Christmas in South Africa

In case you haven’t seen these yet on Facebook, here are some of our Christmas pictures!

Tommy’s Birthday Pics

Lovely Effie made pizza for Tommy’s birthday last week, and oh was the host of those who snarfed it down!

Happy birthday Tumnus! I hope this year’s prezzie made up for the lack of the last! I love ya and I’m stoked to be living with you again! Hurrah!

Goodbye Lynnwood!

On September 6th, Lizzi and I said goodbye to our Lynnwood team. I’m glad we’re still in the same vicinity, because I miss them already!

We’ve shared some good memories since I first moved there, on February 13th, 2009. We’ve laughed together and cried together; we’ve fought together and won together. I feel like I’ve learned a lot, about life and love and friendship, in the short time I was there, and I’m grateful for that.

Thank you to:

• Comfort, for your patience
• Mike and Liz, for your vigor and initiative
• Marcos and Celeste, for your level-headed rationale
• Theresa, for your encouragement
• Tiago and Angie, for your perseverance
• Angel, for your loving sacrifice
• Julia, for your listening ear
• Thomas, for your acceptance
• Ben, for your humor
• Jesse, for your music
• Andrew, for your honesty (and your food!)
• Philip and Gentleness, for your unselfishness
• and all the kiddos too, for your cute and lively laughter!

May the Lord bless each one of you, no matter where you are or where you go, with His peace.

Here’s some pics from our “last supper” together: Sushi!

New House

Here are pictures of the beautiful new house that the Lord has seen fit to bless us with. We have a gorgeous grounds and property, including a pool and sauna, and sooo many garden courtyards filled with lovely flowers! We’ve also got a bar and billiards room inside, which makes for relaxing chill time in the evenings. Me likey a lot! Thank the Lord!

Safari Bar

One fine day we found this cute getaway that we named ‘the Safari Bar’. Gorgeous little place! And the sun was so perfect too:

Home Sweet Home

Oh, I just found this in my drafts from April! Ha ha…nice! It still rings true, so I thought to post it anyways. Here you are:

Anyone who knows me at all knows that my family is and always has been at the top of my “needs list”, and living away from them for many years now hasn’t always been easy. Although there isn’t anyone who can take any of their places in my heart and life, I can’t help but be so grateful for the Lord’s love for me these past years. He’s surrounded me with friends and loves to, at least partially, fill that vacuum for unconditional love and acceptance that most people can only receive from immediate family and relatives, if even that.

Flying across the world to a field I swore I would never ever live in, leaving close friends, living with almost perfect strangers, being introduced to new languages and culture, adapting every day – all of this is part of being a missionary and a disciple for the Lord. This we know and live. This we were prepared for. And that’s why I feel compelled to share my joy with you over how thankful I am. The Lord has really done it again in giving me such amazing, sweet, happy, thoughtful, generous  Home members to live and work with. I love you guys to bits!

There’s such a feeling of relief to move to a new Home and find a new family instead.

Game Night

Here are some photos from the other night when we went over to the All Saints Home for a fun game night. There were quite a few games going on, including foosball, pool, air hockey, and an actual ping-pong “tournament” by the boys. They’re adorable. Ha ha…

Kore wa Sushi, Sugoi Oishi des!

We made THE most beautiful sushi the other day…well, we helped make it. Domo arigato, sweet Lizzi, for your excellent Japanese chef skills and for guiding us in all our sushi ways…

Here’s photos of what four hours of standing, chopping, and rolling did for Lizzi, Sara Jane, Thomas and I:

Thanks, you guys! It was heaps of fun!

Recent Happenings and Such…

I just thought I’d post some photos to justify myself to you all for not updating, and show you how busy we’ve been these last couple of months…

First, here are the captions:

• We had an awesome Home Family Day this month: Took everyone out to mini-golf, had a picnic lunch, went ice-skating (which I haven’t done since I was 14!), and then ate dinner at a Pizzeria. And, everything was provisioned! Jesus is so good to us! Most fantastical.
• For Jesse’s birthday, Lizzi and I took him out to eat Chinese food for the first time! You’ll see how we tried to teach him to use chopsticks, but to no avail…ha ha!
• We went to the nearby Kareoke bar a few times, where we almost always have a great night out! ( – Unless, of course, the drunken, tone-deaf Afrikaans get there first! Why do you think I’m always trying to push us out the door quickly, people? )
• Haven and Meg came to visit, which made me particularly very happy! It was so nice to see you again. Miss you!
• We took Lizzi on her first African personal witnessing expedition to the university close by. Man, was that hilarious! She couldn’t hold a straight face the entire time, and kept asking people these strange questions. But it was fun and fruitful too, don’t you worry!

And here are your photos:

Can’t complain…

Here’s a typical Afrikaans conversation for you:

Johann: “Riann, where are you from just now?”

Riann: “I’m from the shops.”

Johann: “Is it?”

Riann: “Jah.”

Johann: “Shame…”

Riann: “Jah. How’s it?”

Johann: “Good, and yer?”

Riann: “Good, and yer?”

Johann: “Can’t complain.”

Riann: “Right then. Must get home. Keep well.”

Johann: “Jah. Keep well.”

Ha ha ha…I know, right? It takes a while to actually understand what exactly they’re on about, but it starts to grow on you after awhile. I haven’t stooped  to “Is it?” yet, but “Shame…” is definitely finding it’s way in there… sigh.

Now that testimony time is out of the way…

I know, I’ve been highly delinquent with this blog thing. And I bet Flori, with her bold accusations of me being the “Farmer who never updates”, is sitting at her computer right now thinking she’s the righteous queen of all truths! Pshaw!

Ironically, things have been busy and happening, and thank God for Lizzi with her camera or I would surely vanish off of the face of the internet universe. We’ve documented some lovely times of late…

Best of which: our CGO Board friendlies coming for a visit. Aww…it was so nice to see everyone. – Though also terribly nostalgic. Thank you so much to Vinnie, Pri and Ally for the prezzies you sent! It was like Christmas in July. Truly a treat! I love them!

And we had to say farewell to Mike and Liz, an awesomely stellar couple, who we madly miss already! Waahh…

Here are some pics from the last few parties and get-togethers:

Yep. Gotta admit, God is good. Can’t complain.