Friday, December 31, 2010

Goodbye 2010

What an awesome, rich year it has been! I’m so amazed, and grateful.

My prayer is that for each of the 365 days that lies ahead, we will do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God (Micah 6:8). Regardless of what horrors or ecstasies await in 2011, if we choose contentment in Christ, then it will be a good year.

My ‘themes for my thirties’ so far have been love, wisdom, gentleness, simplicity, consistency, zest, potential, forgiveness and contentment – so here’s to another year of striving to live by those.

I’m also excited about our positioning on the planet for this another bright, unmarked year – physically, spiritually. Because, for now, He has planted us here with the jacarandas, for His purposes.

You're the God of this City
You're the King of these people
You're the Lord of this nation
You are

You're the Light in this darkness
You're the Hope to the hopeless
You're the Peace to the restless
You are

There is no one like our God
There is no one like our God

For greater things have yet to come
And greater things are still to be done
in this City...
And greater things are still
to be done here.
- Chris Tomlin

May we taste and see the goodness of God.




Sunday, December 26, 2010

Photos: holiday et al

























































































































































































































































































Our holiday at Nature’s, Christmas day, playing at home, DIY with Dad, etc... :)

Friday, December 24, 2010

Home for Christmas

We are home, sweet home. :)

We had a lovely holiday (I’ll post some photos soon), despite the rainy weather. Just being at Nature’s is an incomparable soul balm. We got to spend quality time with my folks, the de Koks, the Prozeskys, the Groblers, the Paynes, the forest, the fynbos, the river, the beach... Awesome. And Cam, as always, absolutely loved every moment, swimming until he was blue and shivering, and building sand ‘Christmas trees’. He didn’t mind one bit the howling wind or the drizzle (or the fact that he had tonsillitis)! :) He also discovered a baboon in the house one morning. I’d made coffee for us and brought it back to bed, leaving the kitchen door open for Lola. Cam wandered through to the dining room and we heard what we thought was Sue making coffee... and dropping a few things...? Cam returned to our room and calmly informed us that ‘there was a black dog playing on the table’...! Fortunately we believed him, realised it must be a baboon, and hurtled through the house to chase out the hairy, biscuit-thieving intruder. (We don’t always believe him. Like this morning, he told me, ‘Peacocks are scared of tumble driers’...?)

Scott is not quite at beach holiday appreciation age, but he had a happy time nonetheless. He is so responsive now, and his face lights up adorably when one of us comes into a room or talks to him. He was three months old on the 20th December and he is growing like a mushroom! I just can’t get enough of his enormous blue eyes and his chubby little tightly grasping hands. Such a glorious thing, to hold and love a baby.

And now it’s Christmas! There’s nothing about Christmas that I don’t love – from Bony M to mince pies. But most of all I love that Christmas brings hope. Here’s an acronym I made up a few weeks ago for a cell group Christmas study that we did:

C – Christ incarnate; comfort
H – hope; heaven a reality
R – renewal; refreshing; restoration; rejuvenation; rejoicing
I – inspiration (to be all we were created to be); inner change and healing; intimate relationship with Him
S – salvation; sealed in the Spirit; sanctification
T – Trinity made tangible
M – motivation (to live God-honouring, abundant lives); ‘magic’ in the pure, glittering, tinselly sense of the word...; magnanimity of God in sending His own Son (I wouldn’t be able to...)
A – amazing freedom; adoration of God on high who came to dwell among the humble (shepherds!); adoption; armour of God
S – serenity (peace on earth and goodwill to all men)

And some awesome Christmas links:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-1OTVpOtyc (John Piper on ‘Why Christmas?)

http://www.thomaskinkade.com/magi/servlet/com.asucon.ebiz.search.web.tk.SearchServlet

http://www.stalbanscollege.com/africanchristmas/

May this Christmas, and 2011, be a time of renewal and refreshing (2 Corinthians 4:16) as you hope in Him, the source of abundant life, peace and lasting joy.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Beautiful new spaces
























































On Saturday 4th December we celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary, amidst the happy hassle and chaos of packing to move. We managed to squeeze in breakfast at Karoo Café, Mamma Mia at Monte Casino (such fun!), and a carol service, amongst other things.

Murray’s folks quoted this Celtic prayer in their anniversary card to us:

‘Most loving God, give them steadfast hearts, which no unworthy thoughts can drag downwards; unconquered hearts, which no hardships can wear out; upright hearts, which no worthless purpose can ensnare. Give them also understanding to know you, diligence to seek you and faithfulness that will finally embrace you.’

Then on Monday 6th December we said goodbye to 71 Maldon Road and two and a half very happy years of living on the St Alban’s College campus. Looking back, we can see God’s gracious wisdom in placing us there when he did. We moved onto campus just three days prior to finding out about Cam’s eyes, and what followed was the darkest season of our lives. God saw it coming and knew we’d need an awesome community of people to carry us through that time. How I will miss the stinkwoods in the garden, the open spaces, Lola running along the spruit, the neighbours popping in because they’ve run out of eggs or feel like a cup of tea... It’s been an unforgettable, privileged, healing season.

At the same time, we are so excited to be moving onto new things. We are now blissfully installed back at 233 Cliffendale Drive, and we pray that God will use our home as ‘a city set on a hill’. It feels wonderful and restful and thrilling and blessed to be in our own fresh, familiar space again. There is something delightful about having a tiny patch of God’s green earth to call your own.

Over the weekend my mom and dad were helping us fix up a few things in the house, and Cammy discovered the paved area below the wooden deck that extends from the back kitchen door. He ran into the house with shining eyes to tell Granny that he had found ‘a shadow house!’ He dragged us all down there to ‘have tea’... So typical of him to turn something mundane into something magical. He has been excited about the new house, his new room that he is sharing with his brother, the jungle gym, etc. but we’ve noticed some reactionary behaviour again – the move has jolted his little world somewhat. And so we’re piling on the affirmation and unsolicited attention. :)

Scott hasn’t missed a beat. He has smiled and cooed all week, peacefully watching boxes being shifted and unpacked. He is so much more responsive now to our voices, and he’s a strong, cuddly little chap, starting to roll and kick and the like.

The boxes are all unpacked, the boys are asleep, the Christmas tree is sparkling like something from a Thomas Kinkade painting, and we’re off to Nature’s Valley tomorrow.

We serve such a good, good God.