The Hendersons ~ On a Journey 4 Him Weblog...

Baptism June 29th, 2008

A special thanks to Bro. Mark for sharing the video of the baptisms at ABC. You will see Sk.'s baptism (2nd person baptized). It was an absolute joy to see Sk. so excited and ready to profess his faith through the believer's baptism, even though he is absolutely terrifed of heights (stairs to baptistry) & water (being dunked under). God was with him, and we praise Him for that!

Sk.'s Baptism

Tonight, our son will be baptized!  He professed his faith that Jesus is Lord on April 20!  We are so very excited. As parents, this makes us very proud of him, and very excited to know that we will see him in heaven one day. Now, help us pray that we will continue to be parents who set a godly example for our children and  also pray for Sk.'s growth as a Christian. May we all surrender to God's will and let Him mold and shape us into His likeness each and every day!  Praise God for His saving grace!

A Day of Celebration

Today, we are supposed to celebrate Father's Day (since we were at Disney on the 15th) and Brian's birthday at my parents' house. Yesterday, I worked all afternoon on TRYING to make a few desserts that were delicious in Brasil. Notice that I said TRYING.  I wanted it to be perfect.  I got the pronunciations from my friend Jose so I would be able to tell everyone WHAT we were eating. B. & I found the recipes on the Internet of these delicacies that we had eaten while we were over there on our journey. We didn't select just one item, we selected three! I guess that was the first mistake that we made. I should have started small....one step at a time.

I worked it seemed like hours preparing and making Beijinho de Coco, Brigadeiro (chocolate), & Brasilian Flan. The Beijinho and Brigadeiro (the latter being served mostly on birthdays in Brasil) was a slow process.  I had to cook, stir, stir, and stir some more condensed milk to make the ingredients come to a creamy mixture that finally separated from the bottom of the pan. Then, the mixtures had to cool completely before I could roll them into balls and roll in coconut or chocolate sprinkles. My mixtures seemed more gooey than when I ate them in Brasil.  However, they both are edible, and the Beijinho de Coco (tiny kisses of coconut) turned out the best! Sy. lapped them up like a kitten. I didn't even know that she liked coconut!

The flan is a different story!!  First, I had to caramelize sugar. I have not ever done this before so I had to get online tutorials. The Internet actually had videos of how to do this! Unfortunately, there were two different ways. The first way, I failed. The color never changed, and my sugar turned into BRICK. So, I did not give up. B. came into the picture to "help."  This time, we tried it the other way, and it caramelized beautifully! Yesterday morning, I went to WalMart to buy the ingredients and a new pan so the flan would turn out of the pan like it is supposed to. I bought spring form pans.  I did not read the tiny directions (imagine that!) that explained not to put soupy ingredients into the pan. The caramelized sugar formed nicely in its bottom, so why would there be a problem with the ingredients going in!?  WRONG!!  When I poured the ingredients in, they seeped right on out!!!  That was a problem, since my sugar was in its bottom. B. & I devised (yeah, right) a pot within a pot with aluminum foil to pray it would not seep as badly. Then, we had to cook this mixture with the pots within another pan with hot water.  Yes, this recipe had all kind of special directions!! Well, you probably guessed it, most of the ingredients seeped out during the cooking process. Our flan was about 1/4 inch thick & only edible by scraping out the bottom of the pan.

The moral to this story is the following:  1) As in life, we should take one step at a time. Don't try to do more than one new thing at a time! 2) Go to Brasil to buy and bring back the sweets!

All Out of Sorts

There is no structure to summer time.  My sleeping patterns have gotten all messed up. The past couple of days I have been getting up early, taking a nap, and then, going to bed late.  Today, I decided to skip my afternoon nap and work on school paperwork, but you see, I am on here blogging instead. 

Sk. had piano practice earlier this morning. He has two lessons during the summer to keep him "on track" before he begins a new year in August.

Last night, Bro. Neal stood in for Dr. T.; he did another fabulous job teaching us out of Luke 12.  We discussed greed and worrying. Everything we do--is it for ourselves, or is it for God? We talked about trying to get ahead in life. For instance, doing all you can to retire and then siting back and relaxing. Everything extra that God gives us is not for our own selfish desires or for us to store up for ourselves, but, instead, should be used to help others.  Greed doesn't just refer to monetary items or possessions, it could be possessions or ANYthing else that will put you ahead of others (positions, etc). Very interesting and very true!

Well, I guess I really need to go type those papers.....

Happy, Happy Birthday to B.!!!

Today is B's birthday!  Poor thing had to work, and from all accounts, had a BAD start of a day! Trying to back into a parking space (he's required to do that w/his company truck in certain locations), a person zipped around, and he BACKED into the person!  Not good!  How is THAT for a birthday present!?

