Café China opened in 1985 as the only upscale Chinese restaurant in Denton.  I started working there in 1991, when studying at UNT.  In 1998, after I obtained my degree in Hotel & Restaurant Management, I assumed ownership of Café China.  In 2004, due to a lease renewal issue, I had to close the doors of my popular restaurant.  It took five years to find the perfect spot, and relocate the restaurant.  Now, I am proud to say, Cafe China is open again in Unicorn Lake.

We have some very unique entrees, such as duck and lamb dishes, which you cannot find other Chinese restaurants in Denton.  Café China is an upscale restaurant at a very reasonable price.

During the years waiting for a new location, I worked for La Madeleine in Lewisville.  When I reopened Café China, I brought a brand new restaurant to Denton, right next door, at Unicorn Lake Bakery and Diner. We serve breakfast and lunch seven days a week. In addition we have pastries, muffins and cookies made fresh daily in house.

Stop by and have dinner at the  new Café China restaurant, and visit the casual Unicorn Lake Diner & Bakery next door.  We’ll be glad to serve you!

Look what I found!  A made-from-scratch menu that features fried seafood.  Head North to Sanger, at the Lake Ray Roberts Marina, and you can enjoy some of the best, and all you can eat catfish and popcorn shrimp you’ll find in the area.

What they offer is a variety of really good seafood, but you can also enjoy burgers, chicken and sandwiches, or delicious gumbo and Mexican shrimp cocktail.  The hushpuppies and onion rings are outstanding, and any of the seafood you get can be fried, grilled or blackened.

Enjoy happy hour from 5pm to 7pm at Tula’s Tavern.  They feature acoustics on Friday nights and live bands on Saturday nights.  Restaurant hours are Thursday 5:00 pm to 9:00pm, Friday 5:00pm to 10:00pm, Saturday 12:00pm to 10:00pm and Sunday 12:00pm till 6:00pm.

On Saturday you can watch your favorite College games and NFL on Sunday.  The Tavern is open Friday night till 12:00am and Saturday till 1:00am.  Look for Extended Summer Hours starting in May.  Go out and join the fun at Tula’s Lighthouse Restaurant and Lakeside Tavern!

Vision Ministry
Vision Ministry is an outreach program provided by Denton Bible Church that ministers to others by going out into the communities to reach people where they are.  Clothing giveaways take place by going out to apartment complexes or mobile home parks and knocking on doors.  While the adults are looking through the clothes, Vision Ministry gathers the children and tells them a bible story.  It is so wonderful to see their eyes light up when they hear about Jesus and what he did for them. Donations of food, clothing, and furniture may be made at the Vision office at 107 Maple Street in Denton. For more information, contact Al Jacobson at 940 387 8230.

Salvation Army Thanksgiving Dinner
More than 2,000 people will share a free, traditional Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings at the metroplex area Salvation Army homeless shelters. This will include homeless individuals and families that cannot afford to have a Thanksgiving-style meal at home. The meals will include turkey, dressing, green beans, mashed potatoes, yams, fresh rolls, and pumpkin pie. In The Salvation Army’s tradition, there will be festive decorations and place settings, to enhance the dignity of those who come for a meal, and volunteers will serve all participants at their tables.  You can participate on Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2009 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm, at the Salvation Army office, 1508 E. McKinney Street in Denton.

Angel Tree
Through the ever-popular Angel Tree program, The Salvation Army will collect hundreds of thousands of donated Christmas gifts to distribute to children and senior citizens. Local children’s names will be available to select from the tree.  The selection will include their list of a wish item, a need item and a clothing item, and the gifts will be collected at Golden Triangle Mall from Friday, November 13 until Sunday, December 13.  About 89 percent of recipients will be children and 11  percent will be senior citizens and disabled adults.  Please consider adding an extra “angel” to your tree this Christmas.

Christmas For Our Troops
Let our troops know we care!  That is the Christmas wish of Joan Anderson and her husband Jerry.  The two of them carry that blissful burden every week of the year.  For more than 18 months they have sent soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan requested want and need items.

Their list comes from Defenders of Freedom, and Joan and Jerry take as many as they possibly can. The names come consistently and, while using their own finances,  they want show these American Troops that “we are behind them and we thank them.”

They can use your help, especially for holiday giving.  You can donate any of the typical needed items: socks, CD’s, DVD’s, hygiene items, hand and feet warmers, warm gloves, snacks, international calling cards, or you can make a monetary donation that may help with the shipping and boxing of the items.

Make our country’s defenders part of your holiday, by being a part of a soldier’s Christmas. Contact Joan and Jerry at:  helpingoursoldiers@yahoo.com or 940-484-7646.

by Jim Mann, Ph.D.

Before Jesus’ crucifixion he gave his disciples a warning.  “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them…Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”  “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice you yourself will disown me three times.”  Immediately the rooster crowed the second time. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken to him… And he broke down and wept (Mark 14: 27-31, 72).”

Have you ever heard the Sermon of the Rooster?  No?  It’s the most powerful sermon ever…er…spoken.

The Sermon of the Rooster is God’s wake-up call in a person’s life.  In Peter’s case, it was a literal rooster, but for us, the Sermon of the Rooster is metaphorical.

Peter heard that sermon and it changed his life.  You may have heard the sermon, too.  I know I have heard it after striving and vowing in my own strength, then failing…after piously telling others how to act, then failing…after judging others, then failing.  It’s not a fun sermon to hear.

