A Rainbow Party . . .

We had Luzaan's party yesterday afternoon and it was such a blessed afternoon!

I loved getting ready for this party because the theme was so easy and fun!  Luzaan was really excited too and talked about it the whole week!  This is what the table looked like: (I think all the colours confused my camera because all the photos of the whole table are blurred ;)

Some of the girls invited has not been exposed to the Gospel and a rainbow party theme can mean so many things today that we wanted to put the focus on God and His character and creation.  We invited a wonderful older lady in our church to come and speak to them for just a few minutes!  She did it marvelously and the little girls literally hung onto every word she said!  She even went as far as writing a little song and having someone put it to music especially for the occasion!  It was such a blessed time! Here she is telling them about her treasure chest ;)  Look at the precious faces and expressions!

This was the first party, EVER, where the cake almost did not make it through the party!  We always had leftovers for weeks before and, being a six layer cake, I thought that it was a sure thing that this time would be not different!  We sang and clapped for her and then she made the first incision with the knife. I took over from there and when I took out the first slice, EVERY little girl and 'big girl' around the table were lining up for a piece ;)  The sweets, drinks, chips, popcorn and rainbow jello was forgotten!  The second favourite of the party was the rainbow jello.  Here's the cake before and after the cutting:

After the cake cutting and eating they all went outside to play and enjoyed it so much!  I was so thankful for the weather because it is always cold and rainy on Luzaan's birthday!  Later I called them inside four at a time to make their own flower pencils to take home with the thank-you-notebooks I had prepared for them!  What a joyous day it was!  Thank you Lord for our Luzaan and for sisters in Christ who can help us make an ordinary birthday another chance of sharing the Gospel!

Wild flowers family day

We decided to drive and see the wild flowers last Saturday.  We only left after 10 am but we so enjoyed the day!

David went to empty our postbox on Saturday morning after we decided to go the the West Coast National Park to see the flowers.  He discovered a pamphlet advertising a wild flower show in Mamre and we changed our route to include this.

We ended up having lunch in Mamre (R40 for a massive plate with salads and braaivleis/barbeque with the meat covering more than half the plate ;), seeing a beautiful exhibit with indigenous wild flowers and a stunning old Moravian church!

After this we took the road through Darling to the West Coast National Park, seeing beautiful flowers along the road!  On arriving at the Park we realised that the coastal regions do not have the same vegetation and therefore no wild flowers!  We were so thankful for the pamphlet and knowing the Lord's provision for us.  We made a u-turn and went back the way we came!  This time, however, we stopped at the orchid show in Darling and what a beautiful blessing that was!  We 'oohed and aahed' about all the flowers and it was such a pretty sight!  Needless to say - we came back with our first ever orchids! (see the two orchid photos)

Our last stop was Malmesbury for some ice cream at KFC.

In hindsight:  I loved everything but the best part about the day was having David all to myself all day and being able to just talk about everything we never get the chance for!  The girls were nodding off in the back of the Kombi and popped their heads up every now and then and got out when we stopped somewhere so it was a partial rest day for them ;)
  

Staying on track in a fallen world . . .

I found myself wondering why we get so caught up in our lives and are so easily distracted!

We so often focus on the wrong things - work problems, other peoples' mistakes and shortcomings, illness, etc.  Why is it that we so often return to what WE need?  We forget why we are really here while thinking: "If I can only get this work project done" OR "I just need to recover from this illness before I ..." OR "If only that person was not so difficult to get along with . . ." OR "I just need to get away for a while!" We are so easily distracted while we think we are still on the right track!  This makes us self-righteous!

I was told a story this morning about someone's life.  I do not agree with everything she says and does and therefore paid little attention to her life story.  I was so busy judging her way of doing things that I totally missed the absolute dedication with which she follows Jesus Christ and seek Him in EVERYTHING.  This inspired me!

This has actually been on my mind a lot lately and this morning's story just confirmed this to me!  Without even noticing, I was so busy committing the sin of judging people for the way they do things, that I did not notice that they are much more on fire for the LORD than I was!  We so often focus on other peoples' bad traits that we justify ourselves that way in stead of comparing ourselves with Christ.  We are so busy looking around that we forget to look to the Word!  We are so busy filling our souls with bad things from the world but say that we do not have the time to get quiet and spend time with God!  How can we reflect Him while we look away from Him all the time?

