Freedom House and Cooking and all that......and Release Time

I know that many of you are wondering about the 'cooking classes" up in White River --- because several here have asked.  So once again I apologize for my tardiness in updating.

My first trip up to White River was ----- do I call it a fiasco????   Well, not quite - but almost. I arrived at 11:00 -- but they were still busy with the Bible Lesson - so of course, I waited....but that meant I wasn't going to have quite as much time to do things that I had planned.  I had asked for some type of ground meat to be available --- it didn't matter for the soup if it was hamburg, ground chicken or turkey.  But there was none.  So what is plan B --- I don't know - I didn't have one.  There were 2 large packages of chicken legs and thighs and they had been thawing in the refrigerator for a couple of days.  Chicken doesn't keep long --- so "it should be fried up" --- was what the whole group agreed on.   My brain did a little jump start and I decided that I better just use some of the chicken and make chicken / rice soup.  I had everything I needed except the rice......so a little trip to the grocery store in town.

It was a warm day and the little kitchen warmed up real good with all the frying going on.   But in the end we had some good chicken soup for the following day.....ate some good food for lunch....and got the chicken saved from spoilage.    So --- not quite a fiasco.....

The following week was "time off" for me --- there was only one client and Wendy said I could just pass. She would take care of things. 

So yesterday I was there again.  Once again things were not perfect ---- but I was not to be worried...... I just went and made my purchase at  the Wigwam (grocery store) and we had a good time.  There are only 2 clients -- instead of the hoped for 6.  But these two gals are committed to making some changes in their lives--with Christ in the forefront --- so the numbers don't really matter.  Clarissa has had a stroke at her young age (maybe 40's) and has lost the use of her one arm but she gets along pretty good.....yesterday I looked up from our lunch time visiting and she had all the dishes done.

We talked about what they would like to learn and banana bread came up. Priscilla said "I have never made that".   So then I asked her what she did with overripe bananas --- "do you just throw them away"..... Yes.     So next week we are going to make Banana Bread.... possibly from frozen bananas.  They look gross -- but work great.

Thanks for remembering the Freedom House and the ladies. 

Release Time began this week.  YIKES ---- that was a learning time again too.  We tried something new with the 2nd and 3rd graders.  We had chosen a Bible Workbook.  We had 13 kids --- only 2 that were new to us.  But we discovered that maybe a Bible Story would go better. It was hard to keep everyone focused on the verses we were reading and Gary and I would walk round and round helping them find the verse back.  We didn't have much time left when we finally got finished.  One boy had gone to the bathroom and when he came out we said it was time to get on the van.   He said "WHAT - did I miss the singing!!!!!"    We do feel that some of the kids enjoyed the workbook ---- but others were zoned out after 15 minutes of it.  So changes will be made next time for this bunch.  We are already doing a Story for the 1st graders - so there will be no problem in making a change over.

We still hope to use Workbooks for the olders 2 groups.  They are smaller groups and better readers so we figure it should work.  Thursday will be the day for this bunch......again we know all the kids - most of them have been with us from the beginning.

Keep us in your prayers  :)   :)
Gary and Barb