August 2010

AUGUST's BUNCH OF FUN!

ROLL ON WINTER!!!! And boy is it warm for AUGUST!!!

We have had so much fun outside in the warm winter sun that we decided to plant our veggie garden for the spring. Mark made a little fence and Troydie helped me plant our veggies, lettuce, parsley, onions and peas. What fun to work together on a family project. Troydie and I even made and painted some bugs and signs to decorate our little garden – now we water it and wait for it to grow!!! It has been great to teach him all about God, creation, and all that comes from the Lord, sunshine and rain – now when it rains we all say “Jesus is watering the garden so it will grow.”

We have decided to move the house around and put Treyson and Tryston into the bigger bedroom so the boys all get to swop. What a mission to move and rearrange.

Troyden has chosen BOATS as his theme for his new room and what a load of fun Tan has had in choosing fabric to make curtain, duvets and cushion covers. We managed to source out some old furniture and Tan tried her hand at a new paint technique – What fun. We spent a few afternoons out in the garden sanding the furniture and making a big mess. Slowly but surly his new room is taking shape – Baba (Tan’s dad) is making him a BOAT bed and Troydie is so very excited about that hopefully come his NUMBER 4 birthday in January his room will be all decked out with, ANCHORS, BOATS and LIGHTHOUSES. Bring on the RED, BLUE and WHITE!!!

In the middle of all the room moving and ideas flying for that we added onto the Jungle Gym as a pressie for Treyson & Tryston’s birthday so Mark build the next phase with a ramp and rope and a monkey bar swing – the weather at this time of year proved to be great for working outside. Many a fun hour was spent in our garden building, fixing and painting.

We had a fun outing with our friends Callen & Kate to Mitchell Park where we played on the lovely playground with all sorts of fun jungle gyms, swings and merry-go-rounds. It was the boyz first time on a SEE-SAW and ended up calling it the SAW-SAW!!!

They have a small section at the park with birds and animals for you to walk around and look at. While looking at the Tortoises we were attacked by monkeys – each of the kids had a sucker (lollypop) and two monkeys snatched the suckers away from Callen and Treyson!! Tan ran to the rescue and a monkey got into the pram and ran off with the cookie container!! What a naughty bunch of monkeys – THAT’S AFRICA FOR YOU!!!

CHECK OUT THE SUCKER STICK IN THE MONKEYS MOUTH!!

FAMILY NEWS

Troydie is now growing up to quick – next year 2011 sees us the start for School for Troydie – we have found a lovely school in our area for Troyden to attend. Glenashley Pre-primary School will be were he will go each day of the week Monday – Friday 8am-12pm. He is really excited to start school and just loves the jungle gyms! We had an interview that went fairly well - just think he was a little overwhelmed by it all! (so were mom and dad) And the school had their fun day which we were able to go along and enjoy all the rides, stalls and games. We excited and nervous all at once for this new chapter in our lives starting 2011!


Treyson & Tryston - In all are best of play mates our only prob is when Troydie sometimes gets in the way. Sharing is a big ordeal so sometimes we have resorted to 3 of every toy!

A big favorite for all the boyz is our toy car “MATER” (from the Cars Disney movie) with his tow hook, wooden trailer with the baby bath as the boat – Treyson and Tryston even get rides in the boat. They love to fish with their magnet fishies and rods while all three squeezing into the bath boat! We are so enjoying the imagination that is growing. As you can see boats, trailers and tow-hitches are the big thing in our house!!

The boys also love to WORK in the GARAGE with dad and do alot of working with thier tools to fix mater and work on the work bench!

Tan has started working for Macedonian Ministries managing the news of their blog and reconciling the accounts – so far so good she will take it as it comes over the next few months to see if she can fit it into her schedule. Please pray for time management and for some support funding.

Mark studies are progressing with 2 paper down 1 to go on the first subject in all he is enjoying the challenge. We are continually praising God for all that He is teaching us in ministry. Leadership, church discussion, decision making, disciple making, counseling, preaching and teaching, in all areas we are constantly learning new things. Thank you for your prayers there are some days we know we would not make it if we did not have the prayer support to keep us going.


MINISTRY

Tanya is still heading up our woman’s ministry craft group and this month they met to make paper together. What a load of mess and fun they had in the church gardens. Their creations turned out quite well that Troydie even had a try at home and Tan was able to make about 30 sheets of paper.
The ladies really enjoy getting together to learn a new craft and create something while they fellowship together.

The preaching ministry is going well - Mark is preaching through 1 John in the mornings and just completed a series through Malachi in the evenings. He is still preaching 3 services in the evening and 1 service in the morning every month and so enjoying the opportunity to serve the Lord in the sharing of His word in the pulpit. Tan does not get to hear him all that often but she is praising the Lord for the growth that continues to show itself. Praise God for His continual grace as we grow in His knowledge!

