I turned off the alarm 6:30 alarm and remained in bed until almost 7:00. It was Sunday and I planned to go to church today. I hadn’t told my pastor again, after telling him and changing so many times already. I began my quiet time with God, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me. God is concerned about every area of our lives and as His children He wants our hearts to be completely turned to Him. And so the Bible tells us, “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats: 7 For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.” Proverbs 23:6-7 KJV https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.23.6-7.KJV. I already knew I wasn’t going to be having any breakfast before heading for church, so I did infused leg and back exercises, had a shower and then got ready.
I left home just around 9:00 and arrived at church about 10 minutes before start time. The pastor and I dressed similarly today and so we grabbed a quick picture together before the service started. The praise and worship session was beautiful, even though we only did two songs. The message focused on one of the names of God, “Mighty God”, from Isaiah. With all that is going on in the world, we certainly needed to remember that our God is mighty and powerful and in complete control.
I was invited and treated to a sushi meal and really enjoyed trying new sushi today. I was a bit scared, but I was happy I did. I wondered if my taste buds were changing because I never liked raw shrimp before. Today however, the texture was quite appealing, much to my surprise. After having about 6 or 7 different types of sushi, I had some chocolate cake. This cake however was not as delicious as the cake served at Saizeriya. It was my first time to have it, so next time I’ll know not to order it. Don’t get me wrong. It was okay. But not great. It was a wonderful time of sharing and fellowshipping: talking about life and and how we should choose to be grateful in the midst of everything. We were at the sushi restaurant for just about an hour, even though it had felt longer. It was time to go our separate ways as we encouraged each other in the faith.
I got home sometime near midday and guess what? I was not hungry. LOL. I recorded two days’ podcasts and changed the thumbnail in the YouTube playlist for the podcast. I wanted persons to know that every video was and actual video and not just an audio. Afterwards, I decided to do study some Japanese. I’ve been studying more and more since I decided to take the JLPT test. It hasn’t been as structured as I’d like so far, but I am working my way towards that because the test is in December. The thing is however, I haven’t decided yet whether to try for the N5 or N4, which is the harder of the two levels. The testing goes all the way to N1 which is the most difficult level. I need to decide very quickly about the test though, because the deadline for the application and payment is September 16. Can you imagine? So I actually did a practice exam today online for N5. I didn’t get around to doing the N4 practice test. The test costs more than I had anticipate (¥6,500), so I am trying to make a wise decision on this investment. On the other hand, I don’t want to fail and lose out on the investment.
My brain had become exhausted and my stomach an hungered, so I had an orange to appease my griping stomach. It was almost 17:00 and so I went to the refrigerator to retrieve the fish and a sweet potato. I honestly didn’t want sweet again as I somehow felt I had been having so many sweet foods, even though they were earth foods. But I hadn’t actually planned for anything else. I saw the pumpkins which I had bought over a week ago to make pumpkin soup, but to date had not. I was about to skip over them when I happened to turn one ever and realised it was starting to mould. So I had no choice but to use them. The idea came to me to try making creamy pumpkin soup, which I had never made before. After a quick check on YouTube, I prepared the ingredients and set them on the stove top. I went back to my workspace and downloaded an N4 practice test, complete with audio and answer sheets, while the pumpkin was boiling on the fire. I also put the fish and sweet potato in the toaster oven to be warmed. I had wanted to fry the sweet potato but decided I had had enough oily snacks yesterday. I joined All Nations Fellowship (ANF) church online after 17:00 and caught a part of the message. The church usually starts at 16:00, so I’d missed over an hour of it. The truth is, even though I really enjoy this church, it’s difficult to consciously join at 16:00 in the afternoon. It’s not impossible, but it will take some amount of rewiring of my brain for this to happen. I’m used to church starting from 7:00 a.m. in Jamaica. Since I’ve been in Japan I’ve been going to church starting at 9:00, 10:00 and even 11:00. Those really took some getting used to.
I was back in the kitchen to puree the boiled pumpkin and carrot, which I’d added on the suggestion of another video. I allowed the contents to cool down a bit before placing them in the food processor. The food processor works like a charm and was the perfect size for the amount that I put in it. Once I got it back into the pot and added the coconut milk cubes to it, I was blown away. The creamy pumpkin soup was so delicious, I couldn’t believe I’d never made it before. Why didn’t somebody tell me about this delicious soup! Mind you, it required some work, but not too much. I didn’t use any butter or cream as the videos I watched had. I used coconut oil and coconut milk as my substitutes. It was so creamy and sweet. Wow. I fast realized however, that this could be cloying. Now I understood why it was paired with bread. I realized that I had this very sweet pumpkin soup as well as a very sweet, sweet potato and that was just not going to work. I thought I’d abandon the creamy pumpkin soup all together, but it was my first time and I wanted to try it nice and hot. I had already warmed the sweet potato so I decided to have only a half of it. So I prepared a very small bowl of the creamy pumpkin soup and had it with rice crackers which complimented it well. I was in a good place. LOL. I learned that pumpkin soup freezes well and so I plan on making more of this, especially for the winter season.
It was the end of another beautiful evening and despite the mess in my room, I am at peace. Not because everything is going great, but because I serve a mighty God.
Thank you for journeying with me on today’s entry. Please support by leaving a comment below or sharing this with someone who might enjoy the journey. Remember to follow my blog stacypersonallyapeaking.wordpress.com to get posts directly in your inbox. You can also watch me on my YouTube channel Stacy Personally Speaking to see me in person.19:33