Monthly Archives: June 2011

{Guest Baker} Oreo Cookie Cupcakes

Before I left for Greece, my roommate, B, was gracious enough to make these Oreo cupcakes (and for a mint variation of these cupcakes, go check out B’s blog here!).

 

 They are sooo good!

 

I have to be honest though, in the craziness of packing on the day before I left, I realized that I only had the cupcake recipe and not the frosting recipe.  So the frosting recipe listed here may not be exactly what B used, but it’s probably pretty close, and I suspect that you could use your favorite/preferred frosting recipe as well (whipped, cream cheese, butter cream, etc.).

 

Oreo Cupcakes

Ingredients:

30 Oreo cookies

1 box plain white cake mix

1 cup sour cream

½ cup vegetable oil

3 large eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 24 cupcake cups with paper liners.

2. Separate the tops and bottoms of 12-24 Oreos making sure that each wafer has some icing on it.  Place one wafer, icing side up, in the bottom of each cupcake liner. Crush the remaining Oreos and set aside.

3. Place cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs, and vanilla in large mixing bow and blend well with electric mixer for a couple of minutes, scraping sides as needed.

4. Measure 1 ½ cups of crushed Oreos and fold into batter.  (Set aside remaining crushed Oreos for frosting.)

5. Scoop about a 1/3 cup batter into each cupcake liner, filling ¾ of the way full.

6. Bake cupcakes until they are lightly golden and spring back when lightly pressed, about 16-20 minutes.

7. Let cupcakes cool in pans for about 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely before frosting.

 

Oreo Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients:

8 oz. cream cheese (at room temp)

1 stick butter (at room temp)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups powdered sugar

Remaining crushed Oreos from cupcakes

Instructions:

1. Cream butter and cream cheese until fluffy, then add vanilla.

2. Slowly add powdered sugar until desired consistency (mixing well after each addition), then add crushed Oreos.

3. Frost cupcakes.

Thanks for sharing, B!!

Checking In From Greece

 

I haven’t had much internet access, and I haven’t had much downtime, but I wanted to take this opportunity to say a quick hello from Athens! 

In one week, we’ve already been to Thessaloniki, Philippi, Berea, Meteora, and Delphi (among others…), and we arrived here in Athens on Thursday evening where we will be staying until Monday morning when we leave for a 4 day cruise to see several of the Greek Islands as well as Ephesus.

As a class, we have studied some in Philippians and are currently exegetically working our way through 1 Corinthians in preparation of our visit to Corinth next week as well.

Needless to say, I will have plenty of stories and photos to share upon my return home!

Until then, in the words of Paul:

 

“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!”

{Guest Post} Following God’s Call to Peru…

(I’m still in Greece, so this post is from Kendra, a dear friend, an amazing photographer, a fellow blogger, and a sister in Christ … check out her blog, leave her a comment here, and join me in praying for her upcoming mission trip.  Kendra, thank you SOO much for sharing your heart.  I love you and am praying that you have an amazing trip to Peru and experience God in a whole new way!)

 

When Emily asked me to write on her blog while she was away in Greece I was stunned.  My first thoughts were…“I don’t write, I blog pictures, so I’ll have absolutely nothing to write about”… well that’s when I was quickly reminded that I do write…and not only do I write, I LOVE to write.  I may not be the best writer, and I know the way I write is totally the way I talk and that’s okay with me.  So Emily, thank you for giving me the opportunity to let me share on your blog (she may never let me do this again!!).

 

 

Summer of 2003…

I was in a little church that overlooked the Atlantic Ocean in Marsh Harbor, Abaco, Bahamas.  We had finished our final day of work and we were all circled up sharing how we had experienced God that week on our missions trip. 

I remember sitting there and being mad at God.  Mad that I hadn’t “experienced” Him the way I thought I should.  There were probably 40 people in the circle and I was close to the end, so by the time it got to me I had NO idea what I was going to say.  I’d had a while to sit and think about it, but the more I thought the more mad I became…I finally just started crying…crying because in those few short seconds between my best friend telling how she’d experienced God and my turn, God spoke to me. 

In those few seconds I knew that He was telling me what He had wanted me to experience the whole week…He wanted me to experience the love He offered to those that didn’t know Him, He wanted me to experience Him at that moment, and

He wanted me to have a heart that breaks for what

His heart breaks for… and that meant the mission field. 

