August 2021 — Tara Anders
a letter from Liz —
Hello AP girlfriend,
Proverbs 13:12 ‘Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.’ Disappointment really can make you ill. If you let it fester, it will eat away at you. I am not sure what the answer is except to take it to God, try to let go and trust in the sovereignty of God – it’s not always easy.
The verse above was in my daily reading as I was on my way home from GC 2021. I read this in light of evaluating the results of our bi-annual GC gatherings.
Some of our AP team members came after having extreme isolation. Some came after not having regular worship for months. Some came after having worship but longing to connect with like minded people.
APISMKids found new friends they never met before and due to Covid they had only been through the on-line trainings or zoom gatherings and never met in person. Their responses were, “Mom, I met someone else going to _____ and I’m excited to meet them there.”
I prayed with AP teens at the youth service who were challenged to be filled with the Holy Spirit, felt fresh anointing and calling to go back to their country and be the only Americans in the city.
My heart was challenged as I observed our Senior AP team members who showed up and served as if they were fresh on the field. Their zeal for the work of the Lord was contagious.
My summer has basically been like this: Jeff and I left Springfield, a “Covid hot spot”, went to Indonesia, another “Covid hot spot”, came home and 2 weeks later landed in Orlando, another “Covid hot spot” for General Council.
I have been reminding myself that I can’t win any battle in the flesh so I’m fighting it in the spiritual realm. I remind myself daily that I must die to my flesh. I must not live to preserve myself but to give myself away. I have and I’m sure that we all have taken calculated risks and are trusting the Lord to do his perfect will in our lives, not living in the boundaries of fear.
Since Covid we have had so many events and gatherings deferred but many people felt the joy of a “longing fulfilled” in our area meetings and GC 2021 time together. It’s become a tree of life. May we see more fruit grow from this than we see sickness or death. I’m believing that God’s will was done as we all participated in serving and receiving at GC 2021.
For those of you on the field, please know that in our early morning gatherings before opening the AP booth we prayed for you.
Today we feature one of our newest members to the AP team, Tara Anders heading to Papua New Guinea. If you happen to read this email and have time to make Tara’s banana bread recipe let me know, post it on social media and tag her or me. Enjoy!!
Never Alone,
Liz
Nathan, Tara, Katheryn and Esther Anders
from Tara Anders—
Right now as I write this it is Spring Training time for Major League Baseball. This is an exhibition time before the regular season begins; it’s full of regular players and many Minor League hopefuls that are full of pride from the invitation to be there, yet quite humbled by the challenge to produce a performance that could deem them worthy of the roster. The St. Louis Cardinals have one opening in the rotation for starting pitchers this season and the competition for that spot has been intense. One young man vying for this starter role, who has been pitching at the Major League level for 7 years, had an absolutely terrible outing recently. He earned six runs on four hits and three walks (one of them hitting the batter) in 1 2/3 innings - only recording 2 outs before being pulled from the game. That’s quite an unsightly negative charge pushing him further away from his desired place on the mound. A really unsightly production. His response in the interview following the game: “I know the result wasn’t the result I wanted, but I feel good,” “I feel good with all my pitches. I know I can be better in the next couple starts.” Who says that?! Who can respond to an atrocity like that with such positive confidence?! If it’s you, then I celebrate the beautiful freedom of your mind and soul! I am not there yet but I’m on my way!
Up till this recent encounter with God, I would have a tendency to not treat myself in the same way that I think of and treat others. I can be quite hard on myself…relentless actually. I grew up understanding from my family, my teachers, and most relationships that I was not good enough and could never measure up. Positive attention was very performance-based. My sense of internal condemnation has been a continual prayer point since my teen years. Until recently when the Holy Spirit awoke Exodus 4:14, “Then the LORD became angry with Moses. “All right,” HE said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you.” (NLT).
This passage comes from God speaking to Moses from the burning bush. God is giving Moses HIS calling command to go and free the Israelites and Moses protests seven times, even amidst God showing him miraculous signs of HIS power and authority. In reading through Moses’ excuses and rebuttals (Ex.3:10-4:14), we can clearly see the humanity in him and how we all can get caught up in feeling inadequate. It is far too easy to fuss at ourselves and put ourselves down while believing the lies from the accuser. We can reach the depths of despair claiming that nothing can encourage us out of the mire because the attempting encourager doesn’t know or understand the totality of our situation. So, the encouragement flat out doesn’t fit and the lies start to seem like they do…like they could be the truth now. All the while the Truth is that God is good and HE would never talk to us like we talk to ourselves - ever.
