Chick-Fil-A and the Third Commandment

There’s a buzz about town in the politically conservative and Christian communities.  Manhattan is finally getting a “real” Chick-Fil-A, apparently the one in the K-State Student Union doesn’t count.  But anyway, it’s pretty exciting for a lot of people.  Honestly, I think they’re pretty regular chicken sandwiches myself.

Meanwhile, our ministry staff has been leading us through a study on the 10 Commandments this summer.  And, trust me, this isn’t a typical sleepy, solemn series.  It’s been step-on-your-toes fantastic.  If you want to listen to the sermons you can hear them here.  Two weeks ago we were on Commandment Number 3:  “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” - Exodus 20:7  I have to admit, when the sermon began I thought the minister was going too easy on the subject.  Not sure what I was thinking, because he tactfully never “goes easy” on anything God spells out clearly, and if I’d just been patient in my thinking I would have heard I had nothing to worry about.  As listeners we were reminded of the reasons God’s name is commonly misused:  insults, irritations, indulgences, intimidation, impression, and on impulse.  It’s beyond saying, “Oh, my God.” in the wrong context.  Carelessly throwing out God’s name to impress others is just as much a misuse.

Back to Chick-Fil-A.  Chick-Fil-A is known as a Christian owned chain.  They readily support what would be “conservative” causes and groups and in turn the conservatives support them.  My fellow Christians love to tout their Chick-Fil-A cups.  I’m not offended by any of this and I say go for it!  However, being in the construction industry, we personally know some of the subcontractors working on the new Chick-Fil-A restaurant in Manhattan.  While they’re great guys, to my knowledge, none of them are church-goin’ people.  Unfortunately, they have been treated with arrogance and condescension by the Chick-Fil-A “higher ups” throughout this project.  This does not help to represent Jesus in a positive inviting way to all those working on the job.

By labeling themselves as a Christian owed business Chick-Fil-A takes on a huge responsibility.  No one is perfect; we all misrepresent our faith by our actions and words – sometimes accidentally and sometimes with full understanding.  But there must be a focus on sincerity and consistency.  Paul reminds us, “Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”  (Colossians 3:17)  For whatever reason, symbols of faith evoke emotion like no other.  If someone cuts you off in traffic with a fish symbol stuck to their bumper you think it’s un-Christian.  If the guy at Walmart with a church softball team t-shirt lets out a string of four letter words it doesn’t add up.

My question since the lesson two weeks ago is if we do more harm than good when we shout the word Christian.  I remember interviewing for a job in college and being told, “we’re a Christian business but we don’t shout it”, and thinking that didn’t make sense.  Now I understand more.  Being a Christian is a big responsibility.  Sometimes I wonder if God would rather we live our lives so as to emit the resulting fruit of the Spirit living within us instead of printing it on our bumper stickers and t-shirts.  Perhaps that would speak more to those we desire to influence.

How do you tithe without an income?

                In January our ministry staff challenged the church with considering pledging to tithe for 90 days.  No challenge for us.  We’ve been tithing for basically our entire marriage.  We’ve seen over and over how God has taken care of us.  Through the ups and downs of small business ownership we have always had every need met.
                However, this challenge was different for our family.  Just six weeks before this challenge Ray ended his partnership with Schultz Construction, and therefore no more regular paychecks.  The same week as the challenge I ended my time at Schultz Construction.  Through this lesson series I was thinking, “how do you tithe, when you have no income?”  “what if someone is keeping track on a list a notices our checks have stopped?”.  So each week I just listened; when I felt led to write a check, I did.  When we had money in our account I wrote a check.  When there wasn’t, I didn’t.  And I trusted God would take care of us in the same manner as He had in the past.
                And He did.  As I look back on the past six months of atypical tithing I see His timing over and over.  My wonderfully frugal husband’s leadership set us up for living six months without a paycheck.  This allowed us to flat-out buy the truck he needed. Ray’s parents loaned us money to buy a trailer.  My substitute teaching jobs usually covered our monthly grocery bill.  Our federal tax refund came back at very un-government-like speed.  When I was preparing to end our monthly support of the Croatia church, and cancel dentist appointments because of no insurance, my parents gave us money as a gift, because they had helped my brother in the same way 7 years ago.  My sister-in-law paid me ahead of time for taking care of her girls in June. We made the hard decision to sell our 40 acres to eliminate debt – it sold in 36 hours.  One construction client paid us an extra $50 for “fuel cost”.  My mom arrived at our house one Saturday with groceries – gluten free food (which is extra expensive), paper products (because she knew I was stressed out about feeding our Friday night bible study), laundry detergent, etc.  And, in a couple instances I “found” money I forgot we had.  Over and over God slipped these blessings into our lives.
                Today, six months after that Sunday, the light seems to have appeared at the end of the tunnel – and right now we think it’s growing.  We continue to see God supplying us with jobs.  Those three years of a near six-figure combined income sure was nice, but today I’m thankful for the nature of Ray’s job.  While we have several jobs lined up in the near future, there is no guarantee beyond. We have to fully trust God will give us what we need.  If we had a typical regular paycheck I think I would easily become complacent with His care for us.  This way, I have to rely on Him because there is no other choice.
                So whether you were the ones physically helping us, the ones challenging us to tithe, the ones who have repeatedly encouraged us through the job transitions, the ones praying for our family….we are grateful beyond what we can express.