I remember being scared to death that God had called me into something and I continued crying because I was simply amazed at how God shows up when you least expect Him to.  I had wanted to experience something huge, something I could see and feel and do, but He had something totally different in mind for me.  I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

 

 

Eight years later…

I am still trying to figure out what God meant when he called me into the missions field.  Sometimes I wonder if I’ve screwed up and didn’t really listen correctly or if I ignored something He’s wanted me to do along the way.  But then I think back to all the opportunities and chances He’s provided, and I realize He has used me in the missions field…whether it be working an entire summer setting up workcamps for high school students to share God’s love all over the USA, helping to raise money to help fight cancer and fight heart defects in babies, traveling to Brazil and spreading God’s Word doing street evangelism in the poorest areas imaginable, working with youth who are from rough backgrounds, and now getting ready to head to Peru for two weeks to work with kids, build a church, and share God’s love on the streets. 

There’s a good chance that I’ve missed out on doors that He’s opened and I decided to walk right past them, but I also know that His calling on my life to be in the missions field has and is happening. A good friend of mine reminded me last year during Bible study, when I once again started getting down on myself about not following God’s calling on my life, that He didn’t just call me to the foreign missions field…He called me to the missions field, and that can be not only foreign, but right in my own backyard as well.  Whenever I think about disappointing God in His call on my life, I think to what she told me because she is totally right, and God has opened doors near and afar for me to be His hands and feet.

 

 

Right now…

I know without a doubt that my heart breaks for those in other countries that haven’t heard of what Christ did for us…being in a different country and being able to be the hands and feet of Christ, and love on them the way Christ has loved me, is something I can’t even begin to describe.  Yes, there are language barriers, but looking past that, God uses me somehow, through my bumbling and stumbling, to show Himself to those that haven’t yet come to know Him.  Missions, whether local or foreign, mean a lot to me.  God has let me experience Him in so many ways (and never how I expected it) and He never ceases to amaze me.

As I prepare to head Peru I have fits of “buyer’s remorse”…I say that because there are times that I’m like, “What on earth have I signed up for?”…but then there are times that I wish I could hop on a plane today to get down there and be Christ to someone.  The specifics of our trip won’t all come together until after we land inLima.  Our leader may plan one thing but then we’ll end up doing something totally different, and as much as that will drive me nuts, it makes me excited to see what God throws at me and my team. 

I have been praying for this trip for months (it wasn’t always supposed to be a trip to Peru, we were originally heading to Haiti, but things didn’t work out).  If I could ask one thing, it would be for prayer for my team…for our trip toPeru, for the entire time we’re inPeru, and then for when we return.  I have seen the hand of the enemy many times on trips like this and because of that I know how important it is to wrap everything we do in prayer. 

God is so awesome and I am always amazed at how He reveals Himself to me and I am looking forward to seeing Him, feeling Him, being challenged by Him, and experiencing Him. 

If you made it to the end of this, thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings.  Emily, thank you again for this fun opportunity to write on your blog!!  You are an amazing woman of God and one of my dearest friends, love you and hope you are having a blast in Greece!!

**All photos from Kendra’s 2003 trip to Peru**

Happy Father’s Day

Since I should now be in Greece, we celebrated Father’s Day last weekend.  And yes, I did make a cake…a yummy pound cake with fresh strawberries!

 

 

But in honor of his day, I would like to take a moment to recognize my Dad’s fatherly wisdom (or at least a few of my favorite sayings):

  1. All your life, stuff happens.
  2. It’s a full time job keeping up with your own business.
  3. It takes money to drink whiskey and ride the train.

Okay, so that last one may have come from my grandfather…maybe even my great-grandfather…but it makes the point and makes me smile.

 

Dad, thank you for your wisdom, for imparting Biblical knowledge that I don’t get anywhere else (most notably, for making me aware of the great speckled bird), for introducing me to high quality music (“Jesus on the Mainline” comes to mind among others), and for generally putting up with me.

 

Happy Father’s Day!!

Bon Voyage!

As I mentioned here earlier this week, and alluded to here while at the beach, I have a BIG announcement today.

 

 

Tomorrow morning, I will be catching a plane to Boston where I will meet up with 9 other seminary students and a professor and then travel to Greece for a 2.5 week class studying Paul’s New Testament Letters on location!

 

I am excited, yes, but I am also nervous.

 

It seems that travel (or at least the preparation to travel) brings out the worst in me.  This is clearly evident through the flesh-spirit struggle that seems to be working on overdrive within me on an almost hourly basis.

 

In moments when my flesh takes over, my nerves get the best of me, I get caught up in the insignificant details of international travel (from how to deal with a food allergy to how to best pack my electronics), and I put up a front of determination to be completely self-sufficient and prepare for all possible contingencies.

