Dear 2013

Usually at the end of the year, I like to reflect on the last year and highlights that made this year special. As 2012 comes to close, I'm having trouble coming up with the words to properly describe this year.

I'm going to let my blog tell you the story of 2012.  2012 is going to be year we would love to forget, but never will.

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January

You're Still God by Kathy Troccoli

Monsters Inc: Fighting the Monsters Within You

February 

We are Officially Wycliffe Members

March

60 days into 2012 

This is what I know

April

I Found a Penny Today 

Orlando

May

Wycliffe Prayer Update!

What a Great Weekend!

June

Goodbye 30...Hello 31

When God Has Another Plan

Good bye Beautiful Tree

July

 Game Night with Friends

August

 Bible Study: "in the course of time..."

 Wycliffe: Reaching the Last Languages

September

I Will Carry You: Michael W Smith

Curb Appeal

Online Recipes Exchange: Pumpkin Spice Pancakes

 October

My Life's Soundtrack

God's Glorious Creation - All Lit Up

November

Divine Appointments

The Butterfly Story

December

Don't Stop Believing
Christmas GTG from Omaha
Merry Christmas from the Pitneys

2012 Christmas Cookies

I really love making Christmas cookies.  For the last few years, Steve and I have given Christmas cookies to friends and our bosses.  Buckeyes are a favorite. They are so easy to make.

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Ingredients: 

• 1 1/2 cups Peanut Butter
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 6 cups powered sugar
• 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips  

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First, you mix the first 4 ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover plates with wax paper, roll the dough into one inch balls and place them onto the plates.  Stick a toothpick into each ball and put the plates into the freezer for at least 30 minutes.

Tip: If I am making multiple types of cookies, I make the buckeyes first so they can be in the freezer while I'm working on the other cookies.

After the balls are frozen, you can dip the balls into the melted chocolate.  I melt my chocolate in a small crock pot, because it works really well.

When all the balls have been dipped in chocolate, you put the Buckeyes back into the freezer or refrigerator until they are firm.  Enjoy!

This year, as luck would have it, I had some extra melted chocolate leftover.  So we decided to get creative and just dip whatever we had around the kitchen.  We dipped some granola bars and I made some marshmallow balls with some mini marshmallows and covered them in chocolate.  Oh, the fun things you can do with melted chocolate.

Merry Christmas from the Pitneys

Christmas GTG from Omaha

We had such a great weekend. Kristen and her husband, Devyn braved the rough 80/90 all the way from Nebraska to come visit Steve and I before heading south to Lafayette to her in-law's house.  They arrived Saturday night at around 7:30 and we went to dinner at Indulgence in South Bend.  Yum. I love that place.We sat around and talked about all kinds of stuff until the turned the "Open" sign off.  I guess that was our clue to go home.

After Indulgence, we went back to our house and talked some more and played with their cute little dog, Bruno.

We talked about everything from life to work to Wycliffe.  Devyn seems to especially like Da Jesus Book.

Here is a picture of all of us after church this morning.

I hope that they had a great time too.  I loved getting to meet someone from an online group that has been so important to me, in real life.  Even though we have "known" each other online for about 9 months, we met in person for the first time on Saturday.  It felt so comfortable, like we had known each other our whole lives.  At least to me it did.  This group has been a God-send to me this year.  There are so many spectacular women in this group.  Now, I'm looking forward to Christmas.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NIV) 

⁹ Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor:
¹⁰ If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.

Love Made the Difference

“There can be no doubt that the phenomenal growth of Christianity in Africa 
owes enormous debt to Bible translation.” 
- Aloo Osotsi Mojola

Just as the Apostle Paul says in his letters, “I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now .“ (Philippians 1: 3-5 NIV)  We, likewise, pray with joy and thanks. We recently heard a story that inspires us to want to get to Cameroon sooner and we wanted to share it with all of you.

 

Lee and Tami Bramlett, translators in Cameroon, working with the Hdi people, were looking for God’s mark on the local culture.  In a dream, Lee was prompted to look again at Love.  They had already learned that verbs have one of three endings, -i, -a, and –u.  Through their work up to this point, they had encountered dv-i and dv-a.  They had not; however, come across dv-u.

Consulting with their mother-tongue translation committee, they discussed loving a wife.  Dvi was found to mean that you had once loved your wife, but no longer.  Dva was found to mean that you loved your wife as long as she did all of her wifely duties; love was dependant on her doing.  When asked about Dvu, they were told that you could not dvu your wife, because you would have to keep loving her no matter what she did.  After a few minutes, Lee asks, “Could God dvu people?” Total silence followed for several minutes, then finally one of the men responded, “Do you know what this would mean? This would mean that God kept loving us over and over, millennia after millennia, while all that time we rejected his great love. He is compelled to love us, even though we have sinned more than any people.”   

One letter changed their whole concept of God’s love for them.  He loves them because of who He is.  Likewise, our Lord loves you because of who He is and His love is not based on anything of or from you.   We can’t wait to discover other ways God has entwined Himself in the cultures and languages of Cameroon.    Just as the Hdi people have had Godly Love  unused, before even hearing about Christ Jesus, other languages and cultures also have the mark of God.

God is working in many wonderful ways through Bible translation.  Would you please consider partnering with us in this ministry?  There are several ways to be involved and many more stories to be told.  Are you able?  Are you willing? You can be a part of the stories.

