Reflecting on the last year... Fall and Spring Semesters at TMS

At Jeffrey's Bay Bible Church (JBBC), we typically have a more relaxed evening service on Sundays and are given the opportunity to give a testimony and I thought that I would try to do something similar with this post. 

Our testimonies for The Fall 2010 and Spring 2011 are as follows: (Imagine an animated and excited pitch!)
- Izak has completed a full year at The Masters Seminary and we honestly have no doubt that it has all been by the Lord's grace! There have been times when it all just seemed too much and there was too little time! During these hard times we would remember what Wynand had said about focusing on the mound of dirt where we are digging right now and not on the entire mountain! Such wisdom in these words, sometimes I was convinced that I could see an actual mountain!

- Izak and I were able to finish Hebrew Grammar 1&2 in this last year and now can read the Old Testament a whole lot more than before we did the classes!
Here is a pic of the Hebrew class: (Professor Hassler is in the back middle with the black pullover... the rest are students)

With our final exam, Professor Hassler wrote the following on my paper: (In the picture below...) The professors were always so gracious and accepting and I often felt like one of the seminary students! Dr Harris in our prayer class asked me to share what the class had meant to me with the rest of the 'real' students! It has been such a wonderful year and Izak and I thoroughly enjoyed experiencing it together!

- As one of his 'techy projects' Izak managed to convert his windows mobile phone into an android. (Far more user friendly in the States this way...) It was quite a feat and now he gets to use the phone in ways he couldn't before. It has turned into quite a valuable tool! Here is the token android picture:

- Due to Izak's job at the Bookstore we have been blessed with almost a bookshelf full of books after our first year! Here is a pic of our book collection:

- We have had a very old fridge (older than me and not working quite as well!) until approximately two weeks ago- and recently our landladies replaced it with a brand new one! Now, for the first time we have a working freezer AND perishables seem to be lasting longer! (And I thought it was just the way that food is here! :) ) Here are some pics of our new FRIDGE!

 

 

- A VISA prerequisite before coming here was that we could meet all of our financial obligations for the first year and the Lord graciously met all these needs! As our first year came to a close, we had no idea how our financial obligations would be met for the following year -  a big part of these would be tuition costs. God has been so gracious and has provided our tuition fees for us through the same couple who agreed to support us in the same way this last year!

- As many of you know, we were blessed with a holiday to Windsor- from one of our landladies who owns timeshare. Windsor is north of San Francisco and +- 7hours drive from here. Our holiday is in the third week of July and our car is giving us trouble, so getting that far with our car would possibly have been a challenge... Well, the same couple who are sponsoring the tuition are giving us flights up to our holiday destination and the use of one of their vehicles! What a blessing! (It will help us to relax and simply enjoy the time away...)
 
- One of our landladies- called Ina is a seamstress and she is teaching me to sew! It is something that I have wanted to learn to do for ages and I am so looking forward to it! She has already helped me by altering some garments that desperately needed changes! What a blessing!

- Recently our finances were so tight and we were trying to use what we had in our grocery cupboard in order to get by that week. On that very same day we received coupons from one of the grocery stores in our area and one of the coupons was for $12 and a few of the discount coupons were for items that were on my shopping list! Coincidence? I think not! Here is a picture of the handy coupons:

 - We have just finished our first summer classes and they were called "Pastor's home" and one of the tasks that had to be done was for Izak to take me out on a date (I got to grade him!) and a family from Jeffrey's Bay had sent us a financial gift specifically for a date and we got to use it for just that! I love IKEA http://www.ikea.com/us/en/# (A Swedish home decor place which is very creatively set up like real rooms incorporating their products and also has very reasonable and yummy food!)- it is so fun and you get lots of creative ideas! PLUS breakfast is one of my favourite meals! So we went there for breakfast and then walked around and even went to see a movie! Needless to say... he got 100%! Here are some pics from our date:

Our tasty breakfast burrito's:

  A view from the window:

And some of IKEA:

In essence, a verse that rings true to us in summarizing this year is from Psalm 138:8, "The LORD will fulfill His purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever."

Well, thanks for popping in! We look forward to hearing from you!