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There's JOY in the Kitchen ~
~When we realize that ~
Letting Go and Letting God is ok.
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A weekly newsletter from Sarah's Tent, an
online ministry tailored towards Pastor's Wives.
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Isa 51:1-2 / Isa 54:2-3 / Heb 10:24, 25
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Christmas Blessing
submitted by MrsTange
Read: Matthew
2:9-11
"God is able to provide you with every
blessing in abundance, so that by always having
enough of everything, you may share abundantly in
every good work." -2 Corinthians 9:8
My family and I were serving Christmas dinner
at a homeless shelter. It was a busy day, with
people seeking a warm meal and some fellowship on
this holy day. My daughters were busy passing out
napkins, my husband poured the tea, and I was
passing out the hot rolls. One man continually
asked me for items. It seemed I was waiting on
him exclusively.
Toward the end of our shift, this man called
me over, announcing he had something he wanted to
give me. When I got there, he hugged me and said,
"I want to give you a 'God Bless You.'
Thanks for showing me I am still important."
We smiled and he departed, leaving with a full
stomach and a renewed sense of worth. I left with
a renewed sense that the best gifts in life are
those that inspire and encourage others in the
name of God. This man had blessed me through his
expression of gratitude. The gifts that he and I
exchanged that day are gifts we can all give to
one another. When we give from the heart, we
share God's presence with one another.
Every person we meet is a dearly loved child
of God whose worth we can affirm.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In as much as you have done this to the
least of my brethren .. you have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:40
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The True Meaning of Christmas
It's just a small, white envelope stuck among
the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no
identification, no inscription. It has peeked
through the branches of our tree for the past 10
years or so. It all began because my husband Mike
hated Christmas-oh, not the true meaning of
Christmas, but the commercial aspects of
it-overspending, the frantic running around at
the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and
the dusting powder for Grandma-the gifts given in
desperation because you couldn't think of
anything else. Knowing he felt this way, I
decided one year to bypass the usual shirts,
sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for
something special just for Mike. The inspiration
came in an unusual way. Our son Kevin, who was 12
that year, was wrestling at the junior level at
the school he attended; and shortly before
Christmas, there was a non-league match against a
team sponsored by an inner-city church, mostly
black. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so
ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only
thing holding them together.
It presented a sharp contrast to our boys, in
their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling
new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was
alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling
without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed
to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the
ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we
ended up walloping them. We took every weight
class. And as each of their boys got up from the
mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with
false bravado, a kind of street pride that
couldn't acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside
me, shook his head sadly, "I wish just one
of them could have won," he said. "
They have a lot of potential, but losing like
this could take the heart right out of
them." Mike loved kids-all kids-and he knew,
having coached little league football, baseball
and lacrosse.
That's when the idea for his present
came...... That afternoon, I went to a local
sporting goods store and bought an assortment of
wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them
anonymously to the inner-city church. On
Christmas Eve, I placed an envelope on the tree,
the note inside telling Mike what I had done and
that this was his gift from me. His smile was the
brightest thing about Christmas that year and in
succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed
the tradition-one year sending a group of
mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game,
another year a check to a pair of elderly
brothers whose home burned to the ground the week
before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope
became the highlight of our Christmas. It was
always the last thing opened on Christmas morning
and our children, ignoring their new toys, would
stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad
lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its
contents.
As the children grew, the toys gave way to
more practical presents, but the envelope never
lost it's allure. The story doesn't end there.
You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded
cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still
so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree
up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an
envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was
joined by three more. Each of our children,
unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope
on the tree for their dad.
The tradition has grown and someday will
expand even further with our grandchildren
standing around the tree with wide-eyed with
anticipation watching as their fathers take down
the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas
spirit, will always be with us. May we all
remember the Christmas spirit this year and
always.
Author Unknown
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And whoever compels you to go one mile,
go with him two Give to him who asks you, and
from him who want to borrow from you do not turn
away. Matt 5:41,42
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What's New?
HELP WANTED....
Sarah's Tent is looking for help from pws in
the following areas.. (If you are interested
please contact Christina or Shannon@ SarahsTent@aol.com
)
1. Help in putting together the family
newsletter that comes out once a month...
includes a few articles.. some funnies.. craft
ideas.. information that is of use to others ..
and birthday and anniversary lists.
2. Sending out encouragement cards, birthday
cards, anniversary cards .. to our pws that are
celebrating. (a one month commitment would be a
wonderful help)
3. We would like to open the chat rooms every
Thursday and Friday night from 5-9 Pacific time
zone... if you would like to be a host... or just
be there and drop in at those times... we would
like to encourage more of you to stop by and just
chat.
4. Looking for someone to send out a weekly
reminder to all the pws .. concerning scheduled
chats.
