Our 21st Wedding Anniversary

WOW! 21 years married. The photo was taken at a restaurant in the Centre of Monrovia. It was lovely to go out and have some time together as a couple away from the kids and away from the ship community just for a few hours to reflect and remember.

As we looked back over the 21 years that we've been married, we realised again what an amazing journey we have travelled together. Yes, we've had our ups and downs but we have shared the joys and we've shared the tough times and we've walked through those choosing to have God as the centre piece of our Marriage. We have 5 wonderful children, and feel truly blessed with all He has given us as a couple and as a family. There is no greater joy than serving God together as a family and seeing our children come into deeper personal relationship with their Heavenly Father.

On the morning of our Anniversary I woke up to this special greeting from my husband.
"HAPPY ANNIVERSARY DARLING

21 WONDERFUL YEARS!"

Andy has fun at the Orphanage!

Over the last few weeks Andy has accompanied us to our weekly visit to the Orphanage and had a great time, playing with and loving the children. This last week Andy & I and Arlette & Mampo (the two crew members that are on my core group team) gave the lesson all together. We acted out the parts of the Rich Man (Andy) and the 3 servants who were given talents to look after while their master went away for a time.


The children really enjoyed watching the story acted out by the four of us and then we explained the application of how God gives gifts to each & every one of of us. God does not want us to bury or hide those gifts but to use them for His kingdom and He will increase them as we use them.


Andy threw himself into the activities and had lots of fun. It was great having an extra guy on the team to help with organising the games.



Andy has come away each time feeling as I often do, wishing we could adopt them all!! The children just love to have their hands held or be cuddled.

Dennis & Comfort opened their hearts and their home 10 years ago to these children and now have nearly 70 children in their care. They are an amazing couple with huge hearts. Nevertheless, this small opportunity we have to give the children some more individual attention is precious and they soak it up.

Andy & I with Dennis & Comfort

Chris's 14th Birthday in Liberia!

Chris celebrated his 14th Birthday on the 8th of September. I can't believe my second to youngest is 14 already. Chris will no doubt be the tallest of all our children at a staggering 5ft 11 (way taller than his mum!) and several growing years still ahead of him. Chris is very much the gentle giant of the family with a very soft and affectionate personality.

Chris & Emma, the closest in age of our five children (16 months apart) are particularly close.


Chris got a skateboard for his birthday and has already spent many fun hours on the dock practising his kick flips & ollies!

On the night of his birthday he had his friends Jason & Steffan stay for a sleepover. They ended up all in the Lounge as the Air Conditioning system on the ship was down and it got VERY hot and stuffy in their small bedroom with 4 warm bodies!! Though the pic shows them sleeping, they didn't get much sleep in total that night!!

NEWS FROM STEVE - DOWN UNDER!!

"Hello from down under.

Wow - what an amazing time! DTS is great!Better then I ever expected. Lectures are going well and I’m learning more and more everyday. Let me just say God is good and as I finally come into my own understanding and faith He is pouring out His love on me. Every Saturday is Youth Street day where we get into sub cultural teams. (I’m on music team) and we hang about with the youth helping them further their talents and abilities while showing Gods love for them. Things are awesome and people are being saved at a crazy rate. Big Exo day comes up soon, which is a massive youth day where bands and motor cross bike shows and skate parks go to Sydney and show how cool following God can be. We will be taking the youth down to that and it should be an amazing time. I’ve been hanging out with kids I’ve met while evangelizing and going to concerts with them and basically trying to show love any way I can. I’m even helping one guy start up a band which is awesome. Australia is not so different to back home. I’m finding it easy to adapt to and while its winter it’s just like Newcastle England. I’ve just found out I’m going to Indonesia for outreach which I’m very excited about. We will start out in Bali. The country is one of the biggest Muslim nations in the world, so prayer support will be very much appreciated. I am still lacking some of the fee's for my outreach… any donations will be very appreciated.

Thanks for all your past support and God bless you

Steve

love you all.

My 44th Birthday!

On Saturday just gone we went out as a family for Pizza and Andy happened to mention to the waiter that it was my Birthday. After a few minutes of whispering and hand gestures to Andy I was presented with this lovely big cake which had my name piped onto it and two big 44 candles...no secret there then!!

This was another of those amazing God incidences of special blessing. This cake was freely given to help make my day special. How cool is that?