Did someone say chicken and dumplings? Don’t make me have a craving for my favorite winter food! Well, spring is going to be here any minute. At least in Texas. My oak trees are already budding and we’ve had the AC on for the greater part of the last two weeks. Although now it’s back to being cold again. Last week I decided to make my other favorite winter food one last time before winter is gone for good. If you don’t have a recipe for Winter White Chili, this is a good one.

What do you like to make when it’s cold? Feel free to post your recipes. Don’t forget to save them in Word before you submit your comment!

Uncle Wayne’s Winter White Chili
1 tablespoon of oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon of cumin
3 chicken breasts, boned, skinned and cut into bite size pieces (already cooked)
2 cans of white beans (about 14 oz. each)
1 can of white corn (about 12 oz.)
1 can of cream corn (white, if possible, about 12 oz.)
1 can of chopped mild green chiles (4 oz.)
2 cups of chicken stock
1 tablespoon of died oregano
1 tablespoon of chili powder
1 can of redi-cut tomatoes (15 oz.)
3 or 4 tablespoons of mild salsa verde (or to taste)

Optional garnishes:
Sour cream, chopped cilantro, shredded cheddar (smoked cheddar’s great) or jack cheese, tortillas or tortilla chips

Cook onion, garlic, and cumin in hot oil in a dutch oven, uncovered over medium heat. When onion and garlic are tender, stir in chicken. Then add the whole list of other ingredients down through salsa verde, and stir to blend. Cover and cook over low heat until flavors blend, about 30 minutes. Put the garnishes on the table and let everybody dig in.

Mom sounded great when I talked to her today. I think they are well adjusted to the time change and have caught up on their sleep. She said they are all much more energized. They officially finished Psalms of Ascent and will begin Esther in the morning (which is about 1 hour from right now). She said God has been doing all sorts of neat things and going out of His way to say, “I love y’all. Keep it up!” On day three they filmed out in the wilderness, which my mom said was a really cool experience. She imagined David on the run, Jesus being tempted, and all the things that pilgrims on the road to Jerusalem would have experienced there. They filmed on the Mount of Olives that evening and the Lord painted a fabulous sunset for them. My mom gets to jazzed about sunsets, so it was not wasted on her!

I’ll go ahead and talk a little about the comments in this post. As some of you mentioned, definitely look for it to say, “Your comment has been saved and will be visible after blog owner approval.” Let me know if you’re seeing that and your comments still aren’t showing up. I’m sorry y’all are having to enter the code multiple times. I know it’s a pain. It would be so nice not to have to use that and comment moderation. But the alternative is very explicit spam (which we used to deal with on our guest book before we implemented the code) and other tackiness. But please don’t be paranoid about me thinking your comment is tacky. What I meant was if you leave a comment that says something ugly about my mom I will have great joy deleting it into oblivion. Was that tacky? Y’all know how it is with family. If you do have something to say that a daughter might not want to read, you can send it through the LPM contact page. Thanks so much!

This is random, but we invited the whole Saturday service crowd to dinner at Fuddrucker’s tonight. We were all crammed into a long table in the back room. There was a family we didn’t know sitting right behind us. Then a guy who has been visiting our church for the last couple of months came to join us. Seeing that there were no seats left, he took the chair next to the dad behind us, turned it around and sat next to him. You should have seen the look on the dad’s face! Curt said, “Dude, we don’t know them. They’re not with us.” Bless his heart! Would you not have just died?

I need to do a little survey if that’s okay. Please use this post to tell me if you have been leaving comments that never show up. I approve 99.9% of the comments, so if you’re having trouble with it, it’s got to be something else. Unless you said something tacky. And I’m sure you didn’t.

Ladies, the Lord is answering your prayers! Day two was a success. They were able to film 5 out of 7 sets of intros and outros for Psalms of Ascent. It was huge that they were able to knock so much out. It will give them some breathing room in case something unexpected happens later. It was also important because the Sabbath began at sundown. Pretty much everything shuts down until it’s over. When I went to Israel with my mom ten years ago, I saw that the elevators in the hotel stopped on every floor so that you wouldn’t have to press a button and do work on the Sabbath. So yeah, the Sabbath is serious business.

Day three will be spent outside of Jerusalem where they will be able to get more done. They will start filming for Esther at the start of the the Feast of Purim (sunset March 3 – nightfall March 5). I didn’t realize it, but they planned the trip for this exact time so they could be in Israel during this feast.

Their guide is actually an important and very well-loved person in the Israeli army. Mom said being in his company makes people think they are diplomats, which is very amusing to me. Do diplomats carry twelve pink lipsticks in their purses?

