A Quick Vacation

We decided to take a quick break from everything and join my family on their annual vacation in Betty’s Bay for a few days. Little did we know just how much we needed this little vacation. We spent our time playing Apples-to-Apples with my little brothers, lazing on the beach and sandboarding down the massive dunes. It is such a beautiful part of the Cape and to be able to take some time out before the madness that kicks off tomorrow is such a blessing!

Howzit 2011!

The UN has declared 2011 the International Year of the Volunteer! How appropriate for us as it is our first year as volunteer missionaries - and everything we will be doing this year will be related to volunteers! Hopefully this will encourage more people to get involved in something and volunteer their time! It may be intimidating at first, but really - if God is calling you to it - it could be the most stretching, growing and rewarding experience ever.
This is our final week of “leave” before returning to regular work. The past few weeks have been a great time to spend relaxing and enjoying the festive season with others here – not to mention the beautiful summer weather! We’ve also taken some quality time to finish our website and look ahead to 2011 with refined vision and mission. It’s perfect timing as we look forward to the arrival of our first teams for the New Year – three at once!

New Years!

Happy New Years!! Today is very symbolic for the two of us as we close an incredible chapter in our lives and look to opening a promising new one this 2011! 2010 was filled with so many different adventures, challenges and experiences that have shaped us anew and that we will remember all of our lives. May 2011 be blessed and even more amazing than 2010! 

Goodbye Al!

We sadly say goodbye to Al today – on Christmas day of all days! Al has been here with Living Hope as a long-term volunteer for the past 18 months and was so welcoming to us as new missionaries. He worked in Red Hill as a Life Skills Educator and played a very integral part in the partnership between Red Hill and our church partner from South Carolina, US and the community development in that community. Furthermore, Al is the volunteer who wrote the Living Hope Coffee Table Book called “Faces of Hope” that will be released later this year (so watch this space). Al, we will seriously miss you here!

A Hot Christmas

I can’t believe it’s here already – Christmas Day! Natasha and I drove up to Paarl to spend the day and night with Natasha’s father and family. We were treated to a DELICIOUS home-cooked family dinner with stuffed pork, corned beef, and roast chicken. It was a very relaxing day. We are so grateful for this time off from work to celebrate the very reason we do what we came here to do: Jesus!

Christmas Eve

Happy Christmas Eve! We early on realized that there are a few volunteers that will be around for Christmas this year and not going home. So even though we had plans with my family for Christmas day, we still wanted to give the volunteers something to do for Christmas this year. 13 of us got together as “family” at ours for fingerfoods, drinks, white elephant and other games! Good times! Living Hope will be closed for the holidays over the next week, so we all get some time off to relax and recharge!

A Surprise Visit

We were totally surprised on the 11^th when my little sister let us know that she was coming down for a visit with us here in Cape Town in a few days! To be honest, at first we were a bit worried about the timing of her visit as we had so many things on the big to-do-list to accomplish in our time off. But God is so amazing and knows just what we needed. She arrived on the 14^th and with her here for a week we were forced to take time out and have a little vacation for ourselves – or from ourselves! She wanted to see so much of Cape Town that we got to see and visit many of Cape Town’s major sights with her – as tourists! Ha ha ha! But how great that was as we don’t really get many opportunities to visit them with the crazy busy life we live here. Besides taking in all the beautiful sights and scenery, we decided to bake Christmas gifts this year – since it’s cheaper! LOL So we found a recipe online and baked around a 100 cookies, decorated and then wrapped it in cellophane! Fun fun fun! My sister and I very seldom get to spend alone time together, so t was completely a God-sent. Sadly, the time flew by as she headed back to Pretoria this morning and we have to wait till the next time we get spend such good time together!