When Moses continued to insult himself and deny his abilities, the scripture says that “the LORD became angry”. The thought of angering my Lord and Savior, my Father in Heaven, sobered me into an awakening. As I studied this passage and saw that Moses was lacking in faith, lacking in desire to serve for God’s Kingdom come, and lacking in teach-ability to break out of his fears and settled ways - I saw all the things that I do not want to be a part of and I repented right there and committed to trusting God with all of me just as HE made me. God showed grace, mercy, and faithfulness in continuing to use Moses for the task of freeing HIS people and by giving Moses his brother Aaron as his partner in ministry.
Also, I do feel like we can see a bit of consequence for Moses as he missed out on being the spokesperson to the people of Israel and in bringing them the Truth and the Hope of God. “Aaron the Levite” was honored as the father of the people because he brought them the message given from God and he soon became the beginning of the priesthood, the judges, and the prophets of God’s Truth. Moses was also a Levite. Moses was the first chosen by God, yet Moses refused to let go of his desperation and may never know how much he missed when he stirred the LORD to anger. Worship offered as obedience brings on the assurance of God. Later, we see Moses in worship and self-sacrifice, fervently interceding for others; he is literally glowing with the radiance of God.
The pitcher I mentioned at the beginning probably mentally rehearses potential plays and positivity, like most athletes, as he gets his mind focused for what’s to come. All the more powerfully, we can overcome as we declare our trust in the LORD as Moses did in song in Exodus and again in Deuteronomy. “Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, but a good word makes it glad”, (Proverbs 12:25 NKJV). We can speak out a ‘good word’ to move into gladness. We can praise God in HIS surpassing power over any attack of the enemy. We can use thanksgiving as our weapon of declaration to make our heart glad again in the Truth of God our King.
Oh God, You are Yahweh the LORD! You are the God of compassion and mercy! You are slow to anger and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness and you lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. You forgive rebellion and sin. Let us be quick on our toes to catch the foxes before they ruin the vineyard in our minds and put those lies into captivity. May we reign in triumph through the Holy Spirit! I pray that we don’t seek favor or self esteem in a way that we abandon Your commands or Your Word God, or in any way that dilutes those things - let us hold fast to our trust and faith in You LORD to affirm us and lead us. In Jesus’ Name I pray, Amen.
Recipe:
Banana Bread is one of our family’s super top favorite things to eat and we have personally yet to be in a country or place that we couldn’t get bananas and the other ingredients. Even bananas that are not overripe can be nuked in the microwave or baked in the oven to speed up the browning and be used in banana bread that very same day! Here’s my recipe that I have morphed into my own after many adjustments about 14 years ago and it is a staple at our house to say the least! Enjoy!
Tara’s Banana Bread
Ingredients:
4 very ripe bananas peeled 6 Tbsp melted butter (if using unsalted butter add a pinch of salt to batter) 1 tsp baking soda 1 cup of sugar 1 large egg beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract 1.5 cups all purpose flour
***very generously butter your pan - coat a thick painting of butter inside the baking dish, no flour dusting, just lots of butter :)
Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
In a large mixing bowl mash your bananas with a fork until completely smooth. Stir melted butter into mashed bananas with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula - keep that spoon to use throughout.
Add baking soda and salt (if salt is necessary for unsalted butter) and hand stir/mix in. Then add sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla - hand stir/mix in with spoon. Batter should be a bit thin. Now add flour and hand stir/mix till completely incorporated. Batter should now be nice and thick.
Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes at 350 or until toothpick in the middle comes out clean. If the top is getting dark around 30 minutes in you may want to put foil over the top for protection as it finishes baking through.
Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for a few minutes, then remove from pan and let bread cool. A bread knife or serrated knife will help to make slices not crumbly.
^^I haven’t had a loaf pan in many years - I use a glass pie plate and it’s ready in 30-40 minutes depending on your oven or you can do muffins in about 20-24 minutes.