As missionaries ourselves, we want to let you know that we are thankful for your faithfulness to the work
God has led you to do. We understand your frustrations, your challenges, and your loneliness. Our prayer is
that these newsletters will bring a smile to your day, give you fresh ideas to add fun to your family and
provide useful material for your ministry. Enjoy!
ANTS IN THE SUGAR BOWL
By Elizabeth Givens
So send I you
To ants in the sugar bowl,
To things that fly, creep and crawl into the house,
To uncertain water, sporadic electricity.
To long hours, sweltering heat, exhausting days,
To uncomfortable vehicles, crowded jeeps, smelly buses.
To noisy early, early mornings,
To rice, rice and more rice.
To poverty you didn’t believe existed,
To masses of people like you have never seen,
To know and work with people who have never known comfort,
So send I you, and I expect you to adjust.
So send I you
To people who will give to you from their poverty,
To friends who will embarrass you with their generosity,
To pastors who will entertain you from their lack, with beauty.
To hungry, receptive, questioning people who want to know God,
To study, to teach, to learn from your study and teaching,
To prove your own motives, values and beliefs,
To learn about yourself and the culture that has reared you,
To know God and to understand more deeply dependence on Him,
So send I you.
Are you going? I’ll go with you all the way.
ON TOP OF SPAGHETTI
Four-Cheese Chicken Fettuccine (A. Hudson)
1 pkg. spaghetti noodles (or fettuccine or linguine)
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1 cup cream cheese
1 cup heavy whipping cream
½ cup butter
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 chicken, cooked, deboned, and chopped
Topping:
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 to 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese or more if want
Cook noodles according to package directions. Meanwhile, in a large kettle, combine the soup, cream
cheese, cream, butter and garlic powder. Stir in cheeses; cook and stir until melted. Add chicken; heat
through. Drain fettuccine; add to the sauce.
Transfer to a shallow greased 9 x 13 baking dish. Combine the topping ingredients; sprinkle over chicken
mixture. Cover and bake at 350 for 25 minutes. Uncover; bake 5 to 10 minutes longer or until golden
brown. (In some places, cream soup mixes are available in packets. Mix these with 11 ounces 10-3/4
ounces of water to make the equivalent of one can.)
Garlic Noodles (J. Stensaas)
Sauté leftover spaghetti noodles in olive oil with minced garlic, spinach, and parsley. Top with
parmesan cheese and more olive oil. You can get creative and add tomatoes, steamed broccoli,
cooked, shredded chicken, etc. One of my husband’s favorite meals.
Quick Noodle Meals (A. Schoof)
#1 To cooked spaghetti noodles, add Italian dressing, chopped green peppers, chopped onions,
and chopped fresh tomatoes. Serve warm!
#2 Sauté garlic in margarine. Add cooked spaghetti noodles and parmesan cheese. Stir together.
Spaghetti Corn (C. Stensaas)
1 14 ¾ oz can cream corn
1 15 ¼ oz. can corn with liquid – (may still need to add a little more liquid)
1 cup broken spaghetti
1 cup shredded mozzarella
½ cup melted butter
2-4 tablespoons chopped onion
Butter a 9x13” pan. Stir all ingredients together and pour into prepared pan. Cover with foil and bake
for 30 minutes at 350. Remove foil and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Top with more cheese if
desired. 4-6 servings
Spaghetti de Carbonara (S. Stensaas)
1 can (10 ¾ ounces) condensed soup (cream of onion, celery, shrimp OR mushroom)
Meat (6 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled, ½ pound pork sausage, cooked & crumbled,
1 cup diced cooked ham OR ½ cup diced prosciutto)
Flavoring (1/4 cup chopped parsley, 2 tablespoons chopped green onions,
¼ cup chopped green pepper OR 2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves)
½ cup half-and-half
Cheese (2 tablespoons grated Romano, 2 tablespoons grated Parmesan, ¼ cup grated
Gruyere, OR ½ cup shredded Swiss)
Spaghetti
Heat soup, meat, flavoring and half-and-half until hot, stirring frequently. Stir in cheese until melted.
Serve over hot cooked pasta. Makes about 4 servings. (You need to choose just ONE ingredietn of the
choices in parenthesis.)
Spaghetti Sauce *Fast and Easy* (A. Hudson)
1 onion
7 to 8 garlic cloves
½ kilo hamburger meat
2 cans tomato puree
1 can tomato paste
2 cans diced tomatoes (or substitute fresh diced tomatoes)
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon basil
1 tablespoon parsley
2 tablespoons sugar
Salt
Sauté garlic, onion and meat together till meat is cooked. Add the rest of the ingredients. Cover and cook
until it starts boiling, then turn it on low and cook for 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. The longer you
cook it, the better.
WOULD YOU GO BACK?
If you had been to foreign lands, Where weary souls stretch out their hands,
And yet, still no one understands,
Would you go back? Would you?
If you had seen them bear Their heavy loads with none to share,
Had heard them weep with none to care,
Would you go back? Would you?
If you had seen them in despair, Beat their chest and pull their hair,
While demon powers filled the air, Would you go back? Would you?
If you had seen the glorious sight, When heathen people in the night
Were brought from darkness into light, Would you go back? Would you?
Yet still they wait, a weary throng, They’ve waited some so very long,
When shall despair be turned to sun? We’re going back! Would you?
SCHOOL TOOLS
• My favorite school tool is flash cards.( addition, subtraction, phonics, multiplication, division, etc.)
(A. Schoof)
• Instead of written speed drills or flashcards, I like to use the Flashmaster with my girls – a
handheld electronic game that quizzes and teaches the fact tables. www.flashmaster.com (J.
Stensaas)
• My daughter enjoys this website where she adds to see a hidden picture:
http://www.aplusmath.com/Games/HiddenPicture/HiddenPicture.php (J. Stensaas)
• Math U See Cubes help us in every grade of math! www.mathusee.com Their website also offers
an online drill for the math facts that we use sometimes. (J. Stensaas)
• I like to use Audio Books during their resting time in the afternoon. Little House on the Prairie is a
favorite right now. www.kids.audible.com has some free storybooks you can download. (J.
Stensaas)
• Draw Write Now books are my favorite for handwriting. We all enjoy drawing the pictures as well.
(J. Stensaas)
• We have had so much fun making these lapbooks. www.homeschoolshare.com They are a
great way to learn! (K. Stensaas)
• Working with lapbooks, having a paper cutter is a big time saver. (S. Stensaas)
• Having five children in different grade levels, it was impossible to keep charts up to date on the
walls – let alone have space for them. To solve this problem, I have made resource notebooks
for each child. Each child has his own 3-ring binder which is divided according to subject. In
each subject I have printed off charts, tables and diagrams of useful information they can refer to.
Just a couple of ideas are - Bible: books of the Bible, 12 disciples, 10 plagues; History: maps,
presidents, states & capitals; Language: parts of speech, homophones, contractions; Math: math
facts, geometric formulas, temperatures; Science: diagrams of digestive system & skeletal
system. (S. Stensaas)
• The first two hours of our school day, the older children are required to work with the younger
children. This teaches them to give to others before themselves and also increases their skills in
drilling flashcards, listening to reading, and “teaching” the baby. Since we started this schedule, I
see a big difference for the better in our school. (S. Stensaas)
WHAT IT TAKES
A missionary needs the wisdom of an owl, the tenacity of a bulldog, the daring of a lion, the patience of
a donkey, the versatility of a chameleon, the vision of an eagle, the melody of the nightingale, the
meekness of a lamb, the tact of a politician, the hide of a rhinoceros, the disposition of an angel, the
resignation of an incurable, the faithfulness of a prophet, the tenderness of a shepherd, the fervency of an
evangelist, the devotion of a mother, the sacrifice of a martyr, and the loyalty of an apostle.
But, missionaries are not born, they are made. They are made out of the ordinary run of individuals.
The basic qualification is not intellectualism, but a yielded spirit, a devotion to the will of God, and a deep
sense of God’s call.
MISSION MEMORIES
• We have an African outfit (dress, shirt, sandals, jewelry, etc.) to use when teaching a children’s
class. We choose a child and dress him/her up in the costume, teach him how to say a greeting
in Swahili, then ask the class if he is an African. Then we ask, “What if he had dark skin and dark
hair, would he then be an African?” The conclusion is that even though he looks African, he
would only truly be African if he were born into an African family. We apply this to salvation:
someone may look and talk like a Christian, but they are only truly a Christian when they are
born in God’s family. (L. Bohman)
• We have read The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, and I am teaching a 5 part story about her
life in children’s church on Sunday night. Now when we go home on furlough in October, instead
of taking our lay-over in London, we will stop in Holland and visit the Corrie Ten Boom home. My
children are very excited about this, and we may even visit the Ann Frank home too. (B. Manes)
• My favorite mission memory was a mission’s parade. They had a child dress as a person from
each country that they support. Another was missionary Christmas. The church got a list of things
the missionary wanted and tried to buy the things that they asked for. (A. Schoof)
• At a conference at our home church the missionaries stood up front with large baskets. The
concept "little is much" was visualized when individual ladies in the congregation would come
forward with 1-2 items and place them in the basket. Our baskets were overflowing by the time
they were done. Praise the Lord! (K. Stensaas)
• Missionary Stories with the Millers is a favorite book we have enjoyed reading for family
devotions. (J. Stensaas)
• Some of my favorite missionary books is the African series by Kendrick and the Amazon series
by Stan Best. Bruchko is another favorite, and the Rani Adventures by Snell are true stories of
an American boy growing up in Peru. (S. Stensaas)
• Something that my children still remember and talk about was a missions conference that had a
separate class for the children. Each night they had to present their “passport” at the “check-in”
counter and board the “airplane” to visit different countries. The church had made up passport
books for each child, had stamps or stickers to represent the countries, and had a room
decorated to resemble the inside of an airplane. The missionaries “met” them upon “landing” and
was the “tour guide” for their country. (S. Stensaas)
GREAT GAMES
• Jenga, Sorry, Chutes and Ladders, checkers, chess, Life, Bible question games. (A. Schoof)
• Play Nine doesn’t require a lot of thinking so you can visit while you play. It has to be ordered
online. (C. Stensaas)
• Set, Bananagrams, Quiddler, Go Fish, Uno, Cranium Cadoodle (J. Stensaas)
• Settlers, Skip-Bo, Monopoly (K. Stensaas)
• Play Nine, Sherlock, and Settlers of Catan (S. Stensaas)
• For ladies activities I usually start out with a word search related to my theme to work on as we
are waiting for other ladies to arrive. When it’s time to start, the lady who has found all the words
wins a door prize. Simple, but they seem to enjoy it. (J. Stensaas)
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A group game we play with our church people is Dice 1-100. You simply have a piece of paper
for each person, 1 pen only, and 1 dice. One person begins rolling the dice and when he gets a
6 he immediately takes the pen and begins writing numbers 1-100. The next person beside him
grabs the dice and begins rolling to get a 6. When he gets it he grabs the pen from the one
writing and also begins writing 1-100. The game can go pretty fast and the first person to get to
100 first is the winner. (J. Stensaas)
Corn-hole is another game our church people enjoy. It’s basically a horse shoes type game that
you play with “corn bags” (like bean bags). You can do a search online to see how to make the
game and how to play. (J. Stensaas)
On the back of the coloring pages for my children’s church, I always include a word search or
similar type game having to do with the lesson. The first 2 boys and the first 2 girls to complete
the game receive a piece of candy. Occasionally , I surprise my ladies by including a word
search in their take-home papers. (S. Stensaas)
WEBSITES
• Website to download Spiritual Leadership Conference messages from Lancaster Baptist Church
in California. http://www.strivingtogether.com/pages/spiritual-leadership-conferencedownloads.html
• http://www.brightlights.info/ has great info for starting a girl’s class.