One cool answer to prayer is that my very claustrophobic dad did well when he had to go with the crew into some kind of ancient tunnel. When I was a kid he took me to the Sonora Caverns in West Texas and, bless his heart, he had to leave halfway through. So this was no small feat! You would not have known to pray for that, but the Holy Spirit did!

Mom asked me to tell you that she loves you very much and she thanks you for your intercession. It has been several hours since we spoke and I can’t remember the exact words she used, but I think they included sweet, darlin, precious, and beloved. Know that you are loved!

By the way, there are 2,000 of you praying for this trip. What an army! What does God have in store that He enlisted so many people to pray?

I was so excited to get to talk to my mom today. Those of you who have been to Israel know that the security setup at Ben Gurion Airport is rather challenging after a long flight. My parents hadn’t slept and sadly looked upon the long line they were going to have to wait in to have their bags searched. Then they noticed someone who was there to escort some lucky person out of the line into a private security area. The escort was holding a sign and before long they realized it said “Keith and Beth Moore.” Want He more praise? They were thrilled, to say the least.

The slept briefly and then headed out for a day of work. I think they did more preparation than actual filming. They ran into several Bible study sisters who were on pilgrimage in Jerusalem. That was probably a lot of fun. When I talked to her she was getting ready to get a good night’s sleep. They should be waking up about 10 p.m. our time to get ready for a day of filming. She does not have a female assistant with her to make sure she has every piece of her wardrobe, hairdo equipment, and other necessary things, so please pray that God causes her to remember to bring everything she needs without packing the whole hotel room. Maybe the anointing for that will fall upon my dad.

I wish I had more details for you, but we spent a lot of the time talking about the fact that today was Jackson’s first day at Mother’s Day Out! He’s in a class with children who are a little older than him, so we were eager to discuss how he would do with them. I mean, they sit in little chairs to eat their lunch and they take naps on the floor! My baby has never done those things! But his teachers said he did great and was happy the whole time. There was a little note in his bag telling me what all he had done today. (Even what time he’d had a dirty diaper. That is thorough, people!) I was ridiculously proud and happy reading that he’d had a great day. That’s going in the baby book for sure!

I spoke to my mom today while they were on a layover in Newark. She seemed to be in good spirits. They had kind of a crazy morning. Their first flight started speeding down the runway and the pilot suddenly slammed on the breaks and came to a complete stop! They thought it was to miss another plane. Scary! It was actually because some kind of warning light came on as the pilot was accelerating. They had to wait an hour to make sure the warning didn’t come on again and then they took off without any problems.

Later, while they were waiting at their gate in Newark to board the Israel-bound plane, it was suddenly prayer time for the Jewish passengers. Mom said all the men in their black hats stood facing Jerusalem and began rocking and praying. In that moment I think the excitement hit them that they were indeed going to Jerusalem!

Melissa and I got one last text message from our parents that said “Will talk to you next from the Land Beautiful! Wish you both were with us!” Oh, me too!

Thank you so much for your sweet prayers and words of encouragement. It is a very great comfort knowing that you all are praying. What a gift!

I just talked to my mom and it turns out they won’t leave for the airport until 5:15 a.m. I don’t know how we got so mixed up to think it would be 2:30, but at least it made them excited about 5:15!

Please excuse my emotional outburst earlier. I finished weaning Jackson two days ago and my feelings are kind of exaggerated. Please more Spirit, Lord!

Sometimes people ask me, “Is it ever hard to be Beth Moore’s daughter?” Well, this is one of those times. My mom is teaching Bible study tonight and then around 2:30 in the morning she and my dad will get picked up to go to the airport. They are flying to Israel to tape some segments for the Psalms of Ascent study. It is painful for me to think about how tired she is going to be as she boards that flight. And then to have jet lag on top of that once she arrives in Israel. So here I am asking you all to please pray for my parents, especially my mom. I hope I don’t sound whiny. My heart is just very tender because I love her so much and I know that she is coming off a very exhausting month. Tears are welling up in my eyes right now. Do you remember having that feeling as a child when the babysitter arrived and your mom was getting to walk out the door and you cried, “Mommy, don’t go!” That is the feeling I have right now. And yes, I am 27 years old! Alright, now that I’ve cried about it I feel better. I know that I can trust the Lord with my parents. He will show Himself faithful as He always has.

There is a prayer sign up on our LPM home page if you’re interested. We won’t hear much from Beth for the next week, but I promise to keep you updated as I get the opportunity to talk to her on the phone. In the meantime, I’d love to hear if any of you have been to the Holy Land and, if so, what was the one thing that you’d like to see or do again? If you haven’t been yet, tell me what you would like to see or do one day.

