Happy 1st Birthday Grace!

Our little angel turned 1 today. We are truly thankful for Grace. We cannot imagine our lives without her. She is so much fun! We also know that this is all by the grace of our God. That He has chosen to show us His unfailing love in so many ways and parenting being apart of that love. Today we look back remembering the day we met our baby. Its so fresh in our memories as if it was just a few minutes ago. The excitements, anxiety and of course the many tears.
So many people have asked me numerous times about our journey to having Grace. The first time someone asked I was taken back.....I asked myself what does she mean? I had a c-section there is nothing more to that (this was not my answer just in my mind). Well as time went by, I got this question so many times than i even expected. This got me thinking about my whole journey and what the Lord taught me through it. You know so many times you read someone's labour story and all that they went through. I in many ways wished I had gone into labour and given birth to our daughter without the help of medicine or a Caesarian. One thing i know now for sure, is that no matter how your baby comes into this world the important thing is that you love them, enjoy them, have fun with them and above all remember you are an ambassador of the Lord shepherding a child/ren's heart.
A few minutes before Grace. Can you tell i'm nervous.
Grace a few hours old
Grace ready to enjoy her first taste of sugar :)
YUM!!! Happy 1st Birthday sweetie. We LOVE you!

Update

Just a quick update on things here on the grounds of Namibia.

So there has been much going on. There are some weeks that I truly am not sure where they have gone. I will try to be brief, but we will see..: )

Home group:

Our house to house ministry group has been going well. We have been meeting at Tate Emmanuel's house the last 4 weeks. We have continued to go through the book of Ephesians. This has been such a wonderful book for us. We just this week went through the armor of God in chapter 6. Starting next week we will be meeting at our house. We have talked a little about what we will study after this book, but not for sure yet. Please pray for this group that we continue to grow in community and love for one another.

Campus ministry:

We have started to do ministry in the university and colleges here. I have been going to Polytechnic College. There is a commons area that I have been hanging out at talking with students, and teaching the bible. I was also able to join in to one of Campus Crusade meetings. I am hoping to be able to work more with them in the future. Please pray for direction in this being we are in the beginning stages of this ministry. Pray that God would open opportunities to do more preaching and bible teaching on the campus...even to the teachers.

The Church!!

Well, with this being our main calling and main focus this one may be a bit longer. Monte Christo has been going well. I have taken a break from preaching through the book of Acts, to preach on a series of sermons on a healthy church member. I am mostly following a book Entitled "What is a healthy church member?" by Thabiti Anyambwile. I have preached the first two sermons so far. Pastor Laban and I are sharing the pulpit where I preach two sundays and he preaches two sundays. I am also, continuing to teach the membership class at the church. This has been a wonderful time with this group. We have about 6 people coming. The church continues to grow and we are encouraged by seeing how many of the members are growing and showing more love for each other. We have been asked about Ordination. Currently we are praying about this and would be loking at early next year for this to take place. Please pray with us on it!

Seminary studies:

I am currently working through the first two courses of seminary school. I have been reading for one of the courses a wonderful book. It is called "Thomas Charles' Spiritual counsels". I have so much enjoyed this book! It is truly the kind of book that as you read you want to underline every page. I was talking to one of the pastors here about the book and explained that in my opinion Thomas Charles writes likes John Piper preaches. He writes with a passion!! I would highly recommend this book to anyone. Please pray that I would have enough time to finish the requirements for these courses in time. With everything going on my time is very busy.


The weather here in Namibia has quiet cold these past few days. Very cold and windy at the same time......and even snowing in some parts of the country. Also, the houses here are not built to withstand the cold. There are many here even in the church that have been very sick. Please pray for Namibia

This month we also celebrated 4 years of marriage! Some friends offered to take grace for us for a evening. It was the first date we have had since grace was born. It was a wonderful time! Please join us in praising the Lord for 4 years of marriage!

Well...I tried to make that a bit short. We want to as always thank those that are supporting us. You are truly our partners in this ministry. We are still praying that the Lord would provide for our needs to come back and visit the states. Please pray for this! We really would love to go back and visit our family and our supporters. Thank you!

SNOW.....YES SNOW IN NAMIBIA!

I (Julia) stand corrected......it does snow occasionally in Namibia. I would have loved to see this for myself though. I get the pictures from a friend. They were uploaded on the internet on June, 8th. Enjoy!

update...

Hi everyone!

Quick update on Nelda and baby. They are both doing fine and have been out of the hospital for about 2 weeks now. Nelda takes the baby to the clinic in okahandja every 3rd day to get weighed. So far since they left the hospital the baby hasn't picked up on weight, her weight remains the same (1.8kg). Her grandma (Nelda's mom) gave her the name Grace and her grandpa (Christiaan's father) gave her the name Elizabeth after his late wife. So her name is Grace Elizabeth. Nelda is doing well but her feet are swollen.

Praise the Lord that Grace Elizabeth is doing well. Pray that this continue and that she picks up weight. Also pray for Nelda, for a good recovery and as she raise this baby as a single mom and that she spent time with the Lord both in His word and in prayer.

Thank you!