Spring is Here!

Spring is here at last and all the baseball fields are full of little softball players. So cute. My grandaughter and grandson both had games tonight. The tulips are also blooming in the Skagit Valley and I hope to get down to photograph them. I've been busy painting a dahlia and want to paint some tulips, too. Guess there is really nothing newsworthy to write about on my blog, but I just have to say WELCOME SPRING!!!!

Grammy's Plum Bread

When the trees are full of plums this summer,
we can make these pretty loaves of bread with
a tasty topping of pecans and cinnamon sugar.



1 cup sugar

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 egg

1 tsp grated lemon peel

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 cup buttermilk

1-1/2 cups chopped pitted fresh plums



TOPPING:

2 TBSP sugar

2 TBSP chopped pecans

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon



In a mixing bowl, combine the sugars, oil, egg and lemon peel;

mix well.

Combine the flour, baking soda and salt;

add to sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk.

Stir in plums.

Pour into two greased loaf pans.

Combine topping ingredients.

Bake at 350 for 60-70 minutes or until

a toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans.

The Lost Boys Church

I had an opportunity last Sunday to visit a church led by Pastor Williamm Deng. Both he and all of the men in the congregation were lost boys of Sudan.

The first thing I noticed is that there are no women, no old men, no children. All of them were either murdered or taken into slavery by the Arab Muslims who destroyed their villages. Only the young boys out in the fields herding goats escaped by running into the jungles.

I thought about their difficult journey walking across Africa, some eaten by lions and hyenas, some bitten by deadly snakes, some starved, some died of thirst walking across the desert. But here before me were the survivors, unbelievably tall dark and handsome, smiling as they listend to the gospel in their native Dinka. When they began to sing and the drums and tambourine began to play, I felt I was in the heart of Africa. The music of their deep voices gave me shivers.

And truly these young men who survived ARE the heart of Africa. I hope and pray that they will someday be able to return and rebuild Sudan.

Lost Boys of Sudan

It's been awhile since I blogged. I've been busy helping one of the lost boys of Sudan. It started like this: I prayed that God would show me the poorest of the poor here in Bellingham. The next day I saw a very tall, very thin, very black man standing on top of the library steps. So of course I went right up to him and asked, "Are you from Sudan?"

He said 'Yes."

So I asked, "Are you one of the lost boys?"

And he said "yes."

Then he said, "I cannot read. I want to read."

And I said, "Well, I can teach you how to read."

And so we began a friendship. I learned he was homeless and sleeping under a bridge. He had no family here and was physically disabled from many gunshot wounds suffered during the war in Sudan. I helped him go to alcohol rehab and he is now living with a housemate and has a job.

The BIGGEST NEWS happened this week. His old girlfriend whom he has not heard from in over five years looked him up and said, "I have your son and I don't want him. YOU take him."
So, WOW, now there will be a little boy to add to the picture. I have so many prayers for them. If you a person who prays, leave a comment and I'll send you my list of hopes for them.

Creative Memories

Hooray. My daughter Lena is going to be a Creative Memories consultant. Now I can get all those boxes of pictures and mementoes and put them into beautiful albums. I've always wanted to do that. I'm looking forward to some creative moments with my daughter. The sun is melting the snow so I hope to go home this afternoon. The freeways look good, but the side roads are still somewhat treacherous. Tell me your best idea for a photo album page design.

Yet Another Pacific Northwest Storm

I got caught in the snowfall and spent 2-1/2 hours driving 20 miles. Too hazardous to drive home, so am here at my daughter's watching the winter wonderland outside. Spent the eveing looking at memory books. Wow! It's amazing how fast the grandchildren have arrived and grown. My favorite Christmas memory was of 1-year-old Owen who discovered a candy cane that someone forgot and left down low in the back of the tree. He reached for it and looked up at me with the biggest grin. What's your favorite holiday memory?

The Ant's Burden

Here's a wonderful story that I borrowed from another blog:

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens.

"Great", she thought, "here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry."

She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there. She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens.

When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains.


She thought of the Bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth." She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?"

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it! The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist.

When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

I think it would do all of us some good to say, "God, I don't know why You want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if You want me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called. Without God, I'm nothing, but with Him... I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Phil. 4:13)