FAMILY NEWS!

Hello!

We trust that you are all well. We are doing fine.

Nathan is growing at a rapid pace – as I’m sure all kids do! He’s 4 now and can’t wait untill he’s 10 because then he’ll be big like his Daddy! He’s still going to playgroup 4 days a week and loving it! It’s a real mission to get him to come home in the afternoon’s. At playgroup they are all busy practising for the upcoming Christmas Play. He’s going to be a King – to be exact King Belhasa – and will be bringing baby Jesus some frankincense. Nathan’s life’s dream is to become a King. Nathan has started swimming lessons and enjoys them very much. He’s still got a long way to go, but he doesn’t use arm bands anymore and even though the lessons are a hour long he LOVES it!

Roy is busy at work – end of year coming up. But he’s enjoying his work very much. In the past year he’s had a new assistant and a new co-ordinator, but they have all settled in nicely together and make a good team. He’s been to Riyadh, Saudi to set up the sales office. And then about two months ago he was in Austria attending a conference for one of the software packages the hotel uses. Roy is helping Daniel lead our Cell Life Group and has also started helping on a Friday morning by doing the lyric projections. Roy’s had a busy year (haven’t we all) and looking forward to the much needed leave in December.

Angela is busy doing what Mothers do! Taxi, grocery shopping, cleaning house, ironing etc. The Bible Study she’s been attending is coming to an end – next week will be the last study in the series. She has also started playing the piano once a month for the children’s church. Can you believe that there are close to 200 kids on a Friday morning! You can only imagine how many big folk there are upstairs in the Church!!

We have just finished Membership Classes, and will soon become members of our church! We are excited about this as we (Roy) have started this class 3 times – at least we’ve finished them now :-)

We have also been blessed by the LORD, and are expecting our third baby. Angela is only 6 weeks pregnant, but we trust that our Father will continue to bless us with a smooth & healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. Due date: Mid July 2006. Nathan is thrilled that he will be having a baby soon! Guess he’ll soon find out that he has quite a wait ahead of him. ;-)

We continue to thank you all for your prayers, especially over the past year. May the LORD bless you and continue to reveal Himself to you.

Much Love,
Roy, Ang, Nathan & Babee

Interesting “Spin” on marriage

Angela has been doing the second of Denise Glenn’s “Motherwise” bible studies (i.e. Freedom for Mothers) these past 8 weeks and a “couples” dinner was held to mark the end of it last night at Mark and Margret’s Villa in Jumeirah.

Although the food (all home cooking) was great and the fellowship with what turned out to be 15 couples (i.e. 30 people) was certainly enjoyed, the highlight of the evening was a talk by John and Keri Folmer about “Marital Bliss”.

What was interesting about the Folmers talk was the simple revelation John shared that if you’re hoping that your marriage will be full of joy and bliss, you’re wrong – According to the bible a marriage is not designed to make us happy. It is in fact there to honour God and bring Him glory. The “spin-off” though, as both John and Keri explained, was the joy and love a couple finds as they honour and worship our Lord and saviour, together as husband and wife … in marriage.

Yours in Him

Roy

Zoe’s Birthday

On Thursday Nathan went to Zoe’s 4th birthday Party – He enjoyed it very much (as you can see)

Pet Animals …

At School this week Nathan is learning all about Animals – They did Farm Animals, Jungle Animals, Safari Animals, and yesterday was “Pet Animals”

Nathan painted this cat as his favourite “Pet Animal”

A Year Ago…

Today marks the day a year ago when our little princess went home to be with our LORD and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

We had a quite day of remembering our little Rachel. We went down to the graveyard this morning and this afternoon to wipe down the fence around her grave and tidy things up a bit. You can imagine how dusty it all was – considering that we do live in the desert!

We thank the LORD for allowing us the privilege of knowing Rachel, and being able to look after and care for her. Her life on this earth was a short one, but definitely a life with a purpose. Sometimes it’s hard to think that or to understand that, but we need to remind ourselves that this is something only our Father in Heaven knows the answer to – and that needs to be answer enough for us left on earth.

Every good and perfect thing comes from our God, and God’s timing is perfect – even if we cannot see it. We were reminded of the passage from 1 Peter 5v7 “Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you”.
Life is a gift that belongs to our Father in Heaven. He knows what is best for us according to the plans He has for us.

We thank our family for standing by us through all this, as well as all our friends.
And a special thanks to all of you who have your own lives, and your own worries, and yet found it important enough to remember us at this time. We thank our Father every time we remember you.

“What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord…”
Philippians 3:8a

With Thanks,
Roy, Ang & Nathan