A Moment in Time

....just passing our house this minute

 

Heading west.

Didn't stop to pick us up this time either.

Please Pray

A family we know (through family ... you know the way it is here...) is going through an indescribably difficult trial at the moment.

Yesterday the Mum in the family went in to hospital to have their fifth child, a boy. She died in childbirth. She has left a husband, a newborn son and four other children. The eldest is eleven years old.

My heart aches for them. I don't have any words, but I ask you all simply to pray for this poor man and his precious children.

Both Mum and Dad were Christians. She is in a better place. But, oh, Dad and the children....all we can do is lift them up to the Throne of Grace, for the Father of the fatherless to comfort them and to uphold them; for the God of all peace to give them the 'peace that passeth all understanding'.

He is able. 

What?! You Didn't Miss Me....?

It's okay. I'm here.


What do you mean you didn't know I was MIA?


What do you mean you didn't miss me?


Well, I was missing, and this is why:

We've had no electricity since about 9pm last night, until now.

And - wait for this - we had no broadband for even longer.

Exciting?

Maybe....for about 10 minutes. After that, I want the kettle to boil for my cuppa; I want the heating to come on; I want, I want, I want....

I now don't want to sound like a spoilt 21st Century softie.

Our winds reached over 100mph. 104mph to be precise. And then the electricity went off, so our local weather station's windometer stopped registering.

I haven't a clue what the instrument is called, but you know what I mean....a speedometer for wind. Feel free to insert your own word here.

For one of the first times ever I wanted to live in a city. I wanted our house to be surrounded by other buildings. I thought we must have been nuts to have built where we did. And I realised why I'd never got around to planting anything in our garden. 

Oh, and here's another reason the garden's not worth bothering about...

Yes, this is right in front of my family room window this morning.

Why would I bother with garden flowers and bushes....?

Just another day....

I need to make an effort to get into the Boys' good books, so I reckon offering some warm gingerbread and custard for tonight's pudding is the way to go.


Not that I'm in their bad books or anything. Just saying...

Here's my Gingerbread recipe.

 

Ingredients:

8 oz Plain Flour

pinch salt

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed spice

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 oz soft brown sugar

4 oz butter/marg

2 oz syrup

6 oz black treacle

1/4 pint milk

2 eggs, beaten

1. Sieve flour, salt, ginger, spice and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Stir in sugar.

2. Melt butter/marg, treacle and syrup gently. Gradually beat in milk. Allow to cool.

Go and do some messages, and whilst out in the car, take a run to the lighthouse.

Stand firmly against the wall, so that the 60-70mph winds will not chuck you off the cliff.

Take some photos, whilst all the time wondering what on earth you're doing out in this wind. The windchill temperature was -12C. I was frozen.

Anyway, here are some of the photos.

 

Drive home, and take one last photo - our house is visible with a heavy shower of rain about to descend. 

When you come home, remember there was the small matter of a gingerbread you'd planned to make.

Ah, but I had good reason.... the melted stuff had to cool down. So, back to business.

4. Add beaten eggs. Stir mixture into flour.

5. Pour into greased and lined 7-inch square tin.

6. Bake for between 1 hour and an hour and a quarter.

 

...or in a loaf tin

 

Then...... and this is the most important part.....

Sit in your favourite spot with a cuppa and some of the above. After all, we don't want to risk giving it to others when we haven't checked it out ourselves.

All in the interests of caring for one's family. 

We're all related.....Bet that makes you feel good!

Having posted the other day on the conversation Catherine and I had, I thought you might all want to watch this.

See.... it's not just us Lewis-folk. We're all just one happy family.

So, you're my cousin. Yes, you. Woohoo! Doesn't that make you feel good? You are related to me. Aint you the lucky one.

 

Simple.

Struggles with Prayer

Do any of you guys have struggles with prayer? I do - huge struggles. It encourages me that other Christians have had these struggles in the past, and I copy here what J. Sidlow Baxter told of his prayer life:

I found that there was an area of me that did not want to pray, and there was a part of me that did. The part that did not was the emotions, and the part that did was the intellect and the will.

So I said to my will, "Will, are you ready for prayer?" And Will said, "Here I am. I'm ready." So I said, "Come on Will, we will go."

So Will and I set off to pray. But the minute we turned our footsteps to go and pray, all my emotions began to talk: "We're not coming, we're not coming, we're not coming." And I said to Will, "Will, can you stick it?" And Will said, "Yes, if you can." So Will and I, we dragged off those wretched emotions and we went to pray, and stayed an hour in prayer.

If you had asked me afterwards, "Did you have a good time?", do you think I could have said yes? A good time? No, it was a fight all the way.

What I would have done without the companionship of Will, I don't know. In the middle of the most earnest intercessions, I suddenly found one of the principal emotions way out of the golf course, playing golf. And I had to run to the golf course and say, 'Come back'..... It was exhausting, but we did it.

The next morning came. I looked at my watch and it was time. I said to Will, "Come on Will, it's time for prayer." And all my emotions began to pull the other way, and I said, "Will, can you stick it?" And Will said, "Yes, in fact I think I'm stronger after the struggle yesterday morning." So Will and I went in again.

The same thing happened. Rebellious, tumultuous, uncooperative emotions. If you had asked me, "Had you a good time?", I would have had to tell you with tears, "No, the heavens were as brass. It was a job to concentrate. I had an awful time with my emotions."

This went on for about two and a half weeks. But Will and I stuck it out. Then one morning during that third week, I looked at my watch and I said, "Will, it's time for prayer. Are you ready?" And Will said, "Yes, I'm ready."

And just as we were going in , I heard one of my chief emotions say to the others, "Come on fellows, there's no use wearing ourselves out: they'll go whatever we do..."

Suddenly one day, weeks later, while Will and I were pressing out our case at the throne of heavenly glory, one of the chief emotions shouted, 'Hallelujah!' and all the other emotions suddenly shouted, 'Amen!'

For the first time all of me was involved in the exercise of prayer.

Perseverance is what I lack and what I need. And faith. Faith to believe that He is the hearer of prayer; that our unanswered prayers are not unheard prayers. Rather, they are our loving, heavenly Father's way of making us return all the more to His throne of grace.

Cute or What?!

Last Saturday, this doll came to visit.

 

She is the cutest thing this side of Bulgaria.

I have no idea why I said Bulgaria, but my statement still stands.

Here's her brother along with our Wee Guy.

 

Apart from our Wee Guy, he's the next cutest thing this side of Bulgaria.

And you know what? 

There's another where they came from...

 

Soon....very soon!

I am not jealous. I am not jealous. I am not....