Lighthouse Mission

I keep being reminded of how fortunate I am to be able to travel and do the Lord's work abroad. Traveling has always appealed to me and is a testament to God working in mysterious ways. In all my dreaming of places to go and things to see I never imagined I'd be staying in Christian homes, praying for people or cooking for large banquets. His plans are so much better than ours. Even though it's for a short season, God is constantly inspiring me in numerous ways and I can't help enjoying life to a greater degree.

It's been on my heart to give some encouragement to those who are unable to go on mission trips or have not been called. This is where I think prayer comes in. Having a strong  prayer base at home is incredibly important for a missionary. I've felt the protection of prayer and I thank everyone who's doing God's day to day work and prays for me. Thank you. Prayer is no small thing, the fragrance of prayer alone can turn whole families to the Lord ;)

Serving at Lighthouse Mission (feeding the hungry and helping the homeless) was a real rewarding experience. Cindy Fiore, one whose life is dedicated to God's work, invited me to the Saturday Kids Club event. We started setting up the lunch tables with plates, napkins, Capri Suns and apples (later the kids ate hamburger and fries from McDonald's and a cupcake). Beautiful new, clean building. Pastor Jim Ryan touched on the state of these kid's lives and some things that have happened at similar events. It frightened me to the point that I contemplated serving in the kitchen the whole time instead of interacting with the kids. Anyway, the kids started arriving and grabbed carpet squares to sit on as they reviewed the Bible verses they had been learning. Many raised their hands to recite them by memory! The funny thing was I engaged the kids right away, sitting down with my carpet square, next to some young boys. I guess my natural tendency of wanting to be around kids overrode the fear I had felt. Amen!

This weekend's entertainment was a 45 minute puppet show cleverly done with kid participation. The sound of children giggling

is the best! After the puppet show we went outside in their courtyard and played jump rope, double dutch, bubbles, football, you name it. I helped keep order with the girls playing with the large jump rope. It amazes me how simple it is to connect with kids. With one girl all I asked was if she knew how to do hand clapping games and she did. We started the series of clapping diagonally, back to back and what not, then a boy comes over and wants to join in, she shows him how to do it and lets just say, it's a girl thing.

For the rest of our time outside that same girl held my hand and wanted to be right by my side. So precious, I don't know if it's just me but when a kid wants to hold my hand my heart just melts. Lunch was a little crazy there were 72 kids and about 12 workers, a young boy lead us in prayer for the meal- so cute and after lunch each kid got a pail of beach toys as they left. 98% of the kids were Hispanic and African American. I will probably be volunteering here the next couple Saturdays.

 http://www.lighthousemission.net/Lighthouse_Mission_Inc./home.html

God Bless,   

Prayer and Play Ball

Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle Mission Convention was a 5 day event. In addition to the Saturday banquet we attended the Sunday morning service with Pastor Ron Braaten from Belize. Once I saw the pictures of the his family down there my eyes started tearing up. It made me really miss Linda and the kids. The International Lite Bite was Sunday evening, a celebration of food from different cultures prepared by people from the church representing their own nationality. Tons of food, tons of people and great fellowship. Leaving that evening I couldn't help but notice the joy and happiness I was feeling from my head down to my toes. Connecting with the few New Yorkers I knew as well as meeting new people for the first time was such a joyful experience. My sister Jacque seemed to be uplifted from the event too. Her and I were having fun practicing our New York lingo on the ride home,"Forget about it. Get outta here." :) Tuesday evening I attended the Missions Prayer Partners time. This was awesome! Hearing about what God is doing through each missionary in all parts of the world, what they plan to do, and what they need prayer for gave me a beautiful picture of how He is the vine and we are the branches, growing and reaching the nations. There is some amazing kingdom work being done through these missionaries.  Wednesday morning worship and prayer is where more interceding took place and a few prophetic messages were given too. Sweet words of Him wanting to refresh us and wanting to forgive us of our confessed sins. It was a blessed time.   



