food and fellowship.

this past weekend provided lots of time with good friends. on saturday i had community group, as usual. we spent the time digging into the idea of what it looks like for our group to live out mars hill west seattle's mission: for the whole church to take the whole gospel to the whole of west seattle. while i've always known the concept that we each have different gifts for different reasons, i tend to take it upon myself to feel like i need to have them all when it comes to sharing truth. the group broke down that idea, that in reality, while i am great at hospitality, i'm not as great at bringing conversation around to the gospel and speaking truth boldly. that strength is exemplified by others in the group, who also happen to not particularly have the gift of hospitality. we talked about how we can work together as a unit to use each other's strengths with purpose and intentionality. the WHOLE church: in small groups so that the body of Christ can work together. the WHOLE gospel: both words and action. the WHOLE of west seattle: because it is a very diverse place to live, and mars hill is right at the crossroads.

after cg i spent the afternoon baking. a couple from church was throwing a white-trash themed housewarming party that evening, and i wanted to take some food. i opted out of all things related to mayo and spam, deciding instead to recreate little debbie oatmeal cream pies. not that they're all that white trashy, but it sounded like a fun adventure. not so much. it just wasn't quite my day in the kitchen, and after burning the cookies and my hand on the molten sugar for the filling, i still ended up with something edible. more than edible, actually tasty. though i don't think i'll make them again. the filling was too much like a marshmallow, and the cookies were too crunchy. i was hoping for soft cookies and creamy filling....which after all that effort, is probably easier found in the box at the store.

the party was fun. there was a bb gun that we all took a turn at (i hit something every time but the very first shot!) and plenty of interesting food. (who knew that marshmallow cream and peanut butter go so well together between white bread, or that tuna salad in half of a hard boiled egg white is actually tasty??)

(don't worry, it wasn't loaded or cocked...)

we sat around in blankets and told jokes and looked at the stars until the fire went out...a great evening with people i enjoy very much. then on sunday my roomies and i hosted a lot of people over at our house for enchiladas. i got to do all the cooking, and it was one of my top favorite recipes. we played bananagrams and dutch blitz, also two of my favorites. the four of us have been wanting to make our house available for people to just come and hang out and enjoy each other's company, to create an atmosphere for friends to bring friends, to chat or play games, or just to sit and relax. after all, if we're all going to be doing that at our respective homes, why not do it in the same place? conclusion: a success.

then on monday i went over to the gillebo's house (from whom we got the idea for our sunday evening open house in the first place). they're great about being intentional, and we had plenty of heart-searching conversation over some homemade mac n cheese. then we played games while waiting on a treat that i found on pinterest to cool: a brownie, topped with cookie dough, topped with fudge.

whoa. super rich, super delicious, and definitely something that i don't need to keep around the house. my roommates and i might need to come up with a pact. this trend can't continue, for the sake of our wardrobes :) after all, a gal can only run so many miles in a week.

more to come soon.

love,

tracey