“And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,” (Ephesians 4:11-15, NASB95)

Matthew and Claire’s Baptisms

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.

 

Spider Showdown

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. 

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The larger overpowered the smaller this time. 

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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.

Oktoberfest at the Becks

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.

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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!