Thank you for five years!

Imagine you are going to travel for 24 hours to the other side of the world to live with a family you don't know for 10 days. During that time you'll work tirelessly, have a different sleep pattern, eat different food, and constantly deal with a language barrier. Then you'll go home and wait a year till you see them again and repeat the process. How many times do you think this would have to happen before you felt like they were true friends? How long till you felt like their home was your home, where you understand the dos and don'ts? How long till you could accurately put away dishes in their cabinets and food in their pantry? How long till you could joke and tease without the fear of misunderstanding? How long till the small talk is unnecessary because there are deep and intimate issues to discuss and pray about? I can tell you, for each of these to be completely true, it was three years for us. We've now been to Croatia five times, three of which we have stayed in the Dominic's home. Each year the greeting phase shortens and the grieving at good-bye lengthens. The work there is equally as important as it is everywhere else, but for our family God has nestled the people of Brezje and Varazdin deep into our hearts. We think of them no differently than our own family. Rajan, Hana, Rahela, and Maja are as important to us as our own children. When we are with the Dominics there are moments of heart wrenching stress as we share our struggles, worries, and decisions; but there are moments to balance of unexplainable joy and laughter as we share stories from the past year and laugh about pointless things like chickens and small bags of sugar.

Many of you probably heard me say this was probably the last year for awhile for us visiting Croatia. We had reached our five year commitment. It was time for something new, someone else, etc. I suppose God got quite a kick out of me thinking I knew the future. While we are always careful to never commit for next year while we are there in Croatia, Ray and I both knew without a doubt our work is not over yet. Time will tell when God will have us return, but for now we are immensely grateful for all who have helped us in the past five years. During that time we have raised approximately $33,000.00 to pay for expenses. Donations have ranged from $10-$1000, and everything in between . We’ve baked approximately 3000 Easter cookies. And we’ve had aproximately 90 different donors. Many of you have faithfully given each year and for that we are especially thankful. Thank you just doesn’t seem like enough so we pray God will give you a sense of gratitude on our behalf and that He will bless you because of your support of us and therefore faithfulness to Him. Sincerely, Ray, Laura, Rachel & Jonathan

Gluten Free Chocolate Sea Salt Ice Cream Sandwiches

Recently made this recipe for dessert at a Life Group BBQ. It was a hit! Enjoy. I found the originaly recipe on Pinterest. I've included a link to the original source. I doubled the entire recipe and made 8 very big ice cream sandwiches. It could probably be 10 sandwiches fairly easily. I made half with chocolate ice cream and half with vanilla. Obviously any kind would work. I doubled the flour amount (so quadrupled for a double recipe) and tripled the espresso (because I usually find I can't taste the coffee flavor in cookies, and because I used instant coffee instead of espresso too). The cookies are definitely yummy enough to use just as a typical cookie recipe, not just for ice cream sandwiches.

Here's the non-gluten free recipe. For Rachel's cookies we used Bette Hagmen's "Chocolate Surprise" cookies - minus the surprise part. Here's that recipe: 1 1/2 GF flour mix 3/4 t. xanthan gum 1/2 t. salt 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa 1/2 t. baking soda 1/2 c. suagar 1/2 c. brown sugar 1/2 c. margarine 1/4 c. creamy peanutbutter 1 t. vanilla 1 egg Bake at 375 for 9 minutes. I sprinkled them with a bit of coarse sea salt just like the "regular" cookies. If making the "surprise" cookies. 3/4 c. peanutbutter 3/4 c. powdered sugar Mix the filling. Make into balls and form the dough around the filling. Roll in granulated sugar.

Gluten Free Lemon Zucchini Bread

A "lemon zucchini bread" recipe has been circulating on Pinterest. For Rachel I decided to attempt a gluten-free option. It turned out really well. Everyone at the table asked for seconds, which equals success for me!

1 c. oat flour 1/2 c. tapioca starch 1/2 c. sweet rice flour (or, 2 cups of your choice gluten free flour) 1/2 t. salt 2 t. baking powder 1 t. baking soda 1 t. xanthan gum 2/3 c. sugar Mix dry ingredients. Add: 3 eggs 1/2 c. oil 1/2 c. buttermilk 2 T. lemon juice Fold in gently: 1-1/2 c. grated zucchini Bake in a greased large loaf pan at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Test with a toothpick and watch closely at the end of baking. Allow to cool for 10 mintues then turn out onto a wire rack to cool further. Slice and drizzle with lemon glaze. Glaze: 1 c. powdered sugar 1 t. lemon juice water - to desired consistency

