12/21 Advent daybook, 23: He picks up the poor from out of the dirt

My Advent daybook for these 24 days of waiting. Join me, won't you? (see previous Advent daybook 2015 posts here)

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look

A young boy takes a break from his work in this dump collecting scraps to hold his baby sister (Guatemala)
Glen Cooper
source

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read

Psalm 113: Who can compare with GOD, our God, so majestically enthroned, surveying his magnificent heavens and earth? He picks up the poor from out of the dirt, rescues the wretched who've been thrown out with the trash, seats them among the honored guests, a place of honor among the brightest and best. 

all readings for the day:  Psalm 113; Isaiah 42:14-21; Luke 1:5-25

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pray

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (source)

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listen

Canticle of the Turning

Buddy Greene

(Also, feel free to listen with me to my ever-evolving Advent playlist or a growing Advent Orchestral/Choral playlist on Spotify.)

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watch & give

Click here to visit Potter's House gift catalog to help Treasured men, women and children living in the Guatemala City dump communities receive a variety of good gifts (meals, education, micro enterprise training, and more).  We love Potter's House, and commend their work to you this Advent.

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(see all Advent daybook posts from 2014 here)

7 Quick Takes: Kendra's home! Sarah's Mediterranean Grill & Market! Andi Ashworth and more!

We're in the car driving 30 hours cross-country to join our family for a week of delicious vacation by the lake.  I had time to jot down a few quick takes before we hit the road....

--- 1 ---

Kendra came home from Guatemala late Saturday night!  She's been sharing stories all week while we try to imagine the sights, sounds and smells of Guatemala City with her.

--- 2 ---

Kendra gave me permission to share a brief portion of the letter she wrote to all of her prayer supporters after returning home:

[from Kendra]"I knew then that God had done what he said he would do. He honored his promise in this passage. It's so amazing what he's done in me. What he let me see, what he let me do, what he let me feel and experience. ... This week, God spoke to me. I went to serve the poorest of the poor, and he was there with them. He met me there.I felt him and his spirit so clearly and beautifully. He covers me. His Spirit is in me. I keep saying to him, "Father, you are so, so big." As C.S. Lewis writes, "He is not safe, but he is good." And that's such a beautiful thing."

Amen, sweet daughter.  (p.s., will you write a whole post sometime soon?) 

--- 3 ---

Monday night, Andrew treated us to dinner with the stipulation that we find something in our new neighborhood that we haven't tried yet. 


Best. Idea. Ever. 


We pulled out our trusty guide (Fearless Critic: Austin Restaurant Guide) and selected Sarah's Mediterranean Grill and Market for three reasons:  inexpensive, Middle Eastern/Greek food, baklava.

special Chicken Kabob plate with complimentary baklava because it was our first visit

--- 4 ---

The restaurant guide told us "the nicest lady in the world" runs this cafe' and they weren't kidding.  We met her, her husband and her daughter (the Sarah in Sarah's).  We met a few other cooks, too.  Every single one acted like we were their new best friends visiting their home. 

p.s., Another reason to love this place?


 Olive. Bar.

--- 5 ---

This week is the last week all six of us Murphy people will be in the same house for almost six weeks.  After being all together almost all the time for almost 11 months, I guess we can stand to be apart for awhile?  It'll be good practice for the era looming ahead of us with college coming this fall.


Our oldest son, Andrew, heads out to work for the month of July and beginning of August at Laity Lodge's Youth Camp, Echo Valley.  We're all a teensy bit jealous because the place looks crazy fun.  Andrew will be cooking and collecting crazy stories.  We're planning a road trip to Leakey sometime late July to check in on him.

--- 6 ---

If I'd known soon enough, I would have totally included the re-release of Andi Ashworth's excellent book, Real Love for Real Life: The Art and Work of Caring in this week's Monday Mixtape.  Although, Andi most likely doesn't know who I am, I consider us friends.  We've spent a couple of weekends at the same Laity Lodge retreat and I prayed for her this past March.  


She and her husband, Charlie Peacock, are remarkable people.  I highly recommend this book.  You can read my brief summary about the book here.


You can order the book, through this special re-relase, at the Rabbit Room, here.


Click here to read a lovely interview with Andi at the Rabbit Room.

--- 7 ---

We'll be engaged in our annual vacation liturgy for a couple of weeks, but I'll be popping in once in awhile. Until then... 

Enjoy a fun and beauty-filled weekend!

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For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

7 Quick Takes: homemade pretzels, cascarones, my new life as a rabbit and more...

--- 1 ---

You know what I've said about me posting recipes here, right?  Still, every once in awhile, something needs to be said.  During Lent, when I wasn't blogging we made an attempt at homemade pretzels.  


