRWR (Pattie)
We'll be happy to write reviews for the
newsletter!
______________________
Joy In The Kitchen is an extension of Sarah's
Tent An online ministry devoted to gathering
together God's silent warriors, the wives of
pastors and ministers of all denominations and
cultural backgrounds, as well as their families,
for fellowship, support, laughter and prayer. Isa
51:1-2 / Isa 54:2-3 / Heb 10:24-25
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