Cousin Capers

 For a long time I've wanted to take the 2 biggest little cousins camping, imagining they would be thrilled to sleep in a tent. 

 Our tent hadn't been used since the Zambia trip in 2013, but the boys remembered how to set it up.  One thing to note here, we went camping at the camping area on the end of our street.  Taking a 3 year old means I'm not going to outer Mongolia.  We were about 2 blocks from her house, and 3 blocks from our house which, I know, is a little weird, but it worked! 

 Josh was SUCH a big help.  Notice the solar snowman he's holding to give that Christmas ambiance we needed.  I think Daniel kind of got conked with it, hence the agonized face.

But we did it!  We cooked sausages and marshmallows over the fire Josh made, we played lots of games of Concentration/The Memory Game in the tent, and we went to the playground.  We read 6 new picture books--Daniel liked the one about inventions the best--and we even slept a little!  My air mattress went pancake flat, so I crawled onto Connie's foam mattress.  Daniel started on a mattress and ended up on the ground.  I loved the way Connie woke in the morning--with a huge smile, delighted to still be in the tent.

Another thing on the to-do list was cousin pictures and we did it!  Gloria had the 3 Yarmouth Youngs dressed in orange, so our 3 big kids got into some shade of orange too and ...

 we did it! 

 Nathanael slept through last year's picture so this is his first time to appear in the cousin collection.
He's next to Josh, Connie, Evangel, Daniel, and the inTIMidating Tim. 

 Notice the fancy footwork on 5 out of 6 coordinated Youngs. 

Children are a blessing from the Lord!  and the fruit of the womb is His reward!  We are so thankful for these guys, and so happy to share them with my thousands of readers  :-)  especially the 3 grandmothers and aunts of these guys.  Merry Christmas! 

Star of Light-the movie



With great excitement and mounds of relief, we are announcing that Star of Light, the movie, is finished and available for viewing!  We had  a discouraging family premiere where the male part of the audience all fell asleep as it was at the end of a hectic day, and then a premiere for some of the actors which went much better, and NOW, on Saturday, the 15th of November, 2014, we're having a premiere where we're inviting the entire home-school community to a church to see the movie. 

 Evangel has been working on Star of Light for more than two years.  She's been making movies since she was 11 and they keep getting better as she gets older and more skilled, as well as getting access to better equipment. 

In watching Evangel, I've sure learned a lot about what goes into the making of a movie--blood, sweat, and tears, for sure, emphasis on the tears!

She had to write a script that's nearly as long as the book itself, and that took some time.  By the time she was finished with that, she had clear ideas on what she wanted.   

 

She had to find more than 40 actors and some animals and the right scenery.  She shot scenes from Cape Town to Trompsburg, as well as one in America.  There's even a shot from Zimbabwe.  She had us driving all over Cape Town for an illusive fountain that never quite suited her. 

Her filming days were interrupted by ministry trips with her Dad, leading to some hair problems.  Hamid's  hair was shiny dyed black, chalked black, German shepherd black-and-brown combo, and light brown hidden by a hood in the course of the stretched out filming. 

She was thrilled with getting some of her costumes as "manna from Heaven" as she called some discarded clothes she found in the grass.  Don't worry, we washed it thoroughly before it touched anyone.  She also considered her little "gutter kitten" as "manna from Heaven".  He came to us through the bathroom fan in a place we stayed in Riversdale.  The kitten fell right out of the ceiling,

and Evangel caught it in the fan cover.

Editing has been the thing to do on trips.  For months she has been editing.  Clipping, choosing music that does not have copyright issues and making decisions 'til she was ready to scream.  She did scream a few times, if I remember right. 

It is so satisfying to see it completed! 

My parents read Star of Light to me when I was a little girl, and it was probably my favourite of all the books they read us.  I snagged that same battered paperback to read to our kids and of course, they loved it too.  But Joshua is younger by 3 1/2 years than Timothy, so he didn't remember anything about that first reading so I decided to read it to him as a bedtime story.  He was about 10, and had a little cousin Connie who was just a baby.  Connie and Josh adored each other, and as we read the story, I could just picture them acting it out.  I mentioned it to Evangel who took a while to get used to the idea.  If you see the movie, you'll see she really caught on to the idea. 

