View from the Prairie Box

Keith’s Flickr pics.
Gary’s shots of the fire.
The Morehead’s have been snapping away.
Mine are in the same location as before.

A lot of my dear friends are blogging about the fire. I’ll update with more links later.

My big prayer request is this: Please pray that Livia begins to settle down and sleep at night. For an entire week now she’s been bucking it and Jeremy and I are almost completely worn out. Dealing with the church fire is more gut-wrenching and exhausting this morning simply because I haven’t slept enough. Thanks for your prayers.

I posted a set of photos on Flickr. I can’t yet bear to post a big one here. Perhaps I can do that tomorrow. I am still greatly grieved over the loss of this beautiful building where we got married and baptized Livia, where we rejoiced over many weddings and mourned at many funerals. Zion was the physical hub of our community.

The true hub remains in God’s people. A building has fallen; the Church stands strong.

Here is an email Stu sent out this afternoon. It is worth posting:

Friends of Zion,

As most of you know by now the Zion building at 9th and D was consumed by flames early this morning. The building is a total loss, but Zion remains strong and steadfast, ready to follow her Savior.

Sunday service will be held June 10 at 12 noon at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, 12th and M Streets (downtown). We are deeply grateful for their kind offer of assistance! We have been receiving many such offers and can be truly grateful for the Body of Christ in Lincoln. Their hearts are truly with us.

As she looked on the smoltering building Verna Damm noted that it was really ‘hard to see the church in such disrepair.’ Then without skipping a beat she reminded us that ‘Jesus is still on the throne.’ It is right to grieve over the memories lost; the baptisms, the weddings, the funerals, and the fellowship hold special memories for us all. But what is most important cannot be taken away. We believe in an Amighty God and a powerful gospel of grace. God’s purpose for us has not changed at all. We are called to be transformed by Grace and poured out for others. He will be glorified. What is important will remain, what is not must be left behind.

Pastor Tobey reminded us this morning that the most horrific event in history, the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus, was the turning point of history and the key to our salvation. God is not caught off guard by tragedy, He plans it. And He will use it for His glory and our good, burning away the dross and forming the character of Christ in us.

Pray that:

• Jesus would be honored in all we say and do.
• We would be attentive to God’s leading, and ready to follow.
• The two firefighters who were injured putting out the fire would be healed.
• We would be even more focused on our mission to proclaim and live out the gospel of Grace.
• That Jesus would use our tragedy to draw together the body of Christ in Lincoln.

Yours in Christ,
Pastor Stu Kerns

This is surreal.

I’ll upload photos and post more after I’ve gotten some lunch and some rest.

PS: All the houses on our block are fine. We’re fine. Two firefighters received minor injuries — please pray for them.

We’ve endured a few sleepless nights around our house this week due to a tantrum-y, unsleepy little girl. And let me tell you, it has been so not pleasant. Lack of sleep makes everything worse, in my opinion. It makes my third bout with strep tougher to fight (yes, I am on tougher antibiotics now, but still, argh!). It makes Jeremy’s sinus infection that much more exasperating. It makes the daily to-do list that much more tedious and I’m sure it makes it harder for Jeremy to last the day at work. Caffeine alone can only do so much!

Here’s where a little audience participation comes in… When was the last time you didn’t sleep during normal hours? Was it for something fun, or for something a little more, shall we say, challenging? How long have you lasted without sleep?

The only times I can remember having fun instead of sawing z’s was during a junior high New Year’s Eve all-nighter with the EFree youth group in town and during a lock-in with the old Covenant youth group when I was just getting to know my future husband. Other than that, I’ve always chosen to sleep at night. No all-nighters during college, not one. No extended sleepless nights after Liv was born; we adopted her at 7 weeks and she was only waking once in the night.

Like I said, this week has been not-so-pleasant in the sleep category.

Now it’s your turn. Leave a comment for me to read at 3am tonight.