5. Are you too busy to go into the chat
rooms.. but would love to speak with other
pastor's wives? We are looking to start an email
group for the pastor's wives to get to know one
another better... are you interested? contact
SarahsTent
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Finally....pray for us, that the word of
the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just
as it is with you. 2Thessalonians 3:1
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Holiday Ideas
From: missy@cboss.com
(Missy)
Here's a Holiday idea I hope you can use. One
of the things I do during the holidays is to make
gift bags out of material, instead of using
wrapping paper. They are so simple to make and we
reuse them year after year. My mother-in-law
started us with these bags. She had a quilt that
she had been working on and for some reason did
not want to finish. She made us a couple of
Christmas bags instead. She appliqued Christmas
Trees on them. I have appliqued Looney tunes and
Snowman. There really is no limit to these. Last
year I made 4 Huge bags for my kids. All of their
Christmas presents fit inside. Because they are
still very young, I still wrapped them in
newspaper, or tissue paper. The kids, who are too
young to read knew which presents were theirs and
none of them got mixed up.
To sew the bags it is really quite simple.
Fold the material in half and sew up the sides.
How you want to finish the top is really up to
you. I usually fold down enough material, so that
I can tie a bow 3/4 from the top, and flair out
the top. I sent some out to my nieces in
California, the next year my kids received their
presents in them. So they can be swapped too!
Missy
From: missy@cboss.com
(Missy)
Dear friends at Sarah's Tent. A friend of mine
had a really cute holiday idea. She, as many
parents do, have tons of happy meal toys. This
year she decided to make Christmas ornaments out
of them. She bought screw in tops. They have a
circle on the top and then a screw coming off of
the bottom. She simply screwed these into to tops
of the toys and hung them on their tree. Their
daughter was delighted to have her things on the
tree, and it gave them a tree like they've never
had before, and it cost her less than $1.00.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The most extraordinary thing about the oyster is
this. Irritations get into his shell... And when
he cannot get rid of them, he uses the
irritations to do the loveliest thing an oyster
has a chance to do. If there are irritations in
our lives today, there is only one prescription:
make a pearl. It may have to be a pearl of
patience, but, anyhow, make a pearl. And it takes
faith and love to do it.
Harry Emerson Fosdick
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Honey Almond Strips
From: TentDwellr (Christina)
(an easy way to make a lot of delicious cookies)
Crust:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup margarine, room temperature
1 large egg
1 tsp almond extract
Honey Almond Glaze
1/3 cups margarine (you can use butter too)
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 Tbsp Water
2 Tbsp honey
1 tsp almond extract
1 cup sliced almonds
Line bottom and sides of a 15X 1/2 X 10
1/2" jelly-roll pan with foil; lightly
grease the foil. To make crust.. mix flour and
brown sugar in a medium size bowl. Cut in
margarine with pastry blender or 2 knives until
mixture resembles fine crumbs. Make a well in
center; add egg and almond extract. Beat egg with
fork, then stir into flour mixture until
well-blended and dough forms a ball. Dough will
be slightly sticky. Chill about 10 minutes until
firm. Press into bottom of the prepared pan.
Chill while preparing glaze
To Make Glaze
Stir all ingredients except almonds in a small
sauce pan over medium heat until margarine melts
and sugar dissolves. Remove from heat. Stir in
almonds and cool slightly (about 5 minutes)
Meanwhile, heat oven to 350 degrees. Spread glaze
evenly over crust. Bake 30-35 minutes until
almonds are lightly browned. Cool completely in
pan on wire rack. Lift foil by ends onto cutting
board. Cut into 2" by 1" strips...
makes approx 75..
Better make more than one batch.. cuz once you
have eaten one.. I am not
responsible for you tastebud going wild... they
are goooooood
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)
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Do our children know more about Santa
than the birth of Christ?
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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
From: Song 5 16
Found this at Sherry's Place: http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Woods/4694
**A chuckle**
3 WISE MEN
In a small southern town, I saw a wonderful
nativity scene, but one feature bothered me. The
three wise men were wearing firemen's helmets.
Unable to come up with a reason or explanation, I
left.
At a convenience store on the edge of town, I
asked a lady behind the counter about the
helmets. She exploded into a rage, yelling at me,
"You Yankees never do read the Bible!"
I assured her that I did, but simply couldn't
recall anything about firemen in the Bible.
She jerked her Bible from behind the counter
and ruffled through some pages, and finally
jabbed her finger at a passage. Sticking it in my
face, she said, "See, it says right here.
'The three wise men came from afar.'
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>From iona:
One of my blessings is that I've been
given a small amount of talent to produce web
sites. And I hope to share that small talent by
doing sites for those Christian ministries who
could not afford a site but would want to spread
their message on the internet. If you know of a
church or ministry needing a website, please
refer them to ionanet's
Christian Sites page.
If you have any web sites you would like to
recommend, please send them to me (Tina) at Lambiee@aol.com
We'll be happy to write reviews for the
newsletter!
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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
Joy in The Kitchen Volume 2
Issue 42
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