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Godspacelight
by dbarta May 19, 2017
celebration & recipescookingGardeningliferecipes

First Apple Cake for the Season

by Christine Sine September 11, 2009
written by Christine Sine
I just made my first apple cake for the season for our MSA Board meeting tomorrow.  It is a great way for me to relax once I have all my materials ready for the Board members. Our apple crop is not as big as usual but there are still plenty to enjoy.  This recipe was given to me by Janet Hutchison the wife of our Board chair - Janet's grandmother became a widow with seven children (all under the age of thirteen) when she was still in her thirties. She was still climbing her apple trees to prune and spray even in her seventies. Janet was fortunate enough to grow up living next door and enjoyed her fresh pies, cookies and this delicious apple cake. Enjoy!
  • 6 cups Apples,Peeled & Diced
  • 1 cups brown or raw Sugar
  • ½ cup Oil
  • 1 cup Walnuts,Chopped
  • 2 Eggs,Beaten
  • 2 teaspoons Vanilla
  • 2 cups whole wheat Flour
  • 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons Baking Soda
  • ½ cup Yoghurt
Stir together apples, sugar, oil, nuts, eggs and vanilla. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking soda & salt. Add flour mix to apple mixture. Bake in a 9x13" pan at 350℉ for about 45 min or until toothpick comes out dry. Freezes well. Serve with ice cream or whipped cream Top with Cream cheese frosting 8 oz cream cheese, 3 tbl margarine, 1 tsp vanilla 1 1/2 cup powdered sugar OR top brfore baking with 2tsp cinnamon, 1/3 cup brown sugar, 2 tsp flour, 1/4 cup rolled oats Per Serving (not including toppings which I usually leave off: 308 Cal (38% from Fat, 6% from Protein, 56% from Carb); 5 g Protein; 13 g Tot Fat; 1 g Sat Fat; 3 g Mono Fat; 44 g Carb; 2 g Fiber; 30 g Sugar; 16 mg Calcium; 1 mg Iron; 336 mg Sodium; 33 mg Cholesterol;
September 11, 2009 0 comment
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celebration & recipesGardeninglifePrayerPrayer and inspirationRhythms of lifespiritual practices

God of the Bountiful – A Harvest Prayer

by Christine Sine September 11, 2009
written by Christine Sine
This morning I was sitting in our breakfast room looking out on my gloriously productive garden and feeling a little overwhelmed.  Then I read through one of the prayers that I had written for our Celtic retreat in August and decided that it would be a good one to adapt as a harvest prayer.  God's harvest comes not just in the bounty of the produce we pull out of the garden - it comes in the wonder of his love, in the nourishment of his generosity and in the outpouring of his forgiveness.  I think that this prayer reflects that.  It can be used as a responsive prayer as shown or as an individual prayer. God we thank you for your harvest which feeds us so many times each day. We are nourished with your forgiveness and hope We are sustained with your strength and patience We are filled with your grace and compassion God we thank you for feeding us with a harvest of plenty We are restored through your generosity and healing We are replenished with your abundance and joy We are reminded of your selfless abandon God we thank you for feeding us with the bread of heaven Your gift of Christ sustains our lives His presence restores the promise of your love His life fills our hearts with your everlasting light God we thank you too for filling us with the water of life May we drink deeply that our thirst may be quenched May your river continue to flow Over us, in us, through us And out into the world you love. For more harvest prayers and resources check out this post Looking for harvest Prayers - Try These  
September 11, 2009 0 comment
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blogsHealthlifeRhythms of lifespiritual practices

The Spirituality of the Long Distance Runner

by Christine Sine September 10, 2009
written by Christine Sine
I had not intended to add another post today but just came across this one written by Steve Fouch in response to the What is a Spiritual Practice challenge.  I thought that some of you would find it as interesting as I did.  He describes himself as an average father, working at an average job, looking at God and life in ordinary things.  He blogs at The Spamhead Blog
Thanks to my recent health problems I have had to make some major changes to my diet and start a proper exercise regime. For me, proper exercise means running – it was a passion for much of my twenties and early thirties, but somehow marriage and fatherhood squeezed the time for such practices – until I realised it was one of the only ways I could lose weight and help bring my diabetes under control. Read the entire article here
September 10, 2009 0 comment
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celebration & recipescookingGardeninglifeRhythms of life

What Do We do With All the Tomatoes?

