Vegan Ice Cream by Jeff Rogers- A Book Review

There is no reason why those who avoid dairy should never enjoy the sweet and creamy deliciousness of ice cream. With that in mind, Jeff Rogers has created a wonderful book for vegans and those with dairy sensitivities. I will forewarn you that many of the recipes contain cashews. For those with nut allergies though, there are several options that are nut-free.

I tried out the Fresh Lemon recipe (page 53) and decided to soak the cashews prior to blending since I don't have a high-speed blender such as a VitaMix. For the first time, I created a beautiful, creamy vegan ice cream. Even though I didn't achieve perfection with the recipe, a quick rereading, showed me what I can improve the next time.

If, like me, you don't have a VitaMix-type blender, Rogers' suggestions on blending are priceless for avoiding the dreaded it-didn't-turn-out-so-I-have-to-throw-away-all-of-these-expensive-ingredients! Rogers' book offers several hints as to how to mimic the same smooth texture of dairy-laden ice cream. These are tricks that had eluded me, causing a lot of frustration in the past when I would make vegan ice cream. 

Rogers has several pages dedicated to "The Basics". These are the helpful hints that made churning optimal creaminess possible. I think this book would be a great tool for someone new to vegan recipes and also an old pro. I fall somewhere in between and felt like this read made me more confident and knowledgeable in regards to vegan staples and ingredients.

The photos are beautifully shot and definitely enticing. Until obtaining this book, I've never seen vegan ice cream like this...especially any made by me. I would contend that even store bought coconut, almond or rice milk brands don't compare. Besides, having control over all of the ingredients helps me avoid some of the nasty things that are still added to commercial "healthy" brands. And at sometimes over $5.00 a pint from my local grocery, an investment of roughly $10 for this book saves me at least that much by the time I've made my second quart of ice cream.

If you're a vegan, I don't think I could give this book any higher recommendation than Vegan Ice Cream: Over 90 Sinfully Delicious Dairy-Free Delights should be a staple on your recipe bookshelf.

A Tale of Two 14 Year Olds

Dickens once wrote, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness" (A Tale of Two Cities) and although I have yet to have the pleasure of reading that great work of fiction, the opening line of this novel has been resonating within me for the last week or so. Allow me to tell you the tale of two very different life trajectories for two 14 year olds.

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One girl dreams of meeting the singer in her favorite band.

The other, dreams of pursuing a technical career.

One girl is in 9th grade.

The other only completed 6th grade.

One girl is schooled at home.

The other no longer attends school due to lack of money.

One girl has three siblings.

The other has six.

One girl is concerned with appearances and sometimes feels awkward.

The other probably doesn't even know what that means.

One girl helps her parents out with chores and earns a little money.

The other went to work at her parents' request to help take care of her siblings.

One girl never cared to play with baby dolls, she preferred stuffed animals.

The other had her first baby in early August 2014.

One girl hopes to start babysitting to earn extra money.

The other works in a brothel.

One girl lives in "The Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave".

The other bravely faces each day knowing she will never again be free of public stigma and scorn.

One girl has a world wide open to her of unlimited possibilities to what she can do with her life.

The other has life.

One girl is my daughter.

The other is not.

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I am tired...bone weary tired...of a world that cannot see the fathomless beauty, dignity and promise that every single living soul deserves...NOT because we are worthy, but because of a Heavenly Father who bestows it upon us. He is enraptured with every single one. Since picking up this prayer card for "The other", I cannot let her face...her light...her promise out of my mind. She is worthy of more. Praise God for places like Northwest Haiti Christian Mission who help women caught in the claws of a brothel life. 

But Lord...please raise us all up to claiming this "season of Darkness" one toe hold at a time for Your "season of Light"!

Amen!

The Great Debaters- A Movie Review

I recently read a blog post titled something like "The 10 Best Movies Regarding Racism in America"...which I can not for the life of me locate right now. Ugh! Although it left off some movies that I would have chosen, I still had seen five of the ten and had this movie already in my Amazon Prime queue. 

I had hesitated to watch The Great Debaters, because there is a lot of violence portrayed in films that I just cannot stomach anymore. Knowing it was set in the Jim Crow South of the 1930s didn't do much to bolster my hope that it wouldn't include violence. I can (without revealing any spoilers) share that although some horrific things in our nation's past are dealt with, graphic violence is not acted on film. (I hope that makes sense!)

The Great Debaters stars Academy Award winners Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker who are, as usual, phenomenal in their roles as mentors to the generation that would be in the forefront of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement.