I just got word that Travis Cottrell’s web site has crashed from all the post-simulcast traffic! The number of visitors to his site yesterday was more than 300% the average. If you’ve been trying to visit his web site, don’t give up! It should be up and running by Monday afternoon.

By the way, wasn’t the praise team incredible? Praise God for giving them such amazing gifts to lead us to the throne in worship!

My darling Sistas, Keith left a little while ago to shoot clay pigeons in a tournament and I’ve been sitting out on my back porch all by myself with Jesus. It’s a gorgeous, cool day in Houston. Both dogs are sprawled out next to each other in the grass, taking naps in the sunshine. All I can think about is Jesus, the simulcast, and 150,000 women (and some courageous men) I want so desperately to be (permanently!) free. I have never been more burdened or felt more weight of the Spirit – brooding as I called it yesterday – than I did in the days and even weeks leading up to this event. I have never felt smaller or less adequate or more desperate for God to come. I suppose there are many reasons for all the feelings leading up to D-Day but one of the most obvious was that the topic was publicized in advance and I knew that women were coming for a SERIOUS work of God. I so deeply did not want to do anything to quench or distract from the delivering work of God or miss the direction He wanted us to go. Thankfully, my weakness can’t trump His strength. At the same time, I think the team and I would be nuts to feel up to a task like that. Sometimes if you want to go face to face with Jesus, you’ve got to go face to face with the carpet. This was one of those times. He is so mystifyingly merciful. So willing to work in spite of us.

As Amanda conveyed, my whole family (and staff!) entered into this one like a bunch of bird dogs on point. Keith had prayed with me for days and after I flew in last night, we went back to carpet again, thanked God, and pled for the lives of each participant. Please join me in continued intercession until God gives us a release. Enduring deliverance takes place in an ongoing day-by-day relationship with Jesus Christ. He isn’t simply the most important thing in life to the delivered. He IS life to the delivered. Divine invasion is the only map for pit-free traveling. I’m bursting with jealousy for that kind of passion, Presence, and permanence for EVERY SINGLE ONE of those participants.

Your comments were a great catalyst to a good cry. And to tell you the truth, I feel a lot better. This gathering was one of the weightiest things my family, Travis, and I feel that God has ever placed before us. When I awakened this morning, my poor, old body felt like I’d been hit by a Mack truck. I live to see captives set free in Christ and I’m willing to make a fool out of myself to encourage people to let Him do what it takes. Thank you so much for taking the time, not just to comment, but to spend precious hours before a screen, look past the annoying technology, and welcome the Spirit of Christ in such a peculiar set up. God worked miracle after miracle to put on that simulcast. To share just one: TEN MINUTES before it began, we had a rain storm in Tyler and we lost satellite power. You understand that if WE lost power, all 500+ sites would lose power. We went crazy in prayer. Not only did Jesus rebuke the storm, He blew away the clouds and brought out the sun. It was stunning. He intended to make sure we knew He was there. Jehovah Shammah!

After the event ended, Travis, the team and I returned to our knees and profusely thanked God. As I walked off that platform with the inevitable wish that this or that had been said or NOT been said, I was reminded by God that He doesn’t ask His servants to do their tasks perfectly. Just wholeheartedly. This morning I experienced an unsolicited show of God’s pleasure toward the simulcast through my devotional reading. (Our whole church is doing the one year devotional “At His Feet”) The reference was Matthew 9:13, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Author Chris Tiegreen explained, “If He is extravantly merciful, so must we be. If He prefers the company of those who know their sinfulness over the company of those who don’t, so must we. If He dines with the unlovable, He will put it within us to do likewise. This God showed up on our planet in the form of a merciful Savior. He offers grace without rebuke to those who know they need it. His rebukes are saved for those who won’t acknowledge their need. He is purity that pursues the corrupt; mercy that hounds the needy; grace that demands only belief.” Praise You, Jesus.

Yesterday some 150,000 needy souls showed up for the grace of God. Some had been innocently thrown into a pit, others had slipped into a pit, and others had hauled off and aimed for one. I couldn’t see into the faces of those on the other side of the screen but I looked straight into the faces of several thousand women yesterday in Tyler, Texas and I did not see ONE who looked like she needed us to think she had it all together. Most of us were driven to all those locations, not by wheels, but by desperation. (Here’s the best part of all) And God was pleased. By His sovereign choice, He can’t resist any group of people who trade in pretense for Presence.

Jesus. He’s who I want. Any way I can get Him. He is everything. He redeems our lives from the pit and crowns us with loving kindness. Today I raise my left hand to a God reaching down with His right, ever looking to lift my feet lest they dangle near a pit.