This is Shelin (more commonly known as Chocolate)......Sean (a new convert)

Susan (because of health reasons could not be emersed, but she entered into the water and Glen poured water on her head - her heart however was for full emersion)...

Debbie - she has been saved for many years, but has only recently made the decision to be baptised (she is also the lady that gave me my manicure and pedicure yesterday)...

This is Jimmy (Susan's husband). Glen has been so blessed by them and their teachable spirits. They are a real asset to our church!

Claudia - one of the youth in our church (her mom is the church's secretary)

Cerilee - She was so excited to be baptized, she was literally jumping up and down the whole morning - in the few months that I have known her, I have seen God work miracles in her life...

Kevin - also a recent convert in our youth...

and Steve - also a recent convert, even though he has been baptized before, he realized that he was not truly a christian, but God has been gracious and given him the new birth!

Hallelujah!

We had a really wonderful service this morning - 10 people went through the waters of baptism! One of them being our little Ray! It is wonderful to know that your children are serving the Lord and now taking those first steps of obedience. Our church was packed full of friends and family and other visitors and Glen preached a solid gospel message! We just pray that some seeds were sown in the hearts of unbelievers this morning. The whole atmosphere was just so 'family'. It was a wonderful time of celebration. We now look forward to see how God is going to continue the work that He has begun in the hearts of the new believers amongst us.

We pray that God would use Rachel for His kingdom and for His glory! Thank you Father for your amazing grace!

Glen organized a day for me at the salon yesterday...and when I say a day, I mean a day! I was there from 12:30 till 18:00. I had a manicure a pedicure and I had my hair done. It was great having the whole afternoon free to just be spoiled and pampered. After that Glen took me to a lovely restaurant here called 'Tony's Spagetti' - it was just a wonderful evening - what was all this for you might ask? Well, we decided to celebrate our anniversary a little earlier this year (which incedently is only on Tuesday). So I got the pampering and he got the 'new wife'.

Before

After

If this is a hand, and this is a hand...then is that a hand?....YES IT IS! But, if this is a hand, and this is a hand...then is that a hand? NO IT ISN'T!!!

This is the game we learned at youth last Friday, which had us all boggled! Now Glen and I get to boggle everyone else...it's SO MUCH FUN!!!

Last night we had some friends over for pizza - Jonathan, Claudene and Nina. We had such a great time, I don't think that I've laughed like that in a really long time - it's good to get together with friends, something we praise the Lord for!
Nina brought along some goodies for the girls from her youth...some Barbie furniture. I can't tell you how they enjoyed putting each piece into place in their house (which my dad made for them for Christmas last year)- Nina, being the special friend that she is to the girls got right in there and helped them to sort all the stuff out. I must say, this Barbie thing brings back a lot of memories of hours and hours of play time as a child. I am so blessed that the girls have this blessing to grow up with.



Here's the house, completely furnished...

top storey bedroom...

lounge and dining room...notice the cat on the couch and the flowers on the dining room table...so cozy...

kitchen...fully equiped with everything they would need...just lovely!

We have been without electricity the whole day today, so the time is 4:30pm and I have only now gotten to my computer. As you can see since yesterday I had been working on giving our blog a new look...I hope you like it! So, there hasn't been much more news from our side, but I will give you a sneak into what we like doing for fun with our kids.



This game Glen and I invented on our way down to P.E. just after we got married. We decided to attempt the 12 hour drive from Jo'burg without any sleep...boy was that tough! Glen wouldn't allow me to sleep on the way, because I had to keep him awake you see...and so we invented this game to try and stay awake - we called it 'Mad Cow Disease'. This game was introduced to the congregation in P.E. and then in Polokwane and now our kids have learnt it. Usually folk aren't that keen to play it, you'll see why, but for our girls it's just the best.



The aim of the game is to do something crazy, which the person following on from you has to copy...and so it goes from one person to the next. No other real point to it, but it's great for a laugh and to keep you awake!

In the second video, pay close attention to Glen's expression as the girls play!

I just love springtime...and this year it's even more special because our wintery garden is starting to blossom and bloom, so we are discovering day by day how beautiful this place really is...one problem though, we seem to have a lot of fruit trees in our garden. At the moment I am guessing that I have peaches, apricots and maybe even plums. I am NOT going to be making jam or anything of the sort, but I guess it will be nice to share the fruit we get with the congregation, if the fruit is good that is...we'll have to see.



Amanda and Rachel were playing dress up today on their favorite rock...well they didn't get dressed on the rock but they were playing on the rock, all dressed up...you know what I mean...

Amanda always goes for the sweet poses...

and Rachel...well....

Daddy's girl through and through!

Here's Rachel climbing her favorite rock in our back garden, in her ballet shoes...sorry that the video is on it's side, I didn't realise that I was holding the camera like that...as the girls would say..."Silly Mom!"

Fudgy Brownies...indeed, the Best Fudgy Brownies ever! Ever since I tried this recipe from Jacqui's blog I have fallen in love them...I just can't get enough. Now, you must know that I am not a typical housewife, I really don't like baking too much - but lately I have used every excuse to make these brownies.

It really is very easy to make, so the girls helped me...but I think they were doing it just to lick the bowl afterwards...it's great being a kid!

You can find the recipe for them on this site:

http://simply-da-best.blogspot.com

Thanks Jacqui - keep those fab recipes coming!

