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Special Messages and Information DeColores! Scroll down for articles on:
Team for Walk 75 * Food Agape * Kairos Kookie * Community Support * Letter from our Spiritual Director * Letter from our Lay Director * Team for Walk #75 Here I am LORD Rusty Miles Food Agape Please remember to label any food which has nuts. Wanted: Kairos Kookie (recipes below) We may need up to 5,000 dozen cookies for a typical Kairos weeend. Do the math., that's 60,000 cookies! Homemade kookies (cookies) are a tangible expression of Christiian love and an indication of God's concern for a group of people who seldom encounter either in the course of their daily lives. May God bless you for the gift of baking! Kookie Guidelines/Preparation The types of cookies that are generally acceptable are: Oatmeal, Peanut Butter, Molasses, Chocolate Chip, Ginger and Sugar. Check with your local institution for specifics on the type of cookies that are allowed. Cookies should be between 2 inches and 2-1/2 inches in diameter and not more than 1/2 inch thick. It is very important not to use icing, sugar or any other type of coating on the outside of the cookie. Do not add any kind of fruit or nuts to the cookies. The Key Ingredient: Prayer Pray individually or as a family over the ingredients before and during mixing.. Pray over the cookies as you drop them onto the cookie sheets and bake them. Ask God to use your cookies as a source of His love to shine on the prisoners and staff on the Kairos weekend. Pray that each cookie brings the inmate, officer or warden who eats it closer to God. We want every person to become part of the family of God. Packing the Kookies Bag throughly cooled cookies in a quart sized Lock bag, a dozen cookies to a bag. Label each bag with the cookie type inside. Freeze all cookies if not using within three days. Getting the Kookies to the Prison If you are not working on the team, please deliver the cookies to a team member before the start pf the weekend, so they can take them to the prison. Kookie Recipes Peanut Butter 3/4 cup Creamy Peanut Butter 1/2 cup Crisco Shortening 1-1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 3 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 egg 1-3/4 cup all purpose flour 3/4 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon baking soda Combine peanut butter, shortening, sugar milk and vanilla in a large bowl and mix at medium speed until well blended. Add egg and mix well. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda, mix well. Add flour mixture to peanut butter and mix until just blended. Drop by heaping teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet and flatten slightly in a crisscross pattern with the tines of a fork. Bake at 375 degrees for 7 to 8 minutes until set. Makes 3 dozen cookies. Chey Oatmeal 3/4 cup butter flavor Crisco 1-1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 1 egg 1/3 cup milk 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla 3 cups quick cookie oats 1 cup allpurpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon Combing Crisco, brown sugar, egg, mile and vanilla in a large bowl. Mix at medium speed until blended. Combine oats, flour, salt, baking soda and cinnamon in a separtae bowl, mix well. Add to Crisco/sugar mixture until just blended. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheet. Bak at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 2-1/2 dozen cookies. Chocolate Chip 3/4 cup Crisco shortening 1-1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar 2 tablespoons milk 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 egg 1-3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup semi-sweet chocolates Combine shortening, sugar, milk and vanilla in a large bowl, mix until well blended. Add egg and mix well. In a separate bowl combine flour, salt and baking soda, mix well. Add to shortening/sugar mixture until well blended.Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded table spoon onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes for chewy cookies or 11 to 13 minutes for crisp cookies. Makes 3 dozen. Molasses Cookies 3/4 cup margarine or shortening 1 cup granulated sugar 1 egg 4 tablespoons molasses 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon ginger 2 cups flour 2 teaspoons baking soda In a large bowl, cream margarine or shortening with sugar. Add egg and blend. Add molasses and spices; mix well. Add flour and baking soda and blend. Chill dough 30 minutes or overnight (covered tightly). Shape dough into small balls and place 2-inches apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325 degrees for 10 - 12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on wire racks. Makes 2 1/2 dozen Sugar Cookies 1 cup margarine (or butter); (2 sticks) at-room temperature 1 cup vegetable oil 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup powdered sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cream of tartar Beat together margarine, oil granulated sugar, powdered sugar, eggs and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Add dry ingredients to margarine mixture. Drop from a teaspoon onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees until cookies are light brown around the edges, about 8 to 10 minutes (watch closely, cookies will be dry if they get too brown). Makes approximately 5 dozen. Community Support
We have some powerful opportunities for those of you who would like to be a part of the Team for Southside Emmaus Weekends. Maybe you can’t commit to the time and expense of being on the Conference Room Team. But there are still many ways you can be a part of the Weekend. One of the most precious gifts we give is our time in prayer for the Team, the Pilgrims and all who will be touched by God’s great love. With that in mind, I would like to invite each one in our Community to the Prayer Chapel, to support our Weekends with visible, prayer support. It is especially important for the Speakers to know there is someone praying for them in the Chapel. The fact that someone took their time, effort, and yes, gas money, to come to Blackstone to pray during the Talk is an awesome and powerful thing. Even a seasoned speaker can take comfort and feel the power of God when they know someone is praying for them. Yes, God can hear our prayers from wherever we are, but there is power when we gather as brothers and sisters to lift each other up and to join our voices in prayer and praise of our loving and faithful Father. Another way to share the love God has shown you, may be to come and be a part of the Weekend. Remember, there are things happening at times other than Candlelight! There is set up on Thursday. The day-to-day activities as we, the Community, support the Conference Room