As she is saying, "TO GOD BE THE GLORY." 

All are welcome to come Saturday, the 15th of November, 2014 to Medway Community Church in Plumstead, at 6:30 for a prompt 6:45 start to Star of Light, the movie. 

To see the advertisisement, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1Nbbu7n5No

Family Project Report

 We're at the half way point for our current ministry trip!!!!  Five weeks down, five to go.  Paul has been very busy in preaching six days a week, but the kids and I get a lot of time to ourselves so we tend to bring projects on trips to try to get them accomplished.  Some of things we have at home like piano lessons, youth group, Joy Club, and close friend visit, are missing, so this is a good time to find satisfaction in projects and never have we had so many interesting ones going on as on this trip.  

Evangel finished her braided rug today.

 Exercise is one of our daily priorities.  At the moment we are staying on top of hill, and it is about 4 kilometers down the hill to the nearest shop.  The kilometers are even marked!  So each day since Monday we have trotted down the hill to do our shopping, and then we catch a ride back up with Paul. 

 Today we went down, and then hiked back up, carrying the groceries.  Tim carried most of them, bless him, so we had a good workout.  That uphill part will make you breathe deep!

 I found this kit, this rumpled, well-traveled-looking kit in a second hand shop years ago in America, but I finally got started when we went to Zimbabwe earlier this year.  I mostly only work on this during our family Bible reading time.  It's going to say "The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you." from Numbers 6 24, 25.  If I can finish it by March, it'll be done in a year, but I have my doubts. 

 Josh has made two Lego movies recently.  Those can be huge projects.  One of his has 900 pictures and is 4 minutes long.  A mom admires a kid with that kind of patience. 

 More in the exercise department.  Sorry I look goony, but we have really enjoyed tennis when we stay places where it is available. 

 Our kids miss a lot of team sports with all our traveling, so I was delighted that they have been delighted with tennis. 

 Josh and Evangel have also tackled unicycling together.  In the beginning they had to hold each other up, and/or use the tennis court fence, but now they can do it alone. 

It was rough in the beginning, but they are better now.

Some of our biggest projects are not so

 picturesque, but they deserve a mention.  Evangel is working for hours each day on her movie, editing it.  It's exciting to see it coming together.  

While waiting for a ride from someone who was late, we were just hanging around so she was editing again, using Tim's jacket to block out the light.

Tim is writing another book, and loves reading about his time period and all things involved With Sword and Saber.  Josh is also writing a book, but his is a school assignment.  He loves the research part of writing a book. I'm also writing a book.  We're getting to be a booky family.

In the sewing department, Evangel pieced together an old skirt with a top of some jeans to make a new skirt.  My goal is to get the cutting done for a quilt, but I don't want to start sticking it together til we are at a machine.

Evangel's got a whole stack of books she wants to finish reading, including the daunting History of the Irish Race.  She's half done with her stack, as far as books, but not half done the pages.
She also has a blog called Proverbial Womanhood  www.proverbialwomanhood.blogspot.com which she is growing with worthwhile pictures and verses.  That's not a project to be finished.

I am just pleased to list these for myself.  It's better to focus on what we can do than on what we are missing, and this has been a busy, profitable trip.  The paper part of school happens 5 days a week, and these other learning experiences will be helpful for us and others. 

"Whatsoever your hand findeth to do, do it with all of your might!"  Your hands find more to do if you go looking for profitable projects. 

Home invasion away from home

 Last week we left Evangel home reading a good book while the rest of us went to play tennis.  She was going to join us a few minutes later to get in some practice on her unicycle.  The masked mailbox has nothing to do with the story, it's just a cute picture of Evangel.


While she was home alone, she heard some noises in the rondavel (picture below) where we were staying, but thought it was her Dad running home to get a snack.  Then there was a crash, like plastic crashing down, and then there was a bigger crash, like maybe our toaster hitting the ground.  She finally looked up from her book to see a gang had invaded.

Here is what our kitchen looked like before...

And after...

 Apparently the rogues had cased the joint...

