Intercessors!

It's my day off, so when I got a call saying that someone was in the lobby to see me (I live at work) - I was slightly unhappy. I was still in my pyjamas.

But I'm glad I met the person. It was a young man from the Nanaimo area, who felt led by the Lord to go to 18 specific cities on the Island and pray, starting in Port Hardy, and making his way down.

Well. That was kind of cool. He wanted to know about some of the specific prayer needs for Port Hardy, so I got to sit and chat with him about what God's been doing here and what we feel God is going to do. I wrote down a sheet full of prayer items, gave him our contact info, and prayed him off.

I tell you this because God is good - we've been praying for intercessors to come, to pray, to cover us in prayer and cover in prayer the move of God. I also feel that this guy's job is to break ground - till the soil kind of thing. Prepare the way.

Thank You God for that man, bless him, go with him, let him walk in power and authority! Amen.

If you think of him, pray for him. If you think of us in Port Hardy, pray for us. If you think of Vancouver Island, pray for it!

SOZO!

We have been doing a Sozo class at our church, which is essentially an inner healing ministry. It deals with wounds and lies that may have come in during our lifetime, specifically regarding how we see the Godhead - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm discovering that everything in our life is affected by how we see God. For example, if we see Him as an Abraham Lincoln type statue, we will feel that He is unapproachable, cold, distant, etc. Our relationship with Him will be based on that, and how we live our lives will be built around that.

One of the things we do is we exchange the wound/lie/whatever for what God wants to give. And all throughout the last few days, I've been seeing flowers. A specific type of flower. I'm not into flower meanings, but I kept seeing this one specific flower, so I finally looked it up. It fit right into what God was speaking to me about. I think it's cool that God speaks in so many different ways. All this to say that God is good, He is into restoration, and He is into bringing life to His children.

Treat Myself

Today is Valentine's Day, as you may know. A time to receive cards, gifts, chocolates, and the like. So far, I've received: two packages of chocolates, a Charlie Brown Valentine from one of my preteens (so awesome), and I won a peppermint-themed Valentine's gift basket with spa essentials. Too deadly, as a friend would say. I've also spent it with a couple of great tea/coffee dates with friends. I saw that a local pub is having a Valentine's pasta night, but since I'm busy tonight (with worship band practice), I decided to make myself pasta. And it's fantastic. (In my opinion). So because today is supposed to be about giving - I'll share my "recipe" with you.

I'm pretty loose with what I put in pasta sauce. It depends on what I have in stock, and what I feel like having. Today it worked out quite well. Here's what I did:

Sautéed up an onion and celery in a splash of olive oil. Took my handy-dandy Watkins garlic peppercorn blend and ground a healthy dash of that onto everything. (It has oregano and sea salt as well). Threw in a dried bay leaf and a tsp more of garlic powder. Added a dash of Knorr (I think) Buffalo sauce - I like spice - and a dash of Lea & Perrins worcester. Added a generous helping of sundried tomatoes. (All while sautéing). Threw in a half-pound of extra-lean ground beef, stirred it up nice n good. Sprinkled a satisfying amount of Watkins cinnamon in. Ground some more sea salt, and multi-coloured peppercorn in. Added a can of italian-spiced stewed tomatoes, and a can of earthpure organic tomato sauce. Added broccoli and cauliflower (add them last so that they're not soggy). Simmered it all while the bowtie pasta was cooking!

That's it, ladies n gentlemen! It would have been even better with a sprinkle of cheese, possibly feta, but I was out.

I definitely felt loved as I was enjoying my home-cooked pasta. Happy Valentines!

I am the bestest cook evaaaaaar!

I am currently making creamy tomato curry chicken veggie rice soup. Say that 10x fast. So far, it tastes good. But I need to let the rice (and the flavours) cook. I can smell the aromas wafting around my house as we speak. De-e-lish.

