2014 - Highlights from our first Semester

Hello family and friends 

Yes it's the beginning of 2014 ....  We are very excited for a new challenging year serving our Lord Jesus Christ :)

Mark is one of the Pastors / Elders at Durban North Baptist Church - going on our 9th year here and for this we give the Lord much praise for all we have managed to accomplish through him and for him.  As well as all that we have learned to be ambassadors for the gospel.

We send you lots of love, prayers and hellos to all of you ...

Just a few highlights from the first quarter of 2014...

Troyden is now in GRADE 1 and the big number 7.  He so enjoys the beach, where we spent most Saturday's this HOT summer enjoying body-boarding, bike riding and paddle ski-ing is becoming one of his favorite sporting hobbies.

Treyson and Tryston are in GRADE R and the big number 5 - wow! time has flown, we think having twins everything happens at double the pace :):)  They are both very happy little men, so enjoying school and all the activities surrounding them each day.  Their faves are - swimming, swimming and more swimming, loads of rough and tumble play time with each other and a must each day is playing tag with their older brother.

Our lives are full to overflowing with school, homework, children's church, friendly play days and special Friday night family movie, burger, popcorn, chocolate and camp out :)  


Our ministry is going well, Mark is still enjoying his preaching, bible study and pastoral ministry. He has taken on a lot more visitation and has so enjoyed this one on one ministry. It is a full program with loads on the go all the time.  This year the church has employed a new youth worker to work with Mark.  Him and his wife are both very sweet and we are praising the Lord for their in put.  Tan has decided to focus her ministry time on Children's Church and is so enjoying the challenge.  She is writing her own bible based curriculum together with activity sheets for 3 age groups as well as games a worship time ideas.  She is loving this challenge.  Our Children's Church ministry has taken on a new look with new worship songs, worship video's, puppet shows, activities and games.  (the boyz are loving going each week - for this we praise Jesus).


A big change for this year has been that Tan has headed back to work :) with the added expense of school fees we have really felt the pinch.  Tan spent the last 4 months of 2013 dropping her CV all around town and many moments in prayer as we considered the best option for her.  We are both praising the Lord all the way for huge answered prayer.  As she put it "I wrote a list of prayer needs in my prayer journal and the Lord ticked each box" .  She is working as an administrator at a local Special needs school/centre. Her hours fit into the boyz school day so she drops and fetches them as normal, plush she gets all the school holidays off. The job is tailor made for her personality in front line reception, administration, personnel support, parent liaison as well as right hand to the principle.  It is a small centre that has only been running for one year with the huge possibilities of big growth in the future.  They will be moving from their current premises in the new semester of 2014 and will be able to start their first phase of growth.  The centre includes, pre-primary, junior primary and primary classes where they have regular school class time as well as occupational therapists and speech and language therapists, who help with group and individual therapy each day.  It is a very happy little place where huge milestones are met each day - what a blessing these girls are being to those who have sever handicaps.  We are so grateful for this space for Tan to have some small influence as well as be trained and stretched in her skills.  Thank you Lord!


To end off the semester Tan celebrated her 35th birthday it was a very happy day filled with candles, cake and family.  We also enjoyed the opportunity to watch the local airshow from the beach :)

To end our semester we had a wonderful weekend camping in the Drakensberg with Trent, Amber, Emie, Eston & Lincoln and Baba and Nee -   What a fun filled weekend of memories together :)

Fun on the super tube :)

Emie excited about the Chocolate Easter Bunny Hunt :):)

Troyden and Tryston got a whole in one playing putt-putt :)

Trent and Eston having a snooze ....

This brings us to the end of our little update letter - trust that this all finds you well.  

God bless in heaps 

Wilby tribe :)

Wishing you all a very blessed CHRISTMAS and God’s very best for 2014

WOW the end of the year has arrived!!!