Never a dull moment with Glen as a husband and father...he manages to change even the mundane shaving episode into a helarious event!

This is the convict look...

the mad Hitler look...

...I don't know what look that's supposed to be...but it's my favorite!

On Sunday afternoon we arranged a Skype call with the Martins. It ended up being such a breath of fresh air...it was great to know that even though we were so far apart we could still communicate and have great laughs...it made them being so far seem much easier to handle -I praise the Lord for technology! Here are some of the snapshots I took.

If you go to the Martin's blog, you will see why Craig was cracking up like this...

I thought that the move would change them somehow...but they haven't changed one bit as you can see!!

On Saturday morning I attended the Sola 5 Ladies meeting at Lynnwood Baptist Church. I must say that these meetings are my absolute best! I love getting together with women who love God's Word, who love their husbands and children. It's wonderful to get together every few months and share our lives with each other, pray for each other and encourage one another in the ministry. This is such a vital time for ladies in the ministry as often we just feel so alone.
Judy Stone, Althea Kuyper and Ann Baker from Emmanuel Church (seen above chatting to Velia Button in red) graciously gave me a lift to Pretoria. It was great chatting to them for the hour drive there and back. The trip takes so long because of the highway speed limit only being 80...what a pain!

Wayne Mack's wife, Carol, was our speaker for the day - she spoke on how we could be better helpers to our husbands in the ministry...it was very helpful...very convicting!

This is Velia Button - her husband Bruce and her and their children are moving to Zambia at the end of September, if all goes well. He will be aiding in the training of pastors through the Sola 5 Theological College (not sure what it's called exactly). She is also using TCE, so she has been a blessing to chat to and get advise from as her children are in high-school and are almost finished. It's great to see her love for the Lord and her dedication to her husband and children. The morning was a huge success and a real blessing. Our next meeting has been scheduled for mid February...I am already looking forward to it!

Some of our youth went on the annual 'Power Camp' this weekend, so Glen was asked to lead the youth group on Friday night...so in typical Glen fashion he had an evening for them called "Grill a Christian", where the youth were allowed to ask Glen anything! There were some good questions that were raised like "Why did Jesus not have to go to hell if He took on Himself the sin of all His people?" and "Where do baby's go when they die". Glen absolutely loves youth ministry and so this was a real joy for him.
Above you can see Vince (furtherest away) Jason, and Glen...all with guitars. These two guys are in matric this year, and come to Glen for an informal guitar lesson every week. They are also considering joining 'A year for Life' next year, which is something Glen is starting up as a 'bridging year' for the young people in our church. As you can imagine Glen is really excited at the idea and is enjoying planning it, and these guys are also really excited at the prospect. Please pray that this new Krugersdorp Baptist Church ministry would be an asset to the Kingdom of God and that they would come through more enriched and saturated with God!

This is Kevin...he is a new convert, who has asked to be baptised - Praise the Lord! We are just so excited about what the Lord is doing here!

Every Friday night the youth meet in the 'Youth Pad' which you see above...this is also where the we have our ladies Bible study on a Sunday morning, during the Sunday School time, while Glen meets with the men in his office accross the way.

Amanda and Rachel and I joined the youth in the beginning of the evening for some fun and games - we played 'Black Magic' and some other 'Listen carefully' game...which had us all guessing...Glen and I can't wait to play this one with our friends sometime...just you wait!

We praise God for the youth here at KBC, they are really a blessing, and we pray that God would continue to shape them more and more into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ!

We were very priviledged to have the Martin's stay with us for their last two days in SA. Even though they spent most of their time at their home, while the removal company was packing up their place, we looked after the kiddies - which was a real blessing for Amanda and Rachel, and it also helped them so that they could freely get all the last minute things done that needed to get done. The kids had an absolute ball, and I just got closer to them, making saying goodbye even more difficult.

You would never say that Craig was sick with flu, jet-lagged and extremely stressed from this photo, would you?

Here the kids are all drawing pictures - as Paige couldn't fit in at this desk, she was the teacher for the day and sat at my desk. They really got on well, give or take a few disagreements, but generally we had a happy time of much activity; jumping on the trampoline, playing on the jungle gym, banging on the piano, drawing, building puzzles, building towers with blocks, riding scooters, blowing bubbles, building houses, climbing rocks, watching movies...you get the idea.

Yesterday morning, Craig and Lara went to see the truck off as they did the last bit to put all their stuff on the container - and I could see that Bonnie and Clyde were beginning to understand what was going on. Bonnie was moping around the whole day, and Clyde just wimpered and kept looking at the gate...ag shame...it must be very hard for them! As Lara said her goodbyes to them, she just couldn't hold back the tears - they will always be a part of their family...we are priviledged to have a part of the Martin family living with us now, we will take good care of them and try and love them as much as they do.

We couldn't let them leave without a picture of all of us together....

...and of course we needed our special 'crazy' pic...isn't it cool how the kids are growing up with such wonderful traditions?

We love this family so much and we will miss them terribly, but we just thank our great God for these friendships, and for His kindness in taking them to Australia - we know that God is always pouring His love on us as His beloved children, and that even though we feel the pain now, God's ways are always better than ours! I have great comfort in knowing that!

This fact however didn't stop Glen and I from weeping uncontrolably for about and hour after they left.