Keep reading on we have loads more to share with you -

God Bless and be sure to share your news with us - In His hands

Mark, Tanya, Troyden, Treyson & Tryston

JULY 2010

WINTER FUN

YEY our news will now be thick and fast trying to catch up quick…


At this time of the year the family birthdays come thick and fast. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MJ – we all love you stack. He is the greatest dad and the bestest hubby in the whole wide world! We celebrated his birthday in true “kiddie style”!! Troyden does not think that a birthday is a birthday with our blowing out your candles on your cake and opening a pressie. So we spoilt dad and so enjoyed having all the young adults around for crumpets and coffee to “Happy Birthday” together!

Tan had the fun outing this month together with a group of children from a local orphanage they went to Ushaka to enjoy the dolphin and seal show and walk through the aquarium – the boyz had a ball even meeting all the real life sea creatures!!





Troydie even got a wave from a turtle! And a kiss from a HUGE Potato Bass!

The boyz so love living near the beach and we had many a Monday down at Vetchies Beach launching Baba’s (Grandpa) boat, fishing, building sand castles, watching the waves, running and playing in the shallow water and enjoying the fresh air. Our Winter has been very mild even warm enough to be out and catch a few sun rays! We got to see a huge catch of sardines – millions of fishies on the beach in a huge net Troyden could not believe his eyes! From the pics it does not even seem like the middle of WINTER!

FAMILY NEWS
This month the TWINS – Treyson and Tryston have been giving the words a good try we have bunches of single words coming from their mouths and we love letting them try.
Tryston is deffinately the more outgoing in personality and he will copy anything you say and try to say it himself. Some of this words – JUICE, BATH, BUBBLES, GO, CAR, TIGER
Treyson will only speak when you are one on one and has the same vocab as Tryston but not as virbal.
The cutest thing – they call each other “brother” a lot of the time and Troydie calls them “THE BROTHERS” e.g. let me go get “THE BROTHERS” that this has now stuck and we all call them “THE BROTHERS”
Troydie has also nic-named them “BOY-KIES” and he is the only one who calls them that.
Following all this I was trying to teach them their names and asked them each “What is your name?” And Tryston replied “TRYSTON” and when asking Treyson he replied ”BROTHER” so right now we have 3 sons, Troydie, Tryston and Brother (Treyson) something that will be special in my memory for always!!

Tryston had his first big booboo – he fell and hit his eye on the coffee table and we had to rush to the emergency room for it to be stuck with the modern day glue (no stitches). He now has a scar just above the right eye and everyone can tell them apart easily if you look closely. We were told every boy must have a scar somewhere to prove he is tough – so Tryston has his mark.
Praise the Lord it was not too serious!!






PLAYTIME - Dad is still our fave and we love to use him as our riding horse and jungle gym - DAD WE LOVE YOU LOTS!!!

Washing bucket - we have all the toys to play with but the best ever is the washing bucket!!! look at our smiles









Bathtime with the balls has proven to be great fun for everyone water and balls everywhere even out the bath!!!

Photography is one of Troydies pastimes here he is learning to take pics of himself in the mirror!










Mark’s studies are going well with the first subject – New Testament Introduction - well on the way. Two papers down one to go. Mark has so enjoyed the extra stretch on his knowledge of God’s word it has been encouragement to see him grow in the knowledge of God again – what a blessing! We have so enjoyed discussing the paper topics he has had to write on and we know that the Lord will use this time of greater learning for His glory.

Tan's creativity continues as she has found a new short hobby to decopage old things to make them new!! She has had fun taking a coffee tin painting it and doing serviette decopage on it to make it look pretty. The boyz toys are all stored in tins covered with matching designs to add to the decor in thier room. It has been loads of fun.


MINISTRY

SOCCER FEVA!!!
Yes the Soccer FEVA continued – Our woman’s ministry had their meeting of this quarter of the year and we had an “Around the World Mission” afternoon. We played some ball games with ping-pong balls and decorated the hall with all country flags. We had 10 round tables which represented 10 different countries that participated in the Soccer World Cup and we had a yummy tea with eats from all 10 countries. We had our past National Woman’s Department president share on “being part of God’s team”. In all it was a wonderful afternoon of fellowship, fun and spiritual encouragement.

Tanya had the wonderful opportunity to share with the Scottsville Baptist Church Ladies this month. They hosted a meeting focusing on “Christ the Bride” and they went all out to make the event just like a wedding. With modeling of old and new wedding dresses, delicious eats and fancy cup cakes, with a blue and silver colour scheme and invitations, menu cards and place settings. Tan spoke on the Wedding wisdom – 10 young virgins with their lamps lit – being prepared for the coming of the bridegroom. What a wonderful afternoon of sharing together.

Our Family bible study is flying and we are so blessed to have 8 couples together each time we meet. The girls are enjoying the hosting and the kids are loving the pajama party – great excitement.

A blessing out of this is that the dads are meeting every Saturday morning to play a game of tennis together and are so enjoying growing Christian friendships.