One of the mindsets I'm trying to keep as I travel is to take advantage of every opportunity as they come; such as serving, learning, praying or any unique experience the location or time provides. This just happens to be baseball season so you bet I'm going to a Yankees game while I'm in New York! My friend Josh got the tickets and after prayer we were off to the 1:05 game. New York traffic- forget about it, honestly I don't know how long we were in the car driving to and from the stadium. God  poured grace on our car ride, and we both shared our testimonies. without a dent in the car (amen) and even had time for a quick $2 hot dog before the game. The Yankees' 6 game losing streak finally took a turn for the better and they won 7 to 3. Couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day (80 some degrees). Nice new stadium, pretty simplistic in design but drenched in history. Similar to the Mariners' Dave Niehaus, the Yankees' long time announcer Bob Sheppard passed away recently. Derek Jeter asked to have Bob's voice introduce him for his at bats. I picked up the different voice right away, and can hear how it was such an iconic rich voice. Kind of neat. One interesting fact Josh pointed out about the Yankees was that in the late 1990's when they won three World Series there were several Christians on the team at the time. Many of them met regularly for

Bible study and prayer and achieved the goal of every professional baseball player as a team. Hmmm, uncanny don't you think? Anyway, we grabbed some Greek food that I have been craving for a while and rushed to the church for the worship and prayer service that concluded the Mission Convention.

http://www.livinglightnews.org/vyanks.htm

God Bless,

SGT Missions Banquet

                                                                        

                         -Menu-

Appetizer

Capri Salad With Warm Balsamic Reduction

Main Course

Grilled Roasted Rib Eye Of Beef

With Brown Mushroom Sauce

Grilled Green Beans With Garlic Butter And Videllia Onion                  

Mashed Potatoe Au Croissant

Dessert

Gateau Fromage With Seasonal Fruit And Sauce a l' Orange

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The banquet went very well. The day started at 8 am for most and ended around 10 pm. With all the prep done in advance there were periods of down time but once 2 pm rolled around things started to pick up. At this point a lovely woman lead us in prayer for the event and the Holy Spirit's wonderful presence filled the room.  

First, we plated the appetizer salad, the red of the tomatoes, crisp green of the lettuce and white from the mozzarella was so attractive to the eye, I couldn’t get over how beautiful it looked - so simple. There were 6 of us plating these up.

Then came time for the dessert which had several components to it. A ladle of the sauce a l' orange (fruity guava flavor with a zesty orange finish) then sliced fresh strawberries arranged in a star pattern with fresh blueberries in the center, the cheesecake circle rested on top of the fruit in order that it doesn’t touch the sauce, a small scoop from the top center of the cheesecake was removed to be filled with a spoon full of crème anglaise sauce then covered by a dollop of whip cream a sprig of mint. As this was going on the main course was being plated and served and 344 guests were served in 35 minutes.

One of my favorite parts after the banquet is discussing what happened in the front of the house (dining room) and in the back of the house (kitchen). It gives you a whole picture of the success of the event and there are always hilarious stories that come up. You name it, guests squeezing server’s fingers for more coffee or chefs running out of food in the kitchen, all part of what goes on at these events. John Long (executive chef) is always looking for ways to speed up the platting process so we went over some alternative plating processes, drawing them out and thinking them through. It's a fun time to discuss what went well and things we would like to do differently next year. This was my 4th missions banquet and they just keep getting better!

God Bless,

The Big Apple Baby!

All prayed up and on my second missions trip. New York! This time my mom and younger sister Jacque are coming along for the 300+  Smithtown Gospel Tabernacle Missions Banquet. We will be working with the Chefs for Christ team putting on the three course dinner with a menu meant to be simple but elegant. I love being in the kitchen with this team! My dad is also traveling to New York and will join us as well. For three weeks after the banquet I will be staying in Long Island shadowing a chef from the church at his fine dining, chef's menu only restaurant. An amazing opportunity for someone that has recently graduated from culinary school!

Thursday, was dedicated to Manhattan, or as our tour guide said, the island of Manahata. We rode a Grayline tour bus to get around the city and see some of the sights, stopping at SOHO, Little Italy, Canal Street and Battery Park. The storm that passed through Wednesday came and went so it was a perfect day and stayed dry into the night. The view and unique perspective from the top of a double decker bus, wind blowing in your hair and all is amazing. Included in our day pass was a Brooklyn night tour, which involed ducking under street signs, traffic lights and low hanging tree branches while seeing the city-pretty exciting.

Friday was dedicated to traveling to Smithtown on the Long Island Rail Road and helping with the prep for the banquet. So, so happy to see our NY friends! I can't wait to catch up with them more and from the sound of it, God is moving in a awesome way in Smithtown too.

My mom, Jacque and I started on slicing the strawberries for the dessert then the four of us tackled slicing, buttering and sprinkling the garlic on 51 rounds of bread. Mass production at it's finest. There is a good size group of people putting together the food for the event and it appears to be very organized. There are about 6 lead chefs in charge of different parts of the meal, dessert in my case- big surprise. It's going to be a fun day, John (executive chef) plans to serve the 344 guests in 25 minutes, it's a tall order but will be fun seeing how it all comes together.