MINISTRY…

We as a church have been working and planning a Nativity Festival that we called “This is Christmas” that we hosted this month on our church property.  The church building was set up with 5 “booths” – the stable, ministry life of Jesus, the cross, the tomb and modern day Christmas. Just outside the church we had a shepherd, angle and prophets booth.  Each of our bible study groups worked out all the décor for each booth.  The sewing team of ladies have been sewing costumes since June of this year for every cast member  and they all looked fantastic.   The young families set up activities in 7 stalls for the children to enjoy with loads of prizes to be won.  The coffee shop on our campus organized all the food to be on sale for each evening.  The idea was for groups of 20-30 people visiting the festival were to walk through each booth lead and narrated by our very own prophets.  Mark was a prophet and had the joy of leading 7 groups through on each given evening.  Tan oversaw the children’s activities and all the costume sewing.  This proved to be a very successful event where we were able to share the whole gospel story with those of our community.  We praise the Lord too for the wonderful involvement of the local church body with a wide age group involved in every part of it. (here's the newspaper clipping from our local newspaper)

The Young families ended the year with “a MINUTE to WIN IT” games evening and delicious 3 course dinner.  We celebrated the Christmas seasons with a gift exchange where everyone wanted the Christmas matching His and Her’s hats JJ  It was a very happy evening.

We also had a wonderful evening of carol singing where the young families lead the evening with special readings of all the Christmas Nativity story characters – the children so enjoyed playing their parts too.

 FAMILY TIME..  SPECIAL MEMORIES

Fun memories made at home with great picture moments....

Craft time - Tan made her very own nativity scene and J-O-Y cushions

To celebrate the end of the school year we treated the boys to a visit to Ushaka WetNWild!  loads of water, sun, sliding and tubing...

Visit with the seals, watch the dolphin show and wave at the turtles...

The Wilby family met a little before Christmas to celebrate and enjoy a meal together.  It was loud, fun and very action packed with 7 grand children all under the age of 7 JJJ

The Eayrs extended family met in Gonubie to enjoy Christmas celebrations as well as sand water and loads of sunshine.  The boyz loved the pool fun and were in the water all the time.  We spent several mornings at the beach enjoying the lagoon on paddle ski, boogie boards and tubes.  After a week we moved up the coast to Kei Mouth to enjoy more fun beach time.  Troyden so enjoyed learning how to paddle ski J. 

Trent, Amber, Lincoln & Eston

Troydie paddle ski-ing :) 

Emie (Trent & Ambs - little princess)

It was a very special holiday and great memories made together.

Every blessing for the festive season – lots of love

Mark, Tan and Troyd, Treyson and Tryston

October - November 2013

OCTOBER

This sees us at the start of the last term of 2013.  This year is speeding along.  A highlight for this month was our 10 year wedding anniversary.  We are praising the Lord for the wonderful memories, friendship and special children the Lord has blessed us with.  Part of our celebrations were to ride up to the top of the Moses Mabida Soccer Stadium in the sky car!  What beautiful view of our city and fun experience for the kids.

NOVEMBER

MOM & DAD EAYRS – Happy 40^th Anniversary !! – we spent a weekend together as imidiate family.  On this weekend Trent and Amber were able to bring Lincoln along – their new adopted addition to their family.  What a special time we all had meeting him and loving on him.  We praise the Lord for spiritual parents who have lived lives as a huge example to all of us.  We pray for God’s special blessing on their future together.

Treyson and Tryston had their very first class concert.  Each of the children in the class were dressed as a nursery rhyme.  They dressed up as the Doctor’s Foster’s who went to Gloster in a shower of rain, he stepped in a puddle right up to his middle and never went there againJJJ  It was a very special little show put on by humpty dumpty, little bo peep, the dish and the spoon and rub a dub dub 3 men in a tub J

We are praising the Lord J Troydie went for his eye check up and after wearing an eye patch on his good eye to make the lazy eye work for 2 hours every day for 4 months.  His vision has improved drastically.  The doctor was so very excited.  Tan had designed a patch that she sewed to fit onto his glasses, something comfortable and not stuck to his face like a band aid.  The doctor was so impressed that he ordered several orders of eye patches from Tan and she has made herself  a little holiday money.

Troydie with Baba, baby Eston and check out the eye patch!

Troyden has his school concert this month too and he was a shepherd in their very own nativity play.  It was fantastic with all the grades R – 3’s singing, reciting lines and dancing.  They all had a great time making the birth of Jesus come alive.

MINISTRY…

The young family’s ministry has been growing really nicely and now as the end of the year approaches 6 families have decided to move out of town up the north coast to Ballito (30min drive away).  We are excited for them to be starting a new phase in their lives but know that they will leave a huge hole in our group.  As of next year Mark will be leading a bible study out in Ballito to help with keeping them together as they start fresh in this new small but fast growing town. 

