Making Tamales

The WinGS (Women in God's Service) group tackled the project of making over 2000 tamales this weekend for a fundraiser. I joined them for the morning, and I promise that as soon as I snapped a few pictures for the blog, I did my share of tamale-making! Here's what I learned about how to make a tamale...

Spread out the masa mixture on a wet corn husk

Plop the meat mixture in the middle

Wrap it up and tie the ends

And them steam them until the masa is firm. Sounds easy, right?

Okay, here's the real secret to making tamales...
Millicent.

I think if you want to make authentic and very yummy tamales, you're going to need her, because I think there may have been a few more steps to that recipe, including really well-seasoned pork and many other steps I didn't do!

Anyway, we now have some very delicious tamales in our freezer!

What I learned from my pastor... 9-27

The description of Jesus in Colossians 1:15-20 is amazing: Jesus is supreme in eternity, creation, the church, and in salvation. To think about how He holds everything together by His power is beyond my comprehension. A few weeks ago I watched Ben Stein's documentary, Expelled, and this morning as Kevin was sharing some of the wonders of creation, I thought of the film's segment that animates the inner workings of a "simple" cell - which scientists are discovering contains far more complexity that we could have ever imagined.

The second part of this passage in 1:21-23 turns to our response to Jesus' supremacy: if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel... Many days my faith feels far, far from "stable and steadfast" - I could give you multiple examples right now. But I was encouraged when Kevin pointed out that, in the Greek, "if" in verse 23 expresses no doubt that the believers in the Colossians church will continue in the faith. The key may go back to last week's passage - "according to His glorious might" (verse 11) - building my faith on the solid rock of Christ. And since He holds everything together, I believe He has the power to hold me steady in the hope of the gospel.

I believe; help my unbelief! Mark 9:24

What I learned from my pastor... 9-13 & 9-20

The sermon series Kevin is now preaching is from the book of Colossians, and the theme is Jesus Christ: The Ultimate. In his first sermon from Colossians 1:1-8, we learned that a gospel-centered church has 3 charactersistics: faith in Christ, love through Christ, and hope because of Christ. I'm excited to explore both the simplicity and complexity of the gospel as we go through this book.



In his second sermon from Colossians 1:9-14, one of the points that I found intriguing was about the word "knowledge" in verse 9. The Greek word Paul uses doesn't refer to just a general knowlege, but full and complete knowledge of God. He prays that the church will have that complete knowledge, and it comes through spiritual wisdom and understanding. The idea of knowling and completely understanding God's will seems like an impossible goal to me. But Colossians 1:9 says that we should ask for that spiritual knowledge, which comes through studying God's Word with the help of the Holy Spirit and then obeying it (Col. 1:10). It's a good thing that this understanding is a lifelong process (Kevin noted the present active tense in this passage, indicating a continual progress), otherwise I'd be pretty discouraged, because I'm definitely still learning!

At The Woodlands Mall

On Tuesday we loaded up and drove a little over an hour to the Woodlands, just north of Houston. There we found all kinds of fun stuff to do - a little shopping, lunch, a carousel, and a water taxi ride through a mile-long waterway that winds through an area with restaurants, parks, condos, etc.

Prisca naps to store up energy for shopping!

Naomi chose the rabbit for her carousel ride

Johnathan chose the slightly tamer bench

Prisca chose a giraffe!

Lara and Prisca on the boat ride

We were very thankful for a great visit with Matt, Lara, and Prisca. Having family come to see us is a blessing!!

Cousins at the Museum

After picking Naomi up from school on Monday, we took the cousins to the Children's Museum for a little play time.





Naomi did a little grocery shopping and picked up a cute new item:





Naomi enters the spaceship with Uncle Matt

Johnathan and Prisca play with trains

Having missed nearly all of little Prisca's milestones so far, we were very excited to witness a first for her - she learned how to push a little shopping cart to help her walk. She was so proud of herself! Watch this video to see her accomplishment:

A fun afternoon for everyone!

Welcome to Aggieland!

This week we were excited to welcome Rachel's brother Matt, Lara, and Prisca to our new home in Kurten. At ten months old, Prisca is a delight, scooting around and offering huge smiles. Here she is in her Aggies shirt...



Heading to church on Sunday

Snuggling with Uncle Kevin

Johnathan pals around with Uncle Matt

The cousins cuddle! Naomi and Johnathan couldn't keep their hands off their baby cousin - They wanted to "help" her with everything she did!

Swinging out back

We had a fun weekend going to Kurten's Fall Festival, touring the church campus and the Kurten area, and eating Texas BBQ.

Naomi's First Day of School

Naomi has been waiting and waiting for the first day of school... And it finally arrived! Sporting her Dora backpack and her new ladybug lunch bag, she was off this morning to Central Baptist Weekday School.



Posing for first day pictures... (See how foggy the picture looks? That's what you get when the humidity is oh, say, 105%)



Here she is putting her things in her cubby like an old pro! She then hopped off to her name on the rug and it was adios, Mom and John!



Naomi reported at the end of the day that it was very fun. She planted some kind of seeds, learned about the 't' sound (that's the letter T, Mom!), and ate her very first lunch at school.


While Naomi was at school, her mother and brother were buying groceries at Walmart and emerging from the checkout line to find it was pouring rain. We're talking torrential downpour. One of these days this Colorado girl will learn to keep her umbrella in her bag.