March 2012

Marvelous MARCH!!

BABY EMMIE - Wow the year is flying by and can’t seem to quite keep up to date with all that is going on.  Poor Baby Emmie is not doing so well and battling with Colic!! So Aunty Tan flew to Joeys to help for a weekend.  And super dad Mark kept the 3 boys by himself.  Oh yes it was a trying and testing time in many ways but what a super dad he was and what specially behaved little men we have – THANK YOU JESUS for family and the support we can be for each other.  Tan so enjoyed the time to chat and encourage Amber yey another sister and she just loved getting to know her better.

It was great to help out where she could to ease the load on the new parents we made small victories each day, Emie hates the bath water, is very cute and just love the fashion mommy ambz is dressing her in - look at the shooz!! :)

Sorry couldn't get it to rotate right - isn't she cute!!!

We made some special memories together. - Love you all very much!!

SCHOOL GALA – Yey!we all dressed in gumboots and armed with our umbrellas as we set off to the gala.  Yes, it decided to rain the day of Troydie’s school gala but as they were all going to be wet anyway the gala was set to happen.  What a great time we had big boy Troydie did so well on his race he had to jump in with the kicker board and kick like mad to get across the school pool.  We all cheered so did the family of ducks that had visited for a quick swim!

NEW HAIR – Tan had a spoil from a very special friend to have a new hair style so off to the hairdresser and look she stepped out the SALON!! Too fun!! _ see the two looks - short curly or short straight!!!

Ministry

@TAP COFFEE SHOPPE – we have a little coffee shop that is on our church property that serves part of the community center.  It has a lovely playground with all sorts for the kids to enjoy.  As of the start of the year the new manageress has implemented some renovations and Tan together with another mom were asked to paint the murals on the walls.  It was a huge job of tracing, drawing and painting that continued for most of the month of March.  Many an hour in the hot sun painting while the kids played.  The end result was great – what a testimony to others as they come to the coffee shop and are surrounded with pictures of bible characters.

The Wendy house is painted as Noah's ark with animals on all four sides

Jesus calms the storm

Jonah and the Big Fish

LADIES PRAYER BREAKFAST – The ladies ministry started their year with a prayer breakfast and it proved to be a huge blessing.  The early morning was perfect to meet to fellowship over a continental breakfast and then special structured prayer time was planned out.  Tan shared a short devotion on prayer and all the ladies were greatly encouraged after meeting together in this way.

FUTURE MINISTRY – we as a couple have spent special time in prayer for our future ministry at Durban North Baptist Church.  We underwent an interview and presentation regarding the Senior Pastors position and both of us felt that we are not the right people for this specific job at Durban North Baptist Church and decided after much counsel with our mentors that we withdraw our names. We praise the Lord for his leading in our lives and know that the Lord will lead the call committee to the right man to come alongside Mark to lead Durban North Baptist Church.  Please pray for our church, call committee and us as we seek to do our best as we lead the church in the interim.  

Family

BIRTHDAY TIME – for Tan!!! We planned our weekend off over Tan’s birthday and headed north to visit Trent and Amber.  This was the official meeting of the cousins and what a special time we had as a full family. 

We got to enjoy the outdoors of Joeys, we camped in Trent’s garden – the boys loved that!!! We had a visit to Botanical Gardens where Baba (Tan’s Dad) was able to walk the fullway to the waterfall on his “new “ Knee Praise Jesus all is coming right there – slowly but surely.  Troydie especially liked the tortoise! :)

We planned an outing to the Zoo and that was super special to all have this time out “in the WILD” together.  The Polar bears even swam for us.  We got to watch them feed the cheetah and enjoy lunch with the Chimps - too fun!! It really was a very special weekend to make memories and celebrate birthday time together.

Thanks for your love, support and care of us – God bless in Heaps

Mark, Tan and Terrific T’s

February 2012

It's LOVE all around !

The month of LOVE as they say…. God is LOVE!!!  And we all feel so special – our Young Families threw a SUPER DUPER Couples dinner.  What a special evening of fellowship and spoiling.  The table was set with red and white table runners, roses, balloons and chocolates.  Each mom supplied part of the meal and we were able to have a 4 course sit down meal together all 15 of us.  It was a super special evening all dressed in Red and white.  What a blessing to share the love of Jesus with each other.

Another Love moment …. Our first baby NIECE arrived in the world this month – welcome to Emmie Belle Eayrs.  We are super excited to meet, love and get to know you.  Congrats to Daddy T and Mommy Ambz – We love you lots.

February is one of our HOTTEST months in the year so we had many a visit to the Beach and pool excitement.  Troyden is swimming nicely and quite water safe – he just loves to jump in and be a dolphin!!

Fridaynight CAMP OUT night has become a family special each week.  We carry the matrasses downstairs and camp out in the lounge together.  Movie, popcorn and chocolate are added to the PJ fun – the boyz cannot wait each week for FRIDAY!!!

RIDING FUN - YEY Treyson is riding too now - round and round so our outing to ride as a family is more of a RUN for daddy and mommy looks like we will be investing in bikes soon to keep up with our riding boyz!! YEY a special treat for learning to peddle was tea out for WAFFLES!! YUM

Ministry

MISSIONS – Mark was able to help Macedonian Ministries and do a quick 3 nights up to Northern Zululand and into Mozambique.  He had a wonderful time catching up with all the pastors in that area.  Delivering medicine, literature, food and clothing.  Mission is always a blessing in so many ways and he so enjoyed the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with all that he came into contact with.