B., I hope that your day is better than the beginning! I would like to brag on B. for a moment. He is a very wonderful husband and father. We have been married for almost 16 years. He is a hard worker, and he always has been! I enjoy being in his company very much. Since we first met, way back in high school, he made me laugh, was fun to be around, and is a good person.  B., thank you for all that you do!  I love you very much! 

Technology

It is amazing what our technology is today! The other day, I read Bro. T.'s blog about technology (Click here to read his blog).  Thinking back to when B. bought my first computer...I was in college, and we had not been married long. I remember how I had used a typewriter or hand-wrote all of my work.  Wow--I cannot even imagine having to do that now!  The times have definitely changed. 

Now, we can communicate from one country to another with the click of a button.  Not only can we instant message or email each other, we can also view each other via a webcam and speak to each other through a microphone. No long distance charges! I have also found online translator programs, which can translate English to many other languages, and other languages back into English.  Currently, friends are teaching me the Portuguese alphabet and how to say words, and I am helping them with English.  I found a website where I can learn more about Brasilian language and culture Click here to learn more).

There are also other social programs where you can connect to old friends or friends around the world, or meet new friends virtually anywhere, including Orkut, MySpace, and Facebook. Sometimes, it's amazing who you will find there! It's interesting to view others' uploaded videos, music, and photo albums.

You can even read the Bible online or look up passages (Click here). You can find out about many international mission organizations, including IMB (International Mission Board) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB). 

I could go on and on about technology!

Passion - Love Song

God loves us so much. We need to remember His great love for us each and every day! He sent His Son, Jesus, to die for you and me. Have you accepted His free gift of salvation? If not, I can tell you how. It's actually very simple! If you have, we need to thank Him for His precious gift!

It's Good to Be Back

Although it has been wonderful being able to travel, it will be great to be back at a Sunday morning service tomorrow morning. I love hearing the Word, singing praises to our King, and fellowshiping with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

This summer is slipping by. It always does. As a teacher, the summers seem to not ever be long enough. Last summer, I had to move all my belongings from one wing of the building to another because I moved up two grades, and I spent the majority of the summer unpacking. That was not fun. This year, I will be in the same classroom, which is wonderful. There's not many weeks left for me to gather supplies that I will need in the classroom (yes, teachers buy a majority of items that the students use, even thought the lists seem to grow each year), gather school clothes for Sk., gather items to take on my M. trip to the Pac. Rim, wait on the floors to be cleaned and waxed in my classroom, and then, put everything back in order in my classroom and get ready for the first day. It will be really hectic since I will be returning from my trip on the first day that teachers return for a professional workday.

God is good though, and I know everything will come together accordingly. It's a blessing to be alive and well and able to do all these things!

A Day of Outings

I got up early and met three other friends for a day of shopping, eating, and coffee. It is nice to have a day to relax. Granny and Papa kept the kids for me. We ate at Olive Garden and had a frap at Starbucks.

Then, I joined the Hendersons for crawfish.  It has been such a long time since we have had a boil!  It was delicious! Potatoes, onions, sausage, and crawfish....YUM, YUM, YUM. The kids were so tired, Sy. fell asleep while we were waiting for the thunderstorm to pass over before we could leave. Sk. decided he wanted to spend the night and help Papa work tomorrow.

B. & I headed on home late. It's been a long, relaxing day.  Very nice!

A Lazy Day

Although B. had to go back to work today, the rest of us were lazy. The kids and I slept til 9 AM! That was nice. We did nothing today except for laid around and got in the pool.

I can say that I killed two brown widows near our pool!  I am terrified of spiders, especially poisonous ones! We have one of those pools that the lining stretches across the tubular frame, and the spiders were inbetween the lining that is wrapped around the frame. I noticed the webs, and decided I might ought to spray in the holes with Raid.  You might could say that I am a black widow hunter, since I usually can tell the difference in the toughness of their webs compared to other spiders'. Ha! The moral to this paragraph is be on the lookout for brown and black widows! They can get in places that you'd never suspect. Normally, Sk. hangs on the sides of the pool, and in this case, they could've easily bitten him. They must really be crawling this year because that makes 4 that I have killed so far this summer!

I had a dear friend from Bexley bring me an ENTIRE box of items (shampoos and such) to take to the ladies for my M. trip to the Pac. Rim.  My mom and a teacher from school both have also given me items. We will be giving the items to ladies at our women's conference. My mother-in-law is crocheting purses for me to take. She has made a lot of them so far! That is not too far away in the future.

Of course, we went to church tonight. It is exciting to hear about Paul's mission journeys from Acts.