What I find interesting is that in His always impeccable timing, God intersected my Journey with this movie at the same time I am wading through Martin Luther King Jr's compiled autobiography and a reading list I am excited to delve into that Abbey will be studying during her Mission Year. Most of the books on that list pertain to race, reconciliation and injustice for the poor and marginalized of our society. Is it coincidental that I also had Lee Daniels' The Butler on hand to watch with a friend Friday night?

Racism is not a new concept for God to be drawing out of me. His work in that area began in college, long before I had even experienced the leading of His Holy Spirit within me. I confess, I'm not only excited to see where Abbey's Mission Year takes her...I'm also bubbling over with anticipation at how God will grow me in the areas of race reconciliation and injustice for the poor of our inner cities.

Giving You Your Desires

In the last seven or so years, as I've attempted to live more and more in step with the Holy Spirit I have noticed a "pattern". Now, I would never claim that God is predictable in how He functions or works in the lives of His children. But there are consistencies in His character that we can count on. In fact, inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul penned the following words to the people of Corinth:

"But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us--by me and Silvanus and Timothy--was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge." (2 Corinthians 1:18-22, NASB)

The very last word in that paragraph also means "down payment".

Thus, all of the promises of God because of Jesus are "Yes!" There is no fickle back-and-forth, no trying to guesstimate God's promises. If He said it...because of Jesus...it is Yes. And we have the Holy Spirit in us as our spiritual "down payment" for proof.

How's that for an amazing return on your investment? Even Dave Ramsey can't beat that interest rate!

I'm explaining all of this because the promise the Holy Spirit reminded me of this morning is this one: 

"Delight yourself in the LORD;

And He will give you the desires of your heart." (Psalm 37:4)

I would never tell you that this is a promise for financial prosperity...so kick that American-church-culture-prosperity-gospel-way-of-thinking right out of your head. What is does mean is that as I "delight" myself (aka "take pleasure in drawing closer to") my Abba...His desires become my desires. The things that break His heart (poverty, the downtrodden, injustice, etc.) break mine. And the things that please Him (mercy, grace, Love, reconciliation, etc.) please me.

Are we together so far?

If so, then let me give you an example of how this just played out in my life.

A month or so ago I felt the urge (aka leading) to share with our Community Life Director that as she's putting together a new ministry at our church for young adults, if she ever needed me in a "mentoring" capacity, I would love to get to know some young ladies in this 18-29 age group. I know there are a lot of women in this age bracket who either don't have moms nearby or their mom isn't a Christian or the relationship is so broken between them that they don't have an older woman in their life helping them navigate the waters of growing into adulthood. The Holy Spirit has also shown me that the passion, service and reckless abandon that the millennial generation is demonstrating is something I want to be near and will keep me young if I get to taste a small portion of it.

The Community Life Director was encouraging and said she'd definitely keep me in mind as she gets to know this group of young adults.

Fast forward to two nights ago, when in addition to our friend joining us for our new LifeGroup, the only other people to show up were...you guessed it...a couple who are newly married, in their early to mid 20s and are in the middle of dedicating their lives to the wild abandonment of following Jesus wherever He may lead them. 

I loved talking with them. They were gracious. I got to feed them some homemade guacamole, salsa and chips and after they left, I was hoping they will come back next week.

This morning while reflecting upon the week we have had, the Holy Spirit brought to mind my conversation with our Community Life Director. It puts a smile on my face just to think about it.

He gave me the desire.

I acted upon it.

We followed His leading about starting a LifeGroup (when it made no sense to us).

And the Spirit didn't just send one young adult, He sent two to share our Wednesday nights together.

And I know I will learn more from them than I could ever teach!

Holy Spirit as a down payment on God's promise to give me the desires of my heart? Those are some odds with which I am willing to gamble!

A Few Things I Realized in the Chemo Room

Tuesday, I had the privilege to go with my friend while she received her weekly round of chemo. There were a few things I learned while I was there. You may find them random, or you may find them insightful. I just count myself blessed to have a friend that allowed me the opportunity to see into her world a little more deeply.

Here's what occurred to me:

* We all have poison running through our veins. (see Romans 3:23)

* Some of us look normal, but the poison is still there.

* For some of us, the effects of the poison are a little more obvious.

*We all look around the room to see if there is someone worse off than we are.

* Some of us can still laugh through the pain that the poison causes.

*Some of us try to get work done while the poison tears us down, acting as if nothing has changed.

*Some of us try to sleep it off.

* And some of us are called to be caregivers and healers to the ones that are wiped out from the poison coursing through their veins.

