Cooking, Praying, Eating: Germany

Germany holds a special place in our hearts. Its here where I{Kimmy} met some pretty amazing students who lived in N.Africa, thus beginning a path to live, love, and serve there. It's also in Germany where Dan and I, and our amazing friend Katie, all met up while we were apart - before we trained through Italy, on one of our favorite vacations ever! It's a beautiful and sweet place with kind and loving people. As we read through Operation World, we couldn't help but make it personal - lifting up places where we had been, people that were living there now, and rejoicing in how God had woven Germany through our story. There were so many things though that we didn't know about Germany. Who knew that there is over 110 million German speakers in the world today!?

Specific Prayer Points:  

• Germany's wealth, power, and strategic location in the EU and Europe could be of inestimable value for the Kingdom of God. Pray for leaders to be raised up who will tackle the tough issues like the economy, the remaining problems between the East and the West and Germany's place in the EU.
• Germany Evangelicals in all denominations are less than 2.5 million, but are slowly growing in numbers. 
• Theological education has proved a major cause of decline in the church with high levels of scholarship but spiritually destructive teaching. Pray for professors and students alike who openly proclaim the Truth to be welcome to teach in institutions throughout the country. 

For more prayer points or to learn more about Germany, check out Operation World. 

For dinner, Dan made potato dumplings with pork schnitzel. Its was really yummy too and made me want to hop on a plane and head that way for some "real" authentic German food.  Maybe cooking, praying, and eating from all these different countries isn't a good idea... I sure have travel fever now!  Join us this week as we pray for Germany and her people. 

We've also spent time cooking, praying, and eating through Gabon & Ethiopia.  Next week we "travel" to Gilbratar, I can't wait! 

Fill in the Blank Friday Fun...

 

1.  Something that is very near and dear to my heart is, my hubby Dan,  he's amazingly perfect for me and I praise the Lord daily for him!

2.  Waking up each morning, summer starting, and our garden growing  is good cause to celebrate .

3.  The most fun I ever had was how can I even begin to answer that one... living in N.Africa, traveling all over the world, board games with friends, girl weekends with my sister, gosh - I love my life!

4.  True friends are the ones that you can call at 2am when you just need to cry and/or laugh. I have some pretty amazing friends- some who have walked through some pretty crappy junk with me and others that are just beginning to live life together and it's so incredible sweet and good! I am blessed! 

5. Something that makes me terribly happy is a cup of coffee by my bed when I wake up, a back scratch while we're watching tv, lunch with one of those above mentioned true friends... It doesn't take much...

 

6. A good way to spend a sunny day is outside, a magazine in one hand and a cold glass of sweet mint iced tea in the other.

7. My favorite celebratory food is icecream- which is terrible but oh so yummy!

The Little Things We Do is feeling cheerful today and so am I! Have fun playing along too! 

Cooking, Praying, Eating: Gabon

This week we have been praying for Gabon. I have to admit, I had NO idea where that country even was and had to look it up on the map.  By the way, it's near the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Cameron if that helps you out. It sounds like a pretty interesting country with a very strong French background. I also learned that because of the small land mass and foreign investments, Gabon is one of the most prosperous countries in Sub Saharan Africa. It seems like a pretty interesting and diverse country.  The food seemed yummy too! 

Prayer Points:

• While a vast majority claim to be Christian, Gabonese still fall back on their traditional religions in times of need. Pray that these influences may be broken down.
• There are 58 unevangelized peoples of the interior. Pray that every people group may soon have a growing, indigenous church and scripture in their own language.  

On the menu for the night was Gabonese mustard chicken over rice. Not only did I not know where Gabon was, I wasn't even sure what "English" mustard was. Apparently, there's quite a few varieties of mustard, who knew, I thought French's was the only kind - kidding, sorda?! I'm not a huge fan of mustard so I was skeptical at first, but I must admit that I liked it alot more than I liked last weeks Ethiopian meal.  If you like mustard, you would love this...

 

 Next week is Germany, Oh I'm really looking forward to that!!! 

Fill in the Blank Friday Fun...

 

1.  On a scale from 1-10 the frequency with which I get sick is,  about a three maybe, I don't know. I don't feel like I get sick often, but lately I have been...

2.   The last time I felt sick was  a couple weeks ago - YUCK! It was NO fun .

3.  The worst part about being sick is  everything  because   it's just NOT fun, I mean who has time to be sick!!

4. When I am sick I like to be taken care of by   being left alone - except maybe a back rub from my hubby - but for the most past, I just want to sleep, sleep, sleep.

5. Something I do to keep myself healthy is  try to eat healthy, get lots of of sleep, all the things the doctors say - but I also just choose to be healthy!  Like I said earlier, who wants to sit around and do nothing and be sick.... boring! 

6. A secret remedy that I use when I'm sick is to sleep, drink lots of water and just wait it out - I hate meds - they usually just mask the sickness anyway and make me feel "drugged". I don't think that's a "secret" though.

 7.  One thing that always makes me feel better when I'm sick is  a long hot shower... nothing like feeling clean when you feel like poopie! 

Hope the LittleThingsWeDo feels better soon! 

what is this...

We've recently been facebooking and tweeting (are those even words...weird!) each week about how God has been and continues to be faithful through Refuge and many of you have been so sweet to ask us about what we are up to and what this "Refuge thing" is all about.  Dan and I have been so honored and excited to be leading this new outreach to the homeless in Spartanburg through our church. Every Sunday morning, really early - probably before many of you have even drank your first cup of coffee - we, along with a team of amazing volunteers - are setting up, welcoming some pretty cool guys to come in, take a load off their feet, take a warm shower, drink a hot cup of coffee and enjoy a yummy breakfast. We've sung songs together, we've prayed together, we've laughed together, we've studied the word together - and I've even had to get fiesty with a few of them who were out of line already! It's grown from 2 to 6 to 16 to 19 - seeing over 30 different friends stop in at some point over this last month. We've had over 50 volunteers that have signed on to serve and Sunday School classes lining up to serve a homecooked meal! What a joy it has been to simply love on these guys and gals. We've been amazed at God's provision before we've even asked and we've simply sat back and just watched HIM pour out HIS spirit on that little snack room each and every week. 

Dan and I created a blog for Refuge a few weeks ago and I just realized that we hadn't posted it over here, so I thought I would share it with you guys so you can follow along and see God's "amazingness" and join in with us as we serve the homeless in Spartanburg. We share highlights from each week, prayer requests, current needs, and other fun stuff.  Also be sure to check out the latest article in the Encourager Magazine and stop and take a few minutes to pray for Refuge!