"But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15b)

zondag 25 december 2011

Merry Christmas in the summer

Sweat everywhere is not normal for the classic white christmas that is proclaimed in all the songs. But we surely were nice and sweaty on Christmas. But it was not all bad, there are some definite advantages to a sumer Christmas.

A nice barbeque/braai.

Family together in the longer evenings.

Nice marshmellows on the fire.

And en evening with friends.

But whatever the temperature of your Christmas, we hope that it was fillied with the JOY that can only come from knowing the reason for the season.

Merry Christmas!

zaterdag 17 december 2011

The professionals

Living on a golf course has an effect on a man. Carl has decided he has a new calling in life;)













But of course, where dad leads, we follow. So for Sinterklaas mom supported the Chinese economy, and now we have two more professionals in the house.

 Needless to say, when it was mom's turn, the camera disappeared:)

woensdag 14 december 2011

Sinterklaas

It's been ages since I've blogged, but it's because everything that's newsworthy is work related and gets posted on the website. www.mercy4africa.com

But now we finally had a fun night. The 5th of December is tradisional gifts day in the Netherlands instead of Christmas, often, not always. It's celebrated by celebrating the coming of St Nicholas from Spain. A man that remarkably resembles Santa Claus, but of cause it not the same.

We enjoyed celebrating this festival on the 10th of December with the other volunteers at Goeie Hoop. Here are some pictures:

Every gift is disguised in a 'package' that says something about  the person or the gift. It is amazing how much effort people put in, and the creativity!
This little man was given to one of the girls that takes care of the babies, isn't that cute?

I actually never found out what the elephant meant;)

A bottle of tablets on my lap, what does that tell you?
It does say that it is for relaxing on the side.

And a face that could wink and stick out it's tongue.

Beforehand I thought I did well this year, but I'll have to try again next year.

We had lots of fun!

zondag 6 november 2011

Family Paalman

For those of you that forgot what we look like, just a recent reminder:

Tim's first birthday

On the 4th of November, Tim was so blessed to celebrate his first birthday, and the rest of us to share it with him.

We celebrated his birthday with some simple food- his favorite. Chips. And then had a chocolate cake, he was very excited:
about his mom's cooko bird's nest.

And then American fashion, he was allowed to help himself:


Then he was allowed to open his gifts:

We really want to praise God for this little boy of joy. He has been a blessing of true joy in our house, and we pray that God will form Him, lead Him and use Him in His Kingdom. Amen.

vrijdag 7 oktober 2011

The zoo

Yesterday myself and the children were invited with when some of the children went to a small local zoo. I'll not bore you with all the animal picture;), but here are some of the human specie:
We had a great day- come back tired, dirty and pink. Lovely.

donderdag 29 september 2011

Mondays

Mondays are normally our free day, though we've ended having to work quite a few the last weeks. We keep it as family day. So, two weeks ago we saddled up the car (going away for a day with children means packing half your house) and head up the Western Coast of the Cape. The area is known for it's wild flowers, now in spring time. So we went to a park that's just open two months of the year, to see the wild flowers.

It was such a blessed day. Beautiful weather, all together, in nature created by God's own hands.
First we were met by an ostrich family.

For Carl we could go home after this, it is very seldom that you see a Caracal in the wild.

A pelican flying over your head, might be common to some, not so much to us.

Also really special, we were watching three of these bat-eared foxes playing in the field right next to the car.

And then there was the normal amount of antelope/buck/whatever you want to call them.

All surrounded by the most beautiful flowers.

And here to prove that we didn't pull those of the internet:

woensdag 24 augustus 2011

Kids

Hi there, no traumatic news. We're busy, but not things that you need to share with everybody and anybody. So, just a quick few pictures to show you how the children are growing.


Really loving life, even though it is really not that exciting or entertaining.

I'm doing a course on children's evangelism, and they told us that up to 85% of children who believe in Jesus Christ accept Him between ages 5 and 15. And then I read the same thing in the newspaper today. So, let's find joy in the faith of a child:
Mark 10:14..."Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it."
Faith like a child...

maandag 8 augustus 2011

New home

We've spend the last week, arranging and re-arranging everything in our new apartment. Now, we've kind of settled one where things belong. So, if you can't come over for a cup of tea/coffee, we'll share our little home with you in this way. Close your eyes and feel very welcome in Home Paalman.
                                                                        Have a seat.

                                                             My great joy! Enough cupboards.

                                                    You were suppose to see the great view.

      This is it. Here in the front we watch the guys t-off on their round of gholf (free lessons for Carl;))

This was the tricky one, how to make the children fit. Don't worry, Tim doesn't sleep up there, just loves to play on his sister's bed.

Come back again.

My deep moment: on Sunday the message was from Matthew 6, which amongst other things say: do not store up your things where moths and rust can get to it. Trying to move all we've collected, I just realized we have way to much moth food here. Phew, stuff is hard work.

dinsdag 19 juli 2011

Holiday

We have so many pictures of the last few weeks. You know one always takes hordes of pictures of when you are not working. It is also a beautiful example of all the pretty moments in the Netherlands.










But apart from all the beautiful moments, there were also special moments with family and friends. This is by far not all, just a few. We had a great time!!!




As you can see!!

So till we meet again:
Family Paalman
We are currently (19 July) in Pretoria. Carl will leave for Cape Town tomorrow and the rest of us next week. We'll be moving into a new house, so we might be quiet for a while.
on the 1st of August we'll start our next term with Goeie Hoop.