The moms go along to root for their hubbies while having early morning coffee and the kids have so enjoyed the jungle gyms and entertainment from visiting monkeys!! Look at Troydie with his tennis racket trying to "shoo" the monkey away! These are some of his favourite little friends!











Our Young Adults ministry is going well with the weekly bible study well attended and a strong core group of about 17 are faithful in coming each week.

The kiddies ministry has been hard work to get the parents to commit to bring the children each week. This term we have been learning about the “Treasures of God”. Teaching the children some of God’s attributes from the book of Romans.

So fun to finally catch up with all of you – hope you enjoying the pics – still lots more to come. Chat again soon
God Bless and take care - In His hands

Mark, Tanya, Troyden, Treyson & Tryston

JUNE 2010

JUNE NEWS 2010

Hi to all our family and friends – WOW time seems to just fly fly by!!! Just checked out our blog and my goodness the boyz have grown so here is another update to touch base with all of you.
Thought it would be good to go month by month! Enjoy all the pics and all our news.


We had a great time of CELEBRATING Gran Abrams (Mark’s granny, the boyz great granny) 80th birthday. We enjoyed a special meal with her and the extended family at a hotel in the Natal Midlands. What a joy to have such a godly grandmother so able and fit to be part of our lives. We pray God’s special blessing on her.

SOCCER FEVA!!!
Yes we did get to enjoy the vuvuzelas, wistles, shouts and loud hub-bub atmosphere of living in the world cup host country. We had a family outing to the beachfront to enjoy the soccer fan club with activities on the beach all day long.






Troydie got to run in a huge ball and all the boyz enjoyed a little train ride and Tan ate the messiest ice-cream ever! We were very involved in ministry outreach during the world cup and so enjoyed the extra opportunities to share Jesus with others.

One of our activities was our Holiday Bible Club THE ULTIMATE GOAL – “SUPER LEGUE” It was all centered around sharing the gospel and being apart of “God’s Team”. We had two teams the Strikers and the Defenders and Mark was the leader and was nicknamed “FIFA”.

Each of our leaders had a team name like, left back, forward, kicker, goalie, scorer, linesman etc. Our senior pastor did the Bible teaching each day and each story built onto the next in learning about God’s salvation plan for our lives.
We split the group of about 60 kids into “team talk time” to do a craft were we made, flags, peaks, and shaker and soccer board games. Our game time was busy with many a ball game loads of fun and creativity to make it a challenge and a great time for the kids to play.
Each day we had a crazy dress activity so you can see from our pics we even had a change of hair doo!
What a wonderful week of sharing God’s love with the children. Troyden so enjoyed his FIRST Bible Holiday Club and has been asking when is the next one.


















We ended our week with a weekend away in Margate down on the coast were we had time to relax and rest after a busy week of ministry.







We took the kids to the bird park where the birds sit on your head when you feed them and Troydie got to fee the bunny rabbits.

















We paddled the paddle boats on the lagoon to see the waterfall. The boyz all so enjoyed riding on the water and mom and dad had a huge work on the thighs paddling the boat.









We treated ourselves to WAFFLES at eh waffle house and the boys so enjoyed playing in their playground on the horsie.
And in between enjoyed walking along the beach, digging in the sand and paddling our toes – great WINTER weekend on the beach!












FAMILY NEWS
Troyden has now learnt how to get dressed by himself and is most proud when he gets his T-shirt on and off all by himself. Can’t believe how quickly he is growing up. We have had so much fun chatting and the things he says are too cute. The one day we were talking about where do you go when you die and we explained that God lived in heaven and that we would go there if we love the Lord with all our hearts and he asked “well how do we get there?” and mommy promptly said “we will FLY!” (the only way I could explain quickly) and you should have seen his eyes and his response with all the expression you could imagine “FLY!!! WOW!! How cool!!”
Then when speaking about tomorrow or yesterday he says “dad, on the other morrow can we do….” So now we use that all the time – on the other morrow lets…. All too fun having kids in the house!

Our puppy, MAC has grown and we took him on his very FIRST walk and oh did he love that!!! Dad even enjoyed the ride with the boyz!!!

MINISTRY
Our main ministry update for the month of June was really all the Soccer outreach that our church family was involved in, services, screening of the games with supper provided in the rural areas and of course our fun holiday club.
We have also started a new bible study that Mark is leading for the young families. Tan leads the moms group and these moms were feeling that their husbands never get an opportunity to chat with other men with the same family, social, work pressures and wanted to have a bible study time for them as couples to study God’s word together. We now meet twice a month with a quick supper for the family and child care provided during the study time. What a blessing this has been to be amongst adults our own age all with different spiritual needs and how refreshing to have new Christians and even some who don’t know much about spiritual things meet together to discuss and learn. We have so enjoyed this new ministry opportunity. Please pray for those who are seeking, asking and wanting to follow Christ more closely.


Thanks for taking the time to catch up with us – chat again soon

God Bless and take care - In His hands

Mark, Tanya, Troyden, Treyson & Tryston