God Bless,

My Spiritual Birthday!

Two years ago today, my life was forever changed. It finally "clicked" that Jesus was the answer, the answer in my life's most trying time. After months of heartache and mental unrest in trying finding out why I got to where I was, it occurred to me that God was the critical missing piece."God wasn't in it" was the thought in my head. I can't even begin to describe the comforting sensation of the Holy Spirit at that moment, sitting on my bedroom floor reading the book "Love That Lasts." My mind finally found peace. My heart finally found joy. I knew with all my being that I had found my answer. Unlike all the other possibilities I came up with, that kept my mind racing, I didn't have to search anymore.
In the ensuing months God ignited a deep fire inside me to read. Up until this point reading had been a chore, many years of college textbooks burnt me out. All that changed, the thirst for Christ's knowledge was so strong, especially in the area of relationships. I began reading numerous Christian books and of course ultimate book of life, The Bible.

Couldn't wait to go to church and that Sunday the 17th, I went by my self, for myself. Got into community right away and my dark lonely world was brightening up and I started making friends in my community group. I remember watching sermons series on my computer at night, laughing, crying and going to bed with this giant smile on my face, praising Him for how awesome He is!
Fast forward to now and I'm saying "I love you"  to those same women, my Christian sisters. I have more friends than I have ever had in my life. They are true friends that love me enough to call me on my crap, in order that I see past my own blindness and they are there for all my tears in the valleys of life.  He truly can make all things new, give you a new heart with desires and thoughts you have never considered before. Turn a prideful, selfish, immature, disrespectful girl into a woman of faith, seeking His ways and His will for her life. God has blessed me with so much, friends and family in Christ, an international culinary journey serving His children, health and the means that I'm able to do these things. Oh, I can't forget a little thing called eternal life :) Man, HE IS GOOD!   

Praise God that He is King of kings, Lords of lords and is on the thrown reigning! Praise Him for His grace and mercy, that He is in total and complete control! That I can walk away from sin and never be the person I once was!

My heart is getting all fired up, I need to turn on some music and worship Him!

God Bless,

Auntie Lunch Date

A heartwarming auntie moment I just had to share. It is Razzle Dazzle Week at Picnic Point, my nephew Jayson’s elementary school. A week featuring one student in the class and this week it is Jayson! He made a poster with pictures of him and important facts about him like, his favorite color (blue) and so on. Jayson got to invite one person to come to school and have lunch with him and he picked me. Just hearing about this yesterday my eyes started tearing up. That just spoke love into my heart. In all fairness, I was Jayson’s second choice after his dad that couldn’t make it because of work.

Anyway, I packed my lunch; orange, pretzels, yogurt, a raspberry, chocolate, walnut scone I made yesterday for Mother’s Day and a bottle of water. I met him in the cafeteria at 11:30, sat down and had lunch. Zach from Jayson’s class sat next to him, Paige sat next to me and two other boys sat across from us. Then came the questions and all at once. “Do you know science, do you know timesing, what’s 200 times 600, what’s your favorite holiday, do you know about Alcatraz, what makes a parachute come down slowly, are you allergic to anything?” I just barley finished answering these questions to the best of my ability, while trying to eat my food before the 15 minute lunch period was over! At least I wasn't getting the, are you married?, do you have a husband? type of questions.
Oh, can’t forget about the boy sitting across from us, eating a hot dog on a whole wheat bun with ketchup, mustard zigzagged across the top. As lunch time progressed he neatly overlapped dill pickle slices on top of the hot dog then poked a few of his crunchy chow mien noodles into it, then Jayson suggested adding two of his baby carrots on the end to make it look like an animal- funny kid stuff.

We walked back to Jayson’s classroom and he showed me his desk, poetry book, explained why his teacher was putting marbles into a jar and the tallies on the board. And I guess he is in charge of the computers this week, not sure what that entails but is honorable, I’m sure. Having no idea of my role as lunch guest was or even if I get to talk to the class, I started thinking beforehand about what I would say. Previously, Jayson brought my Belizean money and the little souvenir I got him to show and tell, so I thought I would talk about Belize and of course Jesus. But that wasn’t in the cards- no evangelizing there :) and guess what, I also forgot to pray for our food at lunch! Holy moly, my one chance and I blew that opportunity, oops. I realized it when I got back to my car to leave and began praying for the school, teachers etc. Oh well, next time.

Silliness aside, it was a memorable lunch date for my nephew and me. Thank you Lord!

God Bless,