Month: February 2019

My Heart Grieves

On By Michele Huey, Author & SpeakerIn Uncategorized2 Comments

My heart grieves with my dear friends and precious sisters-in-Christ of the Harmony Grove Lutheran Church in Creekside, Pa. Yesterday morning the church was intentionally set on fire. What a loss to the community! This church was established in 1870 and has been at the crossroads of the community, both literally and figuratively, for nearly 150 years.

A prayer service will be held tonight at the church at 6 p.m. If you plan to come, dress warm, and bring a flashlight, umbrella, and lots of hugs. 

Below are a couple of links to articles about the fire, which was declared arson. Two incendiary devices were set, one in the basement and one in the altar area. The building is a total loss.

I’ve been the speaker for the Ladies Day Out Luncheon ever since it began six years ago. Below I’ve included some pictures of last year’s event, “A Hat for All Seasons.” These ladies are near and dear to my heart. I grieve with them.

PLEASE NOTE: THIS YEAR’S LADIES DAY OUT LUNCHEON WILL STILL BE HELD AS PLANNED, ON SATURDAY, APRIL 27. THE VENUE IS NOW THE KEYSTONE SPORTSMAN’S CLUB NEAR ATWOOD. OUR TOPIC IS “GOD’S RECIPE BOX.” 

FOR MORE ON THE FIRE:

https://www.indianagazette.com/news/fire-damages-church-in-washington-township/article_b1386a5e-39bf-11e9-9698-3b36cc95fd34.html

https://www.indianagazette.com/news/police_emergency_and_courts/church-intentionally-set-ablaze-police-say/article_ef1d0b54-3a78-11e9-b510-3bbfbf6cfb08.html

https://www.facebook.com/pg/MarionCenterVolunteerFireDepartment/photos/?tab=album&album_id=539014329504974

The ladies work hard all year round to make the luncheon a fun event. No one gets home without a gift.
“A Hat for All Seasons” was last year’s Ladies Day Out event. The ladies wore hats of all kinds and styles. FUN!
Myrna Orr (left) and Darlene Shields (right, at piano) work all year round with the planning team to make every minute of the Ladies Day Out meaningful and fun.
A few more members of the planning team, the “kitchen crew,” take a break.
Pastor Dave Wasemann always added even more fun to the Ladies Day Out. What a loss to the congregation when he passed away suddenly last fall!
The church on fire, Tuesday, February 26, 2019, in the early hours before dawn
The fire was determined to be arson, with two incendiary devices set, one in the basement, and one upstairs in the altar area.

 

 

 

Sifting Season

On By Michele Huey, Author & SpeakerIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

 

5 Best Flour Sifters For Your Kitchen

Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. – Luke 22:31-32 NIV

 When I first started baking—back in the dark ages of kitchen technology—almost every recipe that called for flour required that it be sifted. So when I furnished my first apartment, I bought a neat little avocado green sifter. And I used it, too.

Nowadays I don’t even own a sifter. Not because I don’t bake—well, I bake sometimes—flour just doesn’t need to be sifted anymore. It’s missing the lumps and the extra protein, a.k.a. bugs, that were once reasons for sifting. Plus the compacting that occurs when flour is handled and stored (in my case, for long periods of time) isn’t the problem it used to be.

Our modern flour caters to our hurry-up lifestyle. Anything that eliminates a step or two and shortens the process is the way to go.

But even with modern flour, sifting still can be beneficial. It separates and aerates the flour particles so they absorb better the liquids called for in the recipe. And sifting gives the flour a silky texture, fluffy and light.

Like flour, we, too, need to be sifted. Modern times have increased, rather than decreased, the need to separate the good stuff from the bad. Life’s rough handling leaves us with lumps of pain and confusion, and the bugs of an increasingly godless culture infect our minds, hearts, and spirits without us being aware of it or wanting it to. Overcrowded schedules press us down, leaving us helplessly wedged under the weight of too many commitments and too little time.

So every now and then we enter what I call the sifting season—a season of trouble, of heartache and pain, of problems with no answers and seemingly hopeless situations over which we have no control and which don’t make any sense to us.

Discouragement and doubt settle in for a long, unwelcome stay. We pray, but the ears of Heaven seem closed. We ask, but don’t receive. We seek, but can’t find. We knock, but the door remains shut tight.

Like the psalmist, we weep in despair, “Why have you forgotten me?” (Psalm 42:9).

But God has not forgotten us. He has allowed this season for a purpose: to sift us like flour, so that our lumps of stubbornness and selfishness are broken up, the bugs that have contaminated our very souls are removed, and we absorb better the truth and wisdom of God’s Word. It is during these times the wheat is separated from the chaff as we learn what’s really important and what we can do without.

The sifting takes time, for the life of faith is not a hurry-up lifestyle. There are no shortcuts to holiness.

But, like all seasons, the sifting season will come to an end, and we’ll have the texture of a more mature Christian—silky, fluffy, light, and free, and much better able to be used in the recipes of God.

Why are you downcast, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God. (Psalm 42:5).

Read and reflect on 1 Peter 1:3–9; Psalm 42

 © 2012 Michele Huey. All rights reserved.