Family Easter Celebration

 A wonderful day with the our clan and Mom's sister's clan celebrating, feasting, sharing

 

Theresa sent this fruit art with hubby & boys as she wasn't able to come herself after all :(

Mark was in Ottawa at school, I missed too.  So nice to see everyone else!  

  
 Enjoying the delicious hot lunch

 

Opa using every opportunity to play chess. Rachel looks pretty happy - is she winning?

 

Esther and Maria

 

 

Little Cuties Ben (above), Marike (below)

 

Games!!

 

 

5 Musketeers: Andrew, Noah, Kenny, Caleb, Timmy (hiding)

 

3 Musketeers: Joanna, Bethany, Willie

2 Lovebirds:  Heidi & Tim

 

Best friends/twins: Anna (Emma) & Sarah ( ? ) 

 

We praise God for His saving, redeeming love in Christ!

"Oh to see the dawn of the Darkest Day

...Christ became sin for us.

Took the blame, bore the wrath.

We stand forgiven at the cross." 

 

and then 

 

"See What a morning gloriously bright...

For He lives: Christ is risen from the dead!

One with the Father, Ancient of Days...

Honour and blessing, glory and praise

To the King crowned with power and authority!

And we are raised with Him,

Death is dead, love has won, Christ has conquered....

 

Allelujah! 

 

Beautiful photos and tulips are from Sharon. Thanks!

Thanks Mom for planning/overseeing and everyone helping/contributing and coming!

Easter Thoughts and Wishes

Good Friday

Isaiah 53 – He was  beaten,  abused, bruised, crushed, despised, betrayed, rejected, punished, forsaken …

by men, but worst of all by His Father!  Even though He was completely innocent! 

Why? 

For those of us who see our rebellion, our indifference to our Creator, our lack of love to our neighbours, our inability to honour God as we ought as His creatures. 

And who see that we deserve punishment, 

And who see our need for a Go-between, a Mediator, a Saviour

– because we can’t bear the just penalty of our sin and we can’t live the required life of perfection. 

 Only Christ, the God-Man could and did – if we will simply believe and cry for mercy and accept His gift of New Life. 

Colossians 2:13  “And you, who were dead in your trespasses (failures)…God made alive together with Christ having forgiven all our trespasses by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands...by nailing them to the cross.”

Contemplating Christ’s sufferings on earth also helps take the edge off our sufferings. If Christ went thru such agony of physical pain and emotional & mental anguish for us, can’t we, thru His grace endure our lighter afflictions for Him?

“Stille Zaterdag”   

Thinking of the sadness and emptiness Jesus’ followers must have felt after witnessing His death and burial – all their hopes and expectations killed and buried with Him! 

Yet how much worse the feeling of lost-ness and purposelessness – the “what now?!”  that those who say that God is dead must feel when they are really honest with themselves. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (who greatly influenced the “three devils of the twentieth century: Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini) was honest enough to follow atheism to its logical outworking:  madness, despair and suicide, bloodshed.  “He wanted to look life squarely in the eye, with no God to obstruct his vision and the picture he saw was agonizing to his mind… the storm clouds were even more devastating and violent than any of God’s undertakers had imagined…”  His parable called The Madman portrays the terrifying results of denying God and became somewhat prophetic as he himself went insane in the last decade of his life. (See: The Real Face of Atheism, Ravi Zacharias)

But, thanks be to God, all is NOT hopeless, God is NOT dead!  Good Friday and the death of the God the Son was not the end of the story!

Yes, God did send His Son to take our place, pay the penalty of death – and He also raised Him again in a glorified body!  and He credits our account with His righteousness (right life) and His Eternal Life!  (John 3:16) 

Easter gives us every reason to rejoice, find purpose to life and hope for the life here-after!

May each one of you reading this, know the Risen Saviour!

Happy Easter!  Goede Pasen!

 

(Sorry the blog's been so dead, trying to resurrect it :) Hopefully some photos will be posted again soon!)

Top Ten 2012

Some of the resources that influenced Marguerite for good in 2012 – in chronological order, except for the first two which continued throughout the year:

1.      Lamentations to Malachi – completed a 3 year stint of praying thru the Old Testament (ESV) – took me longer than expected but what a blessing!

2.      Ravi Zacharias – Just Thinking/Let My People Think radio programs – www.rzim.org/let-my-people-think-broadcasts  especially one called Releasing the Next Generation – a “must listen to” if you have teens or interact with them.  Sermons from Corey Dykstra - 1 Samuel series, 2 on baptism, and sermons by Rev. Todd Joling (on Sermon Audio) 

3.     When God Weeps, Joni Eareckson Tada, Steven Estes – full of real life examples from her own suffering & her ministry with the disabled and Scripture, the book gives purpose, sense, and dignity to the saints in their “needless” suffering, pain, sorrow in this sin-tainted, cursed world.  Difficult to digest and gut-wrenching in places, especially the hell chapter yet encouraging & triumphant, glorifying to God - persevering thru yields its rewards!  
 

4.      Kid/teen books: A Father of Orphan’s, Struck by Lightning, Amy & Her Brothers, Shipwrecked…

5.      Jesus: Dead or Alive?  Josh & Sean McDowell – great for giving to young skeptics at Easter…

6.      The Robber’s Cave, A.L.O.E.  (Lamplighter Rare Collector series) riveting story perfect for young men entering in the world workplace or secular dens of study

7.      12 Essential Minerals for Cellular Health, David Card – a modern, layman’s introduction to the inorganic biochemical elements in the blood & tissues required for cell function & integrity, with their therapeutic uses. A valuable aid for caring for your family’s health.     