• www.econobusters.com has some frugal tips. Fridays she lists several freebies.
VIBRANT VISUALS
• Our MKs struggle to know English hymns which most children grow up hearing in every church
service. I teach our children hymns by using illustrated song sheets from CEF or Bible Visuals.
Even three or four year-olds quickly learn these hymns rich in doctrine and Biblical truths. (L.
Bohman)
• I have pictures for Bible Stories and store them in a filing cabinet. (A. Schoof)
• I have always had a hard time getting charts to stick to our concrete walls in our home, but
recently I tried using sticky Velcro on the chart and some on the wall and it hangs perfectly now.
(J. Stensaas)
• We painted a black board in our Sunday School room and the teachers just write the books of the
Bible and other info they are teaching the kids. It’s hard to keep charts from falling off the walls
and getting dirty. (J. Stensaas)
A POEM FROM A MISSIONARY KID’S HEART
By Robin Gayle Ferguson
We travel around the country, In a different church each week.
We often sing, and many times, We hear our fathers speak.
When people come to shake our hands, We smile at them so nicely.
And when they say, “We really enjoyed that!” We thank them politely.
We do our service faithfully, And seldom do complain.
But many only see the smiles, They never see the pain.
For we’ve no friends to talk to, As we go to school each day.
Our closest friends are just like us, They travel along the way.
We seldom get to see them, Much less have time to play.
So we usually just talk awhile, And then get back on our way.
But it doesn’t matter if it’s a couple of weeks, Or even a month or two,
We have a common bond between us, That makes us special, too.
You see, friend, as we travel, We’re not just there for show.
We support our parents in their work, So that others too may know...
This Jesus whom we love and serve, And in whom we do believe,
And that they too can know Him, If in their hearts they’ll Him receive.
And we can say, that we have had, But a very small, small part,
In the thousands who have received the Lord, And asked Jesus into their hearts.
REALLY NEAT TIPS
• Peel a banana from the bottom and you won't have to pick the little 'stringy things' off of it. That's
how the primates do it.
• Take your bananas apart when you get home from the store. If you leave them connected at the
stem, they ripen faster.
• Store your opened chunks of cheese in aluminum foil. It will stay fresh much longer and not mold!
• Peppers with 3 bumps on the bottom are sweeter and better for eating. Peppers with 4 bumps on
the bottom are firmer and better for cooking.
• Add a teaspoon of water when frying ground beef. It will help pull the grease away from the meat
while cooking.
• To really make scrambled eggs or omelets rich, add a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream, cream
cheese, or heavy cream in and then beat them up.
• For a cool brownie treat, make brownies as directed. Melt chocolates in double broiler and pour
over warm brownies. Let it set for a wonderful frosting.
• Before you pour sticky substances into a measuring cup, fill with hot water. Dump out the hot
water, but don't dry cup. Next, add your ingredient, such as peanut butter, and watch how easily it
comes right out.
• Add Garlic immediately to a recipe if you want a light taste of garlic and at the end of the recipe if
your want a stronger taste of garlic.
• Heat up leftover pizza in a non-stick skillet on top of the stove, Set heat to med-low and heat till
warm. This keeps the crust crispy. No soggy micro pizza.
• For easy Devilled Eggs, put cooked egg yolks in a zip lock bag. Seal, mash till they are all broken
up. Add remainder of ingredients, reseal, keep mashing it up mixing thoroughly, cut the tip of the
baggy, and squeeze mixture into egg. Just throw bag away when done easy clean up.
• When you buy a container of cake frosting from the store, whip it with your mixer for a few
minutes. You can double it in size. You get to frost more cake/cupcakes with the same amount.
You also eat less sugar and calories per serving.
• To warm biscuits, pancakes, or muffins that were refrigerated, place them in a microwave with a
cup of water. The increased moisture will keep the food moist and help it reheat faster.
• Pin a small safety pin to the seam of your slip and you will not have a clingy skirt or dress.
