This last week an esteemed brother minister was telling me that, in speaking to a man who professed to have been converted, he asked him which sin remained as a load upon his mind. “Well,?” said the man, “I have to see after cows, and I have often beaten the cows very badly.” “What do you do now?” “Oh, I coax them instead of beating them.” Now, I have no doubt, that in his peculiar calling, cruelty to animals would be most strikingly laid upon his conscience, but the pastor had to say to him, “Yes, quite so; but the great sin in your fault is, that the cows are God’s creatures, and that he is angry if we treat his creatures unmercifully.?’
Spurgeon (May 16, 1868)
At Grace Presbyterian Church
Matthew and Claire were baptized on October 13th, 2013. There were 10 or more other baptisms that same day of our Congolese brothers and sisters. Thoses videos will be available privately. Many were added to membership that day and Pierry gave a wonderful testimony. I will post more on that later.
For now, here's a video that has a brief intro from pastor Bob on baptism, followed by the baptisms of Matthew and Claire.
We recently caught two large spiders and fed one to the other. It took a while to get them to even see each other. One was in the black widow family and the other was meditteranean spider that is new to the area.
The larger overpowered the smaller this time.
We didn't wait to see if the black widowish spider managed to inject poisonous venom.
I grabbed a rock and smashed it before it could escape.
Our German Neighbors
Spending the evening at the Becks was a special treat. The Becks are our German neighbors who celebrated Oktoberfest on September 28th, 2013. There were lots of familiar faces from the neighborhood and swim team, and then there were some people that we had the priviledge of meeting that night.
Of course, Claire did not resist going to this adultish party. Her good friend Fancisca is nearly always there to help her find creative and fun ways to by silly.
And what boy can resist a treehouse? Can you find him in this photo?
As night fell, the lights around us brought a warm glow, as well as the home made Schnapps from Bernanrd's mother in Germany.
By this time Matthew had so much fun eating sweets that he had ejected some and went home. But I stayed to enjoy more yummy sweets.
It's special things like this that make our neighborhood a wonderful place ot live. Thank you Becks!
