Apples of Gold: A Six-Week Nurturing Program for Women - Softcover

Huizenga, Betty

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0781433525 ISBN 13: 9780781433525

Verlag: DAVID C COOK, 2000

Inhaltsangabe

Here's what women are saying about Apples of Gold . . .

"The lessons were awesome! God knew I needed to be there. My heart overflows with joy."
K.B., Michigan

"In your kitchen I learned about seasoning food. In your living room I reacquainted myself with the seasoning work of the Holy Spirit."
S.O., Michigan

"The program gives value to women who are homemakers and wives. The Bible study and cooking lessons improved my perspective on staying home with children. . . . The program is a good eye-opener and refresher to what is really important: God, husband, children, family, and friends."
D.S, Minnesota

"So many positive things have happened in my life since, and because of, my Apples of Gold summer. Much confidence was gained that went far beyond the kitchen. . . . This was truly a life changing experience!"
L.D., Michigan

"God knew I needed Apples of Gold. It is probably inconceivable to you to know how you and the mentors have touched the lives of Apples of Gold moms!"
L.C., Michigan

"I loved being with older women, finding out how much we have in common, and building relationships with a different generation."
J.R., Michigan

"Apples of Gold makes you focus on what is really important in your life. We discussed subjects I was not familiar with, like the real meaning of submission and purity. It certainly has changed the way I feel about them."
D.H., Minnesota

"Apples of Gold takes the warm atmosphere of the home and teaches how to extend it beyond the immediate family."
Gail Hover Ledbetter
Author, Family Fragrance

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Betty Huizenga began the Apples of Gold seminars in her home many years ago, and now other women are duplicating the seminars around the country. After her husband retired, Betty felt the Lord calling her to minister to younger women. Betty and her husband divide their time between Michigan and Florida.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Apples OF Gold

A Six-Week Nurturing Program for Women

By Betty Huizenga, Lorraine Mulligan Davis

David C. Cook

Copyright © 2000 Betty Huizenga
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-7814-3352-5

Contents

Here's what women are saying about Apples of Gold ..., 
Acknowledgments, 
GETTING STARTED, 
How God Planted the Seeds, 
Apples of Gold Mission Statement, 
Take a Look at an Apples of Gold Class, 
Starting an Apples of Gold Class, 
The Class Schedule, 
The Cooking Mentor, 
The Teaching Mentor, 
Table Talk, 
Funding Apples of Gold, 
A Personal Note, 
Help for the Mentors, 
Planning the Menu, 
Grand Finale Dinner with Spouses or Friends, 
THE LESSONS, 
Lesson One: Kindness, 
Lesson Two: Loving Your Husband, 
Lesson Three: Loving Your Children, 
Lesson Four: Submission, 
Lesson Five: Purity, 
Lesson Six: Hospitality, 
Table Talk Questions, 
THE MENUS, 
Italian Menu, 
All-American Menu, 
Sunday Night Supper or Picnic Menu, 
Pork Dinner for Six, 
Chinese Dinner, 
Baked Chicken Dinner, 
THE SONGS, 
COVENANTS, 
About the Author, 

CHAPTER 1

Getting Started

* * *

Apples of Gold in Shining Silver;
That's what our words should be.
May the glowing of Your Spirit
Reflect, O Lord, in me.

Help me to guard each word I speak;
May only love proceed,
So that what others hear from me, Lord,
Is really what they need.

May all my words be seasoned, Lord,
So richly by Thy grace,
That when others look upon me
They see Your glorious face.

HOW GOD PLANTED THE SEEDS

Apples of Gold was established in my heart in 1995. I believe the Lord clearly gave me the idea for the program and has blessed it beyond my imagination. It is a unique way to establish relationships with the young women in your church.

It happened this way.

In the spring of 1995, a dear friend asked me to go with her to cooking school at The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. It is a place dear to my heart, a place I had visited several times with my husband. It is surrounded by the Allegheny Mountains, a clear mountain river flows through it, and flowers abound. I couldn't wait for the experience.

My husband and I had just sold our business and retired. He was feeling exuberant, and I was feeling a loss. We had worked together for twelve years, and I missed the people greatly. I also loved the work.

