The Turner Adventures: April 2018

Monday, April 23, 2018

Bridal Shower

Amanda recently had the privilege of attending a bridal shower of a young lady from church. Bridal showers are very similar to those in the States. One interesting thing is the bride doesn't open her gifts...the organizers of the shower open her gifts for her. Pray for Refilwe and Yandani as they marry on May 12.

The bride to be in pink sitting in the middle

Game-Toilet paper bride

End of term

We recently celebrated the end of the kids first term of school by milkshakes at a local restaurant. The kids attend a year round school, so go to school for 3 months and then have a month break. Taylor is now in 5th grade and Bradyn is in 2nd grade. Term break includes some much needed sleep in days enjoying not waking up at 6am everyday for a 7am start to the school day.

Race day

We love the kids school! They offer so many fun extra curricular activities for not only the kids but also for the parents to be involved. We recently did a Quadrathalon as a family...Brent did a 6 lap swim, Amanda ran 3km, Bradyn biked 3 km, Taylor did the 100m activity at the end, and Ellie, well she was our cheerleader of course! What a fun day had by all!

7 months old

It's hard to believe our sweet Ellie is now 7 months old. What a happy baby she is and brings such joy to our lives...and many dirty diapers and sleepless nights ha ha. Actually she has finally started sleeping through the night and has learned to roll over and move around like a champ. She has tried to start crawling but can only figure out how to go backwards, but loves to sit up and play with her toys like a big girl.

Sunday, April 1, 2018

"Well, Glory!"

Brent's grandfather, Lewis Holmes, recently went to be with the Lord. We were so blessed to get to spend a lot of time with him this past Stateside. If you knew Pop you knew how much he loved the Lord and how much he loved his family especially his wife Nana. We know he is rejoicing in heaven now shouting "Well, GLORY!"

Ellie's 1st Easter

It's hard to believe Ellie is now almost 7 months old and enjoyed her first Easter. Of course we had to dress her all up and take loads of pictures of her :) I know we are partial, but she sure is a pretty baby!

Baptist Convention Seminary

BAPTIST CONVENTION SEMINARY

We have been blessed to have a fully accredited seminary up and running here in Botswana since 2016. We are the only accredited seminary in all of Botswana and God is opening up so many doors. We had our first classes start for our new students this month with 24 students attending and 11 full time students (those writing exams). The coolest thing however is that we are having folks from various different backgrounds, different churches, and different walks of life. God is so good. Our classes and lessons are based squarely on the Word of God and God is really working.

Awana training

We hosted an Awana training February 15-17, 2018 at Gaborone Baptist Church and invited all of the Baptist churches all throughout Botswana and many other churches as well. It has been amazing to see the burden of these churches for their children's ministries and how to improve them, so we decided to host a training on Awana. With many thanks to Living Water Baptist Church in Longs, SC who funded this training for us, we were able to train about 35 people. Six different Awana clubs have been started all throughout Botswana since our training in February. Praise God that Botswana is reaching their children with the gospel.

The leader of southern Africa Awana programs teaching

Most of the participants of training

6 months already?

I can't believe our girl is 6 months old already! It's fun to look back at each months picture and see how much she has grown. I have to admit I am thankful that we are now in the sitting up phase as they become a bit easier and a whole lot more fun. She loves to eat bananas, apples, and pears, and truly hates butternut. She sits up on her own and is rolling over. Before long she will be mobile!

Time slow down

It seems like yesterday Taylor was Ellie's age...what has happened to the last 10 years?? Time needs to slow down a bit, but until it does we will try to enjoy every second of it. Taylor has always been our strong and independent child and now we are seeing some advantages of these qualities. So proud of the young lady she is turning into!

Attending her 1st dance-Valentine Dance

Taylor with her best friend Molly

Off to camp in South Africa with her school for 4 days

Braces!!!

Dad of many talents

I have been so blessed with such an amazing husband (and no he is not making me write this, ha ha). Just thought I would highlight just a few of the amazing things about him.

Bringing his girls flowers for Valentine's Day.
Every dad should treat their daughters the way
their future husbands should treat them...whoever
God has for my girls has a lot to measure up to.

You will see Brent actively taking a huge role
with Ellie. He helps out so much with her even
after a long day.

Daddy always takes us on adventures. This
adventure was to the Gaborone Dam.

We still date each other each week if we can.
This date was at a restaurant at the highest
building in Gaborone called Room50two.

Ellie adores her daddy

That's Brent coaching a tennis tournament Bradyn was involved
in...he takes such an active role in his kids life.

Brent speaking at one of the local schools
for their chapel service.

We put together a puzzle every Christmas break. Brent pretty
much did this one on his own this year.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing me with a man who loves You and his family so much!

Spain

Over Christmas and into the New Year we traveled to Spain for a meeting. We tagged on a little vacation time onto it and did some skiing in the Pyrenees mountains of northern Spain, toured both Barcelona and Madrid. We had such a great time and love seeing the world together!