And then perpetrated the crime.  

 This little terrorist didn't even bother to run away before stopping to picnic on the spoils of our kitchen.  They got, among other things, 8 eggs, 3 much anticipated avocados, and all our bananas, of course. 

I see a lesson for us here!  

"Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth...where thieves break through and steal."

or maybe a lesson on

"Oh Lord how manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all,"  because they really are cute, fascinating, rascally little  monkeys. 

The Great Commission Course

Evangel, our firstborn, was away for about 3 weeks in January, taking The Great Commission Course. I've asked her to share some pictures and tell some of the highlights of her wonderful weeks.



GCC Participants at the Castle of Good Hope with Table Mountain in the background

Matthew 28:18-20

¹⁸ And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
²⁰ Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

Atop Table Mountain at the end of the GCC



 

(Evangel Writing) Every day but Sunday started out at 6:15 with Mike bellowing that there were 15 minutes left till PT (Physical Training) at which point we spring (which looks more like crawling at this stage in awakeness) out of bed and scramble to get ready, rubbing sleep out of our eyes. 15 minutes goes by shockingly fast at that hour of the morning as you are desperately searching for that elusive other shoe and trying to remember what happened to your socks after you got back from the night hike last night...no, it was early this morning... anyway, you finally find them drying off outside (because of the stream you waded through last night) and before you know it you're either out by the flagpole warming up....or late and strapped with approximately 5.5 kgs of Arabic tracts securely tucked in your backpack for tardiness. I was late once, and only once for PT. Timmy says everything is funnier in the morning, which just goes to show you that he is a morning person. (he was also the one that accidentally read his watch 5:30 instead of 4:30 at camp one morning and then patiently waited till what he thought was 6:12 before rolling out of bed and awakening 2 friends and the unfortunate guy by the door so they would be early to the field for PT....and they were early - it was 5:12. :))

 

Singing King Alred's Battle Song, "For the Lord is Our Defense"
with gusto and the customary battle cry at the end.  Love that song.

Dad joined us for one of our outreaches in Dark City

 

 

Anyway, PT was fun, looking back, (though I confess not every single minute living through it :)) but a challenge is good, and this was a growing experience. After PT was showers, personal devotions, and at some point grab breakfast before group Devotions and then into morning lectures, with everything from the history of missions and great missionary pioneers (like David Livingstone, C.T. Studd, William Carey, Hudson Taylor) to "What Can go Wrong on a Mission," to public speaking and debating, to Evangelism and prayer, to "Coping with Capture" and "Preparing for the Field" and "Evidence for Skeptics" and...well, the list goes on, but it was great course and I learned a ton! At the end of the course they gave us each a data disc with lectures, visual aids, and pictures from the course so we could go over it again and re-listen to certain lectures. We also watched 8 Way of the Master programs (with Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron) about witnessing/reaching out to the lost and those were really good, especially seeing them actually practicing what they preached as they went out soul-winning!

 

 



Girls took tire off as part of Vehicle Maintenence Workshop...Guys watched.
(but they did put it back on, and it hasn't fallen off!!!...yet :))

 

My friend, Michelle, at target practise...this was fun! 

And, yes, those are computers we got to aim at...idol smashing went well!

This was a rifle, but I also got to use a shotgun, which was a 1st!

In the afternoons we got to put actions to words and practice the stuff we'd learned on outreaches at hospitals, Pollsmoor Prison, outside an abortion clinic, an adult world, and in towns, townships and suburbs all over Cape Town, train stations, taxi ranks, sometimes even late at night outside bars and such and to all kinds of people. The outreaches were my favourite part of the GCC, I think, and where I got the most stories from the course. It really helped me be bolder with witnessing and talking to people about Jesus. I don't really know if it could be called a "highlight," but I had 2 marriage proposals inside of a half-hour on one outreach. They estimated we distributed over 7 thousand tracts throughout the whole course. On Sundays we broke up into teams and went to 9 different churches altogether where one of the team would preach and we got to meet and worship with different congregations all over.

 

Group picture after Outreach with Straatwerk at 12-something P.M.