While at The Greenbrier, I took a long walk one afternoon. I asked God what He wanted me to do with my life at this time of change. Actually, I was crying out to Him from my heart. I wanted my life to have value and wanted to serve God. I found a chair on the porch of an old cabin and sat down.

The Lord began to speak to me in my mind—not in a still, small voice, but with a voice of calling. There have been many times in my life when I have felt especially close to God, but never have I felt this kind of call. As I write these words, I can still feel the experience deeply in my heart.

As I sat there, the Lord clearly and directly laid out the entire idea, program, Scriptures, and method for Apples of Gold to me. The verses of Scripture in Titus and Proverbs were brought to my mind, as well as the women who would be my partners in mentoring, and how to begin. I excitedly went to my room and began to write down the ideas that came to me. I had a confidence because I knew God had called me to start this program and He had given me a desire to be obedient.

I wrote a Statement of Purpose, which I gave to my pastor. He encouraged me to go for it.

The program is based on two passages of Scripture:

Proverbs 25:11 says,

A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

What an appropriate picture verse for a program about looking into the Word, about cooking and homemaking. We are to speak the Word in a loving and helpful way. I believe the passage also speaks to our senses. This program needs to be well done. It is to honor the Lord. The visual picture of golden apples surrounded by silver is beautiful. (After five years, I have a lovely collection of gold apples, treasured gifts.)

A friend heard a sermon based on this text. The man, a Messianic Jew, gave the following illustration. He said that when we see a silver bowl from afar, it is beautiful and shiny. We admire it. But it is only when we get closer and peer into the bowl that we see the lovely golden apples, worth far more than the silver. That is how we are to study the Word ... look inside for the golden nuggets.

Whatever we do in the kingdom of God, we should do the best we can. Yet, we do not need to be an authority on mentoring to be a mentor. We just need to be obedient. We begin with the premise that we are all in process and are learning together with the younger women.

Obedience to the Lord brings peace and joy to our lives. It also brings blessings. Deuteronomy 28:1-14 attests to this fact. Every verse talks about blessings for obedience in various areas of our life. He promises to bless our city and country, our children, our crops, and our livestock. Verse 5 says, "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl" (NRSVB). I love that verse! The Lord cares about everything we do.

The second passage is Titus 2:3-5. It says,

Bid the older women likewise to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be sensible, chaste, domestic, kind, and submissive to their husbands, that the word of God may not be discredited (RSV).

The older women should be examples to the younger women, people to look up to and admire. Then the younger women will listen with respect. Did you notice that the primary qualifications are that the mentor be older and admirable? The passage doesn't say an expert or authority.

The six lessons come from that passage:

1. Kindness

2. Loving Your Husband

3. Loving Your Children

4. Submission

5. Purity

6. Hospitality

I now had the outline and was eager to begin. But how would this all work out? When I returned home, I shared first with my husband, and he was completely supportive of the idea. He continues to be an encouragement and helper. He is always interested in new ideas and offers great advice. The day before class, he is in the kitchen with me, helping with advance preparations. It is great!

Another thing on my schedule when I arrived home was a luncheon that my daughter-in-love, Meg, had asked me to hold at our home for her MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) committee, about fifteen women. At the luncheon that day, she asked me to share what happened at The Greenbrier. The women were so excited that most of them became the first class, which amazingly began a few weeks later. We were on the way!

I asked several good friends to be mentors, and they graciously agreed to partner with me to start Apples of Gold. They are a great source of encouragement and joy.

When the first group "graduated," they were asked to pray about someone to invite to the next class. (Because kitchen space may be limited, this is a good way to handle class sign-up.) It is good for each new woman to know that her friend has prayed for her, and felt led to invite her to the class. It also eliminates the problem of the leaders choosing the next class...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: DAVID C COOK
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2000
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0781433525
• ISBN 13: 9780781433525
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 144
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: SCM R.Brockhaus; https://www.scm-verlagsgruppe.de/; ; Max-Eyth-Str. 41; Holzgerlingen; Baden-W�rttemberg; 71088; Deutschland