Cooking tip: substituting

Substitute chicken broth for oil when you are sautéing meat or vegetables, or if you need more liquid for a marinade or sauce. It’s healthier and tastier. I always have a lot of chicken broth on hand.

Memories from my old church building

The church I have attended my whole life (24 years) is about to move into it’s nearly finished building on a new site. This process has been going on since I was in junior high, and I can hardly believe that we will be finally making the change. In preparation for the move, all of the church members were asked to submit memories from the current-soon-to-be-old location, and I thought this would be a good first post, as it reflects a lot of what I am thinking about right now and gives a glimpse of the personality that will be coming out in future posts.
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I remember when Pastor Dausy’s daughter showed me, a little kid at the time, the best hiding spots in the church. There were corners, closets, nooks, and crannies that I filed away for several games of sardines and hide and go seek in elementary school and junior high.

I remember the magic and amazement of walking into a transformed church at Halloween for the family fun fair.

I remember waiting for my favorite week of the year–missions week–where we could meet and talk to missionaries and walk through decorated rooms and try exotic food. My heart for missions was cultivated through many of these events.

I remember lallygagging through the church with my best friend in 6th grade and how she kicked her shoe off and accidentally knocked out a couple ceiling tiles. We ran as hard as we could.

I remember painting high on a ladder in Grand Rapids on Full Service with Doug Cristgau (our former missions pastor), the two of us talking about what it means to serve people. That I night I truly made my faith my own and felt the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in my life in a way that has changed my life ever since.

I remember hundreds of meetings to plan youth group events and Project Serve missions trips.

I remember watching Clayton, my future husband, preach his first of many sermons to the youth group when he was 17 and I was 15, and after he taught, we had our first conversation. I had coincidentally studied the same passage the previous night.

I remember many conversations after orchestra rehearsals in the balcony with my future husband as we worked out our faith in the quietness of the sanctuary.

I remember walking down the aisle to marry Clayton 3 years ago.

I remember teaching 3rd grade Sunday School this year. My husband had just told them that Jesus was going to come back and raise us from the dead and take us to heaven. They had so much excitement that it went through the walls and the second grade teacher came in to see what was going on.

I remember the excitement baptisms in Ecclesia, as new believers testified to shed lives of drug addiction and sin to follow Jesus while we encouraged them on with noise makers and cheering.

There are so many more memories that I will treasure from being on this site of WBC. I know that we the people are the Church and we are merely shedding a skin that has grown to small, but I cannot ignore how much this place has really been home to me as the foundation and growth of my faith in Jesus Christ took place here.