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! The longer I am a mother, the more I realize the great gifts my mother gave me as I grew up. It hit me one day when Rachel asked me to help put clothes on her Barbie doll. It wasn’t terribly convenient for me to help at that moment, but I suddenly remembered asking my mom for the same assistance – many, many times! I do not ever remember her telling me “no” for a task such as Barbie clothes. Even further, I remember many, many tiny clothes created by my mom for my Barbies, many of which Rachel still plays with today. Those are treasures to me now. I was prompted again to remember a similar subject last week when Jonathan asked to have – what our family affectionately calls a “tea party” – while I was making dinner one night last week. My initial response was “no”. After all, it was almost dinner time, it was a school night, I didn’t want the mess, it’s a waste of the ingredients, and I suppose I could go on. But…my mom would have let us. She would have gone upstairs and got out the little hexagon shaped table. I would put on my little yellow gingham apron with hand stitched flowers, which she made. We would pull out the cardboard box with my “tea party dishes” inside and burners and dials drawn on the top with which to “cook”. Then each of my little bowls would hold flour, sugar, brown sugar, salt, cocoa, etc. and I was free to cook. But it doesn’t end there! After I had made my special creations, mom never hesitated to taste the ones I deemed “good”. This perhaps now impresses me most of all! :-) So with these recent events in mind, and as Mother’s Day approached this year, my little brainstorming mind kept thinking of the other great things about my mom. Like the way we made “houses” in her lilac bushes. Instead of nicely shaped shrubs, she had little “rooms” throughout the shrubs which I’m sure Drew and I cut out with the garden loppers. ~ Or the seemingly hours and hours we had to spend every February (usually the night before the party) making homemade Valentines for our classmates. She would cut out little pictures from magazines for weeks. Then there were the doilies, construction paper, and glitter! ~ And the Mud Pies! Piles of mud and water and sticks and rocks on the side of the horse-tank and the side walk in front of the house. Oh for the patience of remembering: Piles of mud on the sidewalk are NO BIG DEAL, Laura! ~ After the Mud Pies we probably took a Bubble Bath. With *a lot* of bubbles. Complete with multiple kitchen utensils and measuring cups, so we could, once again, “cook” in the bath tub. (I’m seeing a trend here! :-) ~ Speaking of baths….Drew and I grew up in a big house that is more than 100 years old. It is primarily heated with a wood stove. It was rare (mostly first thing in the morning) to hear the furnace click on. And the only bathroom is a long way from the stove, so I remember many baths in clothesbaskets filled with warm water next to the stove. She even put a bit of bubble bath in those baths too. (The woman is nuts, I tell ya!) ~ My mom made great birthday cakes, gift I love passing along to my own kids these days! She also helped me make many cakes for the 4-H Fair. One summer I remember slaving away over a white cake with little pink flowers, I also remember reaching across the stove and my arm touching the icing on the cake. It ruined one side of my 8 year-old version of perfection. I was devastated. Dad was heartbroken because he couldn’t help. But mom to the rescue! She helped me fix it. I don’t remember what color of ribbon the cake won, but deeply ingrained in my mind is the comfort that mom can fix anything. ~ In 1991 when Dad was deployed in Desert Storm mom took a job at the Friendship House. I don’t know if it was from necessity, or a mere distraction from the worry of deployment, but I do know it was a great example. 10 years working at the bakery, more specifically “Baking”, involved starting work at 4 am, or perhaps earlier. That in turn involved going to bed much earlier than most other people. I listened to my mom get teased by friends for her early bed time. I saw her give up sleep to attend our school events. I saw her go to work early yet never give up church commitments, family events, etc. ~ And, on a more serious note, I watched, often from the outside, as my mom took care of her mother-in-law for many nights before Granny entered the nursing home. I watched as Mom care for her own mom at the end of her life, despite the harsh words Grandma had often written to her. I hope when that stage of my life comes I can go through it with the same care and grace. ~ Finally, what a joy it has been to watch my mom do many of these great things with her four fabulous grandchildren. Surely they will each have the same rich memories of their grandma! Thank you mom for a wonderful childhood! Thank you for the priceless memories! Thank you for reminding me of the precious years of childhood which I need to treasure with my own two little dears! When I grow up I want to me just like you! Happy Mother’s Day! I love you!

Returning to Croatia!

Our family will return to Croatia for the fourth time this summer. We're very excited to see the people who have become so dear to us and to meet those who have become our new Siblings in Christ since last summer. This time the kids will return with us for their third trip. They are really looking forward to it! We are excited to be travelling with Ron Brown this year as well. He is going to be a great addition to our team and we are thrilled to have the chance to share the wonderful work in Croatia with him.

As with the last three summers, you can follow our family on the A Heart for Croatia blog. It's always a great encouragement to see your comments and know there are people praying for our work. Our days are already quite full and planned and we're excited to be offering VBS to the children of the village of Brezje, Baseball, another evening of a Couples Class, kid's classes for the church members and lots of time with the church members. Since we will only be gone 11 days this time, we will try and pack in as many wonderful things as we can.

So many of you have wonderfully supported us over the past several years. We are so, so thankful for you. We ask for your prayers again as we plan our upcoming trip. It's getting closer and there are many things to do! There are only about six weeks to go and the time will surely fly by!