~"Dear Jesus, Please help us!"~

~Little Mary kneeling down. (Please excuse the "bed head". =)~

(Cousin Nina, My Moma informed me of the physical needs of your parents...and I'm praying for y'all! =)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Well, I'm not a preacher, but I have had something on my heart that I want to share.  A minister was speaking to us in prayer meeting this week and mentioned the verse: 
Mat 24:24  For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 
It reminded me that we Christians must live as careful as we can.  I believe the 2nd coming of Jesus is very near.  I want to live ready.  The devil would love for us as the Holiness movement to get busy doing GOOD things but not taking time to draw near to God and read and hide His Word in our hearts.  When our family gets to come back to the USA...It scares me when I see the slight changes in some of our dear friends.  Carelessness in the way we are dressing, in our music, etc.  Oh, may God help us each one to be sooo careful to follow God's Road map to Heaven.  God wants a peculiar people.  A people who are "Set Apart"...not ones who are trying to see how close we can get to the world.
Jude 1: 24  Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy...
May God help me, my family, and all of us to be ready for His soon coming.  To be His awaiting Bride without Spot or Wrinkle! =)

~Company and a puppy for Sunday dinner. =)~

I have a few pics to post from right after Melanie left.  She left on Friday, July 8th, then on Sunday, July 10th, (My sweet Moma's birthday =)  we invited a young family over for Sunday dinner.  We wanted to invite them over before the classes on Holiness began and things got really busy..  
After we invited them over we found out that it was their Laura's 6th birthday.  When they showed up for Sunday dinner they brought her little puppy that she had received for her birthday. =)
~Here's Kimberly holding "Cookie".~

~Alejandra and Laura with their little puppy "Cookie".~

~Noah and the girls at their table.~

~Laura put her little puppy inside one of Sarah's little pink purses. =)~

~Laura with her gifts from us, with Sarah standing behind her.~

~Laura parent's brought her birthday cake and candle with them to or house.~

~Laura's parent's Esneider and Cindy, and the rest of our family enjoying our dinner.~

Will you please pray for this sweet family?  Thank you. =)

~Fun Food Friday...Choc.-Strawberry Celebration Cake~

~So here's the recipe that I promised to post of this yummy cake I made.  It looks complicated, but I found it to be pretty easy, yummy, and FUN to make!  A line that caught my attention when I first saw this cake in the T.O.H. magazine was..."As a groom's cake, it gets more attention than the wedding cake!"~

(I just made a choc. cake mix and DID NOT add anything to it.  (With the high altitude here I have trouble with homemade cake recipes.)  So, you can follow their cake recipe, or just make a choc. cake of your choice, then use their icing, choc. garnishes, and choc. ganache.

Ingredients

• 1 package (18-1/4 ounces) chocolate cake mix
• 1 package (3.9 ounces) instant chocolate pudding mix
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
• 
  FROSTING:
• 2 cups butter, softened
• 4 cups confectioners' sugar
• 3/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1/2 cup 2% milk
• 
  GARNISHES:
• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
• 1 pound fresh strawberries, hulled
• 
  GANACHE:
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Directions

• Combine the first seven ingredients; beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Beat on medium for 2 minutes. Transfer to two greased and floured 9-in. round baking pans.
• Bake at 350° for 28-32 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to wire racks to cool completely.
• In a large bowl, cream the butter, confectioner's sugar and cocoa until light and fluffy. Beat in milk until smooth. Spread frosting between layers and over top and sides of cake.
• Pipe or spoon melted chocolate onto waxed paper in decorative designs; let stand until set. Arrange strawberries on top of cake.
• For ganache, place chocolate in a small bowl. Heat cream just to a boil; pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Drizzle over top of cake, allowing ganache to drape down the sides. Top with chocolate garnishes. Yield: 12 servings.

~This made a TON of choc. icing which I stored in the refrigerator in a zip lock bag.  Yesterday I made some choc. cupcakes and threw the rest of the cake in a loaf pan.  Then I used some of the left-over choc. icing to icing the cupcakes and this cake.  (I STILL had choc. icing left over!)
Then, for today's dessert I cut some of our TREASURED Mini Reeses cups that the Hausmans brought us and garnished the top of my cake.  DELICIOUS!~

And as ALWAYS...Enjoy!

