Secure as a mountain

Jeanette Fox, between Jim and
Caroline Everard

Lightning flashed across the peaks a few nights ago. The deafening boom of thunder followed shortly. But the mountains were not stirred. The rain gushed through the streams, falling into ravines and crevices. But the slopes did not move.

Likewise, people endure many storms and weather life's changes with God’s help. We stand secure as the mountains in the shelter of God's protection. 

Pastor Erwin ("The Mayor") and Jean Rohde

Two generations came to the cabin for a Creole boil last night. Two of our friends normally reside in California, one winters in Missouri, four live in Montana, and we’re from Washington. Between us, we’ve grown up rurally or lived in national and international cities and towns. We have lots of stories to tell!

W put on Ray Steven's “Mississippi Squirrel Revival” and sparked a memory: “When I was a boy, I caught gophers and sold them to the kids at school for 25c,” said our mischievous friend, who grew up in the Midwest during the Depression. “I made good money on sparrows, too.

Bill Durham tobacco bags

"I’d catch them at night and tie a ribbon around their necks, and pop them in a Bull Durham bag I’d pick up along the roads. If the gophers or sparrows didn’t sell, I let them go. … Sometimes I let them go in the classroom or put them in the teacher’s desk.” 25c was a lot of money back then!

Kathy and Dr. Paul Olson, Waldemar

One friend is a psychologist. Another guest, long since married, remembered him as the speaker at a singles convention in Montana almost thirty years ago. The world of wildernesses, deserts, and forests is small indeed.

We first ate Creole boil with Drs. Jay and Cheryl Taylor at their lakeside cabin in Missouri. Here’s a recipe if you’d like to have friends over, too. Something about the rough setting brings out the best tales of life and God's faithfulness.

Creole boil for 8-10:

Our dinner! (X2)

Set the table by spreading newspaper across the surface. On hand – ice tea in paper cups, lemon quarters, hot sauce, steak sauce, Mixed-Up Salt, Mixed-Up Pepper, and whatever other seasonings you'd like.  

Let each guest sprinkle sauces and seasonings on the newspaper, grab something from the tray, dip it, and enjoy! When everyone's eaten, removed the empty trays and ice tea, roll up the soiled paper and discarded shrimp tails, and toss the works in the garbage. 

Ingredients: 

·      2 onions. Cut into eighths or quarters.

·      3 lb small potatoes. Scrub.

·      1 ear of corn per guest plus one or two for the pot. Break in half.

·      2-3 lb sausage (brats, kielbasa, or cajan sausage). Cut in 1” pieces.

·      2-3 lb raw, peeled and deveined shrimp (20-40 count. Use other seafood if you like.) Thaw in running cold water if they’re frozen.

45 minutes before serving: bring to a mad boil a huge pot of water. Add onions, 1/4 cup Old bay seasoning or Zatarains shrimp boil. Squeeze in the juice of 2 lemons and toss in the peels. Optional, to taste: add a few cloves of garlic, bay leaves, and peppercorns.

20 minutes before: add potatoes and sausage to boiling broth.

10 minutes before: add corn.

3 minutes before: add shrimp (cook a few minutes longer for other shellfish).

Strain, dump in trays, carry to the table, and eat! Let the broth boil merrily while you eat. Freeze the concentrated liquid and use as a base for your next Creole boil, or send it home with guests to host their own fun.

Read more:

*Those who trust in the LORD are as secure as Mount Zion; they will not be defeated but will endure forever. Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the LORD surrounds his people, both now and forever" Psalm 125:1–2

*Psalm 89:19-29; Joshua 3,4; Luke 12:1-12

*“I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you,” says the Lord God, “and you became mine.” Ezekiel 16:8

*Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:10 

*But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires.” These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts and do not have the Spirit.

But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Be merciful to those who doubt; snatch others from the fire and save them; to others show mercy, mixed with fear—hating even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh.

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. Jude 17-25 NIV

Moravian Prayer: We are blessed and have received a wonderful covenant with the God of Abraham. We are called by God’s mercy for his people. What a beautiful blessing in Jesus’ name. Amen.