A friend told me a story over lunch the other day.  There is a guy in a pit, treading water.  Sometimes this guy feels strong and decides he can keep his head above water forever.  At other moments, he is worn out and begins to sink.  Sometimes folks look over the edge of the pit and throw him some food.  He’s fed, but he’s still in a pit.  At other times people throw him money.  He’s got money in his pocket…but still in a pit.

Eventually someone jumps into the pit with him and shows him that there’s a solid rock bottom to the pit, just under his feet.  If he could muster the bravery to stop treading water long enough, he could stand and climb out.

That’s what happened to Peter here: he hit rock bottom.  At the final refrain of the Sermon of the Rooster, I think he was finally broken.  It was at this point he finally realized what was really in him and that he needed the power of God to transform him.  He stopped treading water, hit the bottom, and let God begin to lead him out of his performance pit.

None of us want to hear the Sermon of the Rooster, but it’s one that God, by his grace, lets us hear.  Why?  Because we desperately need to hear the message of that sermon.  Hopefully, in your case, you won’t wait until you’re at rock bottom before you take the message to heart.  After we respond to the altar call, we’re a little less confident in ourselves, we boast a little less, we’re a little more humble, and a little more broken.  Then we start to understand and appreciate God’s grace.  And that’s right where we need to be for God to take our lives and change them for the better.  See you in church.

Jim Mann, Ph.D. pastors New Life Church at 1350 Milam Road East in Sanger, Texas.

Service begins at 10:00 a.m. Visit newlifedenton.org for more information.

by Mark Sandel
msandel@twu.edu

Men and Emotions

I was seventeen when he died.  It had been a quick illness:  he died young, leaving a widow with three teenaged children. The morning of the funeral two men, both important to me, pulled me aside at different times, and, as if they had choreographed it, gave me the identical talk.

“You are the man of the family now.  You have to be strong for your mother, your little brother, and your sister.”

“You can’t show any weakness.  They are counting on you.”

“You can’t cry today, even at the funeral.”

And I didn’t cry anymore that day.  I didn’t cry again for many years.  What happened to that seventeen-year old boy that day was wrong. To deny a grieving young man the ability to express his feelings — his hurt, his fear, and his insecurities – is to take away his humanity.  Yet it happened to me just as it has happened to millions of other men and boys. Although it may have happened differently to each of us, we were taught from an early age to hide our feelings. The sole exception to this rule is anger – anger masks the real underlying emotions but is the only feeling that men are allowed to share with others.

Men are born with the same range of emotions as women. As babies we feel fear, we cry, we are insecure, we feel loved – and we are capable of sharing those feelings.   But society, in ways both subtle and glaring, teaches us to hide those emotions in order to “be a man.”  And so we bury them down deep, invisible to those around us and to ourselves.

We use different types of nails to secure the hatch that suppresses our emotions.  Some men use alcohol, some become workaholics, and others use rage to mask their real feelings.  Regardless of the tactics men use to avoid feeling fear, pain, and insecurity, the impact on us and those around us is the same:  weaker relationships, more stress, and greater dissatisfaction with life.

Expressing true feelings can be uncomfortable.  For those who are not used to it, letting another know that you experience anxiety, apprehension, or confusion feels vulnerable. We worry that others will see us as “weak” and “take advantage of us” without our emotional armor.  However, for men who learn to share appropriately on an emotional level, the pay-off is enormous:  closer relationships with loved ones and a tremendous reduction in anxiety and stress.

Go online and type “emotions list” in your search engine. When you feel angry or frustrated, refer to the list of emotions, and share two or three non-anger related feelings in this format:

“I feel ______,  ______, and ______ when ______ happens.  I just need to let you know that.”

It’s a risk worth taking.

Mark Sandel is an Associate Professor of Social Work in the College of Arts and Sciences at TWU.  He welcomes comments or suggestions for future columns at msandel@twu.edu

by Mardi Allen, Life Coach
mardi@CoachMardi.net
www.coachmardi.net

Are You Stuck and In a Rut?

Are you feeling depressed because you can’t find a job?  Do you feel like you’re in a rut and just unhappy in your life?  Do you just feel stuck?  Well, you are not alone.  There is hope!

Newton’s first law of motion states that an object at rest tends to stay at rest; and an object in motion tends to stay in motion.

When we are depressed or feeling down, we often become isolated and paralyzed.  Newtonianly speaking, we’re at rest, and we will stay at rest until a force is applied.  We must create a force to change our state from rest to motion.

Get yourself into motion – any motion.  It does not matter what you do as long as you move.  It might not be an action that will take you directly to your goal; however, simply being active is one step closer toward achieving your goal.

Start by changing the words you speak.  I had a client that said, “I don’t know” about 50 times in one session.  She felt paralyzed and unable to see the answers because she had been at rest for so long.  Starting with the affirmation, “I do know,” will provide an amazing change in mindset – a force, if you will – that will get you into motion.  Here are other examples that can get you unstuck and out of your rut.

•  Get together with a friend
•  Take a ten-minute walk
•  Do volunteer work
•  Make one networking call
•  Go to the library
•  Make a vision board
•  Reach out to others in need
•  Go to a networking group
•  Get a part time job
•  Go to church

Just do something!  Get into motion.  You will see an automatic shift in your energy.  Negative energy creates negative energy and positive energy creates positive energy.  Get moving and take a step today toward your ideal life.  Apply a force and get into motion.