Thoughtful Thursday

On Tuesday we met with the pastor and deacons of First Baptist Colville to give our testimonies for consideration for church membership. I rewrote my testimony to share with the deacons.

Nestled close to  Kings Canyon National Park in California’s Sierra Nevada is the Youth Camp that I was able to attend in 1963, 1965 and 1967. I was 12, 14, and 16 during these wilderness adventures.

I was raised in a family who attended church regularly and often, very religious. The church I was raised in gave me the impression that because I was Russian and a member of their church that I had an exclusive connection with God. What I learned at Bible Camp was that the only exclusive connection I could have to God was through Jesus Christ and what He did for me on the cross. Being Russian and being a part of my father’s religion did not give me a direct link to God. In 1963 at Hume Lake while listening to a speaker talk about Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross to save sinners I was moved to step out and become a follower of Jesus. God’s plan of salvation was exclusively through his perfect son Jesus, who is fully God and came to earth to live a perfect life among us and be the perfect sacrifice for our sins. I knew I was one of those sinners and I needed a Savior. This decision began a journey of ups and downs, highs and lows, but a journey forward with my God and Savior. When I began my new life following Jesus I was clothed with His righteousness and reconciled to God. I continue on this walk, never perfectly but with God’s grace I carry on. He will be teaching me by His Holy Spirit all the days of my life. My God and Savior is and will be faithful to see me through all of my life on this earth and I look forward with the Hope of seeing Him face to face in heaven. During this same year, 1963, my father began his journey of following Jesus after hearing Billy Graham at the Los Angeles Coliseum share the truth of Jesus Christ and why He came to earth over 2000 years ago. 1963 was an epic year for me and my family. For my father and me we became part of God’s movement of love and grace through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My mother was a follower of Jesus when she married my father. My two older sisters had started following Jesus before my father and me.

I’ll share this verse that Billy Graham proclaims in every interview I’ve ever heard him give. John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

High School scanned4HUME LAKE CHRISTIAN CAMP 1967

Fresh quotes from my reading this week and a quote from Dorothy Sayers that I read on Thistle Cove Farm blog:

“It is not the business of the church to adapt Christ to men, but men to Christ.” ~ Dorothy Sayers

Form Piper, Taste and See:

“We should continually look to the cross and the work of God in Christ because this is where God makes the light of the gospel shine. If we become excessively introspective and analyze our emotions too much, we will sink into hopeless doubts because the self-authenticating light shines not from within us, but from Christ in the gospel. We must look outside ourselves to Christ and his work if we hope to have assurance sustained inside ourselves.”

Second, we should continually pray for God to enlighten the eyes of our hearts.

Third, we should express our trust in Christ by loving each other.”

1 John 3:14 ~ We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren.”

Hope you have time to pause and consider what God has done for you on this Thoughtful Thursday.

Four Wheeling…

On Monday Dear and I spent the day with Addy while her mommy and daddy did some shopping in Spokane. Addy loves to be outside so she convinced me to dawn my winter gear and put hers on so we could have a little drive down the driveway. This Little Tykes car worked well on the compacted snow and ice. We had fun and her mommy and daddy were able to shop unencumbered with car seats or strollers. I will admit that this Baba was pretty tired by the time we came home from nonstop play!

We had a little more snow fall on Tuesday afternoon and evening.

Tuesdays With Moisi or Nadia

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The first part of this post was written by our daughter Katie a few years ago. I’m featuring Nadia (babushka) today instead of Moisi for Tuesday With Moisi. The photo above was taken in 2013.

    • Gimme my Babushka’s cooking and I’ll be content

    • The sort of Russian/Persian cuisine that my Baba (Grandma) makes… I would be a happy camper for a year with yummy borscht, galupsi, kulyich, syrny paska, lapsha, varenky, shashlik, and a million other treats that I would butcher just as badly trying to spell in English…I can say most of them but they’re sure hard to type. Just make sure you give me a good supply of sour cream, and can I bend the rules to include my Mom’s “green borscht” which is spinach soup we chop up hardboiled eggs in? I was never entirely sure where that soup’s origins really lay…I could never get sick of all the lamb and cabbage and butter filled goodness, heck I even like the Russian candies my Deda (Grandpa) keeps around though none of my cousins do. My mouth is watering already. ~ Katie
    • borsch-snoqualmie-001
    • Many Borsch recipes include beets in them. The familiar Borsch that we grew up with and that we had at Molokan Church Meals did not have beets in it. Here is my mother’s recipe. Our people don’t pronounce Borsch with a “t” on the end.

      Nadia’s Borsch

      For the Stock:
      1 Seven Bone Roast or Chuck roast if you can’t find Seven Bone
      1 onion
      1-3 celery stalks with leaves
      2-3 carrots
      2 bay leaves
      5-10 peppercorns
      Salt to taste

      Salt and pepper the roast and sear it on all sides. Put the roast in a stock pot and cover with water. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil. Simmer and cook until roast is fork tender. Remove the meat and set aside. Discard the stock vegetables.