~Have you ever had one of those days...~

...Where you wondered if it would be better to just go back to bed and start over??  =D
Well, Yesterday was one of those days for me.  I just was sooooo EXHAUSTED...from running NON-STOP, having company for 5 weeks or so [But I LOVED having all of my company!!!], from baby Mary's sleepless nights, etc......that I could barely get out of bed.  I finally MADE myself get out of bed and went downstairs to make breakfast.  I cut up bacon, put it on to fry with some onion, cracked 13 eggs and put them on to fry, put 12 pieces of bread in the oven to toast, and was making some freshly squeezed orange juice.  I had been stirring the eggs, but Sarah was having trouble juicing some oranges, so we traded jobs.  Then, another one of my children came along and decided that they wanted to help stir the eggs...ONLY they WERE JUST STIRRING THEM AND NOT HOLDING ON TO THE HANDLE OF THE SKILLET....and the skillet and eggs SLIPPED OFF THE STOVE and landed on the FLOOR!  ALL OVER THE FLOOR!!!  That child had to run and get a shower for they were covered in raw eggs.  I then told Sarah to PLEASE go and get Daddy!  (RIGHT BEFORE THIS HAPPENED...I had just thought..."in about 5 minutes we'll call Daddy to eat!" =)   When Sarah called Phillip he thought, "That's strange, she said, 'Mommy needs you NOW', not 'Come...for Breakfast is ready.' "  When he got downstairs he saw the REASON I needed him.  At my request he grabbed the camera and took a couple of pictures for memories sake. 

~Then he was a SWEETHEART and helped me clean up the mess and made more eggs while I was finishing the rest of the breakfast. ~

I then noticed Mary was leaking YELLOW...and sure enough it was EVERYWHERE!  So, I stripped her and Phillip snapped a picture of that too, but I'll spare you that picture. ;-)  Then I washed her off and Kimberly dressed her.  We finished eating "breakfast" at NOON!!  WOW!  What a day!  But after a nap, and some COLD COFFEE, I got lots done the rest of the day.  =)

~Relaxing together on Daryl and Brittany's last day.~

~Before we left for our last service...Brittany came downstairs carrying Mary in her bag.  Brittany said that when she put Mary in her purse that Mary had such a bored look on her face...which made Brittany laugh all the harder.~

~Mary says..."I've found something new to chew on."=)~

~On Daryl and Brittany's last day here we got to do some sight seeing and running around Bogota.  Poor Daryl and Phillip had been RUNNING every day with hardly a minute to breathe, so we were very glad that we had their last day to just relax and be together.  We took them to see President Simon Bolivar's house.  We had to take 2 taxis to get there.  The guys in one and us girls in the other.  As we pulled up I noticed that Elijah was playing near a fountain and thought to myself, "Any minute Elijah is going to fall into that fountain."  Sure enough, we got out of the taxi and KRRR SPLASH...Elijah fell into the fountain soaking nearly all of his clothes!  Now it was a chilly day and I had NO SPARE CLOTHES...so we stripped him of his clothes, and rang them out, then put his coat back on him and sat him in the stroller and wrapped his legs with other coats and Mary's blankets.  Then we looked through the President's house and then went to a nearby market and found some more pants that we could buy for Elijah.  Which was an answer to PRAYER!!~

~All of us in front of Simon Bolivar's house.~

~Daryl and Brittany in front of his house and the mountain behind them is where we rode the gondola up to see the neat view of Bogota.~

~Inside the gondola heading up the mountain.~

~We wanted a picture of this llama with Elijah sitting on it.  As you can see some of us are howling laughing...because Elijah had just pulled the llama's ears.~

~The pants we found at the market to buy for Elijah.  (That market only sells typical things like bags and scarves, so it was a miracle that we found pants for sell.)~

~The Ladies with a tiny antique piano behind them...which was inside Simon Bolivar's house.~

