During this season, we are featuring holiday memories from some of our staff women and pastor’s wives, along with their favorite recipes. Enjoy!
Christmastime is full of surprises. Usually they’re in the form of excited children opening long-awaited gifts, or a visit from a far-away loved one. Almost exactly 10 years ago, my husband James and I got a not-so-great surprise, but it led to one of the most memorable Christmases we’ve had together as a couple.
To make a very long story short, a trip to the local doctor led to a transfer to the Lubbock emergency room. Things quickly became more serious and resulted in emergency open-heart surgery for my then-28-year-old husband. All went well with the surgery. I can remember going to Wal-Mart for some necessity and wanting to tell everyone I saw how good God was, and that my husband was going to be ok! But a hiccup with our insurance company left us stuck in the hospital. For Christmas.
So what do you do? We had no choice but to make the most of it! I had my guitar, and James was really feeling pretty good, considering all he had just been through. We went to visit an older gentleman on a different floor whom we had befriended. He was stuck for Christmas as well, so we thought maybe he could use some company. We ended up spending the evening singing Christmas carols and worship songs that we knew—and surprisingly to us, he knew all the same songs we did! It was simple. There were no gifts exchanged. And yet somehow, the true spirit of Christmas was very much alive and well in that hospital room.
My prayer for all of us is that the peace and love of Emmanuel—God with us—would be evident in our hearts this Christmas, no matter where we spend it. Merry Christmas!
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Easy Pecan Pie (and yummy!)
1 Pillsbury roll-out crust
1 cup pecans
1 cup light Karo syrup
½ cup sugar
½ stick butter
3 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
Mix all ingredients together, pour into crust. Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.
For a perfect crust, cover the edges with foil until the last 10 minutes.
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Becca Wilhite is a worship leader at the HCF Plainview campus, and coordinates many of the Guest Experience teams at Harvest. She is the wife of James and mom to Chord, Paisley, and Sam.
Women's Ministry 