Goodbye to Rachel, Cheesecake factory with Belle, the Fall Woman's Event and Meeting the Gillies'!

This has been such a fun week. First, unfortunately we had to say goodbye to Rachel (who worked at Grace Books.) We all had farewell lunch together:
(Izak was the only one that got the 'farewell expression' right). You can get a look at almost everyone that works with Izak at Grace Books.

Rachel is the one in purple and they one we were saying goodbye to... (Andrew and Vicky managed to be in both pictures!)


Then, my friend Belle (Many of you may have met her when she was volunteering in South Africa) came to visit me from Washington. We met in Pasadena and she took me to the Cheesecake factory. I LOVE cheesecake!

Here is a picture of my South African-American-flatmate:

...And me with my beloved cheesecake! I really wish you could try some of this cheesecake specifically! It was a red velvet cheesecake. I can't even find the words to describe it! (I should probably have taken a picture of it before eating most of it but that just goes to prove my point!) It is a cake layered with this decadent red velvet cake and cheesecake...

And here is a picture of Belle and I together! (Awww! It meant so much to me to see her again.)

Then, on Saturday morning, we had our fall woman's event: (Pat and Ina got me a ticket and it was such a blessing!) 
Here is a link to the ad on the Grace site: http://www.gracechurch.org/highlights/?MinistryID=68

Here are some pics of the event: (Taken with my little camera...)
(It was Vicky's birthday!) 
This picture is taken in the main 'big' church auditorium and you can barely see the speaker, Rosie Martinez... but she is there, speaking to us!

I had lunch with Pat, Ina and Vicky (note the new birthday camera!) We enjoyed a Mexican salad. Very tasty.

Here is the salad:

Now, Vicky got a new camera for her birthday and here are some pics she took of the event. (note the change in quality for the better! Ie you can see the speaker!)

This young lady, Angel Taylor played and sang this incredible song for the ladies: She is verrrry gifted!

 This is the Gospel choir led by Logan Carr- quite spectacular!

I took a video clip with my camera of the Gospel Choir- but it hardly captures the moment and someone seems to be speaking simultaneously plus my hand is anything but steady! But here you are!

Then, something that Izak and I have been looking forward to for for a while is  meeting a couple that have been such a great support to us... Dave and Mary Gillies! (They live in San Jose- close to San Francisco and about 5/6 hours away from LA if I remember correctly...)
We met them at the Masters College, so that they could show us around there. (The Masters College is affiliated with the Masters Seminary and all the Gillies' children have gone to the college. We had our own personal tour.) Here we all are in front of one of the Masters College signs:

Here are Izak and I:

We went to have dinner with their son, Peter and his wife, Christine. It was such a lovely time filled with interesting discussions about Peter's work as an LAPD helicopter operator and testimonies regarding what the Lord has done in all our lives!
Here are some pics from the evening with the Gillies! Here are (from left to right) Mary and Dave, Christine and Peter and our Izak!

 

We also got to see the Gillies at Grace on Sunday evening:

 ...And we went and enjoyed our first ever piece of Boysenberry pie with them afterwards. I forgot to take a picture, but this is a very close representative of the pie we had:

Dave and Mary have invited us to visit them up in San Jose during Christmas time and we are very excited about the prospects of a road trip plus being able to spend more time with them! (We would get to see San Francisco etc too which would be amazing!)

We were so spoilt this weekend! We got a bag full of goodies and money for gas/petrol!  (Note the box full of Ferrerro Rocher chocolates and popcorn that has dark chocolate and caramel melted all over it!) and notice the little red gift card on the right. This is an 'in-N-Out Burger voucher'!

This is a closer view of the little voucher. In-N-Out Burger is a little take away franchise that makes delightful burgers!  If you turn your In-N-Out take away cup upside down, it has John 3:16 printed on the bottom of it! Here is a link to their website, in case you want to see more! http://www.in-n-out.com/menu.asp

As a once off thing, we went to visit Calvary Bible church- which is where Jack Hughes is the Pastor. It was great and we went with the Zekveld's: (I love how these pics make us look like BIG friendly giants!)

We have to look back over this last week or so and just smile when thinking about all the blessings! It has definitely been a highlight so far!