Change, Recipe, and Fun

I know my life lately has all been about CHANGE. I am becoming adapted in my new job with Four Corners Ministries, starting a new year in BSF with new responsibilities, and desiring to follow all that Christ has for me, which means dying to myself and desiring change for my life to be more like Him. While change is a good thing, it is also are hard thing! Change is not "normal" for humans, as we are creatures of habit and it is often painful and hard. One thing I am learning is that all of the changes in my life are making me depend on God more. I certainly do not do it perfectly, as I still try many times in my own power to do things. But God is gently reminding me that when I depend and trust in Him for wisdom, power, and strength in all of my new roles and changes, He will give me what I need. I am thankful for the changes in my life and am welcoming them, as I hope they will themselves CHANGE me to be more like HIM!

Now, I wanted to share a quick recipe......

I got this recipe about a week and a half ago and I have now made them twice! You must try them, they are addicting!

Rolo Cookies

1 pkg. Rolo's

1 box Devils Food Cake mix

2 eggs

1/3 c. oil

Mix cake mix, oil, and eggs. Take a small ball of dough and form a ball around the rolo. (Only use enough dough to cover the rolo so it can spread through the cookie.)

Place on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 7-8 minutes. Yields about 3 dozen.

Sprinkle with powdered sugar, if desired.

Lastly, this is what I am getting ready for this weekend and I couldn't be more excited or happy to be honoring my sister! I am excited to get to spend time with family this weekend honoring my sister's life and celebrating her upcoming marriage!

Hope you all have a great week!

Cooking with "My Main Squeeze" Round 3

So this week has been a long and BUSY week! Pudge was out of town the beginning of the week, which means I was staying at my parent's house, which by the way if I haven't mentioned here I LOVE! (I mean I hate that Pudge is gone, but who better to spend that time with than family!) Since my little brother has moved back home, we have such a fun time hanging out and it really is like old times (prior to marriage). Mom not only cooks meals (sometimes we tag team the meals), she also does my laundry!! She is an amazing woman whose goal in life is service to there, not only her children! Ok so moving on, by the way, I don't think I have mentioned this either, but I started a part time job in June working for Four Corners Ministries. My "job title" is Projects Manager, which entails lots of various jobs, from producing newsletters, to keeping the website update, to planning events, to coordinating short term mission trips to Uganda and South Sudan. Needless to say, life is super busy. Plus I started back to BSF this last week. I have a new set of responsibilities this year that I am so overwhelmed and privileged to have! Ok so that was a long intro for this post.....

Pudge and I decided last night as we were headed to Target (to get some BSF essentials) that we would buy the ingredients to cook together tonight! Pudge called up one of his co-workers (Adam) to get a recipe that he had made a few weeks prior. I am so glad that Pudge decided on this one! It is a dish I probably would have never tried, had Pudge not tasted it from Adam at work one day. It was awesome and we will be making it again. So here goes....

Turkey Sliders (you can print the recipe here)

1.5 lb ground turkey

1 avocado, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1-2 tomatoes, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1 purple onion, half sliced and other half goes into turkey

1 egg

salt, pepper, and garlic powder

crumbled blue cheese

Hawaiian rolls

Place ground turkey, half of avocado, diced tomatoes, diced onion, egg, and seasonings in a bowl and mix with your hands. Form this mixture into small patties (slider size). Cook on medium heat on stovetop or on the grill. Slice open the Hawaiian rolls and put blue cheese crumbles on half of the roll and toast in the oven. Bring rolls out and put the slider on the roll and top with sliced avocado, tomatoes, and onion.

Sweet Potato Fries (you can get the recipe here) These were just ok, not our favorite and the dip for the fries wasn't the greatest.

Pudge did most of the chopping!!

Turkey and tomatoes..

Pudge did the YUCKY job!!

The turkey for the sliders!

Cooking the turkey sliders.

The rolls about to go in the oven!

Sweet taters all peeled

Shaking the taters in a bag to coat them with corn starch

Be careful not to make a mess like me!

Sweet potatoes with corn starch on them.

Coated in olive oil and ready for the oven.

The sauce for the fries.

Our plates...

And for dessert, a little something I have been wanting to try for a while from Pinterest.