It is easier to follow the sinful path and sometimes we do not even know that we are on that path until we realise we can not find our way back on our own.  The reason for this is once again that we look to the wrong things!  We look for help from worldly sources for our problems and shortcomings!  We do it in so many ways without even knowing!  How patient and long-suffering our God is!?  If I think of how often I ask my children how many times I must say something before they listen and know that the Lord must feel that way, times 100!  How many times can I make the same wrong choice and yet He still patiently helps me back when I ask for His help!

I am confronted with my failure and just realise again how much I am in need of a Saviour and His perfect blood covering my unclean life!

What are you busy with?  Where are you looking to for help?  What are you trusting in? Friends, money, escapism (entertainment), food, doctors?  Which authority do you submit to?  Have you made the choice yet? You either submit to the worldly ruler or God - there is no in-between!

Lord, Please forgive me my many shortcomings and sins!  Help me to look only to You, to spend every possible moment in your presence so I can rightly reflect You and not my idea of You!  Help me to live this life for the benefit of others around me and not my own benefit!  I desire to live a life pleasing to You so that You may be glorified and not me!  Help me be vigilant so that I do not stray of the right path!  Show me Your ways!

Before and after - when old furniture becomes new . . .

The newly covered lounge furniture cushions arrived this afternoon and I am very happy about it!  They are still stiff and so not seem to fit the couch well but that will soon change with all the sitting being done there ;o)

It was quite exciting to be able to unpack the scatter cushions that I bought about 8 years ago (yes you read right ;o) and they are such a perfect fit!  Luzaan was quite a little helper as well;  helping me get the scatter cushions out of the cupboard, putting away the games that were on top of the box with cushions, taking the tags off the cushions and getting rid of the rubbish!  All without me even asking!  She's such a little sunshine!

There are new rules for the lounge now - as can be expected - no drinking or eating on the chairs or couch and no lying on the scatter cushions.  Rules that were in place before still counts of course:  one of them being "NO FEET ON THE FURNITURE"!!!!

After the cushions were delivered we had a celebratory tea and finished a whole box of Romany Cream biscuits with our tea!  We never have that many biscuits at once but we saw this as a special occasion ;o)

The only drawback now is that the curtains look as old as they really are :o)  That will just have to wait until we've saved up the money needed to do what we planned there!

New look

I recently saw someone else's blog with the most beautiful background and just had to change mine!  I wanted something fun and colourful and this is the one I chose.  It is very girly, I know, but it has my favorite colour (turquoise) in it!  My apologies to the guys who follow this blog ;o)

There are still a few niggling things I have to sort out (like the tag over the new post dat) but that will happen over time.

Hope you enjoy this new beginning with me!

U2 fever!

I have sent this out by email before and apologise to all who have already seen it but with U2 being in SA and the fever running quite high, I thought it will not be a waste to reprint my research.

Hi,

I have been curious about Bono confessing that he is Christian and googled it quite a bit this afternoon.

I came to the conclusion that, although he said that he is, his language has not changed and he is focusing on the wrong things. he is so focused on giving humanitarian relief and says nothing about their souls being lost and going to hell. He is not evangelising them! He talks about it not being a case of charity but of justice and equality. In other words if we see Africans as our equals, we would help feed them so that they can be on the same level as us physically, but he says nothing of taking the Gospel to them.

Now if we help them physically and not spiritually, everything we do for them is useless! Ultimately it will all come to nothing! I realise that we have to give them food and clothing but not instead of the Gospel!

He talks about the Bible mentioning the poor more than 2100 times, but in actual fact there are only 141 pieces of scripture that mentions the poor according to my MacArthur topical Bible. (I guess he got his info from Tony Campolo who also gives a similar number). So did he actually read the Bible on this or is he merely following someone else?

I am not saying that he is not saved because it is not my place to judge as it is something between him and God. Maybe it is his immature faith that is leading him down the wrong path.

These are my thoughts. I just think he is to liberal and although he does all these things it does not prove anything, escept maybe that he has a high profile and a heart to help the poor, but then so did Mother Theresa. All I know is that I can not support someone who says nothing about the spiritual wellbeing of those he is trying to help.

http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2005/08/bonos_remarkabl.html

http://www.thinkchristian.net/index.php/2006/02/03/justice-and-charity/

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2002/april22/14.18.html

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2006/10/interpretation-of-u2-lyrics-all-because-of-you/

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/10892

http://biblical-studies.ca/blog/wp/2006/08/12/bono-interview-by-bill-hybels-with-mp3/

--
Liefde-groete in Jesus Christus!
Annalize Breytenbach

PS: This is my (Annalize's) research and writing