I got the recipe from A Continual Feast and mixed up the dough while friends visited one of the long days Brian was in Guatemala.  Traditionally (as early as the fifth century), the pretzel was eaten only during Lent. Each year on Ash Wednesday bakers started making them and each year on Good Friday stopped.  The early Christians fasted from all dairy products during Lent, making the simple ingredients of flour, salt and water a perfect Lenten substitute.


I wish I took a picture.  But I didn't.  You can look here from some online examples, though. (by the way, I don't know this good woman or her blog, but our pretzels turned out looking pretty  much identical!)

Pretzels

(from A Continual Feast by Evelyn Birge Vitz)

1 Tbsp. honey or sugar 

1 1/2 cups lukewarm water 

1 envelope active dry yeast 

1 tsp. salt4 cups flour 

Coarse or kosher salt (we only had sea salt on  hand) 

1 egg, beaten

Add the sugar (or honey) to the water; sprinkle in the yeast and stir until dissolved.  Add 1 tsp salt. Blend in the flour, and knead the dough until smooth.

Cut the dough into pieces. Roll them into ropes and twist into pretzel shapes. You can make small pretzels with thin ropes, or large ones with fat ropes, but remember that to cook at the same rate, your pretzels need to be all the same size.

Place the pretzels on lightly greaased cookie sheets. Brush them with beaten egg. Sprinkle with coarse salt. 

Bake at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes, until the pretzels are golden brown.

*Natalie made a whole pan of cinnamon-sugar sprinkled pretzels  (brushing on melted butter instead of egg).  Everyone in the house NOT fasting from sugar loved her version too!

--- 2 ---

Thought you might enjoy one of my favorite photos Brian took during his week missions trip to Guatemala.  His stories are meaningful, joyful and somewhat difficult to hear.  Maybe I can convince him to write a guest post for us here?


In the meantime, a photo:

--- 3 ---

Here's our family Easter Sunday morning.  We are truly as happy to be related to each other as we look. 

There were many lovely spots we could have chosen for our group pose, but I've learned it's better to just get a shot while we're all in one place!

--- 4 ---

When I was little, we spent every Easter Sunday with a big dinner after church at my Grandma's house.  Just like we spent Thanksgiving, Christmas, and every birthday for each of my 17 cousins.  As we've gotten older and don't gather that way anymore, we've had a hard time keeping up the big meal on Easter Sunday because so many of my family members are pastors/ministry leaders.  Everyone's too worn out to put out a spread for Easter Sunday lunch!


Now that we're in Austin, we were grateful for an invitation to a good, old-fashioned Easter Sunday feast with friends from Christ Church.

Grandma supervises the younger generation in dinner clean up while the adults hide eggs.

We also enjoyed adopting a Mexican custom of the crushing cascarones (hollowed out egg shell filled with confetti) on each other's heads.  I think Brian's getting ganged up on in this photo.

--- 5 ---

Also, while I wasn't blogging during Lent, I began working for TaskRabbit, a innovative social media-fueled -connecting site for people who do not have time to complete all the tasks on their to-do list to hire reliable, temporary help to complete their tasks.


It's been quite an interesting experience so far!  I could probably start running a weekly feature of all that I'm learning from putting myself out for hire to complete strangers.  It's been equal parts intriguing and humbling.  


If you live in one of the TaskRabbit cities, though, you should definitely check it out!

--- 6 ---

By far, my favorite task I've taken on so far is a temporary gig as the 2012 campaign manager for the annual Couponing for Community campaign that my sister dreamed up three years ago.  In 2010, Kaley wanted to send a subversive message to the Extreme Couponing media blitz by initiating a grassroots effort among her fellow coupon bloggers and  her readers at Cha-Ching on a Shoestring  to unite their collective couponing powers for good.  Within three years, the response has been so strong, that we've set a goal ten times larger than the total donations in 2010 to 30,000 items donated to food pantries, shelters or friends in need during the week of May 6-12.  

I'm going to encourage my readers to join in this year and will set up a dedicated post to the campaign in a couple of days.  In the meantime, head on over to the Couponing for Community facebook page and click "like" if you want to get connected!  

--- 7 ---

Speaking of grassroots efforts, you really need to watch this story of Caine and his cardboard arcade.  The whole story is 100% awesome. (thanks to my nephew Zachary for sharing this!)

Source: vimeo.com via Tamara on Pinterest

Hope that smile on your face from watching this ambitious micro-entrepreneur lasts all weekend long and is contagious to everyone you meet!


He is risen!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!