Nick is almost finished now with his college year - he has one assignment left to finish off and then two exams in November. The assignment mentioned in the last update ended up being 67 353 words and 175 typed pages. The length of an average novel is about 100 000 words, so Nick will probably turn this assignment into a book at some point in the future. He received a distinction for it. He is seriously considering continuing studying next year (the professional student?) to get his Masters, which will enable him to teach at a college or seminary in the future.
Nick has had two preaching opportunities in Pretoria - the first one at Emmaus Baptist Church, which is an offspring of our church. The second time was in our own church while Pastor Martin was away. Both went well and Nick received a lot of positive feedback, particularly from the younger people. It was also a blessing to have Nick’s family with us in church for his first sermon at Constantia - his father and his father’s girlfriend were out from the UK for two weeks, and were very happy to attend, along with Nick’s sister and brother-in-law and his uncle. Amazing how God timed these events so perfectly, that his dad, who we haven’t seen in almost two years, should arrive in the country on the day that Nick preached!
Nick has also started up two new bible studies. One is at Pretoria Boys’ High on Wednesday afternoons, and the other is on a Wednesday evening in Riviera, just near to Pretoria town, which is on the book of Romans. He continues to lead the Saturday night young adults bible study as well, so has a lot of preparation to do. He is taking over the worship portfolio at church, which means finding musicians and vocalists, training worship leaders, finding new songs and so on.
I am still struggling on under the constant cloud of housework. No more said! The garden was also needing some attending, so I had “fun” pulling out bushes and planting some new things, as well as finding some rocky topsoil, which probably did more damage than good. The rain we have had in the last few days has been fantastic, and an answer to prayer, particularly for the farmers. I am now involved with the Sunday School, teaching a lesson every third week and helping with the activities the other weeks for children aged 2 - 6. Quite a big age range, but it seems to work. There are between 10 and 15 children in the class, Caleb being one of them.
Caleb is doing pretty well with toilet training, which we started at the beginning of October. For those of you with children who have undergone and completed the tedious process, you can be thankful that it is over. It is not fun dealing with poo underpants. He has settled into his playschool which he attends two mornings a week, and has made some friends there. It is a Christian school, English, and just around the corner from us - definitely God’s leading! Favourite things to say are “what you doing”, “hey, stop that”, “what does Caleb want” (usually the answer is food) and “let Caleb do it”.
Aaron has cut four teeth in the last three months. Both boys seemed to follow in Lynn’s teething pattern - bottom two middle teeth came first, followed by the top eye teeth, so Aaron is sitting with “fangs” and a gap in the middle. His party tricks include clapping his hands, finding the light, and shaking his head in imitation. His crawling led him to the stairs in the duplex, which he now gets all the way up by himself. Getting down is still a mystery to him. He likes to stand, but loses balance after a moment if unsupported.
Our alarm system was put to the test one night at about 3 am, when it was triggered by an intruder. We apprehended the intruder and applied the death penalty immediately - squished that ‘roach dead.
With the approach of summer, I went shopping for some shorts for Nick, but when he tried them on, his comment was “hmmm, these are funny. There’s so much space in the front, and no pockets.” Weird shorts. Also, the label was in the front.