The firing of the canon for 11 o'clock at the Castle of Good Hope...very cool.

I didn't get a chance (or at least take the chance) to give the guy shooting the canon a tract
so I left one on his box...  I don't know if you can read that, but it's a THIS WAS YOUR LIFE tract
and then somebody took a picture and anyway...humour. :)

 

As to other highlights, laughter is always one, and there was much this course. Among other things, cortisone cream grabbed and used accidentally instead of toothpaste (don't try that at home; it's disgusting, but please note that the tubes can look remarkably similar at certain stages of sleep-deprivation :)), a certain alarm clock going off @ 4:30 A.M. and waking everyone in the immediate vicinity but the intended, at the abortion clinic all of us very serious and soberly holding signs against abortion....one of which was upside-down and made quite a funny picture :), memory tricks for how to remember African countries for the map test and get it to stick in your head. The Table Mountain Hike at the end of the course was also a highlight for me, though the end of it was hazardous going down in the dark, our Arabic tracts firmly attached to our backs (5.5 kgs for girls, 11 kgs for guys). I slipped a few times, but got off with just scrapes. I may be feeling those falls in my 80's, though.

 

 

 

:)

Top of Table Mountain!  We ate supper by Maclear's Beacon. 

All set for a night hike!

Other activities during the course included self-defense (that was REALLY fun!) where we practiced stabbing each other on the front lawn.....well, actually what to do if someone tries to stab you, but since we were broken up into teams of 2 somebody had to do the stabbing, so we took turns being the victim. :) We learned some great techniques and I, for one, was much more confident about what to do if molested on the streets and was almost disappointed when I wasn't and didn't get to try that piece of training. :( The guys were good about protecting us and making sure we were safe (in spite of ourselves :)), though, and God was watching over us, so that was good. While on the course we also got to help out at the KwaSisabantu Mission in Malmesbury with digging holes (or at least the guys did, and us girls washed windows, organized PACE's, and/or swept the floor), go see the Andrew Murray Centre and the church Andrew Murray ministered in and the Africa Institute at Wellington (hundreds of missionaries were sent from there following the Revival in 1860), a tour of the Castle of Good Hope & the Military Museum there, and as a sort of field-trip we got to go to Eagle Encounter and Cheetah Outreach. There were also exams and assignments, some challenging, others fun, some both. :)

 

 

 

At the end of this course I find myself revitalized, challenged, encouraged and re-vision-ized in the work of the Lord, to take heart and fight the good fight of faith. I learned a lot on the course about missions, of course, but aside from everything we were learning in lectures, prayer, humility, and...well, fighting. We're in a battle, and we forget or get discouraged sometimes. The Devil would prefer us stagnate, contentedly oblivious of a lost world, glued into our tiny comfort zone by fear (the unknown, failure, what people might think), and doing virtually nothing for the kingdom. When we rebel, step out, begin running the race, He isn't going to sit still and let us win without a fight. I had my struggles, mostly internal, perhaps the roughest of my life, and just when you've won in one area, he attacks another front. Clearer than ever, we're in a fight, but I've also learned that through Christ we are more than conquerors (Romans 8:37-39). We have a Great Calling - don't back down, fight. (1 Timothy 6:12)

Picture I took of my friend, Michelle, on Table Mountain at sunset

In His Service and Loving it,
Evangel

Emerging beauty

Look what Evangel did!

You have to scroll down to the bottom to get to the best ones.

 And there's a little story here.

 Evangel wanted art lessons, and her wise Dad said, "No."  I was rather surprised, but he said she doesn't do art on her own, so she doesn't need lessons.  I had to think about that, but it makes sense.  Why get someone to teach you, when you don't even know what you don't know, you know? 

 So we, as parents and daughter were all pondering this thing, and I ran across this book Cute Country Animals by Jane Maday at the Reader's Warehouse. 

 Evangel followed her directions, read her tips, and adapted a few things. 

 I liked watching progress, but it's been slow since she only worked on it when we were home, and we had  that Zambian trip and everything. 

 I liked it then, but I loved it when she added the pink tree.  The Black Eyed Susans are her finishing touch. 

                                                                        Ta-da!