After-Church Goodies

Well, I don't know what in the world is going on with the layout of this post........I clicked CENTER and medium size for uploading, like I normally do. What caused the photos to show up this way beyond my understanding.

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On the way home from church I detoured over to the dirt road, figuring it would be dry and "passable".......which it was.









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There are red-colored wild rose hips near the bottom of the vertical photo. Click the photo to enlarge it and see them better.

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(Uh......no, there is not a pastry shop on the dirt road!)

Well, this afternoon I would invite you over for coffee and Dutch pastries IF you were in the vicinity! Yes, the Jaarsma Bakery was one of my required stops in Pella yesterday. Yum, yum!

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Today in church we had a special speaker, and boy-oh-boy, could he ever speak........almost sounded like I imagine God Himself might sound.......authoritative and booming! And---wow---did he ever give emphasize to the Sacrament of Communion!

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Yesterday, I toured the house of the founder of Pella, Dominie Henry Scholte, a Dutch Reformed Church pastor. On the mantel in the sitting room was a statue of Martin Luther and Luther's famous quote, "Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise; so, truly God help me." Evidently, Henry Scholte admired Martin Luther very much.

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I mentioned this fact in Bible Class this morning. A visitor----someone connected with the visit of the special speaker-----then commented that the major separation point between the Lutheran Church and the Reformed Church in Europe after the Reformation was the matter of the meaning of the Sacrament of Communion. The two sides were never able to agree about it. Martin Luther clung to the belief of the Real Presence in the bread and wine, while the Reformed held more of a symbolic view of the elements. Interesting.......and, too bad, in my opinion, that this issue remains a dividing point amongst the churches of the Reformation.

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Very interesting, too, that Henry Scholte admired Martin Luther enough to have a statue of the reformer in his house.

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Well.......I must get back to my coffee and Dutch letters, which are very delicious, by the way. How such an odd shape for a pastry came to be, I do not know, but will try and find out for a future Pella blogpost. When my daughter spent a college semester in The Netherlands, she would comment to me that most of the Dutch people were tall and slim.......and ate pastries everyday! What's the deal with that, I say!? Is such a thing fair?

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P.S. - Reader Nancy of SewManyDays blog looked up the Jaarsma Bakery website and found the origin of the Dutch letter pastry's "S" shape........it stands for "Sinterklaas"........(the Dutch Santa Claus). Thanks!

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