However, I tried making dairy-free gluten-free quinoa cranberry orange cookies last night.
The first batch of cookies came out crumbly. Or should I say, as crumbles. (No, flax water did not work well as an egg substitute.)
So I chucked in an egg for the next batch. Came out as cookies, but kind of, well, flavourless and a bit dry. Hot from the oven, and slathered with butter, they are edible. If I double-baked them I might be able to turn the batter into an acceptable biscotti.

Speaking of other cooking accomplishments, I came in second at my church's annual chilli cook-off. Kind of exciting since I beat the senior pastor, who is a professional chef. ;)
What made my chilli so amazing, you ask? (I don't know, I actually voted mine third, with pastor's as second.) But I'll tell you what was in it, if I can remember!
Chili-seasoned ground pork (yes I cheated a bit, but I made it right after church so i didn't have time to let the flavours simmer like everyone else did); quinoa; a bean trio I got from Costco comprised of mung beans, lentils, and adzuki beans; black beans; chili powder of course; roasted onions, celery and garlic, tossed in olive oil and crushed sea salt; diced tomatoes, tomato paste; honey... and I can't remember what else. (I cook based on intuition and smell, and I usually have a flavour or taste or sense in my mind of what I want, and cook toward that.) Oh right. I fried up bacon and tossed the vegetables in that when roasting them. I wanted a smoky flavour to my chilli and that was the only thing I had that was smoky. Plus, bacon makes everything better. (The chilli that I voted as #1 was ridiculously smoky. It was incredible. They used BBQ sauce, of all things.)

I've been on a quinoa kick lately. I got a quinoa cookbook for Christmas and have been poring over the recipes avidly. I have attempted a couple - well, the concepts - and both times they've come out a little less...just less... than I'd expected. But that's entirely my fault. I am a very spontaneous and adventurous cook and I usually don't use recipes for anything other than inspiration. Then again, I rarely bake - and the lesson I am learning is, recipes must be followed when it comes to baking! Someone gave me the advice of not to change a recipe until I've first done it to the letter. The next time start to make changes. Good advice that I think I will stick to, if I can. ;)

Beekeeper For A Day

Visiting Dad and Amanda is always an adventure. This morning, I got to tag along with them as they made their weekly rounds to their beehives. I was charged with being the photographer, something I heartily enjoyed. So I suited up, made sure my veil was snugly in place, and shot to my heart's content. I felt like the paparazzi, capturing any juicy or slightly interesting moments. I even got to see the queen (of one hive, anyway). Dad and Amanda explained to me what they were doing - checking the brood pattern of the queens; making sure there were no super cells; sugar dusting to inhibit mites; and generally inspecting the health of the hives. They have several hives on three different fields; two fields grow raspberries and the third has some beautiful blueberry bushes. I was able to touch a bee and not get stung, and I had the opportunity to sample honey straight from the comb! Here is a selection of some of the pictures I took.

You stop posting pictures of your kids, and I'll stop posting pictures of my dog.

I am inundated with posts of marriage, weddings, anniversaries, engagements, baby births, baby birthdays, baby dedications, baby steps, baby poops.... not actually joking.
I want to be an obnoxious pet owner and post pics and updates of every little snort and scratch that my dog does. Oh wait... I do that already.
I'm sure people don't want to see pictures of my dog sleeping, for the 47th time. I don't want to see yet another picture of little Sally mashing her face into birthday cake. Unless you're a good friend or relative. Then bring it on.

My heart is beating for...

I am getting the powerful urge to write music. I've written one song, for school. But every time I listen to Bethel lately, I want to write music. Just sayin'.

Check out these lyrics that Brian Johnson from Bethel Live sings (Originally by Delirious?):

"Open my eyes to see
The wonderful mystery of love
Falling into you
I'm drawn to the gravity of love

We're standing still in a moment of eternity
Where worlds collide and I feel the breath of heaven over me

My soul sings [x3]
How I love you [oh I love you]

Open the page and see
The wonderful history of love
I start and end with you
I'm pulled to the gravity of love"


So good.