Last Tuesday was the last adult Bible study (until the 21st when Ken is leading a James Bond Bible study...leave it to Ken to be able to do that!!), so this Tuesday we just took it easy and relaxed at home enjoying the Christmas tree and music. Wednesday evening was music team practice and Thursday evening was Ken's last PLT meeting. Friday evening was the last normal Reflex youth night - they finished their remix Bible study (listening to modern pop songs and seeing what the Bible has to say about it). It's been exciting to see all the new youth that have been consistently coming for the past month. There are about four new girls. That evening, two of them asked for a Bible. What an awesome God-thing!
Saturday was a sunny day, so we took full advantage of it and hit the beach! But after taking Pep on a long beach walk, we went to relax on our towels and read, but the flies were obnoxious! I don't know where they came from or why they were attacking us, but they wouldn't leave us alone (including Pepper), so we packed up and went to the Manawatu River Beach. The water was perfect so we decided to wade in - Pepper enjoyed playing where she could touch, but she was quite nervous about going in where she had to swim (although when I went out, she followed me!) Ken decided to swim across to the deep area and jump off the rocks. Good times! Although we did come home with too much sun - I got quite the burn!
Sunday Ken lead the children's message. He decided to teach about the Advent ABC's - A for Awesome, B for Birthday (Jesus') and C for...(my que) - CHOCOLATE!!! Or at least that is what I said from the middle of the congregation with chocolates in hand. He then proceeded to explain that C is not for chocolate, but for Christ/Christmas. That just as we love chocolates and want to share them, we should also want to tell others about the Awesome Birthday of Christ! It was really fun - probably one of his best children's messages ever!
That afternoon I had my first choir practice for Christmas Eve - it will be a small group of five, but the songs I've chosen work well with small groups. We will lead the congregation in a Christmas Medley with a little interlude I wrote for the choir to sing between the songs, and we will also sing a special song about following the star which will be sung between the readings (right after we read about the shepherds following the star).
After choir, we went to Roy and Lois Price's for a Children's Ministry Appreciation BBQ. The weather was wonderful and there was a good turnout of volunteers to thank for their hard work this past year.
Roy and Ken working at the barbie
Everyone enjoying the sunshine
Monday was a day of relaxation (and a little pain from my sunburn). We also saw that the new LOST season was out to DVD so we picked it up and began watching it again - oh it is so good!
Otherwise, we are beginning the process of looking into movers. We plan on packing things up after Christmas, which is only a few weeks away! Unfortunately, movers out here are quite expensive!
Prayer requests: please pray for us as we begin the process of packing and moving. Also keep our Themba Mission in your prayers - we have fundraised $70 so far and also have airline tickets to South Africa from March - September 09 (Ken's uncle donated his airmiles for our tickets, but he could not book them through to June 2010, so is sending us home in September so I can be in Jaime's wedding). So we still need to raise $6030 as well as get two more round trip tickets for September 09-June 2010...this is a great lesson of trust God is teaching us! Finally, please keep the youth in your prayers that are searching and desiring to know more about God - what an awesome gift! Pray that this flame keeps growing in their hearts.
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