MERRY CHRISTMAS AND BLESSING FOR 2008
Ministries at church
Preaching Gods Word
Mark has so enjoyed preaching this year it has been a great time of growing for him. He will be preaching a whole bunch more over the month of January. Please be in special prayer for him as he prepares his sermon for Christmas Day.
Young Adults Bible Study
What a blessing looking back over the last year. We started our young adults group with five and we now are a group of 33. We ended the year with a three course dinner at our small home. The close fellowship was great and they all so enjoyed the evening of fun with loads of food - the chocolate fondue was a real hit!!
Women’s Ministry Meets–“LIGHT OF THE SEASON”
Tan was hugely involved in the planning and helping of the last ladies meeting of the year. They had a wonderful full afternoon thinking on Christ as the Light of the Christmas Season. She did a demo on containerized gifts for Christmas and they had ideas shared on decorating candles. Each lady received a Christmas cracker gift filled with a tract on Jesus as the light and a little candle. It was a wonderful afternoon of sharing together.
We have also just launched our very own church recipe book (80pages). What a project but we did have fun putting it together – LOADS OF FELLOWSHIP!
Craft Evenings
The girls completed the card making series and then for the Christmas craft evening they had fun making Christmas wreaths – how lovely!!. This time together this year has proved to be a great time of fellowship for the ladies of our church.
Sunday School
We both got involved in helping organize the Sunday school nativity play. It was so special to see the children dress up and live out the Christmas story. Troyden was too cute. Pastor Stuart used him as a live illustration in his sermon (Herod’s edict to kill babies under the age of 2years). As the pastor greeted him “Hello Troyden” he waved back!!! Far too cute!
Worship
To end off the year of worship we are leading the Carol service together. Some of the members will be in our
nativity “. Readings of the angel, Mary, Joseph, King, Shepherd and Prophet – recalling what it was like the night Christ was born. We are the shepherds and Troydie will be a sheep. We are so looking forward to sharing in this time together.
We had a great family weekend with Mark’s folks and his younger sister (Robyn’s family) in the mountains along side the lake. We so enjoyed the time together and the cousins had the bestest time ever. Troydie crawling everywhere and Joshie trying his hardest to get moving.
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Troyden on the left - big Joshua on the right - he weighs the same as Troyden and is 3 months younger we all know that Josh is going to be a big boy!
CAPE TOWN HOLIDAY
We were privileged to be treated to a holiday in Cape Town. We had some special friends come from the USA and holiday with us. We got to enjoy some of the sight of Cape Town and the Garden Route. We enjoyed the lovely views, beach, water front, and mark even got to ride an Ostrich!!! We really did the tourist thing and had so much fun making memories together with our friends and Troydie! We ended our trip with a drive up into Lesotho on a really rocky road and a weekend in the Game Park ending with a visit to Zululand - Manzibomvu. This was the first time Troyden had ventured up this way and he was really warmly welcomed by his other church family.
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Troydies first plane ride, he did so well just slept the whole time..JPG)
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View from the top of Table Mountain - God is BIG!
Swimming
Mark has started swimming at the local pool 5 mornings a week. Troyden and I have been tagging along to enjoy the time of exercise and fresh outside air. Troyden so enjoys paddling his toes we have not yet ventured into the water but got the out fit and Bentley belt ready maybe one day this week we will have him floating out in the water with us.
Baby Troyden UPDATE
Troydie is really on the move!! Crawling really quickly and enjoys playing catches. The new thing now is he likes to climb all over, he can nearly make it up the stool next to the bed and then onto the bed. He also is standing without holding on “Look Mom No Hands!”. He stands just for 2 seconds and then sits down hard.
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Look dad & mom no hands!!
Peek-A-Boo is initiated by him now and this is so cute, he loves to hide under the blanket and for us to find him. His favorite toy is his little soccer ball and is practicing to throw, when he does he screams with delight. Bath time now is spent standing and “fixing” the taps; he loves the water even in his face. We now have 8 teeth and he is eating more and more solid foods (his new favorite is ice-cream – YUM!). He is still having about 3hours sleep during the day keeping us more and more busy when he is awake. He is now waving and this has made him all the more friendlier. He has also learned that if he holds out his arms he will get picked up and will generally go to anyone. Not to mention the cutest smile that he shares with all!
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DAD IS MY BIGGEST HERO!
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Any opportunity to get my hands in the mud and then make sure that I taste to see that it is good fun!
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Check out my cool little shooz!!!
Plans for Christmas
We will be celebrating Christmas with Marks folks and the extended family on the 20th Dec in Pietermaritzburg. His two sisters are up from Cape Town and East London with their families and the Grandparents will also be joining us for dinner. We plan to have our folks – both sets over to our house for dinner on Christmas Eve to enjoy a relaxing evening together.
Christmas Day will be celebrated in Durban – Mark is preaching and we will enjoy the worship service together as a family. Trent will be flying down from Johannesburg after his Christmas Day service and us together with Tan’s folks will spend a few days down the coast at the beach.
For New Year we will be in Durban for he services and then hope to spend a few days with his folks and sisters up in the mountains. Praying that our time with family will be a special blessing to all of us.
Thank you each and everyone for your special prayers, God is Good all the time.
· Knowing God’s will and leading in our own lives as we continually seek direction from him.
· Our Christmas travel plans – safety and special time with extended family and friends. Pray for a special time of rest and relax.
· Tracy (Mark’s older sister) is 12 weeks pregnant with her first baby – please pray for the health for mom and baby. (the family is all very excited – due date mid-June).
Ministry at Durban North
· Marks preaching into the New Year 2008, say a special prayer for his preparation and his communication on Christmas day as we always have many visitors.
· Carol Service (23rd Dec – evening); pray that many will come and share in this evening as we focus on the birth of God’s son – Jesus Christ.
· Sunday school involvement we are praying about leading the Sunday school next year as we have no superintendent, a very big opportunity to reach out to children with the gospel and to lead by example.
PRAISE THE LORD WITH US!!
· We look back over our first year of ministry and praise the Lord for teaching us so many different lessons – Thank you Lord for giving us this opportunity to minister for you in this way, what a privilege.
· For our finances – we have had a challenge this year to make our money’s stretch but we praise the Lord that we always have – what a blessing!!!
This is to send you special wishes at this wonderful time of the year. Christ was born – know that if he never came as a baby we would not have known him on the Cross at Easter time.
GOD’S SPECIAL BLESSINGS ON YOU ALL
AT THIS FESTIVE TIME IN CELEBRATION
OF CHRISTS BIRTH!!!
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