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Our worship service will be streamed online at firstbaptistsylva.com.
The Mission and Fellowship Center was transformed into a Mexican fiesta on Thursday evening, April 27 when the WMU Circle hosted an appreciation dinner for the After School staff. A wonderful meal was prepared by Circle members, allowing the staff to relax and enjoy the evening. After dinner, the young people shared some highlights of their year, were awarded "Superlatives" by On-Site Coordinator Melanie Stokely, received a gift bag with items representing their year by Cheryl Beck, and heard words of gratitude from the church given by Pastor Mathis. It was a wonderful evening made possible by WMU. Gracias!
Thank You, Mission Circle, for Throwing a Fiesta for Our After School Ministry Staff!
Cheryl Beck presents Melanie Stokely with “Best On-site Coordinator Award” at the appreciation event.
Andrew Beck, Nick Sanders, Rob Stokely and Melanie Stokely enjoy the delicious meal prepared by WMU
I always remember that, as a kid, I was so impressed with some of the prayers I would hear in church, especially those in the King James/Reina de Valera version. You know, the ones, with the old language words. Since that was the language of the Bible, I thought those were the prayers to which God gave priority.
Another thing that impressed me was the length of the prayers. The only time I did not like the long prayers was when we gave thanks for our meal. The elders of our church would hold our hands while giving thanks. I always thought it was to keep us kids from eating during the long prayers. How did they come up with so much to say? My prayers always seemed to be short and to the point. I would ask my Sunday school and discipleship teachers and my pastor how could I learn to pray like that; but they would try to explain it to me with theological church words which they themselves probably did not understand.
One day, during a sermon on the Pharisee and publican’s prayers, it dawned on me. It was not so much about the words we use in our prayers, but our attitude before God. Then, a few years later, I learned about the things we do as an activity, rather than living it as a lifestyle. What did Jesus mean to pray without ceasing? Do I really need to close my eyes? Do I have to kneel, sit or stand? Does it have to be while everybody is still sleeping to count? Do I have to sacrifice something so that God will listen to my prayers? The more I pondered, the more questions came to mind.
As a (rotten) kid, my grandmother would punish me by making me kneel in a corner of the house. Every once in a while, she would check up on me. She knew me too well. She would ask me if I was still kneeling and my response was that on the outside I was kneeling, but on the inside I was standing up. That was how rebellious I was! Is that not what we do sometimes before God? We give the appearance of being humble, but in our hearts, we are filled with pride and standing up.
Before leaving for India in 2002, we would ask people to give to missions. Come and do missions, we would say and, if nothing else, pray for missions. When we first returned to the United States, we apologized to those to whom we had said those words. It was during our first years on the mission field that we realized the best thing anyone can do for us is to pray. Many times we would find ourselves ready to give up because of the situation we were in and, almost like clockwork, at our lowest points, we would receive a note, a letter, a phone call from someone letting us know they were praying for us. WOW! We came back and asked everyone to simply pray for us. We learned that when people pray for us, they will want to support the work we are doing and to be a part of it in other ways. They might even come join us! With all my heart, I believe this is the power of prayer.
PRAY . . . GIVE . . . GO . . .
TONIGHT, May 3 at 6:00 p.m. | Gathering Place Room
Join us as we continue a season of discovery as we learn how our personal narrative has shaped and influenced our lives. There is no C.A.R.E. Team. If you need childcare, please contact Cheryl Beck.
When the book study with Dr. Mathis resumes on Wednesday evenings starting May 3, and you need child care, please let Cheryl Beck know so she can make arrangements for this. The C.A.R.E. Team will not be meeting on Wednesday nights until later in the year.
The Ladies Mission Circle will be meeting on Tuesday, May 9
at 10:30 a.m. in the Gathering Place Room. Hope to see you there!
Bacon from Heaven
Hola, my name is Adonais Rojas.
I’m a member of the Cuba sister church Kerigma and want to share this recipe with you.
Ingredients
12 large egg yolks
500 milliliters of water
500 grams of white sugar
Instructions
To begin with, we have to place a medium frying pan or pot on the fire, and add the five tablespoons of white sugar and four tablespoons of water into it. Little by little, it will melt, and we are moving the sugar with a wooden spoon. Then, we have to leave it over medium heat, without mixing.
When little bubbles begin to form and the sugar changes color, turning brown, now we start to stir. This is a fundamental step for the bacon from heaven to be perfect, so it is very important to be attentive to this procedure so that the caramel does not go bad, burn, or become a stone that is impossible to remove. Once the components are mixed, we remove the pot from the heat and continue stirring, until it completely reaches the honey color typical of caramel. Now we let it temper for a short minute.
Once ready, we bein to pour it into the mold where we will prepare the rest of the bacon from heaven recipe. The mold must be well covered with the caramel, with the entire surface occupied. For this we can turn it little by little and in this wy achieve that it reaches the walls of the mold.
Now we let it harden completely, until it forms cracks, and we continue with the second part of the bacon from heaven recipe: we heat the 500 ml of water in a pot or casserole and add half a kilo of sugar. Once it boils, a syrup will form. We must let it boil for 3 minutes, then lower the heat and leave it for another 10 minutes. When it’s done, we take it off the heat and let it cool little by little. The idea is that it becomes warm, neither cold nor hot.
The next step is the preparation of the eggs for the sky bacon. For this we have to separate the white from the yolk and place them in different containers. It can be useful to split the egg in half, let the white fall into one of the containers while you pass the yolk from one shell to the other, until it is completely separated and you can dump it into another container of bowl.
When we are done with that step, we beat the 12 egg yolks with a hand mixer or a fork. It is best to do it by hand, as the mixer can let in a lot of air and spoil the bacon dessert from heaven. They must be well integrated. Once beaten, we begin to pour it into the mold with the caramel. Now, we place the bacon from heaven mold inside a container with water to cook bacon from from heaven in a bain-marie. We can place it in the oven or on the fire to cook it. When doing it with a bain-marie, we leave it for 30 minutes. We let it cool at room temperature for half an hour, and then we take it to the refrigerator for 5 more hours. Once ready, we can place a plate on top of the mold and turn it over to overturn it. You can separate the edges with a knife before so that it separates better and does not break.
And ready! You can now serve your bacon from Cuban heaven to enjoy with your loved ones.
– Provided by Adonais Rojas
Tocinillo Del Cielo
Click here to download a printable version.
Provided by Adonais Rojas
Click HERE to view the spring youth newsletter!
Be sure to join us in worship on Sunday, May 7 as we thank our church leadership from this past year, as well as commission our new leadership for the coming year.