Fun in the sun

My sister and brother in law and niece and nephew arrived in Cape Town on Sunday. We went to Muizenberg beach yesterday and I enjoyed playing "fun aunty" and digging holes and building sandcastles for them. Later their parents left to go to a doctor's appointment and left them in my mom (Nana) and my capable hands. Of course being good granny and aunty we promptly took hem for softserve icecream at the Majestic Cafe (good memories of being taken there by my grandparents!!).

Weekend Away

This last weekend I went away to a little place in the gamadoelas (in Bosnian we say "Bogu iza nogu" = behind God's legs, ie the middle of nowhere) with some of my friends. We had a fantastic weekend which included visiting winefarms (we were in what is called the Robertson winefarming region). 5 of us went through the "biggest hedge maze in the Southern Hemisphere" and it was really fun - especially with the group we were with!

In the car we were listening to a cd with South African songs and it was quite fun singing along to the them and celebrating my South Africanness!

Big Sunday!

I had the privilege of preaching in my home church at all 3 services on Sunday. The topic was Evangelism and I think I did a pretty okay job of it, PTL, while having fun in the process. I started off speaking in Bosnian which threw everyone off- but I did it to make a point (I didn't just do it to show off!) and used a few stories of my life in Bosnia, so I think it was not only a good sermon, but also a little look into what my life is like over there.


After the morning service we had my minister, Mark and his wife Wendy and their girls, plus Dave and Arja de Korte and their girls over for tea. Cath invited herself as "rentacrowd" - her words not mine - but brought the MOST delicious hummingbird cake so she was most welcome! My dad has made a wonderland for the grandkids in the back garden and so the kids did not want to leave! Especially after he brought out the bottle rocket launcher!


After they left, we had lunch and a short break, and then my gran arrived for her birthday tea (for her 86th birthday - go Mama!). We got to talk to my sister in the UK and family on Skype (and James, my 6 year old nephew even played happy birthday for Mama over the webcam:wonders of technology.) After that my gran actually came to watch me preach (no pressure! especially as she is not a church-goer!) at the 5.15 service at my church. I then preached again at the 7pm and came home and collopsed into bed...

Single Missionary Retreat

Wow! That is all I can say! I was completely blown away by the wonderful week I had just basking in God's love through the people running the retreat, and the people in the area churches that just blessed the 28 of us on the retreat from all over the world!

We went through the Beattitudes during the week, and at first I was like "not again, how many times have I studied the Beattitudes", but it was like it was something completely new - and God really spoke through the speakers to me. We also had lots of worship and lots of fun times (with great people!) and so it was just great. (The ratio of guy-girl was 0-28, so sorry to those who throught I would find a husband - God had more important things to do!!)



It was held at the beautiful Volmoed campsite just outside Hermanus. The above waterfall is on the grounds and I walked everyday the 20 minutes to get there (we were soooo well fed that I had to do some exercise!) and swam in the pool that surrounds it - mostly with 2-3 others. One day I went by myself and just sat there and meditated on God's love being like a waterfall... and actually wrote a poem (which I haven't done since High School!). I include it here to bless you as well... (Joce-this goes out to you!)

Waterfall
So much water, never ending,
Overflowing, ever streaming,
Cascading, streaming over,
Falling, flowing,
Unceasing, knowing,
Your love like droplets dancing down.

Standing under, soaking up,
The rainfall flowing love cascade.
I am overwhelmed, completely drowned
In Your ceaseless flow of love coming down.

"Sundowners*"

Watching the sunset over the sea is one of the things I do miss about not being here in Cape Town. Cath (next to me) and I came at 4ish to catch a few rays and then the others joined us for the finale - and even by Cape Town standards it was very very nice! (Those of you that met Frank my pastor - that is him with his new -and lovely- wife Abby).
Afterwards we joined up with even more people for "Sinful Icecream" which is as great as its name implies - they have "yummy" and "very yummy" flavours and boy are they! All in all it was a great afternoon/evening!!

(*watching the sunset and usually accompanied by alcohol, but as it is now illegal to drink on the beach, all we had was juice and eats)