A new ministry was introduced to our church congregation last night – Popcorn and People. The significance behind this ministry is getting church families together in one another’s homes for a simple time of fellowship, with something as simple as popcorn being served. My husband talked about the call to hospitality, Romans 12:9-13. We’re to show kindness to strangers. The attitude of hospitality as in I Peter 4:8-10 is to do it without grumbling. The motivation of hospitality is Christ. The blessings of hospitality that he mentioned were numerous, and if you’ve been the recipient of a home that has displayed this gift to you I’m sure you could list some yourself.

I have a little booklet that I purchased many years ago in the bookstore of The Wilds Christian Camp. It’s entitled, “Around My Kitchen Table”, by Lorraine Strohbehn. In the booklet she shares the blessing of her kitchen table being used as a primary source of family times, discipling of young women, of doing crafts there, and of hospitality. One paragraph in this section reads,

• She thinks about the needs of her guests – Will they be thirsty? Hungry? Need a meal or snack?
• She keeps things on hand that she could offer for drop-in company. Her pantry is a favorite place to her family company. It’s full of all kinds of good treats! Bottled water or soft drinks are stashed away for guests. The freezer often holds cookies or ice cream that could be served.
• She does things in a beautiful way, but keeps her guests feeling comfortable.
• She doesn’t mind going to the grocery bakery and purchasing something prepared. I’ve found that the stores’ bakery departments often have baked goods on sale and you can buy a cake, cupcakes, muffins or cookies for what it would cost you to make them.
• She does things ahead of time so it seems that her labor is effortless. This makes the guest not feel that they’re putting a burden on the hostess.

Tomorrow I’ll post about some inexpensive foods to serve (besides popcorn, which is a favorite snack of mine!). Meanwhile if you have any ideas, recipes, or thoughts on being hospitable be sure to leave your comments here for us to read!

While making yeast rolls today for Sunday’s dinner I flipped through an old cookbook and found a recipe that I made often when I was first married. I made them a lot probably because of two things:

1. They are cheap
2. They don’t require rolling out – I wasnt’ so good at that at first!

It’s also a nice recipe to have in case you run out of Crisco and need biscuits for supper. Here it is:
Mayonnaise Biscuits

1 cup self-rising flour*

1/2 cup milk

2 tbl. mayonnaise (not salad dressing)

Mix and fill 6 greased muffin tins. Bake at 400 degrees until brown (app. 15 min.)

*If you don’t have self-rising flour, simply add 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt to each cup of flour the recipe calls for.

It’s amazing to me how attention to a small detail can make a huge difference in the usefulness of an object or individual. There was a sheet on my daughter’s bed that was not holding up the name “fitted” sheet. It would have fit King Kong as a cape! The elastic had stretched out making sleep fitful as they twisted with every turn she made at night. With all the turning she’d done recovering from oral surgery, that sheet was a pitiful sight in the morning. I had had it with those things and ripped them off the bed and replaced them with a newer set of sheets.

I’m late blogging this morning due to having overnight guests. Two girls that were with the Appalachian Bible College music ministry team stayed with us after serving in our Wednesday night service. What a blessing they were!

Here are Liesel and Abby at breakfast this morning. It was such a cool, beautiful morning that I decided to serve breakfast out on the deck. We had a leisurely breakfast and were able to visit before they had to get with the rest of the team and head for Kentucky.

It is such a blessing to have guests in our home. I loved getting to talk to the girls and hear how the Lord is working in their lives, where they’re headed after college, and hear about their growing up years. These girls are both from pastor’s homes, so we had much in common!

I’m thankful for the opportunity to entertain and wish I could do it more often. People just don’t know what they’re missing when they don’t have guests like these in their home. What a good influence godly young people are on children or other young people! What a wonderful opportunity to be a blessing to ministry folk as they’re traveling! All they needed was a clean bed, warm shower and breakfast. How hard is that? We got much more than we gave and had fun doing it. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Hebrews 13:2 I think we had two at our house last night!

I chose to make a “no-fuss” in the morning breakfast. I made French Toast Casserole that is made up the night before. It’s so good and all you do is make up the egg mixture the night before, pour it over the bread and refrigerate it. The next morning you pop it into the oven, then spread the topping on it about 15 minutes before it’s finished and, Viola! Breakfast is ready! I also love to do my bacon in the oven so I don’t have to stand there and mess with it. I put it on a baking sheet at 325 for about 25-30 minutes. I added a touch I saw Barefoot Contessa do – I brushed on maple syrup during the last 10 minutes of baking. Yum!

Here’s the French toast recipe if you’re interested:

* Note: Because we had the ABC music ministry at church last night we did not have our Bible study on Dealing with the Fools in Your Life. The Bible study will be continued here next Thursday.

There are a lot of powerful forces in our lives; one of those is music. I am so thankful for ears to be able to listen to beautiful songs whether they be instrumentals or vocals. It encourages my heart so much.

Yesterday I heard a new recording of old hymns. One of those songs was “Safe Am I.” I sang that song as a child and have always loved it. In case you’re not familiar with it the words are,