By Josephine Lim Weston
Today I baked again after stopping for a few years since I got married. I got a bit nervous about it. I used to enjoy baking, but the interest must have waned over the years. So my husband who has sweet tooth had been hinting to the extent of printing the recipe of his favourite dessert and placing it on the dining table, while counting days when his wish will come true. So finally an opportunity came as tomorrow is our church luncheon so all church members will bring a dish or two to share. My husband decided that we're going to bring cakes this time. That's the reason I baked banana muffins, banana cake and carrot cake today.
Well the baking was going fine as I even had to rope in my husband to mash the bananas while I prepared the rest of the ingredients. Finally I put three trays into the oven and waited for the outcome. When the time came to check the cakes, I found that the cakes were not quite ready so I pushed them back to the oven. But for the last cake I accidentally pushed too far into the oven so it fell onto the oven furnace. I quickly turned off the gas and removed other cakes and racks until I could reach to remove the spilling cake tin. It was spilling quite a lot onto the furnace steel bar but it hadn't spilled over to the centre rail of the furnace until my husband who was afraid that I might put my hands near to the furnace while it's still hot decided to quickly throw in a wet kitchen towel towards the spillage. Guess what happened? Too many cooks spoilt the 'soup'. But I cannot discredit my husband's good intention to protect his wife hence I had to quickly remove the wet cloth and sure enough the cake mixture had completely covered one side of the bars and some had flowed into the gaps between the bar and also covered the centre of the furnace tiny linings. I proceeded to remove the spilled mixture as much as I could (although at the back of our minds we were set on calling for a repair soon) until it was entirely wiped away after 5-10 minutes. I turned on the gas and was happy that the fire came on again and back to baking.
After a while, we smelled gas and it was getting more intense each passing moment while my husband started opening the windows and kitchen door, I checked my cakes again and found the muffins are baked but not the other cakes. Then upon further checking I found that there's fire only on 1/5 of the furnace linings while the rest not working at all. Oh we were devastated and my husband went to look for the manual and was about to call the oven company while I prayed that God will help us and make it possible for us to finish baking those cakes. So while praying in my heart, God gave me an idea to use the same toothpick I've used to check the cakes and use it to scrap off the spilled cake mixture from the linings; and deep inside my heart I felt most likely this will work. I made sure the mixture residual no longer clogged the furnace linings and then I turned on the oven again and, to our delight, all the fire came on perfectly and we were so happy.
Now I could tell others I've cleaned an oven and much more. I've learnt more about the oven now than before the incident. I've learnt also, in the most impossible circumstances, God will still come through for me to deliver me when I call on His Name. Well needless to say we will have to leave behind the banana cake that spilled, but because we were able to salvage the remaining the whole cake now will be enjoyed exclusively by my husband who is more than happy to have it while I'll bring the muffins and carrot cake to church tomorrow.
So from this incident, it proves to me again that whenever circumstances seem to be against us, so long as we don't lose faith and allow God to lead us through trials and the storms, knowing that all things work together for good (ultimately) to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) we will stand to gain more than lose.
To God be the glory forever and ever! Amen.
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