Sara & Scott’s Wedding

Brent and Taylor recently traveled to Half Moon Bay, CA (just outside of San Francisco) for Brent’s sister Sara’s wedding on September 20, 2014. They had a wonderful time with the whole family for the whole week prior to the wedding and got to do some pretty fun sight-seeing.

Above: Brother’s with their little sister

Having fun at the yacht club kayaking, playing in the sand, and paddle boarding

Muir Woods-the Redwood Forest

Golden Gate Bridge

Pier 39-where the seals hang out!

Taylor was in heaven at the candy store!!

Rehearsal for the Big Day

Wedding Day-September 20, 2014

Beach Brunch the day after the wedding

Congratulations, Sara and Scott!!

Goodbye Grandma Jones

This past Friday, September 19, 2014 my grandmother passed away. The picture below was the last time I saw her in June 2013 before we came back overseas for our 2nd term in Botswana. When I learned the news of her passing, I was grateful for her long life she led, but the immense guilt hit me immediately. I feel guilty for not being there for my grieving mom to comfort her and get to mourn with the rest of my family at her funeral. I so wish I could be there but the fact that it would take me 30+ hours to get there and around $2000 just for me to fly there just makes it impossible. This is one of the hardest things about living overseas is missing family and not being able to properly say goodbye.

If you knew my grandmother Jones she did not show her love physically very often...I knew she loved us but when I was younger it was rare to get a hug from her. When I was in my teens I determined every time I went to see her I was going to hug her hello and goodbye and tell her how much I loved her. This became a natural thing for us to do after some time and she even initiated the hugs. She even wrote me letters here in Africa telling me how much she loved me. I am thankful for the time the Lord gave us with my grandmother. She was very loved and will be missed greatly!!

Wint’s visit

Before we came to Botswana nearly 5 years ago, we went through missionary training for 2 months. We were blessed to go through this training with some amazing people and the Wint family were one of those that we just clicked with and loved. Our girls, Taylor and Madylanne both  had just turned 2 years old at the time and now they are both 7 years old. Taylor and Madylanne still call each other “best friends” and now our boys who are now 3 years old are enjoying hanging out together. The Wint’s live in Zambia, but stopped at our house this past weekend on their way to Johannesburg to have baby #3. Love this family and the friendship our kids have!

We used to celebate every birthday together, but we have missed about 2 years of birthdays as it has been that long since we have seen them. We had a little birthday celebrations to catch up on.

Above: My sweet friend Melynda about to have baby #3

Above: Bradyn and Matthew playing dinosaurs

Below: Taylor and Madylanne-Best Friends Forever (BFF)

Superman and Smoothies

Spring is finally here in Botswana and we are so excited to have warm weather and beautiful flowers back. Bradyn celebrated his happiness by putting on his superman blanket from Uncle Chris and family. Taylor and mommy celebrated by going on a date complete with smoothies before she started her last term of school today.

Love these kiddos!!

Leisure Bay, South Africa

We recently spent our vacation in Leisure Bay, South Africa which is about 1 1/2 hours south of Durban and lies on Indian Ocean. The biggest waves I have ever seen are in this area. We went with a few other mission families and had a great time. We could see whales jumping from our balcony and watched them wave their tales and fins…so cool!

Bradyn’s favorite things at the beach: running from the waves and sticking his head in the sand.

All the missionary kids ranging from 3 years old to 18 years old

Sweet Friends: The Warner’s, Davis’s, and Haber’s

Putt Putt golfing in between the banana trees

A DECADE

It’s hard to believe that on August 14, 2014 we celebrated our 10 year anniversary. As I look back over the last 10 years SO much has changed…kids, different continent, jobs we love, a maybe a few grey hairs, but one thing that hasn’t changed is my love for this wonderful man the Lord has given me. On our anniversary we took a drive through our local nature reserve near our house and got to see some pretty cool things. Sometimes I forget how cool it is where we live!

Rhinos are very endangered and we have 4 rhinos in the nature reserve near our house. They just had a little baby you can see in the picture.

Worship Conference

Many times missionaries bring their hymns from the States and try to sing them here and they really don’t translate well. When Africans sing they dance and there is beat behind all they do and then when a hymn is played like “Down At the Cross” the mood changes to solemn. Now I am not saying hymns are not great, I grew up on them and enjoy singing them but it is just not African. We recently held a worship conference and taught on the theology of worship, planning worship services, what is worship and also taught them how they can still sing the hymn songs but how to make them a little more African (see the video below to see what I am talking about).

A fellow co-worker of ours, Tom Ferguson, came and conducted this worship conference for the worship leaders in our Baptist churches throughout Botswana and it was AMAZING!! Please check out the videos below.

Down at the Cross

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