In other news . . .

We're going to be a daddy and mummy!

Baby Wetherston is expected at the end of February 2009.

Debate is still open as to whether it will play for the Wallabies or Springboks . . .

Cornerstone Retreat

This past weekend we went away to the Draakensberg for our Cornerstone (young adults) retreat. We have a short term missions team (STM) out from Grace Community Church at the moment and they came along to keep things lively. We also had some of the young adults from Joel James' church in Pretoria, and some folk from Hope Valley join us. It was such a blessing to have our little group expanded by some more brothers and sisters who love the Lord.

Trevor Peacock (he was the STM leader and is studying at TMS) gave us some awesome messages. I was really blessed with his talks on Ephesians 6, the warfare we're in and the armour of God. I don't think I've ever heard a sermon on it (well, not since I heard it in Sunday school) and it was really refreshing to be reminded of how well we are equipped by the Lord to live in today's world and fight the enemy at every turn.

myself with Michelle and Jill

We stayed at a Scripture Union campsite called Glenhaven. It was so beautiful, but the temperature went down to -8 (celsius) overnight!!

During our free time we played some 'bonding' games!

most of which seemed to leave us in hysterics

catching Michelle was easy, she's only short :)

Andrew on the other hand, all 6 feet and 10 inches of him,
proved to be a little more challenging

The farmer on the other side of the river was doing some burning.It was amazing to see the hillside go up in about 2 minutes.

We did some archery

(Lyle and I were better at posing that hitting the targets)

I don't think we discovered any amazing hidden talent, but it was a lot of fun
(you can see the hillside in the background still burning a few hours later)

Some inside games were just plain confusing to me...

(I still don't know how the cards stick on peoples heads...)

Group photo!

The Wallabies were playing the Boks on the saturday... unfortunately we didn't have a TV. we did however find a radio station...but it was in Afrikaans....so my only hints of how we were doing consisted of the boys frowning, the commentators saying the Aussie players names, and the cheer in the background on the broadcast....all I have to say is

"Aussie Aussie Aussie, oi oi oi!!!" :)

(and to say THANK YOU Samma for my wallabies scarf, it went down a treat!!)

Photo's from our US trip

RESOLVED

Rachel (Mixon who we stayed with) and myself

CJ Mahaney

Rick Holland Steve Lawson

The Speakers who blessed us so much!

CJ Mahaney, Steve Lawson, Rick Holland, John MacArthur, John Piper, Randy Alcorn

The Stage (yes, it felt a little like a rock concert)

LAKE TAHOE
The view!

View from the mountain "Heavenly"

I love that you can see snow in the background and it's summer!

Lyle with his cousins Tyler and Kristy

Michael and Lyle outside the Mixons apartment

(they saw a Shelby parked out the front and couldn't resist posing!)

LONDON

(our impromtu day trip on the way home)

Mark, our tour guide

(and friend of Lyle's from highschool)

Big Ben at 12:00

Westminster Abbey (My favourite)

Buckingham Palace

(the flag is up, so the Queen was home!)

Home again, home again

We're home again! Our trip to the States was an amazing blessing! We arrived home last wednesday (and yes, it's taken us about this long to recover from jetlag!)

The Resolved conference was amazing. The theme was Heaven and Hell. The Lord was so gracious to change my perspective and help me understand more His sovereign control of His world. I often over the years, have battled with understanding God being loving and kind, yet allowing the existence of Hell. I think in my finite compassion I have created my own justice mentality, and as much as I have accepted that God does send people to Hell, I don't like it. Listening to John Piper one evening at the conference the Lord helped me understand more clearly the reality of Hell echoing God's grace. If there was no reality of Hell, and no understanding of our being so utterly deserving of it, then we would not understand the amazing, overwhelming, indescribable power of His grace in our lives to not let us go to there! He has lovingly chosen me to be a light unto the world and an undeserving object of His mercy and grace. It really is inconceivable, and draws my heart to praise Him for His goodness to me.

We were also blessed to go to Lake Tahoe, to visit Lyle's Aunt and her fiance who live there. I also met Tyler and Kristy, Lyle's cousins. After Tahoe we went back to LA and spent more time with Michael and Rachel who graciously hosted us for our time over there.

Donovan Drew is Kerry's brother (Kerry is at HBC) and he also went to high school with Lyle. He was married on the 22nd of June and we were so thankful to be present! The photo below are all the South Africans (well, minus Kim and myself I suppose...lets say all the HBCers) who were over in the USA for Resolved and this was taken at Don and Heather's wedding. It was such a blessing for Lyle and I - our first wedding after our own. It was special to be reminded of our marriage relationship, and a convicting reminder of where we're failing too!!

All in all we had a fantastic trip and are very thankful for the Lord's provision in allowing us to go. I'll post more pictures up soon (we're having a few little computer issues right now!)