Recent events

Ron’s mom had a stroke yesterday and she has Broca’s aphasia. Ron flew out this morning on the 5:50 am flight and arrived in Fayetteville by 9:05.

We bought a TV yesterday for my dad–but ended up buying a bigger one for us (not that I thought we needed it, but…) and giving our 55 inch television to Dad. We also bought a chair for the guest room so Dad can sit in there and watch TV. We got it at Sam’s.

My dad is coming to visit on Tuesday or Wednesday, if I get in gear and look up flights.

I actually managed to water all the trees this morning. (Three extra morning hours–after taking Ron to the airport–gave me a lot of time to get stuff done.)

Tony Fernandez spoke at church this morning and Tim Archer translated. I actually understood most of the Spanish sermon. I was surprised and pleased.

Tony’s dad was a factory owner before the Communist Revolution. He was also a preacher. He decided not to leave Cuba, so that he could continue to spread the gospel in Cuba after the revolution. He lost his factory and became a mechanic in a government factory.

The government gave awards to the best workers. All of Tony’s father’s coworkers said they should go to him. Radio–to Charo. Television–to Charo. Bicycle–to Charo. Each time the boss said, “No. Charo’s a Christian. We don’t give gifts to Christians.” Then the Herald of Truth sent Charo money for a brand new car. (He had been working as a full-time minister as a second job for years by then, with no support.) Charo’s boss saw him driving the brand new car and asked him where he got it. Charo told him it was a gift from God. He was able to witness to his boss because of that.

When Tony was growing up, their congregation thought they were the only CofCers in the whole world, although they did have a picture of a church in San Antonio, Texas which was supposed to exist.

Their church has 700 members and on Sundays they travel around Cuba and hold church services and prayer meetings in 30 different communities across the island. The congregation has started 28 new churches and there are about 200 new Christians a year.

God’s grace is overflowing.

Banana Pudding Poke Cake

This might be good to make for my dad.

Banana Pudding Poke Cake~
Ingredients:
1 (10 oz.) box yellow cake mix
ingredients needed to make cake (eggs, oil & water)
2 (3.4 oz.) packages instant banana pudding
4 cups milk
1 (8 oz.) tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
20 vanilla wafers, crushed

Directions:
Prepare cake mix according to package directions for a 9×13 cake.
Once cake comes out of the oven, allow it to cool for just a couple of minutes.
Then, with a wooden spoon handle or some other similarly-sized object, begin poking holes in the cake.
You want the holes to be fairly big so that the pudding has plenty of room to get down in there.
Be sure to poke right down to the bottom of the cake.
In a bowl,whisk together instant pudding with 4 cups milk.
Stir until all the lumps are gone.
Let the pudding sit for just about 2 minutes, so it has just slightly begun to thicken but not fully set, it should still be easily pourable.
Pour pudding over cake. Taking care to get it into the holes as much as possible.
Spread it all out and using the back of the spoon gently push pudding down into the holes.
Put the pudding into the fridge to set and cool.
Once your cake has completely cooled, spread on whipped
topping.
If you haven’t done so already, crush your vanilla wafers.
I just place mine in a ziploc bag and crush them with a rolling pin.
Leave some of the pieces big. It’s nice to have a bit of a crunch when you eat the cake.
Spread crushed wafers onto the top of the cake. You can do this part immediately before serving the cake if you like.
This will ensure the wafers are Crunchy when you serve it.
I think this cake gets more delicious over time.
To me, it’s even better the next day so it’s a great dessert to make ahead of time.
Serve with freshly sliced bananas. Keep refrigerated.