God's Grace

This just hit me the other day.
In the hallway next to mom and dad's bedroom, mom has these three framed pictures with each of mine, Nathan's and Rebekah's names on it. Underneath, it has the meaning of the name, and a scripture verse. Here's what mine says:

Hannah

Gracious, Kind

"The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and abounding in mercy."

Psalm 145:8

Boy oh boy is that true! I was thinking about how our names are supposed to mean something, and I realized mine means "gracious", just how gracious God has been towards me. I DON'T DESERVE IT! It really makes me want to cry. Why is He so gracious towards me????? I'm such a sinner. For the past few weeks, I've been going through a "why-did-God-choose-me?" mode, and "I'm-so-horrible,-why-me?". I mean....it just doesn't seem right. Our pastor has been doing a sermon series on the Trinity's work in our salvation, and the only answer for "why" as to why the Father chose us is that HE LOVED US FROM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, and WE are His chosen people! Those of us who are saved from before the world are HIS, those He was willing to send his Son to DIE for. 

I'm telling you right now that Psalm 145:8 is my life verse. I don't deserve His graciousness, yet He gives it to me. I'll always look at my name differently now. "Hannah" means "God is Gracious", and THAT IS THE TRUTH! Especially for me. 

The Lord is so, so so so sooooo good....it's really unbelievable. 

God. Is. Gracious.

-Han

Update on Lemon

Weeelll...he's...not better, for sure, but really not worse. Just, sorta the same. He's taken to hiding in small, strange places, like here between the wall and toilet in the boy's bathroom. He's not eating or drinking, so we're having to force-feed him, and he sleeps all the time. He's very, very skinny. Just now he's walked into the kitchen; he walks very slow, and only takes a few steps at a time, and then lays down.
Oh sigh....we're not sure what to do.

Please be praying for him.

-Han

9/11

I know that I'm a little late in posting this.
   It's been 9 years since the World Trade Center collapsed, and I still remember watching it on the news. At the time, I didn't understand. I was scared because mom and dad were scared. What was happening? ...Our country was being attacked. Now, at that very spot, a mosque is being built. A history note: when Muslims build a mosque, it's a sign of religious domination. There's a mosque built in Jerusalem, and now one being built on the site of the WTC. This is NOT right!
In the weeks that followed the fall of the Twin Towers, people swarmed into churches and began praying earnestly...it didn't stay that way. In time, they all fell back. Wasn't this a red flag to our nation? It was, and no one listened. 9/11 was one of the biggest disasters in the history of our nation, a wake-up call to America, and we didn't listen. Once can only ask....what's next? If we didn't wake up with that alarm, what alarm will He use next?
   For the lost, this is terrifying, but we as Christians have complete trust in Christ, so we don't have to be afraid. We know that everything is in HIS hands, and that NOTHING is out of His control. NOTHING!!!! Isn't that a major comfort to us? We are all in His hands!

May God bless you and keep you!

In Christ,
-Hannah

He Always Answers

It never fails. He always answers. Every time I ask Him, He answers.
As you know, Lemon has been very sick. He's only gotten worse, and when mom had talked to the vet, all they said was that eventually, he'll get more and more weak, and his heart will give out.
 Saturday morning, mom let him outside, and he never came back. We figured he had gone off to die. We were very sad, and Sunday evening, we searched all of our property to see if we could find him. We spent at least an hour and a half searching for him. I had been praying so hard the night before. I wanted my cat. We looked all over. After a while, we finally gave up. Nathan and I had seen vultures circling the long, over-grown driveway near our pasture, so we decided to have one more look. After we got to the bend in the driveway...we smelled a rotting carcass. We were confused. Surely just after a day there wouldn't be a smell? But, we wanted to see. We followed the smell into the woods, and to our dread, found the half-eaten body of a fawn. We gagged, got closer, took a look, glanced around, and realized we were in a coyote kill zone. There were piles of fur, gnawed up bones, and the ground was trampled smooth. Now we diced to skedaddle! It was rather...scary. But thank goodness it WASN'T our cat! We finally gave up, and decided to spend the rest of the evening out on the back deck and build a fire. My uncle and aunt came over. It was Sunday evening, we were all tired, and this was good. We talked on and off about Lemon, the things he did, etc. Finally, it got dark, and we had spent two hours or so out there. We were all talking, it was pitch-black, save for the fire, and my uncle and aunt were getting ready to go home. Suddenly, from below the deck, out of the darkness, came a loud meow. We jumped up. Figuring it was another orange cat that had been hanging around the house, I told Nathan to switch on the light for the deck. He did. It was Lemon. He was laying in the grass, too weak to go any further. I shouted and shot of the deck, flying down the stairs and running up to him. He was meowing, but was so, so weak. I picked him up and started crying. My poor baby. We thought for sure that he would die last night. He was so weak and was making a pitiful noise. We cried for a long time over him, and then put him on Nathan's bed.
I'm so happy to say that this morning, he's still alive and doing much better! He ate some food, drank water, and was very responsive to us. Yes, he'll probably not live much longer, but at least he's home. God answered my prayer as He always does. It's amazing. Every time, He answers.

