A Great celebration and the aftermath

Saturday we celebrated Papa's (Piet) birthday with a great celebration. There were about 80 guests along with the workers and volunteers and of course the children. The weather was warm, but not too hot, and the event was held in the suitably decorated grounds of the home. We gave our puppets their first outing as the boys sang and performed with the puppets 'Hey kids do you love Jesus' with a second verse 'Hey kids do you love Papa'. It seemed to go well, the boys definitely enjoyed working the puppets so we are sure they will be used again. You can just see the 8 puppets in this photo (not to mention the two 'big puppets' singing on the left!!). The other photo is of Papa and Mama with three of their nine children that live with them. In Papa's lap is Manuela, a gorgeous wee girl with lovely eyes, in Mama's lap is Zippora who is a bundle of mischief and quite active, and in the pushchair is Ishcar, who is very placid and is full of smiles and giggles. The love shown by the staff towards Papa was quite emotional and once again reminded us of the special work that this couple do in Jesus' name. The kitchen fed us all about 6pm, chicken, beef soup ( with big chunks of meat), matooke, fried pork, mashed sweet potato, rice, pumpkin, pork jelly, .......plus more I can't spell. It all ended about 8.30 and we returned home tired but happy ....... except for Paul who's leg was paining. He went to bed miserable. Also Richard had a bad case of diahhorea so we had to clean him up.

Sunday arrived and we awoke to Paul crying, his leg was quite swollen and he had an infection in it, so we started him on a course of antibiotics but he is still at home today though things are improving. We also had Joshua vomiting and Timothy with a headache so along with Richard half of our family were unwell....aaah the joys of parenthood!! I stayed home from Sunday school with Richard and Paul and Marilyn stayed home from church in the afternoon. Some racing cars were passing the gates in the afternoon so that kept most of the others occupied watching them. All except Paul have made it to school today.
All in all another satisfying weekend but we do like Mondays.
Please pray for Mama as she and Papa have gone to Johannesburg today for her to have an operation. They will be away for three weeks so also pray for the home and Mariska as she and others take on extra duties. Also please pray for us to maintain our good health and give us an extra portion of patience with sick children.