The moms group has been busy with moms outings, mommy mornings and education expo all hosted in our community center this term. 

Our church bible studies have been studying through a book study called “His Story” this year and all have so enjoyed looking at the bible in whole book form.  To piggy back on this the ladies craft group made “His story bracelets”.  This was a great morning of fellowship as the ladies created their bracelets and were very encouraged to use their bracelets to share the story of the gospel using them.

Tan was able to encourage all the children in the Sunday school to participate in a nativity play that she wrote the script for.  The puppets did the narration and the story unfolded with little people dressed as angels, shepherds, kings and even a star. Our sewing team of ladies did the most fantastic job in sewing all the outfits. Troy was a shepherd; Treys and Tryst were dressed as kings.  They all so enjoyed this special event that ended with a prize giving for attendance and memory verse learning – Troy was so happy he received a prize for learning 80% of the years memory verses J

As you can see – with the end of the year approaching things seem to speed up.  We have had a very busy time and are excited for the Christmas season to begin.

Sending love – God bless you all heaps

Mark, Tan and Troyd, Treyson and Tryston

August & September 2013

AUGUST

Sports day at school was a full morning of activities on the field.  Troyden was in a painting relay as well as several running races.  The twins were in a Tug-o-war on opposite teams it was very competitive and great fun.  Mom even got to be in a hopping race with all the other moms – loads of laughs had by all.

We’ve been keeping up with our fitness program that is slowly helping Tan’s back and of course helping us loose the extra pounds.  We are both so enjoying our runs each morning after school drop off, our best place is along the beach front as the sea inspires us to keep going.  This has been a lovely time for us to chat and catch up and get some fresh air.  Plus now with the boyz all riding we have so enjoyed out outings to ride as a family - mom is even on her bike !

SEPTEMBER

HAppY bIRtHDay to You…… TREYSON AND TRYSTON our little twin men turned 5 !!! We set up a race track here at home in the garden with a tunnel, archway and danger tape pathway that included a ramp!  We spent time decorating our bikes with streamers on the handle bars and number plates.  Tan had fun making “cake in a jar” laid out in the shape of a bike.  In all we had a bumper BIKE party loads of FUN has by all.

Something else we love about AFRICA.... you can swim at the beach in the middle of winter - loads of smiles this side of the ocean.

We experienced our first big screen 3D movie with the boys this month - we all went to watch "PLANES". Tryston was ducking in his chair the whole time.  Treyson sat as close to Dad as possible and at time was on his lap.  At the end of the movie when Dusty wins the race Troyden stood and shouted out loud for the whole cinema to hear "YES! He won!" 

This month we had a visit up to Joeys to spend some time at our South African Baptist conference as well as time with Trent and his family.  Good to meet little Eston and spend special cousin time together.

On our way back we met Mark’s extended family in the Berg for a long extended weekend of camping together.  We had fantastic weather to enjoy the supa tubes and pool swimming.  The campsite had putt-putt, trampolines (the boys are now doing summer salts), petting farm where Troyden found a peacock feather, pony rides and  as well as jungle gyms and loads of cricket played by the tribe of 7 boy cousins.

MINISTRY…

The ladies hosted their event of the year "Let's get cooking!".  With a past Masterchef contestant who gave some cooking tips and led a cook off competition between 6 volunteer teams.  We had a visiting speaker who shared the gospel and several ladies responded – for this we praise the Lord that we were able to reach out to our community with the gospel and have over 200 ladies come along to hear about Him as the savior of the world JJJ

The Sunday school ministry have launched a Puppet ministry team with many of the youth involved as the puppets.  This has proven to be a great way to catch the children’s attention and for great participation from the children. 

Church family getaway – a great time of fellowship had by all.  Tan lead the children’s ministry for the weekend with loads of games, crafts, story time and singing.  The children had a wonderful time together.  As always these weekends help to bring the church family closer together and deeper friendships were encouraged.

JUST FOR FUN... we now have the 3 Musketeers in our house.  All for ONE and ONE for ONE (this is how the twins lead the pack of 3.  Granny spent an afternoon sewing them outfits ... 

Writing with lots of love and prayer – God bless you all! - extra love from our two proud NUMBER 5-ers!

Mark, Tan and Troyd, Treyson and Tryston