Also. On a more sad note, Jenna died last night. :( She'd been acting very sick, and when I went to feed them this morning, she didn't come out. We buried her beside the coop. Poor Jenna. :(

Love you!

In Christ,
-Han

Really Neat WebSite

Okay, so mom and I came up with this idea to once a week have an "ethnic" meal. I was searching to find a site that would give us all sorts of categories, and found this one:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/World-Cuisine/Main.aspx
It's REALLY neat! They've got EVERYTHING! Like, for instance, one week will be Italian, the next will be, say, African, the next will be Japanese, the next'll be Indian, the next will be Korean, etc. etc. etc. =)
I'm looking forward to it! It'll be SO interesting to cook the different meals.
If I find one that's particularly good, I'll post it. :)

Bye!

-Han

P.S. Please go to my Persecution blog. I've updated with videos from VOM.
www.itsrealithappens.blogspot.com

Sermon Audio

Our church's sermons are recorded and posted on the internet at SermonAudio.com. I've posted the link here for you to go to; please be sure to visit! The sermons are GREAT!  If you want to listen to them but don't have time right now, I'll post the link on the sidebar, so you won't have to look for this post every time you want to go to it. :)
Go here:
http://www.sermonaudio.com/source_detail.asp?sourceid=providencereformed

Please listen to some of them!

In Christ,
-Han

A November Feel

So...I took these in August, but they seem to have a November feel. :)
I really like these pictures, so...here they are!

Bulkogi (Korean Barbecue)

A few nights ago, we fixed this REALLY good Korean dish called "Bulkogi". Everyone absolutely loved it, so I decided to put it up for you all. =D


Makes 6-8 servings
Can be frozen

Bulkogi:
2 pounds top sirloin steak
5 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup granulated Splenda or equivalent liquid Splenda
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sesame oil
5 tablespoons water
Leaf lettuce, optional*

*I tried mine with lettuce, and what you do is place a few strips of bulkogi in the lettuce, add whatever you like, (onions, tomatoes, etc.,) and wrap it up. Very good!

Partially freeze the beef about an hour or so to make it easier to slice. Slice the beef as thinly as possible against the grain. It should be in very thin slices, but not falling apart. Mix all of the remaining ingredients except the lettuce. Pour over the meat and marinate at least 1 hour. Put the meat and marinade in a ziploc bag, set it in a baking pan and turn occasionally.

Preheat a contact-type grill (Foreman, GE, etc.)* and grill the meat in batches without closing the lid. Turn meat after a few seconds (it cooks very quickly) to brown the other side and remove to a serving plate; repeat with remaining meat.
(*we don't have a Foreman grill, so we just cooked it in a wok.:)

Serve beef rolled up in lettuce leaves if desired and enjoy!

From His Own Mouth

A friend showed my dad this very disturbing video. Listen carefully.
People...we need to be praying. Hard. This is NOT a joke! Too long has the church sat back and let things like this happen. Don't forget...by POPULAR VOTE, this man was brought into the presidency. Why are the Christians sitting back and doing nothing? Why aren't we praying like we never have before and turning this world around? Watch this video closely. Post it on your blogs. Show your family.
Friends, we are in more danger than we think. We as young people aren't aware of the wolves prowling around the pastures we call home.
We must prepare ourselves to be in the "real world", and our weapons should be the Bible.

May God have mercy on this nation.....

Chickens!

Yeah! We got our chickens the other day! 20 in all. They're SO stupid, but I like them. :) We've named several of them, but some look alike so we're just going to leave those "blank". =D
I took some pictures, so without further ado, let me introduce you to:

Ginger, in honor of "Chicken Run"

This one is one of Nathan's chickens. 

Crash and Eddie, in honor of "Ice Age" :) 

Chex

L to R: Kep and Dex

Jenna! She's officially MY chicken, and she's the sweetest thing!

She loves to be held and will walk right at your feet.

I think Nathan named this one Lizzie, but I'm not sure. :) 

And this one is Stunt! So named because she likes to fly across the room from the roost to the roof of the nests. =D 

That's all of 'em for right now, but we did get our first two eggs last night! Dad had them this morning for breakfast. :) I'll try to get some more pictures of the rest of them up laster. =D

In Christ,

-Han