God at Work in People's Hearts
We praise God for our church Chirstmas program held yesterday evening. It was evident that God was at work in people's hearts. Even with the equivelant of the Super Bowl in Mexican soccer happening at exactly the same time, we had a full crowd of around 130-140 people! Praise God!
CLICK BELOW TO READ MORE ABOUT THE EVENING
The children participated in the program with a verse and a song, and the youth, along with help from some other church people did an excellent job with a Christmas play called "When Christ Enters into a house". The play showed Joseph and Mary going to a house of the wealthy, a house of the busy, a house of the poor, a house of fear, and finally, a house of welcome. In this combination of Biblical times, Joseph and Mary, with modern times, the houses, the message was clear - too many times we have many excuses not to invite Christ to come in to our lives.
After the play we gave an evangelistic message to which at least three people responded to with faith in Christ, and many more responded to with a desire to renew their relationship with Christ and open their hearts to Him in a greater way. "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me." Rev. 3:20 We pray that the Lord would seal these decisions in each heart, and that the new year would be different in the lives of many. The program ended with a PowerPoint of pictures of church activities throughout this year. We then enjoyed a delicious supper of pasta, apple salad, and leg of pork stuffed with ham, bacon, almonds, prunes, peaches, apricots, and other fruits, and done in a chile sauce. Excellent! We ended the evening with the traditional breaking of pinatas.
We praise God for a good response, and for the involvement of many of the church people throughout the evening. Thanks for your prayers for the evening! Please continue to pray for our follow-up efforts in the new year. We are looking forward to a good break now as we spend time with family here in Mexico over the next two weeks.
Comments
Dear Bryan and Lori:
Your Christmas program sounded wonderful--especially the response from those who attended. You must be so excited to celebrate Christmas in a few days because of what God has done.
On the more earthly side: The leg of pork sounded wonderful. Do you have the recipe? I don't think I could find a leg of pork, but I could find a pork roast.
Posted by: Julia Blanchard | December 20, 2005 08:35 AM
Bryan and Lori,
it excites my heart to hear what God is doing. A big jump from a year and a half ago. It also excites me to hear that God works in individual hearts in both Mexico and Wisconsin. We as a family are praying often for you.
Posted by: seth meeks | December 20, 2005 09:09 AM
Here is the recipe for the pork. One of our church ladies made it. Their family owns a meat shop, and they prepare tons of these roasts this time of year. It is a very traditional meal for the holidays. I'm not sure if you will find all the ingredients, but maybe at a Mexican store. The recipe is not real exact, but it is what she game me. They often don't go by measurements down here:
Ingredients:
- A de-boned leg of pork or loin (she said you can do something similar with turkey)
- 1 dried "guajillo" chile pepper (they are red, and sometimes called "pulla")
- 2 dried "pasilla" chile peppers (they are black, and sometimes called "ancho" or "negro")
- butter
- vinegar
- a handful of oregano
- 2 heads of garlic
- ground Chinese herbs?
- chicken bullion
- almonds
- walnuts
- bacon
- pitted prunes
- "acitron" (a fruit that you may not find, but it can be substituted with mixed dried fruit)
- carrots, cut in squares or small sticks
- Coke
- salt and pepper
To make the sauce you boil the de-seeded and de-vained chile guajillo in half water, half vinegar with the handful of oregano, the garlic, and the ground Chinese herbs until it is well cooked. Put the whole mixture in the blender along with a little salt and some chicken bullion, and blend it together. Just so you have an idea, you should have enough sauce to cover 3/4 of a 17 pound leg in the baking pan.
To prepare the meat, in the case of a de-boned leg of pork, put a chile pasilla, along with a stick of butter in the middle where the bone would have been. Cut deep pockets all over the meat and add a small piece of chile pasilla and a bit of butter in each pocket, and then stuff them with the almonds, wallnuts, bacon (& or ham), prunes, acitron and/or other fruit, and carrots. Inject the meat with coke and with melted butter. Coat the outside of the meat with butter and some salt and pepper, and then marrinade it in the sauce over night.
You can add pineapple slices and/or cherries to the outside of the leg, and then it can be covered and baked. She said an 8 kilo (17.6 pound) leg should bake for about 7 hours. For the last 15 minutes baste it in the sauce and uncover it.
Posted by: Bryan | December 29, 2005 07:36 AM
Hi Bryan and Lori,
Checked out what's happening and wanted to let you know we're following your ministry and family. That's a great attendance and response for a "Super Bowl" night. God bless!
Posted by: Ken Musser | January 7, 2006 01:41 PM