Apple Nachos (you can get the recipe here)

Caramels...

Butter...

Marshmallows....

And the healthy part....apples....to make....

It started out healthy, then....

Adding on the caramel and marshmallows....

Apple nachos, yummy!

After we finished, we were both soooo full!

I hope you all enjoy the rest of your weekend!

WEL-O-COME

So here is the reason I titled the last blog post by this word... click here to find out! I tried to update the video on the last post and it didn't work and by brilliant husband told me to put it on YouTube! Hope you enjoy!

WEL-O-COME

Well, we have been back on US soil for about a week and a half and I finally feel like I have settled back into normalcy. After we returned home, we had a series of crazy weird symptoms that hung around for a few days and plus on top of that being tired , we just have not gotten back to normal until the last few days. I am currently working on ONE BIG post about Uganda. The trip was life-changing and is hard to put into words. I will do my best! Look for an update soon!

Uganda Recap

Orphan Homes - Grace Fellowship Boys/Girls Home

Four Corners Ministries partners with a local church in Kampala in the slums called Grace Fellowship. Pastor Nelson is the man God has placed in leadership over this church. This man has a very quiet demeanor and nature, yet he is a bold and courageous follower of God. Pastor Nelson has started about 25 churches in Kampala in different villages throughout the city. We spent our days traveling to a few of these churches he has started, ministering to the people of those villages. Pastor Nelson also has a heart for orphans and has started a boys home and a girls home for orphans. There are believers who God has put in place as house parents of these 2 homes. These children who have no earthly parents are being brought up in an orphanage and taught about Jesus, our heavenly Father. We spent some time with these PRECIOUS children a few days while we were there. Grace, who I mentioned here, lives in the girls home. These children taught me how to love without boundaries and praise Jesus in the most bleak physical environments. While their physical environment maybe be bleak in my eyes, these children have JOY and HOPE you have never seen before.

Some of the girls from the girls home with me and the 2 young girls (Abbey and Mary Paige)from our team. The house mother is the woman who is in between Abbey and Mary Paige.

The girls sang "Because He LIves" and danced for us.

The boys enjoying some Jolly Ranchers!

We had a time of worship at the boys home.

My brother, Eric, played guitar as we worshipped.

The bedroom at the boys home.

We made this brick pit at both the girls and boys home for them to cook on. They were amazed with how much faster it was to cook on these rather than what they had been using to cook on.

Pudge and I at the Boys Home.

A boy getting water in the bucket that we put a filter on for CLEAN drinking water. This filter is good for 1 million gallons of water!

Pudge explaining Kenneth (the house dad at the Boys Home) to how to use the filter.

Soloman lost his guitar over a year ago. Eric prayed that God would reveal to him someone to give his guitar to and WOW God answered!

The guys from our team with the guys from the boys home. The man standing on the far right is Pastor Nelson.

Jeff and his new friend.

We painted the girls fingernails and they LOVED that!

Painting Grace's nails.

Pudge with Moses, who is the only boy who lives at the girls home. Moses is too young to live at the boys home, so he lives at the girls home. We could have brought this precious boy home in our suitcase!

Our team with some of the girls at the Girls Home.

Pudge with sweet Grace.

Medical Clinic

We did a medical clinic in 3 different villages while we were in Uganda. Pudge's brother, Josh, and my brother, Eric were the pharmacist's for our clinic. We had 2 Ugandan doctors that traveled with us to each village. We were able to give every patient that we saw worm medication, which was about 515 people! We saw patients that ranged in age from 1 week old to 80 years old! We met many of the peoples physical needs while we were there. Many of the physical needs over there were not able to be treated by medication and that is when we were able to tell them that God knows their needs and He will take care of them. We told them that while we may meet their physical needs, that pails in comparison to what God can to to meet their needs spiritually, physically, and emotionally!

Josh and Eric, the pharmacist's!

The room where people waited to see the doctors.

The pharmacist's, Eric and Josh, and the doctor's, Godfrey and Dixon.

Precious baby and mom.

Our youngest patient, who was 1 week old, and her mama.

This woman was in GREAT pain and we were able to help her!

Sweet faces

Pudge helping administer medicine to a baby.

Sweet little one after he had gotten his medication.

