Super Sunday Mosaics

Today Sunday the 5th of February is Super Bowl Sunday and our church joins in the fun of the day with a different kind of Sunday. We arrive for tailgating with grilled sausages and other treats as we walk into church. There are photo ops inside. Do I look like a natural with that football?

Things are flashier than usual and noisier, too. Two of our pastors represent each team that is playing in the Super Bowl. They go back and forth with sermon points. If they communicate it well they get a touchdown. Pastor Wolfgang covered Free Agent vs. Team Player, and Karma vs. Grace. Pastor Alexander covered Worry vs. Trust, and Death vs. Life. There are penalties and challenges. The game was tied at the end of 4 quarters so the two pastors had a memory verse challenge in overtime for extra points. The truth and the gospel is communicated. Pastor Alexander won on a challenge that is still being disputed after the game. Does that sound familiar?

We came home from church ready to tackle these creations in our kitchen in honor of the two Super Bowl Football teams. I do love a theme for cooking and setting tables. No table set this year since it’s just Dear and me today. Truth be told we aren’t big football fans but we join in the fun for Super Bowl Sunday. We always hope to see a good new commercial. It was a treat to see our 41st President George H.W. Bush and his wife Barbara on the field while President Bush tossed the coin. The President hasn’t been home from the hospital long after a struggle with pneumonia. He is the oldest living president in the U.S.A. currently. God bless him.

I’m publishing this before we know who wins but if it goes like church did this morning the Atlanta Falcons will win but New England are the come back kings so…

I’m linking up with Maggie from Normandy Life for Mosaic Monday.

Our friends to the north are experiencing more snow than usual and so much so that many church services were cancelled because of treacherous roads. They are predicting snow for us, too, later today and tomorrow. Hope whatever the weather you are comfy cozy in your corner of the world.

Super Lunar New Year!

We had a fun celebration on Super Sunday starting with a exhilarating church service. Two of our pastors squared off with a sermon duel with the theme of finishing strong. Quarter one was about Solomon and his varied appetites that kept him from finishing strong. Quarter two was about Moses and his anger that kept him from finishing strong. Quarter three was about Judas and his greed that kept him from finishing strong. Quarter four was about Jesus and although it seemed that He wouldn’t finish strong because of his crucifixion he rose again to victory over death and sin. In order for us to finish strong we need to follow Him. There were penalties thrown and commercials in between quarters, a half time show, and Bibles with football binding given out to kids in the end zone after touchdowns! In the end and maybe a bit prophetic Pastor Alexander with the help of his stand in after his injury on the field (sprained tonsils), pastor Goetze, edged out Pastor Wolfgang for the win.

We came home pumped up and started a few preparations for our Super Lunar New Year Bowl party.

It was fun to gather up goods to set a Chinese New Year themed table for our party. This inspiration started in January while I visited San Francisco’s Chinatown with an old friend of mine.

These three wine covers were the instigators for the table. A large variety of these were offered for sale in every shop Alice and I went into on our visit to Chinatown. I kept handling them but walking away. Finally in the last shop we visited my resistance was depleted and I bought these three. Look at those little hats with the braid attached! They were only $1.99 each!

Now I was in search of more items to complete my table and room decor. There are several large Asian stores around our area and I went to one where I found the Lucky pockets, candy, almond cookies and fortune cookies.

The lanterns, dragons, plates and napkins came from a party store.

Before hand I queried each of our guests for the party about their favorite Chinese take out dish. We ordered each of these dishes and picked them up just before our planned start time. This take out idea really made hosting the party easy peasy. We heated up the Panko shrimp from the frozen section at Costco that went real well with sweet chili sauce. We would recommend it if you ever need an appetizer for a party.

The one thing I prepared from scratch for our party was this Egg Flower Soup. You can click over to Mennonite Girls Can Cook to get the easy recipe today!

Happy New Year to all our Asian friends who are celebrating today!

Every Good Gift…

It’s Friday again and I’m joining Susanne at Living to Tell the Story for Friday’s Fave Five. So many good gifts come to us to enjoy and here are five from this past week that were perfect.

We had our second annual Super Sunday at church and it was so fabulous. Two of our pastors went head to head with short sermons on the great Comebacks in the Bible. In the end Jesus’ Comeback from Death had us all cheering. The perfect ending to the sermon. My church, pastors, and staff are a gift.

For our afternoon festivities after church Dear had ribs in the smoker that came out just right. A great meal is a gift I enjoy and enjoying it with our daughter Katie and son in law Andrew made it perfect.

Our two sons were able to spend the weekend together and I love the photos they send my way. They had a nice snowy hike out the door of our son Dan’s home in Eastern Washington. It’s a good gift to Dear and me that our sons love each other.

These girls (Mennonite Girls Can Cook) are a gift from the Lord to me and every week we share our joys, struggles, triumphs, and failures with each other holding each other up in prayer and giving each other encouragement. This gift of friendship is straight from the “Father of lights”.

Josh and Laura gifted me these cool ABC verse cards and I display one card each week so I can see it and work on learning the verse. I’m on the letter e. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.” (James 1:17) Since I’m a visual learner this gift was perfect to help me learn and retain the 26 verses included.

What gifts did you receive this week that brought some joy and light into your world?

Super Sunday!

We had such a fun time at church this morning. Wish you could have been there.

Two of our pastors squared off head to head in a sermon duel. They both spoke about underdogs in the Bible with a different person from the Bible’s story in each of the 4 quarters of the sermon time. There was even a referee to call penalties on them. So much fun with a clear message of God’s care for us and the Gospel shining through.

Loved this Bible cover…NFL = New Found Life!

God is greater than…any other God.

4th quarter our lead pastor ended the game pointing our eyes to Jesus…who…

The final score was…

The pastors were both real good sports. In the end Wolfgang could not bear wearing that Broncos jersey and stripped it off to reveal his Seahawks Jersey. It’s hard to be wearing Orange in the greater Seattle area on this particular Sunday. Whoever wins today it’s been so much fun enjoying the electricity of the 12th man.

We had our photo op picked up our skittles and headed home to get ready for the big game.

We’ve got the 12th man drinks going and the 12th man chair all ready.

This is what we are eating during the commercials! Football is not our life but we are having fun today enjoying all the hype and cheering loud for our team.

Are you watching or are you happily avoiding the game?

Update: We are so glad that our Seahawks will bring their first Super Bowl trophy home!

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Super Sunday

Super Sunday Mosaics

Super Lunar New Year!

Every Good Gift…

Super Sunday!