Team in their service to the Pilgrims. It takes more than just the Conference Room Team to put on a Walk to Emmaus Weekend. Community involvement is needed to set up, run errands; prepare the Agape Feast, set up the Cross Meal and many other activities so the Weekend can flow smoothly from one event to the next. If you remember these things from your Walk, please be aware they didn’t fix themselves. Someone loved God enough to sacrifice their time, their talents and their finances to buy the ice cream, bring it to VUMAC, serve it to you, and clean it up. The Cross Meal that was so beautiful. Do you remember it? The long tables with the head chair for Jesus. Someone came and set that up for you, too. Some of you may have had very ornate table decorations. Some may have had simple decorations, but still, it was an act of Agape from someone or some group in the Community. These are just a few of the ways you or your Reunion Group can help and be a part of the Weekend. There is power in service. Not the power of the world but the uplifting of our spirits and our hearts as we serve together and learn to love one another as Christ has love us. So come for the Men’s Walk and Women’s Walks. Join your brothers and sisters as we live, laugh, love and serve God together behind the scenes. You may contact Joyce Redford to let her know when you can come, to find out what time a specific Talk is being given, or a specific Speaker is speaking, or maybe you would like a suggestion on how you can serve or give back a portion of that which has been given to you. Email her at the web-site address: info@southsideemmaus.org. SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE "I'm waiting,waiting on the Lord..", I hear this song over and over on Spirit FM. Of course, it is the Waiting song from the movie "Fireproof." How much of our lives is spent in waiting in lines of one sort or another, waiting for appointments with doctors or dentists, waiting for mail to come to us, waiting for events to start. Does it seem to you that life all of a sudden has got a case of the "slows?' My favorite Bible verse is about waiting: They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:31). I also recall the Scriptures telling us that God's timing is not our timing. There are several kinds of time- chronos or clock time, chaos or disorderly time, and Kairos, which is God's special time. To everything there is a season and a time and purpose for everything. God makes all things beautiful in His time. I am not naturally a very patient person. I become very frustrated with the delays in answered prayers. I am slowly learning that waiting times can be useful to our spiritual development. They are not a time to grumble and grouch it out, but a time to rest our concerns in the Lord. There is a time to let go, a time to let the Lord fight our battles, a time to let God be God. Waiting reinforces this for us. I heard about how many people got "cabin fever" during the recent snows. A lot of people have a hard time being confined indoors and not getting to run around. People get tired of the winter season. In our lives there is often a winter season in which it seems nothing is happening. This is the time in which we have to open our lives to let God to do a deeper though unseen work. We have to trust that once again we will enjoy the springtime of God's blessings. God, who brought us to this season, will get us through it. We have to wait on the Lord. We will find one day that our strength will be renewed. The song "Still" speaks to me about rising in the Lord's power: Hide me, Lord, under your wings. Cover Me within Your mighty hand.When the waters rise and thunders roar, I will soar with You above the storm. Father, You are King over the flood, I will be still, know You are God. God will lift us up, and we will once more be surprised by His JOY! Shalom, Paul Beighley To The Emmaus Community: I would like to introduce myself as the new Community Lay Director for Southside Emmaus. My name is Jim Davis and I walked on Southside #53, "He Walks with Me", and my wife Joyce walked on Southside #52, "In the Potter’s Hand". Joyce and I reside in Farmville, Va., Joyce works for a local Dentist and I am retired from the Richmond City Jail and have one son. When I was first approached by the Emmaus Board Nominating Committee if I was interested in serving as the Community Lay Director, I said that I would have to pray about it. During my prayers over the next several weeks, I heard nothing as to whether I should take the position or not. Since I felt no desire to serve in this position, I informed the nominating committee that I was not interested and considered the situation solved. At the next Board meeting the list of nominees for the Board was presented. When the list was passed out, all I saw was the question marks behind the Community Lay Director’s position. We all have been surprised as to how God works on us. A feeling came over me and a voice said to me "Why Didn’t You", I had no answer. I was again asked would I consider this position; I had to say yes, since God had interceded in my decision. I again informed them I would pray about it and let them know. I immediately started praying and questioning my ability to handle such an awesome task. The next day I prayed as to should I take on this task and was struck with a need to go to the Bible for my answer. In my search for an answer, I was immediately led to James, Chapter 2, versus 14-26, verse 24 says, "You see that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone", then in verse 26, is says "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead" This made me think, I have the faith, but how can I do such a job, and show my faith in God, through a deeper involvement in the Emmaus Community? I was still questioning myself as to how can I carry out such a task? Later that afternoon I was contemplating this and I looked at my Walk #53 name tag and it said "He Walks With Me" how could I turn down the Community Lay Director nomination when I must show my faith in the Lord by deeds for him and he will walk with me throughout the coming year. My prayers for this year are that the Emmaus Community will show their faith in God and by deeds, in becoming more involved in the walks, gatherings and other activities so we can continue to carry out Gods purpose in allowing every pilgrim to experience their "Walk to Emmaus" as we all have. I am really looking forward to working with the Board and meeting many new friends who believe in and love Southside Emmaus as I do. Please feel to contact me at anytime with any questions, concerns or recommendations. See you at the next gathering God Bless/DeColores Jim Davis, Community Lay Director DeColores! |
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