Adios 2014

Well another year has come to an end and as I contemplate saying goodbye to this year I find it hard not to sit and pause for just a moment.  This great year, 2014, has brought with it many sorrows and disappointments but also successes and victories. 

This year has brought with it the challenges of facing self imposed limitations that should not have been there in the first place and the joy of breaking those barriers and breaking into new ground.  It has brought tests of patients and endurance and the joyous reward that comes from waiting for that which is good. 

This year has had moments of darkness, frustration and probably sometimes even fear but it has been a year that has brought me the closest to finding my truest self and the deepest desires of my heart and being able to see clearly who I am and what I want out of life.

There isn't a single year to which Ecclesiastes 3 would not be applicable but I'll leave that to you to ponder.  The most important element to this year has been that of finding balance in life. There are always good and bad experiences but it is how we respond to those circumstances that charts the course of our future. 

Looking back I thank God for all the wonderful experiences that life has brought me and give honour, praise and glory to God that if anything good has come out of this year, it has been by His divine grace and providence. 

I am so looking forward to saying, "Adios 2014!"  But I wait with excitedly with baited breath to say "Hello 2015, let's make this a great year!" 

What are your moments and thoughts of reflection?  I encourage you to take the time to think through these. 

Wishing you all a blessed and prosperous New Year and Happy 2015!  And here's to looking forward to another year of blogging :-) 

P.S. Please travel safely!

The remodelling has begun

This weekend was an amazing quiet and peaceful Christmas long weekend and I cherished every minute that I could spend at home with my babies as well as the opportunity to sleep and just be a couch potato when I wanted to be. I did however decide that it was time to start the front garden remodelling project and for this I enlisted the help of a little gardening buddy, being my neighbours little 5-6 year old daughter.

Darling little Rowan chewed my ear off through the whole process, she may well have slowed me down a bit, but the company was great fun. I must admit, I think I have already mastered the art of just doing the ahh ha, yeh and oh really bit!

The remodelling process will require 3 phases namely; stripping the beds of all unwanted plants, reshaping the beds so that the bed lines are just more fluent and creative and then planting. This time I plan on going with a low maintenance front yard with fewer and larger plants to fill the space.

In much the same way the rest of my life is going to have to undergo a remodelling process if I intend to take the idea of adoption seriously and I am praying that God will guide and direct my every step as I do so.

As we come to the end of 2014 and face the start of a brand new year, 2015, are their any aspects of your life both spiritually and physically that need to be remodelled? If so, then I join hands with you in prayer that God will grant us the wisdom to know where to put our efforts.

You are in my prayers!

Christmas: My special gift to self - Confessing my hearts desire

It is Christmas eve and a very special time.  I know my friends in NZ and AUZ are already enjoying the special day.  My special Christmas gift to myself this year is confessing my hearts desire that I truly and deeply want to adopt a child.  At this point I feel God has placed a desire for an Asian baby/child, preferably a girl, on my heart and I'll say why shortly.  The big questions are why do I want to adopt and what does this have to do with Christmas? 

Well I'll tell you!  It is only 3 generations back in my family that my Great Grandfather and Mother, Oupa and Ouma Louw adopted my grandmother, Joyce Louw (born Conradie).  Granny Joyce gave birth to my father, Des Hughes, who along with my mother June, gave birth to me. I had the rare privilege to know my Ouma (Grandmother) Louw and she was an amazing women and thus adoption is close to my heart. 

So where did the Asian bit come in?  Well as a young 12 or 13 year old girl in Nelspruit, I attended a very special youth group, Calvary Assembly Youth Ambassadors for Christ (quite a mouthful).  During a game of 'sweets or the box' I won the book "God's smuggler to China - by Brother David."  Along with desires I have had from early childhood to become a missionary, this birthed a love in my heart for the Chinese people and their plight to live the Christian life under Chinese communist domination.  This was further fueled by the book, "Chasing the Dragon - by Jackie Pullinger." 

Does this mean that this adoption will take place exactly as desired or planned?  Maybe, maybe not, but I know that when God places a desire in your heart it is for a reason and until God tells me otherwise, that is what I will be praying for. 

But there is another reason adoption is so very special to me.  That is because God opened up His master plan for salvation to the Jewish nation to all of mankind when he declared that Gentiles too should be saved.  In Romans 8:15 we read, "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but we received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba Father."  Our very salvation is God's great act of adopting mankind, paying the price for our redemption and making us His family. 

This is the true story of Christmas, that Christ was born to reconcile man to God!