by Christine Sine September 10, 2009
written by Christine Sine
[caption id="attachment_1806" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Brandy Boy tomatoes - delicious"]Brandy Boy tomatoes - delicious[/caption] Yesterday I posted a twitter update that read "Enjoying the aroma of drying tomatoes."  Unfortunately some of my facebook friends interpreted that as "dying tomatoes"  and so there have been a few rather pointed comments about the state of my garden.  That of course made me realize that I have been rather silent about what is happening in the garden over the summer - partly because the summer garden seems to keep growing and producing without me needing to do anything at all except wander around admiring the flowers and the growing produce. Of course there is always watering to be done but most of the time that is a delight rather than a chore as it gives me an opportunity to admire the fruits of our spring labours.  This year has been an exceptionally hot summer in Seattle contrasting with the record cold winter that preceded it - record hot July temperatures contrasted with record cold January which has meant that the garden has produced a little differently from previous years We are enjoying wonderful tomatoes - especially the new Brandy boy we tried this year.  It is similar to the Armish heirloom Brandywine but on smaller plants and a couple of weeks earlier production which is a real plus here in the Pacific NW.  It has certainly produced big beautiful and delicious tomatoes - many of them weighing more than a pound each.  We have had many feasts of sandwiches;  Our favourite recipes begin with a good loaf of crusty white Italian bread: Fry some bacon (wish we could get good English bacon here), place on bread, cover with cheddar cheese and melt under the grill.  Top with big slices of the sweetest tomato you can find, sweet onion and avocado.  Spread another slice of bread with mayo or mustard for the top slice of the sandwich and enjoy.  Best eaten with good potato chips. For a vegetarian version grill slices of summer squash and big portabello mushrooms and use in place of the bacon. I also bottle lots of marinara sauce and dry lots of cherry tomatoes at this time - wonderful packed in olive oil with herbs and garlic.  We use them in omelettes, salads and pasta dishes over the winter.
September 10, 2009 0 comment
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Kingdom of GodlifeMSA linksspirituality

A Year in the Life of MSA

by Christine Sine September 9, 2009
written by Christine Sine

Every year, we devote one issue of the MSA ezine, the Seed Sampler to the happenings at MSA. The other issues are all about what other people are doing to address the urgent challenges of our times.

Some great stuff has been happening here: a fantastic Celtic Prayer Retreat, hands-on gardening workshops, putting an East coast intern to work, planning a monastic village on Camano Island, the development of a Rule of Life, and the list goes on. This Seed Sampler reports on most of these events and brings you up to speed on the lives of our board members and staff. There is also a list at the end of every MSA resource you might want to know about—books, articles, curriculums, mp3s, videos, etc.

My contribution is A Year in the Life of MSA. As I worked on this I was amazed at how much our small team of 5 people plus numerous volunteers have accomplished in the last year.
When I wrote our annual MSA update a year ago, I wrote about the discernment process that we had embarked on to reimagine MSA more as a network of communities and individuals with a common purpose rather than as a program-based organization. We have now completed the work on the MSA rule of life and developed a foundational document that explains the MSAvision, goals, and pillars as well as the discernment process we continue to use for decision-making.  Read the article here
Because we are such a small team we are always looking for volunteers to help not just here in Seattle at the Mustard Seed office but in researching, writing for the Seed Sampler and dare I mention it in financially supporting our efforts.  Much of what we do can be done from anywhere in the world.  So check out the different ways that you can be involved If you are just learning about MSA I suggest that you at least sign up for the Seed Sampler (its free) and discover some of the ways that your mustard seed can make a difference in God's world
September 9, 2009 0 comment
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blogsHealthKingdom of Godlifespiritual practices

The Spiritual Practice of Lament

by Christine Sine September 8, 2009
written by Christine Sine
The post below was sent to me by Tracy Byrd Dickerson who describes herself as a lover of Jesus, wife of a fabulous husband, mother to two great guys, hospice nurse, seminarian, celebrant of life abundant.  She blogs at Nacreous Kingdom
In studying the Psalms for a seminary class, I was once again struck with the vivid and often vitriolic character of the imprecatory laments (mournful petitions). The petitions can be shockingly horrifying (e.g. Psalm 109 and Psalm 137). In these songs, the Hebrew people ask God to vindicate them by triumphing over their enemies in often graphic and disturbing ways. On the face of it, one wonders how anyone had the “nerve” to articulate such seemingly vindictive thoughts to God, let alone allow such words to be recorded. But the laments have an essential and marvelous function: by offering them up to God, we have the capacity to see our odious meditations and desperate thoughts transformed into something acceptable (Ps. 19:14), and because we are able to express our feelings toward The Counselor, we are provided with an alternative to outwardly expressing them through either words or actions toward our enemies. As we ventilate our feelings and process them through the filters provided by the Holy Spirit, he searches, tries, sees, and leads us (Psalm 139:23-24) toward healing. Practicing lament is not often though of as a productive or acceptable way of processing our thoughts and feelings, but I would suggest that it is a powerfully effective spiritual practice and an essential component of spiritual formation. Moreover, it is a way to truly step forward in faith and trust toward God, for we are trusting Him with our most filthy ugliness in the knowledge that He will love us nonetheless. Here are some examples of modern day laments: Here's one by Barlow Girl. It's very beautiful, and touching. Here is an entire album of laments by Michael Card and a page at Calvin Institute for Worship's website about lament and Card's work (both written and recorded) on lament for worship. Finally, I have to include this a haunting 'cover' of "On the Willows" (from Godspell) it is so agonally beautiful… Grace and Peace~ Tracy
September 8, 2009 0 comment
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gender issuesHealthlifenewsPovertytheologywomen's issues