See...we've all been there, in actuality or metaphorically. And we can try and pretend all we want, but we all come into this world ready to rebel, shake our fists at God and try to convince ourselves that He's not in control. 

Then the poison knocks us off our feet.

We're left lurching and reeling, our world spinning out of control. "Someone stop this room from whirling, for pity's sake!" We may try to cover it up for awhile and pretend it's all okay, but the truth is we're flat on our backs and can't run away from the reality of the poison anymore.

Then, there are the healers.

You notice them, because they look different. Their appearance is "set apart" from everyone else in the room. They're patient, kind, diligent, maybe serious or maybe quirky...but they can still function calmly in a room that looks like a bomb went off and dozens of beeps in the background reminding them that even though this patient is almost done with their treatment, there will surely soon be another to take their place.

God bless the healers.

How do I sum this all up and make it neat and tidy? I won't even try to, because I don't think I can. There is nothing tidy about this life and pretending that there is, in my experience, is always the first step toward the slippery slope of despair when things don't "turn out" the way we want them to. The cold, hard reality is that we've all been fed a steady diet of poison since we drew our first breath and only by a divine act of mercy do we wake up to pull out the line that tethers us to the pole of destruction.

Then Jesus transfuses us with His life-saving blood. His Spirit also intersects our healing Journey with some amazing healers along the way and we are forever healed!

Schoolin' on the River

Yesterday was our first day of school. Since the weekend had been emotional and busy, I was grateful for our opportunity to "do school" on the Ohio River yesterday...on one of the Queen City Riverboats to be precise.

River Reach run by the Foundation for Ohio River Education, was a superb program that taught these 4th through 12th graders about conservation, preservation and the uses of this massive body of water we all use everyday.

The curriculum consisted of elements of geography, geology, environmental science, biology, and more. The students rotated through different exercises that included a scavenger hunt and identifying critters taken from the River.

All I know...is that this Mama that's had a bit of an emotionally draining week, was thrilled to have thorough, well-trained, and engaging educators teach my three students for the day, while I had the amazing blessing of viewing this for 3+ hours.

"The Way of the Heart" by Henri Nouwen- A Book Review

Abbey had recently been sent a book list for her to read while participating in her Mission Year. Most of the books looked intriguing and I hope to read most of them in the coming months. The first one I could locate at our local library is this small book by Henri Nouwen. I've read a few of Nouwen's works, The Return of the Prodigal Son, and Adam: God's Beloved. Both books were small, insightful, and gathered me into a deeper place with God.

The Way of the Heart follows suit with the aforementioned works. Nouwen doesn't take up a lot of space to say with profound simplicity what should naturally come to us, but we have lost along the way.

By turning to the Desert Fathers, Nouwen delves into three "lost practices" of Christianity...solitude, silence and prayer. This book is easy to read yet I'm not sure you could ever plumb the depths of living out these three disciplines, particularly in our crazy, busy, obnoxiously loud world.

But a heart who sought to live like Jesus, may just be the tool to point us onto the path of finding Him through solitude, silence and prayer. This book could easily be read over a latte' at Starbucks, and yet the vast expanse of the spiritual life that will be opened to you through these concepts will take a lifetime to live.

It Was a Beautiful Thing

Today, I had the indescribable blessing of witnessing a vision become a reality. This isn't an everyday occurrence, so I tried my darnedest to soak in every nuance of the experience. Sometimes visions are subtle in their culmination...this one has been a full-on, blazing-signposts-pointing-the-way sort of dream.

I've been choking back the tears for a few weeks now and I held it together as long as I could in the pre-6 a.m. hours of the morning, but they managed to pour forth, just as I suspected they would.

And with one last shot of the Four...

and a goofy, extra one (which is perfectly fitting for this crew), God's plan for living out Light and Truth as a family of 6, became God's Vision being fulfilled for one who is ready to live and Love in the Name of His Son, Jesus, as she disappeared in a blurry, flurry of security checks and early morning flyers.

As Rebekah adeptly asked immediately following our last "Goodbyes" of the morning...

"What now?"...

That is a question I've pondered all day as the tears have continued to pour forth off and on throughout the day. I think for now, the answer is...

We start asking God what His plan is for living out Light and Truth as a family of 5. Oh, we'll always be a family of 6...well, I guess there is the possibility it will grow larger someday...but as Abbey fulfills God's Mission Year, I can sense that she has already inspired the five of us to a deeper willingness to obediently abandon it all so that we can live and Love in the Name of Jesus.