~Our family up on the mountain with the Colombian flags behind us.~

~Mary, Sarah and I with the Andes mountains behind us.~

~All of us with Bogota behind us.~

~Daryl and Brittany~

~Kimberly and baby Mary sporting her new coat and hat...and who was sucking on Kimberly's zipper on her coat. =)~

~After we had walked A LONG WAYS...and we were STARVING...we ate lunch at Crepes and Waffles...because it was too late in the afternoon to find a typical Colombian lunch.~

~Phillip being silly wearing Elijah's hat.  (Looks like Dr. Seuss's "The Cat and the Hat" =)~

~It started POURING THE RAIN on us...and we were SOAKED and cold, so we ran into a nearby coffee shop to have some coffee to warm us up.  Thankfully the rain pretty much quit while we were inside this shop.  (And trust me..the "Mochaccino" [Cappuccino with a touch of chocolate] was WELL WORTH IT!! =)~

~Notice Phillip's wet shoulder and Daryl's coat.  It was CHILLY Fall-like weather so the coffee helped warm up our soaked selves.~

~Kimberly in Elijah's hat.~

~Sarah being silly in Elijah's hat.~

~Then we rode a VERY crowded bus, got off and got some coffee and things for Daryl and Brittany to take home, came home and finished packing and here we are saying those SAD goodbyes before Phillip took them to the airport.  It was SAD, but it was a very special time of tears and sweet words...memories which we will hold dear for a long time.~

We LOVED having Daryl and Brittany with us and have wonderful memories of their days here.  Thank y'all again for all the sweet gifts y'all brought to our family, and for the wonderful classes on Holiness.  Brittany, Thank you for all the dishes you washed, babies you lugged and bathed and changed, clothes you folded, songs you played on your violin (Kimberly MISSES you playing your violin with her in church), etc!  We had a BLAST having y'all here and are so glad that it worked out for y'all to come.

~Pics of the Holiness Classes in Bogota~

~We surely enjoyed having Daryl here to teach classes on Holiness this week.  A FUN PERK for our family was that Brittany got to come too!  YEA! =) (When we left the USA in Jan. we thought we probably wouldn't get to see her [and her brother and sisters] again for 2 years...so we were thrilled that we got to see her just 6 months later! =) ~

~Brittany, Daryl, Edgar, Joanna and their baby that is due any day.~

~L to R: Bro. Alberto, Sis. Alba, Bro. Jimmy, Sis. Farly, Phillip, Heather, Bro. Rigoberto, and Sis. Ilce.~

~The same group with Bro. Daryl and Brittany.~

~Johan, Natay, Brittany, and Kimberly after the last service.~

~Bro. Daryl and Phillip teaching classes.~

~People taking notes.~

~Learning more about Holiness.~

~A very attentive group~

~Daryl and Phillip~

~A good group attended the classes and the Lord really helped!  Thank you, Daryl, for all the hours of studying and teaching you did.  Jesus helped you to touch a lot of lives for Him here in Colombia.~

~Brittany and Kimberly made a fun arrangement of the song "Just a Closer Walk" and played it for the offertory the very last night.~

~L to R front row :Johan, Emmanuel, Paola, Noah, Sarah, Diana, Esther.  Second row: Kimberly and Mary, Brittany, Sis. Alba, Sis. Farly, Heather, Sis. Ilce, Sis. Nancy, Natay.  Third row: Bro. Luis, Bro. Daryl, Bro.Alberto, Bro. Jimmy, Phillip and Elijah, Bro. Erdmin, and Bro. Rigoberto. (We were sad when we realized that Bro. Jimmy and Sis. Farly's 2 daughters had already gone home with their Grandma.)~

The classes were very profitable!  Thank you for your prayers!!!  The Lord gave Daryl and Brittany a safe trip home!  =)
Gracias Pastor Jimmy y Pastora Farly por todo lo que ustedes han hecho en esta semana por la iglesia y las clases tambien!  Que Dios Les Bendiga Ricamente!! (Thank you, Pastor Jimmy, and Sis. Farly for all y'all have done for the church and for the classes this week too! May God richly bless you!)