The medical clinic team

Our translator, Festo, taling to one of the patient's.

This little girl walked to the clinic by herself because as you can see her right eyelid was swollen due to an infection. She would have lost her eyesight had the doctors not been able to drain it. Thankfully, they drained it and gave her antibiotics to get her well. Praise God!

Pudge giving medicine to a child and the translator telling the mother how to give the medicine.

The doctor and a patient.

Practical Teachings - Water Filtration, Tire Garden, Oral Rehydration

In each of the villages we traveled to, we taught the people some very practical things. We had received training in the states about how to teach this to the people over there. Pudge and Matt were the team members primarily responsible for these teachings and they did an excellent job! They taught the people how to filter water by using plastic water bottles. They also taught them how to make a garden out of a tire, cloth, aluminum cans, and dirt. Pudge taught oral rehydration by using a salt/sugar/water mixture. Many people in Uganda die of dehydration therefore, this oral rehydration method can save lives if it is used.

Praying before they got started.

Matt and his 2 girls building a tire garden.

Almost done with the tire garden.

Pudge teaching the people about filtering their water!

Pudge and the translator speaking to the people.

The notes that one of the Ugandan women is taking as they are teaching.

Pudge and one of our translators trying to find a bucket for filtering water.

A crowd gathered for more teachings.

Churches We Visited in Kampala and Surrounding Villages

As I said earlier, Pastor Nelson has planted some 25 churches in the Kampala area. The few churches we visited served as our facility for the medical clinics and various activities. Each time we got to the village where we would be working that day, the churches welcomed us with singing, dancing, and usually took up an offering as well. This was probably the part of the trip that was the most humbling of all. These people worship so humbly and honestly with all their hearts and you can see that in each of their faces. These people have NOTHING of material value, but worship God with every fiber of their being. This was the part of the trip that was so life-changing!

Pudge holding this precious little girl, who clung to him.

Eric with this precious child.

The children at Pastor Nelson's church singing and dancing for us.

Eric speaking at church. He did an awesome job!

This one may be my favorite from the whole trip! I LOVE all these smiling faces!

Pastor Nelson's Church - Grace Fellowship Church

The future site of Grace Fellowship Church. They are raising money now to build a new church and they add bricks as they have the money. That is also our bus for the week while we were there.

Worshipping God together!

Our God is an awesome God!

A view of the church. As you can see, people were standing outside to listen!

Pastor Nelson (left), sitting next to Pastor David, the appointed village pastor. This pastor was one of our translator's father.

The children getting lined up to sing and dance for us.

The children LOVED blowing bubbles.

Josh and some of the beautiful children.

The kids under the parachute!

Fun with the parachute.

Eric singing praise to God as the children gather around him.

Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.....

The women of the village cooked a traditional Ugandan meal for us! It really was very good!

Pastor David, with his son Festo (one of our translators that we LOVED) and Pudge

Our fearless leader, Tripp, blowing bubbles with the children.

Teaching the women about prayer.

Sissy, me, and Margaret

Matt sharing the gospel with the men through use of a power band!

This little boy showing off his coloring book. The children loved to color and I am so glad Matt and Tara brought so many coloring books.

Mary Paige gave this little girl her shoes because she didn't have any shoes!

Our Translators

WoW! This group of guys really feel like family now. We so enjoyed spending time with these guys and learning about their culture. They really took us in and treated us like family too. These guys strive to honor Christ with their lives in very hard physical conditions. They portray JOY like nothing you've seen. Oh and these guys made us laugh laugh laugh until you almost cry! We talked about things from Alabama/Auburn football to abortion to girlfriends/dating to riots in Uganda to various types of food. Pudge and I are very grateful for the relationships we formed with them and hope that they will be everlasting friendships!

Pudge met Festo the first day and instantly became friends!

Simon helping Pudge administer meds and translate.

The girls got a hold of Simon and painted his fingernails! He was such a good sport!

Mark, Pudge, Simon, and Festo

Whew! I told yall it was going to be a LONG one. I hope you enjoyed reading. I hope and pray this will put in your heart a desire to serve among the nations. I can tell you, Pudge and I are forever grateful and thankful for this incredible experience and look forward to serving in the future!