Lunch with SOS at Stonefire

I love Stonefire, and I love SOS Bible Study!  So we had the perfect idea, to all have lunch together at the retreat!  It was such a fun time of fellowship and good food.  On the way there, too, we got to drag race the Curries in their Merc... (while being sanctified and not breaking the speed limit, of course!)   Guess who won. ;)

Babysitting Calista

Ryan and Elna were given tickets to a Valentines Banquet at Placerita Baptist so we agreed to babysit for them so they could have an evening alone for a change!  They both looked so smart all dressed up as they headed off for dinner.  Calista is a real cutie and Andrew and I had fun building blocks and playing with her!  Unfortunately she is going down with a cold and is also teething but she was still a joy to look after!  It helps that I'm pretty high up there on her list of favorite people!

Becoming Your Husband's Friend, Fan and Flame

Today I went to the Placerita Baptist Church Marriage seminar for women along with my friend Elna. It was such a great time of fellowship and learning! The church was beautifully decorated, and the speakers and their topics were excellent! Here are some of the highlights of the day!

Volunteering for Shepherd's Conference

I am so excited to be here at Grace Community Church for my first Shepherd's Conference!  Andrew is the guy in charge of the whole Bookstore this year and will be really busy, so I have decided to volunteer to help at the conference too.  I will be involved in the shepherds shoppe where they sell all the merchandise for the conference.  It looks like I will be receiving some training before the conference so I can be an overseer of the store, helping to fix any problems that come up...  Today was the volunteer's meeting after the service, and there were over 600 people there, all ready and eager to serve the 3500 pastors and men who will come from all over the world to be encouraged and refreshed for ministry!  The volunteers are all assigned to different areas and will be working together to make the conference as effective and smooth as possible.  I am so blessed to be a part of this church!

 

Andrew and I can't wait to see a few of the South Africans who will be coming out to the conference, it will be such a sweet time of fellowship and ministry!

Shepherd's Conference Website

The Shepherd's Conference is from March 3-7 2010.

"Our mission is to provide the opportunity for men in church leadership to be challenged in their commitment to biblical ministry and to find encouragement as together we seek to become more effective servants of our Chief Shepherd."

TMS Placement Workshop

The Master's seminary has such great resources for outgoing students and they play a huge role in helping students with placement in churches all over the world!  Twice a year, this placement workshop is held by Ray Mehringer who organizes speakers who can offer useful insight into how to think about, and what usually happens in looking for a church to minister at.

"One of the most important decisions a pastor will make is what church to accept a position at.  In the same way the choice of a wife will effect your everyday existence, the choice of a church will become the world you live in."

A Full Time Worker!

We have been given an extraordinary blessing from the Lord by receiving Andrew's R1 visa, and as of today, he is a full time employee of Grace Community Church! This means more hours of work a week so he may drop one of his classes, but does mean we are able to save up some money to head on back to South Africa, Lord willing, at the end of this year!

R1 Visa Approved!

Praise the Lord for an answer to our prayer! We have been thinking through whether we should just forget about the visa or not in terms of planning for future ministry. We decided that if we didn't hear anything this month that we would plan for without it. But this evening, just before bed we got the email letting us know it is approved! we are not sure exactly when we will get the actual visa or how it will affect our plans, but we will keep you posted!

Coffee with Elna

So Calista and I are now apparently best friends!!! What a precious girl! I went to visit Elna today, and walked from my apartment to hers, it's really a pleasant walk! When I got there, Calista babbled on and on about something to me, I'll have to get the video Elna took! It was a great time of fellowship with Elna, and I'm sure there will be many more occasions like it!

Ryan and Elna move to their Apartment

Who would have thought that 5 people and ALL their belongings would fit in our apartment?! I t has been so much fun to have Ryan and Elna stay with us, and I have gotten to know them really well over the last four days since we came back from Frazier Park! Little Calista and I have already formed a close bond, and man is she cute!

The Getty's at GCC!

I love Keith and Kristyn Getty. They write the most incredible new hymns! Like "In Christ Alone", "Beneath the Cross", "The Power of the Cross" and "Speak O Lord". We sing all of these at Grace, and today, they came to lead Grace Community Church in worship for the evening service! I got Andrew to take me super early so I could get a good seat and hear them practise! It was totally worth it and here is the results!

Welcome Ryan and Elna!

Another South African couple arrives in LA for Seminary! I was so excited that they were coming out, both for Andrew, who knew them from Grace Fellowship, and for myself because I hopefully gain a new friend! Ryan was Joel James' secretary before he came out, and Elna is a GP. Their little daughter Calista is 19 months and a real cutie!!!

Merry Christmas!

Santa's been!!!

Dropping Friends at the Airport

Andrew and I get a lot of requests to take people to and fetch people from LAX airport. So many of our friends have been heading home for Christmas and we happen to be one of very few who are sticking around to help with this! I am glad people feel free to ask us, and we wish we had a bigger car to take them! But we usually end up using their cars to take them since it has more boot and passenger space! I guess it can be seen as a blessing as gas is expensive for us... But we love seeing our friends off and welcoming them back!

An Undeserved Gift...

How is this for an amazing blessing!

Andrew called me this afternoon saying that an acquaintance of his had a turkey meal that they wanted to give to us because they understood we had no family to go to for Christmas, and that they know seminary students don't have much to spend on Christmas dinner. We were just blown away that they were thinking about giving in a season that seems to be so focused on getting! We didn't know what really to expect until they arrived later that evening to drop off the goodies!!! This is the wonderful couple - Jerry and Barbara Newbold, who attend Grace Community Church and live in Frazier Park, about 45 minutes away from us.

Andrew's Christmas Preaching Opportunity

Today Andrew got the opportunity to preach to an assisted living home for the Christmas service. he really enjoys these chances to open God's Word! Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well so I didn't go along, but I am sure it was a great encouragement for those who were there and could understand!

Welcome Phil and Melissa!

Meet Phil and Melissa! Phil is starting at Seminary in the Spring! They are staying with Anna and Lonngren until they get an apartment. Welcome!

Farewell Johnny and Jenny!

Today was the last day before Johnny and Jenny left to go and take a church back in Ireland (sob, sob...) I made Jenny a little box to store all the pictures from her time here in LA. I was horrified to realize that I didn't have a single picture with her and I! Weird how that happened! Nonetheless, this is the outcome...

GCC Christmas Concert

This is my first opportunity to play with my new camera! Let me know how you think it went... Unfortunately the standard lens is not a very high quality one and this means that indoor shots and night shots are not going to be very clear. But all things considered, I like how they came out!

Christmas Party with SOS!

We just love our Bible Study! Park and Pam invited the group to have their Christmas Get-together at their TOTALLY festive home! Everyone signed up for food and I brought a good old Lemon Meringue pie for dessert! It was a sweet time of fellowship!

Painting the Patton's New Home, and Rob Iverson's Farewell