It’s been very stormy this spring and when it rains things get interesting around our house because Liv is scared of “funders,” as she puts it. Tonight I was trying to teach her that she doesn’t need to be afraid because our very big, very powerful, very loving God controls the thunderstorms.

So I asked her, “Livia, who takes care of you?”

“God,” she answered.

“Livia, who is in control?”

“Mommy.”

Well. Now that we’ve got that straightened out…

I recently purchased The Little Puppy because it’s a precious reminder of my childhood (Adam and Andrew, I bought you copies, too). Tonight Livia was reading the book on her own, as a 3 year old will do, turning the pages and incorporating her own dialogue. I wasn’t quite sure I was hearing her right, so I asked her to repeat the name she was calling the puppy.

“Jungle Building,” she said.

“Jungle Building?” I had to ask again. To be absolutely sure.

“Mm-hmm.”

I have to say, I love moments like this. Really, who wouldn’t want an adorable Springer Spaniel named Jungle Building? It’s right up there with Bingo and Lassie.

We had another moment yesterday when picking up my parents after their vacation with my Aunt Jan’s family in the Caribbean. After an hour’s drive, Livia and I pulled into a spot on the surface parking lot of the Omaha airport and Liv asked, “We in Jamaica now?” For over a week she had been hearing talk of Jamaica and assumed we were going there to pick up Nana and Papa.

After a lengthy self-indulgent sigh I told her, “No. We’re only in Omaha.”

Yesterday was a lovely combination of remembering those who served our country, helping Jeremy plant flowers in our gardens, and hosting a meal for a bunch of friends. The photos were taken at the cemetery (where Liv and I placed a flag on my grandfather’s grave). And the recipes below show what I prepared for dinner and dessert last night.

Ingredients (Salad)

• 1 head Bok Choy
• 1 bunch, fresh green onions
• 1/2 C butter
• 2 pkg Ramen Noodles
• 2 oz sesame seeds
• 1 C almonds

Directions (Salad)

1. Chop the bok choy and green onions and place in a large bowl; set aside.
2. Meanwhile, in a skillet, melt margarine and add Ramen Noodles, sesame seeds and almonds.
3. Stir until golden brown; set aside.

Ingredients (Dressing)

• 1/4 C vinegar
• 1/2 C sugar
• 3/4 C oil
• 2 T soy sauce

Directions (Dressing)

1. In a saucepan, boil dressing ingredients for 1 minute.
2. Combine all salad ingredients just before serving.

Recipe by Sara Mann, taken from the Zion Cookbook. I used napa cabbage yesterday and the recipe still turned out delicious. Also, make sure you smash up the Ramen noodles while still packaged as you want the crunchy topping to be in small pieces. I only chopped half a bunch of green onions and added only 1 oz of sesame seeds (simply because I didn’t buy enough) and like I said, the salad was still great.

Ingredients

• 12 eggs
• 2 t white vinegar
• 3-4 T mayonnaise
• 1/2 t mustard
• s & p
• paprika

Directions

1. Hard boil all eggs, cool completely.
2. Remove shells, cut in half, remove yolks to a separate bowl.
3. Mash yolks, mayo, mustard together in bowl; add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Scoop yolk mixture back into the hard boiled eggs.
5. Sprinkle with paprika.

This recipe has been altered slightly from the original one, Deviled Eggs II from allrecipes.com, my favorite recipe site.

Ingredients

• 1/2 C butter
• 1 1/4 C graham cracker crumbs
• 6 oz chocolate chips
• 6 oz butterscotch chips
• 1 C flaked coconut
• 1 C walnuts, chopped
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325.
2. In a 9×13″ pan, melt butter.
3. Sprinkle the ingredients over the butter in this order: crumbs, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut and walnuts.
4. Pour sweetened condensed millk over all.
5. Bake for 30 minutes.

Recipe by Suzanne Gage, copied from the Zion Church Cookbook.