 

But in the moments when I willfully submit my spirit to the Lord, which has been best achieved during my times of reading Paul’s Letters over the past few days (I only have 1 & 2 Corinthians left!), I can’t help but know a great peace surrounding this trip to Greece and know that, just as Paul writes to the various churches and individuals, for the next couple of weeks I am called to be in community with 10 fellow believers (albeit strangers) . . . to love, to serve, to pray . . . more and more . . . and I better live in a manner worthy of this calling.

 

The circumstances surrounding this trip are far different than I had anticipated.  I have lost all sense of security and feel as though I am walking into the complete unknown. . .but maybe that was God’s plan all along.

 

Although I am uncertain of internet accessibility during most of the trip, there will be several posts in my absence (including some guest posts from some pretty amazing people!) and I hope to be able to check in a couple of times as well. 

 

You didn’t think I’d actually leave you with nothing for two whole weeks, did you?

 

I would greatly appreciate your prayers while I am in Greece.  Sure, I have some anxiety regarding the travel details, but I know that those will ultimately work out.  Mostly, I ask that you pray that I would appreciate each moment, that I would live according to the Spirit, that I would invest myself fully, that I would study and learn productively, that God’s Word would come alive in a real and fresh way, and that I would be available to be used.

 

Just a few short hours away from departure, in some ways I feel completely unprepared and in other ways I feel completely equipped.

 

But in all ways, I am expectantly praying that this trip is life-changing, God-honoring, and eye-opening: to His word, to His calling, to His purpose, to His people.

An oh-so-brief Break

One of the things I found most refreshing while on vacation at the beach was the slower pace of each day intermingled with short intervals of very intentional technology use, for both personal and professional reasons.
 
I didn’t realize just how dependent I had become on technology until I spent most of my time apart from it.
 

 

And truth?  I have been craving going back to that intentional use of my time ever since I returned home.
 
From a work perspective that is just not a reality (I certainly can’t check my email only once a day), but from a personal perspective it’s not only a reality, but a necessity.
 
So I am taking a break (albeit extremely brief) from my typical technology routine until Thursday evening…when I will be back with a BIG announcement!
 
Though I don’t blog anywhere near daily, and it may not be out of the ordinary for me to go from a Monday to a Thursday with no post, behind the scenes, I am still very much engaged with and connected to various means of technology.  But not this week. 

 

And I would be remiss if I didn’t share what I would be filling my time with over the next few days in place of technology:

 

Scripture. God’s Word. Truth.

 

Why?

Because the past month has seemed like a whirlwind of activity and the last couple of weeks have been downright chaotic.
 
And in the midst of the chaos, as I was struggling to find a constant, I realized that I had been suffering from a severe (and unacceptable) LACK of Scipture intake.
 
Oh sure, I’ve been in church a couple of times a week  and I’ve read a few verses here and there on a near-daily basis, but I have been lacking that intentional and focused intake of Scripture.  That raw, revealing, convicting, humbling, uplifting, self-exposing, heart-filling, ear-opening, soul-satisfying, one-on-one time with Jesus Christ that only comes through reading, meditating on, and soaking in His Word.
 
So over the next few days, I will be doing a rather fast-paced reading through all of Paul’s New Testament letters – that’s right, ALL of them – in preparation for the aforementioned announcement on Thursday.
 
See you then!

Prevailing Purpose

“Many are the plans in the mind of a man,

but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”

Proverbs 19:21 (ESV – emphasis added)

 

 

I wanted it to be a good fit.  But I don’t know if it ever really was.

I wanted to love it.  But I don’t know if I ever really did.

I wanted it to work out.  But I don’t know if it ever really could have.

I wanted it to be a success.  But in this moment, failure somehow seems strangely sweeter.

 

It was a good thing…but that didn’t necessarily make it the right thing…and it is finished…and I am done.

 

Yet even through the lingering daze and numbness, even through the ache of a dream unrealized, even through the late evening hour doubts that threaten to creep in, I know a peace, a calm, a freedom from a burden that I didn’t even realize I had been carrying.

 

It took many road blocks – many small steps in a slightly different direction along the way – to reach a place where it became apparent that a completely different direction was being asked of me.

It required sacrifice – of the one thing that I thought I wanted the most – to see a different plan begin to emerge.

 

HIS plan, perhaps?

 

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me;

your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. 

Do not forsake the work of your hands.”

Psalm 138:8 (ESV – emphasis added)