If you have not yet bought yourself a Christmas gift, I want to encourage you to by my ebook, Growing with God by Ronwyn - Everyday God, available from Amazon.  It is $6.85, +- R50 and will be a blessing to you and your family throughout 2015.  If you don't have a kindle, you can download the app from Amazon when you purchase the book.  You can copy the link below into your browser.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H1M90P6/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_BflHub0W5EFMH

With this, I wish all my GrowingwithGod by Ronwyn readers a blessed and prosperous Christmas. 
Peace on earth and goodwill towards men!
All my love!

Increased demands at Christmas

This time of year is extremely difficult for banking.  The increased demands and risks make life difficult for the skeleton staff still working. 

I can only imagine what Israel must have been like around the time of Christ's birth.  The census had been called and no matter what your challenges, you had to play your part.  The towns folk must have wondered how on earth they would keep up with the challenges of increased people movement. 

All the while Mary's heart must have pumped nervously at times.  She knew her time of delivery was near and she must have had some moments of nervous anxiety.  The truth is regardless of the challenges she was the picture of grace in a troubled time. 

I think a time comes when we remind ourselves of our increased strengths and remember that God has everything under control, no matter how difficult life may seem.  At this Christmas time, draw from the grace and strength of Christ that resides within you and remind yourself of God's words through the angels, "Peace on earth and goodwill towards men!"  [Luke 2:14 paraphrased]

Starry starry Christmas night

Since the start of the rainy season I have been going outside, hoping to catch a clear night with nothing but stars to look at.  For months, nothing!  Then Saturday night it finally happened.  A full clear night with nothing but beautiful stars and right above me sat Orion's belt.  If I hadn't just watered the lawn I may have put a blanket out there and lay watching for quite some time. 

This always makes me wonder exactly what it was that the three wise men actually saw when they saw the star that lead them to the birth of Jesus?  I wish there could be some way for us to figure that out.......But follow that star they did and they became part of biblical history.

What star are you following this Christmas?  Is it the star of fame, the star of fortune, the star of family, the star of relationships, what is it that you most want right now?  The question we must ask ourselves is, are we willing to sacrifice for it or do you expect it to come easily?  Those wise men sacrificed a tremendous amount.  Remember they had no modern highways to travel on, it was all a hard journey through deserts and forests and all sorts of terrain.  

Are you willing to make the sacrifices necessary to follow the correct star and find peace and joy this Christmas?

Sterkfontein adventure

This weekend has been a blast.  On Saturday one of my pals, Vanessa, joined me as we went on a short road trip to Sterkfontein caves and Maropeng out at the cradle of human kind.  Maropeng visitors centre was really fun but the best for me were the caves.  I am absolutely fascinated by geology. 

Although the sections open to the tour are considerably smaller and shorter than that of the Sudwala caves in Mpumalanga were I grew up, Sterkfontein did have something special to offer, that being an under ground lake, which has never been fully explored due to its depth and the darkness of the cave.  Sadly one poor soul did loose his life trying.  I am sure at some point those in the deep sea diving industry may be able to lend a hand to make it possible. 

In much the same way as this subterranean lake runs deep and far and must undoubtedly supply sustaining water resources the areas it feeds, so too our relationship with Christ can grow to the level and strength that it becomes our total source of power. 

Do you have that source of power in your life?  If not, why not consider developing a real relationship with God and not just follow religion. 

Christmas with the gogga's

I tried really hard to fight it, but the Christmas spirit eventually got a hold of me.  I had given away my tiny Christmas tree some time ago and have not replaced it yet so I decided to be different I wanted to make my own Christmas decorations by making some bedazzled and beaded pine cones. 

Pine cones hold many special memories for me of our childhood years in Nelspruit and the countless times we'd head off into the surrounding forests.  So on Monday on my way home from work I gathered a bag full of pine cones and brought them home to work on.  Some looked fairly clean so I figured I could get to work on them straight away.  Ha! Mother nature reminded me that these cones had been on the ground a while and had been inhabited by some tiny little critters.  After the fright of the bugs crawling out I took them outside to wash and pour over some citronella oil.  Needless to say I only managed to get one decorated before I ran out of time.  At least it will keep me out of mischief for a while. 

The Christmas story is rather messy too.  A stable certainly is not the type of place I would want to bring a new born baby into this world, but what could Mary do?  She had to make the most of a very bad situation.  Likewise our individual salvation stories may be messy, maybe because of a background of drugs, alcohol or abuse keeping us captive to our past. 

As much as we celebrate Christ's birth at Christmas it is already a reminder for us of why He came, that being to save us for eternity.  Whatever your story is, do not fear the mess, come to Christ as you are and His love will transform you.