Water

What happens when you give a girl a cup of water?

Why, of course, she dumps it on her Daddy's head!

That was so much fun!!!!!

An Amazing Sunday

Wow!  Last Sunday at church was amazing.  On Saturday my husband had invited two adult men, a teenage boy, and an 8 year old boy to come to church on the bus.  On Sunday morning we were all pleasantly surprised when they got on the bus.  The teenage boy got saved during Sunday school.  The two adult men came forward during the invitation and both got saved.  The little boy got saved in Junior Church along with 6 other children.  My husband said both of the men came down the aisle as fast as they could at the invitation.  What an awesome God we serve!  Please pray for these men that they will continue to come to church and grow spiritually.  The adults' names are Huri and B.J.  The teenage boy is named Arvill, and the young boy is named Brendon.

Also on Sunday morning we went to pick up one of our most faithful bus riders, a young girl named Summer.  When we arrived at her house she was waiting outside with one of her friends who was going to come to church with her.  Summer decided at the last minute that she didn't want to come to church and ran away down the street.  Her friend decided that she was going to come to church anyway.  As the bus was pulling away from the house, we turned around and saw Summer running after the bus.  She changed her mind and decided that she was going to come!  We gladly stopped the bus and let her get on.  Please pray for Summer that she will stay faithful to church.

One of my responsibilities on Sunday mornings is to teach the teenage girls' Sunday school class.  This Sunday there were 5 girls in my class (all a bunch of chatter boxes!)  I was a bit concerned that they weren't going to stop talking long enough to let me teach the lesson!  They did stop and we had a wonderful class together.  Please pray for these girls.   They all are 12 and 13 years old and all except one of the girls come to church without their parents.  From previous experience this is the age when many of them drift out of church.  This particular group of girls seem so interested in church.  We need to win their hearts.

3 months, really?

Has it really been 3 months since I last posted?  Wow, so much for getting better at this blogging. :)  Well, I suppose I'd better catch everyone up with what's been going on around here.
At the end of July to the beginning of August my husband got to go to a preaching conference in Australia.  He had an amazing time and came back refreshed and ready to move the church forward.

After he got back, we had a surprise Birthday party for him at the church.  I won't tell you how old he is, but look at the candles on his cake.

On the 19th of August my husband and I celebrated 6 years of marriage.  We were blessed to be able to get away for a day.

At the end of August we moved house, again.  This is our 7th move in 6 years of marriage.  We had no intentions of moving this time.  Our landlord's house had sold quicker than he thought it would and so his family had to move into the house we were renting until they could move into their new home.  Below is a photo of the front of our new home.  The rent for this house was out of our price range, but this was by far the best house and area we had looked at.  After praying about it, my husband talked to the landlords and they were willing to put the rent down to a price we could afford.  Isn't God good!  Hopefully we will be here for a few years.

About two days after moving into this house we started Abby out on a new diet.  She had been having some stomach problems.  We had already eliminated dairy products and bananas from her diet because of eczema, so we took the plunge and eliminated more things to see if we could help her out.  Right now she is on a dairy free, egg free, gluten free, citrus free, and corn free diet.  She is doing really well on this and her stomach problems seem to be going away.  It is quite hard to find recipes though! :)

The first Sunday in September was Father's Day.   Abby was so happy to spoil her Daddy on this day.  I had every intention of taking a photo of the two of them on Father's Day, but it didn't actually happen.

Nick and I also got to watch the Cold War.  Let me explain.  The Rugby World Cup is being held in New Zealand this year.  We went to watch the USA play Russia.  The media had been calling it the Cold War.  I'm pleased to say, the USA won.  What!  You didn't know the USA had a rugby team?

Also in September, our car was sent to the garage for its 6 month warrant.  Every 6 months you have to take your car into a certified mechanic and make sure it's safe to use on the roads.  We knew our car would have to have some work done, but weren't prepared when the mechanic told us it need $1,000 worth of repairs done.  He advised us not to put that much money into our car because, in all honesty, it's not worth much more than that!   My husband asked for a couple of days to think and pray about it.  Three or four days later he called the mechanic back and told him we would just like to get rid of the car.  The mechanic (who is saved, and a friend of my husband) apologized and said he was sorry for going ahead without my husband giving the word, but he and some of the men in his shop had done the labour after hours and had found some really good second hand parts and had finished the job already for $350.  Praise the Lord!  Another blessing about our car was that my big brother heard about our problem and gave us $500 to help with repairs or getting a new car.  Do you think he wants change back?

God has been so good to us always.  It is a blessing to serve Him.

Life in the Windy City

I know for all of you who live in the States you think Chicago is the "Windy City."  Well, here in New Zealand we have the real windy city - Wellington.  Last week we got the opportunity to spend a few days in Wellington for a preaching conference.  The messages were so encouraging and what a blessing it was to spend time with fellow believers.  Here are some photos from our trip. 

The host Pastor (Bro. Ariel Castro) leading the singing.  The singing at conferences like this is amazing.  

 

The special music was also a blessing.  Each night this choir sang a different song.  They had been practicing for months.

 

Our group after the last service on Friday night (minus children)

Abby and her new friend (Nathaniel-Pastor Castro's youngest son).  Normally Abby is not shy at all, but she picked this week to go through a clingy stage.  All week the only people she wanted to be around were her Dad and Mum.  If we both tried to leave the room she would burst into tears.  By the end of the week she seemed to have gotten used to all the new people and she finally let Nathaniel hold her.  He had been trying all week!

There was so much going on all week.  I kept forgetting to get the camera out of the nappy bag to take photos.  We were blessed so much to be able to be there.   

Happy 4th of July!

Hope you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends!  It's already the 5th of July here, so here are some photos of our celebrations last night.  Keep in mind it's winter here!  It feels like I should be putting the Christmas tree up, not celebrating the 4th of July!  Then when it is Christmas time I feel like we should be getting ready for the 4th of July!  Will I ever get used to this? :)

Last night we had some friends over to help us celebrate.  There were 11 of us in total.  We had so much fun.  What is the 4th of July without food?  My husband braved the cold and grilled out for us.  Thanks, honey!

Abby and Gracie at their special table!  

After dinner we had s'mores.  We can't get graham crackers here, but there is another kind of biscuit that you can buy that is similar and it already has chocolate on one side.  Toast a marshmallow, put it in between two biscuits and you're good to go.  Not quite the same, but still good.  

Do you lightly toast the marshmallow or burn it to a crisp? 

No, Abby!  It's mine!

After we gorged ourselves on s'mores we went out to the deck to do sparklers.  The only time you can buy sparklers here is in November and then they only sell them for 3 days.  We've been saving these!

Abby's first sparkler.  She was so excited.  I was trying to catch her facial expressions, but in between the dark and almost getting burned with Gracie's sparkler, I never did get a great shot.

 

You can't see it in this photo, but at the end of the deck is the cow paddock (pasture).  The cows all came up to see what was going on.  We couldn't hear them coming, but when they got close and saw the fire they started to moo.  We all about jumped out of our skins!  I don't think the cows like the fire though, because they all ran away!  We definately heard that!

After freezing outside with the sparklers, we came back in to warm up and play some games.  The little girls got the box of dress-up clothes out and proceeded to give everyone a hat to wear.  Here is Crystal, we were the only two Americans last night.

Dani and I

Ashley and his little girl, Amber

 Gracie - don't you just love the chocolate on her chin :)

God bless America!