Chocolate

Sunday, October 17th was the first annual Bentabulous Day.

My mom's side of the family is addicted to chocolate, pretty much every one of us. Last week my cousin was saying how much she wanted to make a chocolate cake. For some reason, she felt she needed a reason to make a cake. So, we came up with a reason, Bentabulous Day!

I made a cake called the 15-minute Chocolate Cake. The recipe has been requested, so here it is! It was delicious. I will definitely be making it again, soon.

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup canola or light olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup boiling water
powdered sugar for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Butter a 10 inch round cake pan. (I used cupcake tins)

2. In a large bowl, stir the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt until combined. Add the egg, milk, oil, and vanilla to the flour mixture and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes. With the mixer on low, beat in the water; the batter will be thin.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Unmold onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar and cut into edges to serve.

(Apparently, unmold is not a word, it keeps getting underlined by spell check!:)

Enjoy! Next time I will take pictures to post!

Recently

Monday was a national holiday here in Japan. Our mission family gathered at "Red Eye 48 Falls" for a time of hiking and enjoying God's creation and each others' company. It was a beautiful day!












Jonah found a crab!

Hiking and lunch were followed by a rehearsal for the Franklin Graham Festival next weekend. Then, after seeing Yuri off at Umeda station, I decided to grab a little supper before heading home. As I left the restaurant, I heard someone singing in English-wait, singing Gospel! So, I followed the music and found a group doing a street concert. Since it was night the pictures are dark. I also took a little video with my camera. I thought of it half way through "Oh Happy Day"! (It looks like the video may not work. Sorry if it doesn't. You can still get an idea from the picture, I think:)





As I was leaving the gal who had been standing next to me started talking to me. She is a recent university graduate who does concert promotions. I told her about the Franklin Graham Festival and she asked for a flyer.

Great day!

BTW, I am listening to Christmas music right now!

Flip Calendar

The quote on my flip calendar today-which may stay up for a few days...

"Oh, God, give me grace for this day.
Not for a lifetime, not for next week,
not for tomorrow, just for this day.
Direct my thoughts and bless them,
direct my work and bless it...
So that for this one day, just this one day,
I have the gift of grace
that comes from Your presence."
Marjorie Holmes

Grace for this day. That is my prayer today, for myself and for you.

Hmmm....

I was just spending a few minutes catching up on reading blogs. I have several friends whose blogs I follow and enjoy reading about their lives and how God is working around the world and in their lives. As I was reading I realized that it has been a while since I wrote anything. Not because nothing has been happening, not because I have been too busy, but just because. So, here is a little update on life...

Church planting
Sometimes when I say I am helping to plant a new church it sounds pretty unreal-me, a church planter. I suspect there are a few of you who have known me since I was little and wonder what in the world God had in mind when He sent me here. I tell you what, I have no idea what I am doing most of the time! I spend a lot of time doing things I never in a million years would have thought I'd be doing. I speak Japanese, I lead Bible studies-sometimes in Japanese! - I lead music-that one pretty much takes the cake- I preach- in Japanese! etc, etc. I went to college and studied elementary education. I taught elementary school. Little kids don't scare me. I love hanging out with them. I had fun being a teacher-although that first year about killed me, thank goodness my mom and principal made me stick it out! I lived in Texas. These are all things that were comfortable. Then, God uproots me, reminds me of a call He placed on me as a child and sent me here. I guess He thought I needed to be uncomfortable. I guess He wanted me to rely on Him a bit more. Well... !

Music
I have been taking a piano class from our choir director (I do not know where that man gets all of his energy!) I like music, but I am not a natural musician. So, I am plugging away, trying to remember what Kris and Verda and James and Ted and others taught me about music. It is lots of fun and lots of work. Recently Paul has had to help out at another church or be at some other event so I have been left in charge at church. This means not only preparing a message. It also means I have to lead the music! I am thankful for a gracious group who sings their hearts out and pretends like they don't notice that I have no idea what is going on! I am also thankful that Noriko has been able to help out sometimes with the piano!!! Total dependence.

Relationships
There are so many wonderful friends with whom I get to interact on a regular basis. We go to lunch, coffee, music practices, hang out at each other's houses, or whatever. Some want to learn more about Jesus. Many only speak Japanese. I am still learning how to communicate in this language. Total dependence.

So, here I sit, perched on the edge of my seat wondering what God has planned next, how He is going to bring this all together. I just keep trusting knowing He has a plan. Each day I am learning a little more about this dependence to which He calls me.

Friends and their Pets

Yuko, my friend who allows me to stay at her house, has 7 cats. Well, she doesn't, but between her, her brother and her mom, there are 7 cats living in their house. I keep my door closed all the time:) They are pretty nice cats, as far as cats go, and generally ignore me.
Here is Frosty just before he jumped out of the car-he doesn't like cameras!
















Yoshimi, who lives down the street from Yuko, has two little dogs, Cherry and Shion. Cherry took a liking to me and was glad to have me join them for a walk one day. When I left them she was a little upset and Yoshimi had to carry her!

Friends and their Babies

When I lived in Karuizawa I played basketball with a co-ed city group. We had lots of fun. I was miles taller than the other gals, but we became friends and had lots of fun going out to eat or to the onsen after basketball.
Now three of them are married and have children. I love going back and seeing how their families have changed. Here is a little glimpse of our time together last week...

Tea time with Madoka and her second daughter



Dinner with Yoko and her one year old









Tea time at the jam shop with Fumiko and her two year old who is going to be a big sister next spring

A First

While I was in Karuizawa I went to my friends' for a BBQ. Some of you may remember me talking about the candle shop couple a few years ago when I lived there. They are still in Karuizawa and were having a BBQ with their 2 employees while I was there so invited me, too. When I asked if there was something I could bring, Etsuko started talking about the s'mores we had one time when I lived there, so I took s'mores fixin's.
The two gals who work for them had never had s'mores before. I think they enjoyed them!
Here are a couple of pictures of making s'mores. It was dark so I couldn't really see what I was taking pictures of until the flash went off!

roasting the marshmallows



enjoying!




Oh, I also got to have Mexican food in Karuizawa! The chef is even from Mexico and makes the tortillas every morning! Mmmm!