KHULANI HAVEN - we as a church support and help where we can an orphanage in our area.  The ministry team for this ministry arranged a garden tea party.  It was a lovely afternoon to wear your hat, play crochet and try to hit the  Piñata - lots of fun had by all!!

CHURCH MINISTRY – Mark is the Interim Pastor at Durban North at present as they wait on the Lord for leading as to who to call as the Senior Pastor.  He has increased his preaching load to almost double and carrying the full load of the whole church ministry.  We have found it to be a huge challenge and incredible blessing to be stretched in this ministry opportunity – please continue to pray for us.  During the month we have had 3 family dedications and a baptismal service – What a blessing to see God’s children grow!  Due to our busy church schedule we have had to put his studies toward his Masters on hold for a while as to pace ourselves properly pray with us as we apply ourselves to the ministry at hand.

Thanks for your love, support and care of us – God bless in Heaps

Mark, Tan and Terrific T’s

January 2012

THE START OF THE YEAR !! - BANG BANG !!

We’ve started the year with a bang and January came and went quick quick quick!! Just to highlight some events on the home front.

BEACH FUN - HOT HOT HOT January so we have had loads of fun in the sun at the beach YEY!!! Troydie even got to "surf" on his little body board - so much fun!!

FUN IN THE GARDEN – we spent many an afternoon out in the garden playing on the jungle gym and trampoline.  The weather has been HOT HOT HOT – so the boyz loved the water in the little pool with the slide and shooting each other with water guns.

WE EVEN FIT ALL THREE ON OUR SWING!!

TROYDIE NUMBER 5 BIRTHDAY – Troy is 5 wow time has flown and our little baby is growing up so cute, he is telling everyone “I’m a BIG boy now”!  We started his birthday celebrations with some fun little pressies for him to open and the little minkies think it’s only a birthday if there are candles and a cake so mom improvised and we had candles on a chocolate with morning tea – too fun!!

BIRTHDAY RING – he had his special birthday ring at school where they sing for you and you blow the candles – Tan bought the relighting candles and they kept lighting up – all the giggles in the class it was priceless to watch all the kiddies faces!  Treyson and Tryston went with to the birthday ring, they were a little overwhelmed but really enjoyed it!

PONY PARTY – the Cowboys must ride!  Troydie just loves horses so we planned for party pony’s to come to his party.  What a blast they all had.  We had a small group of his friends meet at the park for a picnic party to ride as many times as they liked.  Troydie even got the pony onto a trot and then a gallop – many shrieks of laughter and big big smiles!  In all the party was a huge success with a game of pin the tail on the pony, shoot the bug using water guns, boot toss (throwing the boots into a hoop), horse shoe throwing, lasso the bottle filled with sand.  Everyone had a wonderful time. “ Happy Happy birthday to our cowboy boy Troydie!”

NEW BIKE – now that he’s five we launched out onto a new BIG bike and what a star he was.  We took them all riding on the afternoon of his birthday and he hoped on and off he went.  He just love that he can now ride FAST, riding is definitely one of our best family outings – just need to get mom and dad onto bike too! (Tryston has started to peddle his little bike round and round and is going quite well. Treyson still only peddling with one leg and battles to keep up with his speedy brothers)

It was a big day for Tryston  - Troyden got a new bike but Tryston learnt how to peddle ROUND AND ROUND on his bicycle - YEY for learning and they are just loving the outside on their bikes.

ZOO OUTING - we had a fun outing to the zoo near by Durbs and got to enjoy the LION up close and personal.  Then the chimpanzee's were a highlight.  They were very noisey and very active climbing up to the top of thier jungle gym and balancing right up top the pole - the boyz loved having picnic with them !!

SCHOOL HOMEWORK - With a bigger class and our little Troyd growing to be 5 he now gets to do some homework on a Friday afternoon.  What fun we have had this quarter, mom helped with a puppet boy out of paper that Troyd had to dress with paper clothes (just like a paper doll) too fun.  Dad helped with making a 3D man out of toilet roll, noodles, pipe cleaners and wool.  The fun of school begins!

HELICOPTER RIDE – Yes Dad and Troy got the opportunity to have a ride out over the sea and up and down the coast of Durban in a Helicopter.  We have a flight instructor in our church and she so wanted Mark to have a chance to ride.  Troydie was beside himself with excitement and so enjoyed the flight.  The only thing he was disappointed about was that the Helicopter didn’t get to ski on the water :) Enjoy the next few pics of the view of Durbs!

Ministry

YOUTH CAMP – our youth group started the year off with a camp at a camp site down on the south coast.  We were able to join them for a day and enjoy a time of fellowship and fun in the sun.  They did an obstacle course, played soccer, had several sessions lead by another visiting pastor diving into God’s word together and a trip to the beach for a swim.  In all what a blessing to be part of this special time growing together as a group in the Lord.

LADIES MINISTRY – Tan had her first ladies team meeting in January and was blessed in heaps and loads – she is so encouraged to be involved as the leader among the ladies.  She is excited about the challenge and the opportunity to be a shining light for Jesus amongst the ladies at Durban North.  Pray for her as she takes on this leadership roll that she would have wisdom, discernment and a great time of growing in God’s grace!  She is super excited about all events planned for the year ahead – praying that God be glorified in each one.

Thanks for your love, support and care of us – God bless in Heaps

Mark, Tan and Terrific T’s