The Causes of Our Times

by Christine Sine September 8, 2009
written by Christine Sine
I am getting ready to speak at the West Coast Healthcare Missions Conference this next week and have been updating some of my statistics and presentations.  As usual this kind of preparation challenges me again to look at the needs of our world and to grapple with how my life can make a difference in the lives of those that are marginalized by our society. Part of my reading this week has been the Millennium Development Report 2009 It makes sobering reading as I realize how much those at the margins have been impacted by the financial crisis of the last year reversing some of the hard earned progress against poverty.  It is estimated that 55 million to 90 million more people will be living in extreme poverty than anticipated before the global economic crisis. In 2000, world leaders in the UN established what are known as the  Millennial Development goals with the hope of freeing a major portion of humanity from extreme poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease by the year 2015. The goals are: Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women Goal 4: Reduce child mortality Goal 5: Improve maternal health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other disease Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development Read the entire 2009 report here Another part of my reading came, believe it or not from the New York Times Sunday Magazine.  Why Women's Rights are the Cause of Our Time. The challenges of this issue complements the concerns of the Millennial Development report because one of the major areas in which we have made little progress is in the health and wellbeing of women. Every year, 536,000 women and girls still die as a result of complications during pregnancy, childbirth or the six weeks following delivery.  Girls are less likely to be in school than boys.  They are taken to health clinics less frequently, are more likely to be malnourished and often suffer the indignity of too many babies too soon which results in vesicovaginal fistula that further ostracize them.    The magnitude of the fistula problem worldwide is unknown but believed to be immense. In Nigeria alone, Harrison (1985) reported a vesicovaginal fistula rate of 350 cases per 100,000 deliveries at a university teaching hospital. In some countries women still have no rights of citizenship or the ability to own property.  This makes them extremely vulnerable if their husbands or fathers die or abandon them.  It can also binds them to abusive and degrading relationships with no recourse to the processes of the law. The education and empowerment of women continues to be a huge issue in our time and one which I believe Christians should be at the forefront of addressing.  Jesus treated women in radical life affirming ways that were revolutionary in his day and age.  He treated them with respect and as equals.  In a society that believed women were incapable of learning, he allowed them to sit at his feet and listen.  He raised a widow's son from the dead so that she would not be forced into extreme poverty and possibly into prostitution, the only profession that from ancient times has been open to women who are vulnerable and alone. According to the New York Times:,
the oppression of women worldwide is the human rights cause of our time.  And their liberation could help solve many of the world's problems, from poverty to child mortality to terrorism.... "Women hold up half the sky,' in the words of a Chinese saying, yet hat's mostly an aspiration: in a large slice of the world, girls are uneducated and women marginalized, and its not an accident that those same countries are disproportionately mired in poverty and riven by fundamentalism and chaos.  Read the entire article here
As a Christian woman I feel huge responsibility to be a part of God's solution to this overwhelming challenge.  It was part of the stimulus I needed to read the Bible through the eyes of women rather than men, to see the liberation that Christ brought and that we too are challenged to bring.  It is part of what continues to motivate me to speak out against injustice towards women, the sex trade, mass rapes that occur in war and the patriarchal ways that we interpret the Bible.  It is the main reason that I am still so sensitive to even the little ways that women are discriminated against in our society. Let me finish with one of the scriptures that I find most compelling in this regard.
It is for freedom Christ has set us free.  Stand firm then and do not let yourselves (or others) be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.... You my brothers and sisters were called to be free.  But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature, rather serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbour as yourself. (Galatians 5: 1, 13, 14.)
September 8, 2009 0 comment
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Meet The Godspace Community Team

Christine Sine is the founder and facilitator for Godspace, which grew out of her passion for creative spirituality, gardening and sustainability. Together with her husband, Tom, she is also co-Founder of Mustard Seed Associates but recently retired to make time available for writing and speaking.
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