Garden Salsa

I also made some yummy salsa...

6 medium tomatoes
3/4 cup finely chopped bell peppers
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp each: cider vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil
1-2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Serve with tortilla chips! :)

Sin & Death

People are not the enemy. SIN is the enemy. DEATH is the enemy. People are enslaved to sin and death. We are to extend the Bible to people. People are cloaked with pride and selfishness. We should reach out to them with the Holy Scriptures, declaring God's truth to mankind, sympathizing with people but not their sin.

Joey's 20th B-day

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOEY**

So for the past couple weeks we have been planning a "surprise" party for Joey - thanks to Miss Chrissie! :) And surprised he was! The plan: Joey thought that we were just going out as a family to Logan's. Unbeknownst to him, we had been inviting several of his friends to join us. John had just been skating with Joey and said "I need to meet some people in town". Matt called Joey and asked if he wanted to hang out. Joey said he couldn't because he was having dinner with the family. Chrissie said that she was going to be real busy on Saturday. He had no clue. Haha. It was good. My parents and Chrissie got him a digital camera that he had been talking about for a couple weeks now. Chrissie also made him this skateboard "with purpose" - he can use it to hang hats from or something along those lines. So creative! Matthew had put some money toward Joey's new CD player for his car. Brittany, Tony, & I had bought him a DVD player, as the one in his bedroom had broke. And mom made him his favorite "Pinapple Upsidedown Cake". Yum!!

Ham & Yam Festival 08

Saturday afternoon we joined Harlan, Blair, and Hannah at the Ham & Yam festival in Smithfield for a couple hours of witnessing. While passing out million dollar bills, one young guy said "I'm going to buy a playboy mansion with this!" Of course, that was a great opening to talk with them about our sin before a just and holy God. That particular guy did not want to hear it and kept telling his other friend to "come on... there ain't no since in listening to this". But despite the great temptation to leave, and the many interruptions, his friend did stay and listened intently as we went through the gospel. I pray that God will do a great work in his heart.

There were other great encounters throughout the day.

Encounter with the Pizza Guy

Yesterday, Tony got off work a little later than normal and was informed that he had to come into work Saturday morning for a few hours. So we decided to just have a relaxing evening at home; but God had better plans. Shortly after dinner, our dear brother Fareid called to say that Fresh Ground Ministries was having a car wash Saturday and wanted to borrow our banners and have some gospel tracts to pass out to their "customers". (Praise the Lord for their desire to reach out to the lost)! "No problem!" So we drove over to Fareid's house to drop off the materials, then we decided to go hang out at Books a Million for a while. From there Tony mentioned that he was hungry and hinted at getting a pizza. So then we had a short discussion on whether we should buy a fresh pizza from the local pizzaria or just buy a frozen pizza to cook at home. We decided on fresh cheese pizza. As the very polite "pizza guy" wrote down our order, his pen slipped off the pad and he said - "Jesus". He almost instantly said "Forgive my language". I then asked him "Why do you think it was wrong to say that?" "Because I used it in vain." "That's interesting. I agree with you." From there he went on to tell us that he's been attending a local private college where it is mandatory to take both Old and New Testament classes. He was raised as a Buddhist and really enjoyed the OT teacher in particular as he gave a broad overview of what Christianity is. During our 10 minute wait for the pizza to bake we felt led to give him some sort of resource that gave a good explanation of the gospel. We prayed that God would give us wisdom and we settled on a sermon by Mark Driscoll titled "Jesus Died for our Unrighteousness". The "Pizza Guy" was very grateful for the sermon and said he would definately listen to it.

Glory to God - the One who has our every step planned to bring glory to His wonderful Name!!!

Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established... the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Proverbs 16:3 & 9