8.      The Shoes that Love Made, Lucille Travis  – biography of missionary doctor/surgeon to lepers in India Dr. Paul Brand – author of Fearfully & Wonderfully Made and In His Image (recommended) - and numerous medical rehab journal articles, Hand surgery Rehab book – which I studied in my Rehabilitation Medicine program at UofT. My Internship supervisor in Plastic Surgery Rehab actually met & trained under him in India! Wow!

9.      Sudden Family, Debi & Steve Standiford – an amazing, true story of young American lawyers’ difficult and rewarding experiences in adopting Vietnamese teen boys

10.  The Incredible Chinese Script, S.H.Tow.  “Rest assured, The Incredible Chinese Script is in not just another book to add to your weariness. In its pages are astonishing discoveries of Scripture truths in the ancient Chines Script which affirm the unassailable rock of Holy Writ and the Genesis record.”  Especially good to give to Chinese friends and anyone caught up in Darwinism.

Merry Christmas to you and yours

from our whole clan!

 

           May you all experience the true joy and peace

           that comes only from our Lord and Saviour

    whose birth we celebrate at Christmas in a special way.

May we keep Christ central in all we do.

God's blessings to you all!

The night of Betty's kid's Christmas program (Fri Dec 7), I got to babysit David & Bethany - which was quite uneventful & relaxing (phew). After story time on the couch and supper we still had time for Bethany to finish this pretty plastic wreath that a couple of the other kids had started previously.

This is the next morning (Sat Dec 8) and after showing off her wreath to Oma, she ran up stairs and put on a fancy dress & black stockings and we rushed off to her first piano recital!

 

Here she is with Heidi at the church where Heidi organized a recital for all her piano students! Very nice! So neat to be able to go and hear the children play and see Heidi encouraging, coaching or accompanying them.

Kenny

 

Maria, Andrew & Daniel played also.  Great job everyone!

 

 

 

Christmas flower basket arranging with Oma

Thurs Dec 20, John dropped off Esther & Sarah at Sharon's while in the area for business so they could stay for the weekend - so nice! Great that Heidi, with her busy schedule, was also able to make it for the morning - nice to have some time with the teens before the little girls came (oops, Esther's not so little anymore!) Here we are hanging out in my livingroom after lunch.

 

 

After supper, just as the snow began to fall in huge fluffy flakes, the girls went out, candle & flashlight in hand, to fill the air with their sweet melodious "Glor-o-ria, in Excelis Deo, Glor-o-o-ria, in Excelsis De-eo".... One delighted neighbour asked if we had ordered the snow just for this (it hadn't really snowed yet this winter!)

Homeschool Christmas Program

In the choir

Singing "The Holy City"



Toastmasters

Esther has been going to Toastmasters the last 8 weeks (a public speaking course) and completed it today with a "Graduation". 

Here she is with her instructor, Heather

 

Doing an impromptu talk

The certificate she received

 



 

The program for the meeting (sorry it's sideways!) :)

 

 

The whole group of new Toastmasters

 

 

Winners!

Hey, congratulations, Andrew.  We heard you placed 2nd with your poster entry.  That's great!
Congratulations to Esther too!  She placed 1st for her essay entry and 2nd for her poem.  How fun.  The essay has been entered into the next level.  We'll have to wait and see what happens next.

RTH, visits November

Roy Thompson Hall concert, still a big thing for Dad & Mom preparing for it and singing - especially with a great number of their kids & grandkids in the audience! It took a lot of arranging and shuffling of kids to get everyone there!  The day after, Sat, they all converged on our place to get kids back to their rightful owners
and to help puppy-proof the back side fence. 

 

Lisa & oldest 2 girls, who were back for the concert also came for lunch. So nice to see them again!

 

 

While they were at the concert, I babysat "2 lil' giwls"  - quite exciting complete with getting to see a real firetruck - with the lights flashing!  "Pwetty cool!"

 

 

Birthday visit to Maurice &Rachel's


Jimmy & Willy

Cutie Marike 

Aww...

Joe

 

Storing apples for the winter

Tia sniffing out the bad apples ;)

 

 

Andrew's poster

Remembrance Day

Just a quicky to share with you Sarah's & Esther's entries for the Remembrance Day Poster/Literary contest.  Thanks Sharon for letting us know about it.  (The deadline for entries was actually already this past Monday, but the man was very lenient and said they could still bring entries in today.  He seemed surprised, yet pleased to hear that they were homeschooled.)

Esther entered an essay and a poem.  Here's the poem.  If you want to read the essay, you'll have to ask her.

We will remember

We will remember

All the brave heroes who died;

The boys who never shot guns

The men who trained for battles

They all died alike and they all lie under the poppies.

We will remember

All the brave heroes who lived;

The boys who lost their dreams

The men who lost their limbs

They all fought alike and they all struggle with pain.

We will remember

All the families left behind;

The women now widowed

The children now fatherless

They all loved alike and they all miss their men.

We will remember

All the bloody battles;

The victories won joyfully

The defeats endured courageously

They all were braved alike and they all deserve respect.

We will remember

All the reasons they fought for;

The freedom of their countries

The faith of their families

They all were worth it then and they all still are today.

 

We will remember.

 

By Esther Westendorp

 

 

Here is Sarah's picture: