Ladies' Bible Study

Wow, it's been a really long time since we've updated this blog. Sorry about that! It's been a really busy year for us .... but I guess that's not an excuse.

A few weeks ago I started a Bible study for the women who visit our local church's crisis pregnancy center. Many of the ladies who come to the center actually already have children, but they need material assistance providing for their babies. The center provides diapers, soap, milk powder, clothes and other necessities to about 60 moms a month. 

Attendance at the Bible study has been up and down. Some Tuesdays only one lady comes, some days there are as many as eight. When there is a group, there is always really good discussion.

We are studying the women of the Bible; so far we've done the stories of Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Ruth, and Hannah. It is great to witness these women learn about our faithful God who hears our prayers. 

Please pray these women will grow to love the Word of God and desire to follow Him wholeheartedly.

Sunday School Workshop

Over the weekend I had the opportunity to help lead a workshop for Sunday School teachers at a church in downtown Johannesburg. The church is made up of both South Africans and immigrants from nations such as Zimbabwe and DRC. Some of my friends and I were able to share ways to creatively teach God's Word with children. Hopefully it was an encouragement and inspiration to the teachers who attended.

The teachers in this church know how to read the Bible, and so do the children they teach (or at least they will have the opportunity to once they are old enough). But preparing for this workshop reminded me that there are many people in Africa who do not know how to read and/or do not have Scripture in their own language. Fortunately there are believers who are teaching oral learners about God's Word using a technique called storying. Check out some stories about it here.

 

Trip to Thailand

Earlier this month Ty and I made a trip to Thailand. I had to attend a meeting for website editors from around the world. It was good to be back in a country I love and see friends from all around the globe. We even got to see my dad, who was attending a different meeting in the same place@

But before we made it to Thailand, we had an unexpected adventure in Dubai! We missed our connection to Bangkok and got stuck with an 18-hour layover in Dubai, which gave us an opportunity to go out and explore.

In Thailand, whenever we weren't in meetings we had a great time shopping, eating yummy Thai food and hanging out with my dad and with friends. Ty was a fantastic little traveler -- he was always in good spirits and charmed everyone he met!

Christmas Celebrations

Our Christmas Day was spent at home. The morning was a special time with just the four of us -- we opened presents, ate cinnamon rolls, and helped Kylie play with her new toys. Then some friends who are like family joined us for lunch and games in the afternoon (Mary Beth grew up with them in Zimbabwe and Mozambique, and now they are living here in South Africa!).

 

Since the two days after Christmas were also holidays, we enjoyed spending time with two other families with kids -- we had a cookout, watched "Elf" together, and went to a small game park about an hour away. We feel so blessed to have special people to spend the holidays with. Even though our families are far away and we miss them a lot, we are so thankful to have "family" here as well.

Family Visit

We had a special treat this month -- Deron's parents and niece came to visit! Of course they mostly wanted to meet their new grandson/cousin and hang out with him and Kylie, but we also got to take them on a vacation to Kruger National Park and the surrounding area.

 

We had a lot of fun visiting the Elephant Sanctuary, where we got to brush, pet, learn about, and "walk" two elephants.

 

Trip to Uganda

Today Deron leaves for a five-day trip to Uganda. He'll be visiting with some colleagues who'll play a big role in a partnership between Africa and Fuge student camps. They'll be planning out some details on how students can get involved in the work in that part of Africa, and he'll also be capturing video and photos for some promotional materials.

Please pray:

• for strength and stamina -- once he's in Uganda he has to take a 12-14 hour drive to get to the village
• for wisdom as he and his colleagues plan out some details for the partnership
• for him to capture just the right images and interviews for the promotional materials

Please also pray for Kylie, Ty and me as we stay behind -- this is my first time to be a single parent to two kids, and I'm sure it will be a challenge. I'm especially dreading how tiring it will be to wake up in the night to feed Ty, then also have to get up early with Kylie (she's often an early riser), get her ready for school, and get us all out the door to get to school on time.

World AIDS Day

Today is World AIDS Day. Although many people are suffering because of their own carelessness, many others are sick and dying through no fault of their own. People like Clive, an HIV-positive orphan who contracted the virus through his mother. 

Please take a few moments to read or watch his story and pray about how God may be leading you to help people like him through ministries like BGR's HIV/AIDS Response projects.

Celebrations

We celebrated Thanksgiving extra-well this year, complete with two Thanksgiving meals! Our first one was lunch with a couple of American friends, one of whom is married to a South African (not pictured). 

This was his first Thanksgiving, so we had to do it up right, complete with turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin pie. Then we went to a celebration with all our colleagues from our office, and ate all of the above plus more. It was a special day to be thankful not only for our own family but also for the extended family God has blessed us with here in South Africa.

The following week, we kicked off the Christmas season by setting up our Christmas tree and hosting our team's annual Christmas party.

The tree-trimming process was a three-night ordeal -- the first night it took forever to make the tree stay upright (the tree stand is too big); the second night Deron had the classic "battle of the lights" -- some blinked, some didn't, some colors worked, some didn't, etc.; the third night, we were finally able to put decorations on the tree. Poor Kylie was very patient as she had to wait so long to put on the decorations. As you can see, we have lots of low-hanging ornaments this year -- she liked to cluster all the ornaments she hung in the same spot.

This year, our team decided to have a costume Christmas party. Can you guess the theme of each of our costumes? 

Our teammates were very creative as well - we had snowflakes, five golden rings, popcorn chains, and more. It was a lot of fun to hang out with our local "family" again.

Lions and Parents and Parties

 

The highlight of the month of October was a visit from my parents. My mom was here for almost the entire month; dad was able to come for about a week and a half. We all enjoyed getting to spend time with them, and mom was a huge blessing as we adjusted to life with a new baby. She took care of almost all the meal preparation, shopping, laundry and kitchen clean up for the entire time she was here, and they both spent time loving on and taking care of the kids. We were definitely spoiled!

While they were here we took a trip to the Lion and Rhino Nature Sanctuary, where we got to see lots of animals both in cages and out on a game drive. We actually made the trip on Ty's one-month "birthday," but as you can see he was rather unimpressed by all the animals. But Kylie thoroughly enjoyed getting to play with the lion cubs.

 

 

 We also participated in a "pumpkin party" around Halloween time. Kylie was super cute dressed up in some of my old West African cloth, complete with a baby strapped to her back.

At the party she had fun doing crafts, games, cookie decorating, and a pinata (the candy that finally fell out was the best part of the whole party, of course).

Ty at One Month

Ty turned one month old today! He is such a sweet, pleasant baby -- we are so blessed that we got another happy and fairly easy-to-take-care-of infant, like Kylie. 

He is growing like a champ -- he is now 57 cm/22.5 in and 4.9 kg/10.8 lb. In the past two weeks he grew a little over an inch and gained around two pounds! Hopefully he won't continue growing that fast or we'll have quite a little chunk on our hands. :)

He generally eats every three hours, although sometimes he seems famished every hour or so (not so fun for mommy!). His eyes are focusing better and he is able to concentrate on faces and objects for a little while. He is content to lay in his crib or on a mat and entertain himself for quite awhile just by looking around. He does smile fairly often, although not yet at anyone or in response to a smile. However, I really think sometimes he smiles out of contentment and pleasure, and not just because of gas or a dream, like some people say babies do! Maybe it's just wishful thinking. :)

Hail!

Today there was a sudden, strong hailstorm in our community and in some other parts of the country. Some of the hailstones was the size of golf balls or even bigger. Our fence was broken along with some of the tiles on our roof, and our car had some minor dents. Some of the hail even came into our house through the chimney! Many of our friends and neighbors had car and/or house windows that were broken. The only positive part about the hailstorm is that while surveying the damage we were finally able to meet several of our neighbors. We've lived in our new house for about three months but have been so preoccupied with work, settling in and pregnancy/new baby that we haven't made time to meet anyone. Hopefully we'll have continued opportunities to build these relationships.

Kylie's School Concert

Since July, Kylie has been attending a pre-primary school (a.k.a. preschool) in a neighborhood between our house and our office. She absolutely loves having kids to play with every day! The teachers give them lots of outdoor playtime, so she really enjoys the school playground, and she also enjoys bringing a craft home every day. She is learning a lot about painting, gluing, cutting and coloring. The teachers at the school are all Christian so it is a great environment for her to be in every day.

Last Saturday the school hosted their annual concert, in which Kylie's class sang three songs. The last (and only other) time Kylie participated in a musical performance (at the meeting we attended in Kenya in July) she was not very cooperative -- she did not sing or do most of the movements, and she crawled off the stage to sit in our laps a couple of times. So we weren't sure how she would act in this situation, but we hoped she would do better because she is more familiar with (and comfortable with) these songs, teachers and classmates. She did great! As soon as she spotted her daddy in the audience, she seemed at ease up on stage. She said the chants loudly and clearly, did all the motions, and clapped joyfully after every performance. We were so proud of her! Here's a little clip from one of the songs:

Our Boy

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Snow! In Africa!

Yesterday it was so cold that it actually snowed here in Johannesburg! Supposedly this only happens every 5 or 10 years, so it was quite an event. It snowed on and off all day, but it melted fairly fast once it hit the ground. 

Deron was out getting video footage of a volunteer team, so he had to work in the snow. His hands were frozen!

Kylie was at school so we did not get a chance to play with her in the snow before it melted, but it did look pretty in our yard for a little while ...

 

Trip to Kenya

We flew back into South Africa on June 20, and about two weeks later we hopped on another plane to head to Kenya for six days. We attended a conference with colleagues who work throughout East Africa. We haven't visited that part of the continent yet (except when I [Mary Beth] was a kid) so it was good to visit a different part of Africa and learn about the work there. 

Nairobi is a big, bustling capital city, but drove up a mountain to a conference center built in the middle of tea plantations. It was a kind of damp and dreary, but still beautiful.

 

Kylie celebrated her third birthday while we were there. We had a little party for her in Johannesburg before we left, so her real birthday was kind of low key. But we did save a few presents for her to open and tried to make it a special day. It's hard to believe our little girl is getting so big!