• Use your hair conditioner to shave your legs. It's cheaper than shaving cream and leaves your
legs really smooth. It's also a great way to use up the conditioner you bought but didn't like when
you tried it in your hair.
• Use a wet cotton ball or Q-tip to pick up the small shards of glass you can't see easily.
• To get something out of a heat register or under the fridge, add an empty paper towel roll or
empty gift wrap roll to your vacuum. It can be bent or flattened to get in narrow openings.
• Hate foggy windshields? Buy a chalkboard eraser and keep it in the glove box of your car. When
the windows fog, rub with the eraser! Works better than a cloth!
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If you seal an envelope and then realize you forgot to include something inside, just place your
sealed envelope in the freezer for an hour or two. Viola! It unseals easily.
Place a dryer sheet in your pocket. It will keep the mosquitoes away.
After you have put a plant into soil, wet some newspaper, and put layers around the plants
overlapping as you go. Cover with mulch and forget about weeds. Weeds will get through some
gardening plastic but they will not get through wet newspapers.
To keep squirrels from eating your plants, sprinkle your plants with cayenne pepper. The cayenne
pepper doesn't hurt the plant and the squirrels won't come near it.
Chives and citrus peelings help to keep cats away from your plants, or wherever they like to pee.
Crushed egg shells can be worked into the soil of your potted plants and vegetable plot to
increase the calcium in the soil. Cold coffee and tea, with a drop of dishwashing fluid is a tasty
treat for potted plants.
To get rid of pesky fruit flies, take a small glass, fill it 1/2' with Apple Cider Vinegar and 2 drops of
dish washing liquid; mix well. You will find those flies drawn to the cup and gone forever! Or spray
potted plants when you bring them indoors with tobacco tea (let the tobacco from a cigarette sit in
water overnight, then strain) and a drop of dishwashing fluid in a spray bottle.
Put small piles of cornmeal where you see ants. They eat it, take it 'home,' can't digest it so it kills
them. It may take a week or so, especially if it rains, but it works and you don't have the worry
about pets or small children being harmed! Another option is a saucer of syrup with boric acid
mixed in...this works very well when ants start marching. Just don’t leave it where pets or small
children can get at it.
THE FOXES HAVE HOLES (And so do we!) By Mrs. Don Mathis We’re sending you a box of stuff, For us it is not good enuff. But being missionaries, kind, A use for it we’re sure you’ll find. So when you pay the postage due A happy s’prise awaiteth you. Within this poorly wrapped‐up box Are three odd garters, holey sox, A corset, large without the stays, A record that no longer plays. Some buttons for the three odd shoes, A box of string too short to use. A can of ointment for your boils, Electric toaster, minus coils. We’ve scoured our homes from stem to stern To send you thing for which you yearn. But glad we are to send our gift To give your spirits upward lift. Good deeds for us this should suffice ‘Till next year’s yearly sacrifice. WE WANT YOUR IDEAS!
Please help us by sending in your ideas for the following subjects as well as anything else useful
that you think others might enjoy.
1.
Kids Devotions: What do your children use to make their Bible reading exciting? How do you
encourage your Sunday School children to have their devotions? How do you encourage them to use
and bring their Bibles to church?
2.
Terrific Thanksgiving: Do you have a cute poem to teach the kids or a fun way to remind
everyone to be thankful? What about some cute turkey treats? Help us all remember to be thankful
every day.
3.
Frugal Food: In today’s economy, we are all searching for money-saving tips. What meals or
snacks do you fix that help to stretch the dollar a little further? How do you stay within your budget in
shopping?
4.
Useful Skills: Did you learn something as a young person that has been very useful to you as an
adult? What valuable skill has served you well over the years? What do you see as being important that
our children learn?
5.
Marvelous Moves: We all encounter a move or two in our lifetime – sometimes several moves.
What useful tips can you share with others? Anything from labeling, to packing the truck, to meal fixing in
the midst of the chaos – help others make the transition to a new home easier.
Submit your ideas by October 23 to:
[email protected] AND [email protected]
THANK YOU!
Jacky Stensaas and Sally Stensaas