Last Days

As my last day draws closer, I can see God's blessing each day. I get larger tips from the customers, Tatiana has been helping me with the tables and even Selita was a bit nicer to me before she left...she said that she's moving to persue her music career. I've heard her play...she should keep her day job. Shame on me, that wasn't nice at all.



I have a CupaJava $200 Gift Certificate that I need to spend, I might buy some nice baked goods and perhaps a book or two.

Blessings

God has truly blessed me. I have a wonderful wife, beautiful daughter and a promising congregation.


Nicole is going to start teaching piano lessons and having a choir for the church, we're also going to make it a habit to invite members over for dinner or at least tea and cake four times a simweek.

Music Program

Lyndon and I talked late into the evening once Faith was in bed, he reminded me of my love for acting and music and suggested that I start teaching piano at the church and maybe starting a choir. For some reason he thinks that this will help with the toxic attitudes of the residents, we'll see. We are also talking about adopting another child, then we would have two meembuj (children).

Island Treats

I found an old recipe from my courtship with Lyndon, Kesme Chae-De. It's a dessert made with pomegranates stuffed with cream cheese or yogurt and covered in a chocolate cran-creeper sauce, served chilled, but the sauce is warm. There are not any cran-creepers in Apple Valley, so I sent Lydon to the market for cranberries and rasberries instead.



Cran-creeper is a type of vegetable on a vine with red berries that look and taste alot like cranberries. The vegetable has a similar flavor to raspberries. In my native country, the vine from the crancreeper is wound around the plate and the dessert is set ontop of it. It looks very pretty, but doesn't taste very good.

Pastoral Notes: 1st Service

I can't believe it, we finally had our first church service. A few sims showed up and there as a very generous offering. Thanks to the offering and the fundraisers from the Food Expo, we were able to do some remodeling of the church. I now have an office to counsel and the gift shop is larger. Nicole found some nice bibles to sell in the store during the weekdays and after services. Now I must start work on the second sermon!

Reminders...Journeys

How did I get here?

How did I go from Ng*Caima Hi*maya, (the * is where a tongue-click would be pronounced), the girl from Sokitumi Island who used to worship the goddesses & gods (including my favorite, Goddess Lahubutaniya (the goddess of love); Anghj; Feomah (the mother goddess); Angh Tamahou (the god of fertility) the big Volcano god, Wan Sockem-lugi), to the wife of the pastor in this small town? From a university student studying drama and desiring to be a broadway actress to a wife and mother? How I almost married a count that my family chose for me, but instead I was able to marry Lyndon.

I have changed so much, yet I am still the same. Concern about my family still is a priority, but now my family focus is on Faith and Lyndon, instead of my siblings.

I fear that I have forgotten most of my native tongue, Sokitumian, for lack of using it. I am going to help Faith learn some basic words like Mah (Mom) and Parther (Dad).

I even found my old blog. http://nichumphrey.livejournal.com/

Pastoral Notes: A Season for Planting

and a season for harvest. Not only in the natural world are there seasons for harvesting crops and planting crops, but spiritually as well. I am continually reminded about my flock, the residents of the hood and how like the plants in my garden I am to nuture them, prune them at times, toss fertilizer on them and water them. God will cause the growth and then they will be ripe and ready for harvest. I have been praying about the spiritual state of the hood, residents seems to coast through life as if there is no God, that life is simply a state of wake up-work-eat-sleep. As if they are robots. I hope to get through to them that they are more than that-life can have purpose and meaning, but...well I struggle with how. Thank God for my lovely wife, Nicole. She thinks of the best ideas to spread the message around the hood, be it lectures, opening our home for dinners or what have you. She is truly my helpmate, I don't know what I would do without her in my life.