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Join Our Team: Online: http://www.wycliffe.org/Partnership.aspx?mid=AF45B1

Every financial gift, no matter how big or small, is appreciated and
important to the work.

Welcome ICLWers

It's International Comment Leaving Week.  Comments are the new {Hug} - a way to say hello and encourage each other.  One of the blogs that I follow was involved in this last month and it looked fun.  She got comments from people from all over the US and Canada, and probably farther too.

I have no idea if anyone will visit our humble little website.

Here are some 'Get to Know You Questions'.


1. What was your favorite food when you were a child?


2. What is one of your favorite quotes?













3. What is your favorite cereal?


4. What chore do you absolutely hate doing?



5. What is your favorite kind of ice cream?

Our Elfster Gift

Our gift came in the mail today. The socks look so soft and fuzzy.  I can't wait to wear them around the house.  Steve got an Ohio State t-shirt.  He is pretty happy about that too.

The card says, "May the beauty of God's love bless you this Christmas. Best wishes for a new year filled with peace, love, beauty, and joy.". The personal message inside was so sweet.

Thank you, TLR.

Don't Stop Believing

Last night, while I was babysitting the four Walter kids we decided to watch a movie.  Normally, I don't like to watch movies or TV while babysitting.  Last night; however, two of the four were not feeling well.  I let the three year old, Blake, pick the movie because he wasn't feeling good.  He picked Cinderella, which is a great movie.  I hadn't seen it in a long time.  We only got watch half of it before bedtime.

As I was watching the movie with two of the kids sitting on the floor, one on the couch, and the youngest 11 month old snuggling on my lap, pulling on my necklace, I heard to the song in a whole new way.

Listen to the words of Cinderella's opening song:

A dream is a wish your heart makes
When you're fast asleep
In dreams you lose your heartaches
Whatever you wish for, you keep
Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

Thank you Cinderella for the reminder to not stop believing.

It's Off to a New Home

• Proverbs 3:27 - "Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it."
• Proverbs 22:9 - "He who is generous will be blessed, for he gives some of his food to the poor."
• Deuteronomy 15:10 - "Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to."

• 2 Corinthians 9:7 -"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. "

I am so excited to send out my Elfster exchange Christmas present.  It's going to be traveling all across the Country until it gets to it's destination.  The gift isn't supposed to be sent until December 15th, but I just couldn't wait.  I love buying and giving presents.  It's one of lives simple pleasures.  I really hope that our pick and her husband like what Steve and I bought for them.

Travel safe Christmas present.

ETA: The got it and they really liked it. :o) I think now that she has it I can safely post what it was.

Bible Study - Grieving God's Way: Fresh Grief

Study: Fresh Grief

VOTD: Matthew 15:29-30-"Jesus...went up on a mountainside and sat down. Great crowds came to him, bringing the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute and many others, and laid them at his feet; and he healed them."

The Healing Process: Jesus went up a mountainside, sat down, and healed everyone who came to Him. It couldn't have been easy for the crippled and blind to journey up a mountain, but it was a necessary part of the healing process. Jesus healed those that reached out to Him, so I don't think we should be afraid to climb the mountain of despair because that is where we will find God's loving arms.

Feel free to Respond

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I like the imagery of this verse. I can just imagine all these people struggling and in pain climbing a mountain to see Jesus. I can imagine them wanting to give up because the pain was too much, but if they would have turned around when they pain got bad then they never would have received healing.

The message of the devotional is so spot on too. In the middle of grief, it's hard to hear that things will get better because you want to believe it, but it's hard to imagine feeling happy again. It's a daily journey to becoming better.

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Day 32 from Grieving God's Way:

"Those of us in grief don't need anyone to tell us the conditions of the path ahead; we don't want to know. We reject, even resent, reports of splendor down the road. "You'll be a better person," on grieving mother told me. "Who cares?" I wanted to yell. "I don't want to be a better person!" "You'll be happy again," a grieving father said. I wanted to scream, "Are you crazy? I will never be happy again!" Fresh grief is no time to find good in the bad. We don't want to know that the view is great or that wonderful things lie ahead. It's hard to see the view when you are blinded by tears. Nor should we try to sort our feelings about God and faith when we can't even determine night from day."

QOTD: What is your favorite Christmas song?

Gospel Center Cookie Exchange

Look at all these delicious cookies.  Which ones should I eat first?

Steve is going to be hurrying home from work tonight for the leftovers.

Christmas Elfster Recipe Exchange

For Christmas, my online group is going a Christmas card exchange with a recipe inside.  We use elfster.com to put the exchange together.  I picked out my recipe and the perfect card and sent it out on Friday.  Just for fun, I decided to make the recipe while Steve was at work last night. Yum!

Better Than 'Everything' Cake (We'll keep the title family friendly) 

1 German Chocolate Cake Mix
1 Jar of Caramel Ice Cream Syrup
1 Can of Condensed Milk
1 Container of Cool Whip
Nuts, Sprinkles (optional)

Directions:

First, you make the cake according to the box.

I baked my cake in a 9 X 13 casserole dish.  You can make it any cake pan.  Bake the cake according the instructions on the box.  When the cake is done, while it is still hot, poke holes all over it with the wooden spoon handle.  Spread a mixture of the caramel and milk filling up the holes.

Cool the cake, then top the cake with the Cool Whip, nuts, sprinkles, or whatever you choose.

Enjoy!