      Soup Ingredients:

      1 head of cabbage shredded (green is what we use)
      1-3 carrots grated
      1-2 onions diced
      1 bell pepper seeded and diced
      2-3 stalks of celery diced
      1 jalapeno seeded and diced (optional)
      2-3 potatoes diced
      2 cans stewed tomatoes blended in blender (we have those that don’t like chunky tomatoes)
      1 can tomato sauce
      1/2-small bunch of dill (to taste)
      1 handful of chopped Italian parsley
      salt and pepper to taste
      1 can of garbanzo beans drained and rinsed (optional)

      Saute onion, bell pepper, celery and jalapeno if you are using one until onion is translucent.
      Add these ingredients to a blender along with the two cans of stewed tomatoes.
      Blend and add them to the beef stock along with all the other ingredients.
      Bring to a boil, then simmer until cabbage, carrots and potatoes are tender.
      Taste and see if the soup needs more salt or pepper at this time.

      The Borsch is ready now.

      My mother doesn’t include this in her recipe but when she made borsch at my house once I saw her add a half a cube of unsalted butter at the end. :) My mother mashes most of the potatoes to thicken up the soup a bit.

      You can serve the roast alongside the borsch with a good loaf of bread and of course…sour cream.

I made this pot of Borsch on Sunday and we’re enjoying it again today. I also took a couple of containers to Dan and Jamie’s today. We watched Addy while Dan and Jamie made a trip to Spokane to do some shopping.

My Favorite Valentine

For Mosaic Monday this week I’m sharing photos and mosaics/collages of Friday last (2-15-19).

Before we left for the Spokane airport on Friday morning I had the table set and ready for our Friday evening dinner for 6.

We picked up our granddaughter’s granny at the Spokane airport and stopped for lunch in Deer Park on our way back to Colville. The roads were fine for us even with the snow falling in Spokane. We enjoyed a new spot to us in Deer Park called the Salty Dog. At the Salty Dog we took this selfie to send to our granddaughter letting her know that Granny and Baba love her.

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We made it home by 3:30 and began food preparations for our dinner together at 5:00. Filet Mignon, roasted vegetables, salad with Persian dressing and a Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake for dessert.

Addy was sporting some new clothes that Auntie LoLo (Laura) sent her in the mail.

Addy loved seeing all the hearts and was skillful in taking them off and putting them back. She has great small motor skills.

We’ve had more snow since Friday and I’ve been enjoying taking lots of photos of birds that have congregated on one particular bush in our back yard. For now I’m sharing these photos for Angie’s Mosaic Monday. I really appreciate you, Angie. You are a great hostess for this meme!

More Fun on Saturday…

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I’m having fun with this program and my photos. The photos are from our dinner on Friday night with our Northeastern Washington family.

Saturday Smiles

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We had a full day on Friday. Thanking God for a safe trip to Spokane and back again. Later this weekend I’ll share some collages and photos from our trip to Spokane and the belated Valentine meal we had at our country bungalow on Friday evening. We had more snow, too, and while I was looking at the new snow landscape in our backyard I spotted this snow creature created by nature.

Hope you enjoyed the special effects and that you smiled.

Have a great Saturday!

 

Friday’s Fave Five

Some favorites from this week:

Watching the birds in our backyard.

Knowing that they aren’t starving with all the snow.

 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Matthew 25:26

Learning from some of my favorite Bible Teachers.

Pausing in the morning and starting the day reading God’s Word and some good devotionals.

Meditating and praying about things I’ve learned and needs that friends and love ones have.

Watching, Knowing, Learning, Pausing and Praying are all the good things that happened and that I’m thankful for this week.

The bonus because it was Valentine’s day yesterday was hearing from my kids and listening to Addy trying to say Happy Valentine’s Day and then enjoying a smoked prime rib dinner at Backyard BBQ and driving home on snow covered roads safely.

It started snowing as we left for the restaurant and is still snowing now so we are in for an interesting trip to Spokane on Friday. I’ll be late visiting this week.

Joining Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday’s Fave Five.

Thoughtful Thursday

This thoughtful Thursday happens to be Valentine’s Day, too.

Here’s a heart shaped box of handpicked See’s chocolates. True confession: I bought these as a gift to myself a few years ago to fulfill a wish I had in my head for a heart shaped box of candy. Some of the desires in your head won’t be fulfilled by wishing. Truth be told I’m not comfortable with some earthly person knowing the thoughts in my head. Many thoughts and desires aren’t worthy to be known or fulfilled. I’m thankful God is gracious and kind and He will not keep His justified wrath against me. This graciousness and kindness comes to me because of what Jesus Christ did on the cross for me and because God called me to follow Him. His kindness transforms me and my thoughts.

Here’s a beautiful bouquet of flowers. I didn’t buy these for myself. I don’t expect flowers on Valentine’s Day or any day. When flowers do get delivered I really appreciate them.

While I type I’m listening to a sermon on Biblical love by John MacArthur. Some of my takeaways: I need to be motivated and guided by self sacrificial love if I’m following Jesus. Biblical love is self-sacrificial love that motivates me to serve friends and enemies in love.

Hope you can accept the love that God has given to you in Jesus Christ.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

White Wednesday

We got these photos from our dear DIL from Addy’s fun in the snow. I love how her tongue plays a part in her concentration. She loves being outside in any weather. On Tuesday we got piled with snow. It started snowing in the morning and didn’t let up until 4pm. We will have a white covering for a while yet. Our kids in the Seattle area measured 16-17 inches of snow! That is quite the event for Western Washington. Some establishments ended up closing early to let their employees head home. School buses ran normally on our road. February snow isn’t the norm around here and we’ve had light snow until now.