Wedding Bells – Markus & Celest
Conrad and I
have been privileged to attend my best friend’s daughters wedding on March 12th, 2010 in Wellington. A long-awaited wedding with a beautiful entrance of groom, best men, bridesmaids and bride. God’s Glory shining and overflowing radiance were evident during the reception and proceedings. We felt honored to be guest and witnesses at Markus and Celest’s wedding day. We are grateful for our friendship with Lulu and Martyn.
The pastor invited guests to have a relationship with Christ with the message from Isaiah 62. Guests pictures were hanging on a “washing line” to point out their table placings – amazing initiative and creativity. The afternoon and evening was filled with joy, fun and excitement.
This wedding reminded us of how you and I can look forward being the bride when Christ returns….
Catching the train
When we visited our friends in Vredekloof, our car didn’t want to work when we wanted to leave that evening. We were grateful that Johan & Helena borrowed their bakkie to us to come back to Fish Hoek.
The next day Conrad went back with the bakkie to tow our car to the Renault workshop. The battery were dead and had to be replaced – they couldn’t finish the car in time and it had to stay in Brackenfell.
The following day, Friday (8th January), Conrad and Maruche caught a train to Bellville from Fish Hoek to get the car at the workshop. Maruche took the opportunity to visit her best friend Alika in Bellville for the weekend. She was so exited about the trip, packed, ready for the journey.
Fifteen Years
Conrad and I celebrated our fifteenth anniversary on December, 3rd, 2009.
We can testify of grace throughout our journey as a married couple. Getting married at a very young age, we were very inexperienced and had to learn sometimes the hard way. But with so many prayer and encouragement we realised that God has a purpose for us. We will continue to walk in faith. All the wisdom and counseling we received in many ways boils down to love & respect… Woman needs to be loved and men has to be respected. The core of both is our personal relationship with God.
We are grateful for our journey. We love one another and we and our family will praise the Lord.
(We were spoiled with a delicious breakfast at the tennis club).
We are a good team and what God entrusted to us is good and we will honor Him for His grace and favour. We will hold on to His promises. Thank you for your prayers and support.
The Denzil Project needs help
What is the Denzil Project?
It is all about our new coach at the Chrismar Tennis Club, Denzil. He is 37 years old and he had a rough ride for a large part of his life. Some of it may have been bad choices that he has made but not all of it is. I’ve met Denzil in 2008 during the Western Province Club league and I knew when we met again in 2009 that God was up to something.
For me Denzil is like a brother and I see our relationship as a calling on my side to coach him life skills and to disciple him.
How can you help?
We have started to market Denzil as a coach in the surrounding area of the Tennis Club. It is a fresh start for Denzil thus we have to build his customer base from scratch. At the moment Denzil’s budget has a shortage of ± R2500 / month. Because of this he can’t afford a place of his own and now he is staying at his fiancé’s parents house in Kommetjie. For those of you that don’t know, Kommetjie is ±65km from the club in Bellville. It is not healthy for his relationship with his fiancé and it causes logistical issues.
I have agreed to manage Denzil’s budget on his behalf untill he can manage it for himself. If you want to be part of this project you can help as follows:
1) Pray for Denzil that he will grow spiritually.
2) Pray for me to have clear discernment during this whole process.
3) Support Denzil financially with a monthly contribution for a six month commitment.
I will give feedback reports to everyone that supports this initiative. I can not support Denzil spiritually and financially all by my self and that’s why I dare to post this request. You can send me an email if you would like to be involved to conrad4c@gmail.com Alternatively you can make deposits directly to the following banking details:
Standard Bank Account name: Classen Missions
Account number: 374222177
Branch number: 036009
Please use the project name e.g. “Denzil Project” as a reference for your deposit.
Or you can make use of:
My girls and I
What a privilege to have two beautiful girls! They grow up so fast. Girls are the best thing that can happen to a dad. They are made of spice, innocence and curiosity. They love music, dancing, cooking and flowers – just like their mom. Spending time on a Saturday morning, 7 November 2009 having fun, enjoying coffee & rusks in bed and then mom wanted to take some pics as usual. But did she battled to get everyone smiling at the same time? This is how many pics she had to take, before she had the perfect shot!
Returning to the farm
We went back to Sam’s farm on 2nd November 2009. He got some rabbits (for meat) and they had baby rabbits. We could hold them. We also wanted to show our Dad what we’ve been doing on Sam’s farm. Planting seedlings and feeding the chickens. Sam’s dog on the farm also had 9 puppies. She’s still too protective and that is why we couldn’t see them. We enjoyed it so much, almost as if it we’re on our own farm.
Sacrifices
The last few weeks we really had a busy time to sort out the staff. Because of theft Conrad really has put in a lot of hours to go back and forth between Fish Hoek and Bellville. Eleven out of seventeen staff members had been dismissed so far with theft.
It is so hard when you plan a family morning and the next moment a telephone call just change all the plans instantly…. but I suppose that is the “joys of having the responsibility of being the owner of a business and being your own boss?”. That is what happened on Saturday morning when Conrad had to go to Bellville to help the staff during the day. I had to see that the children get to the sport events and participate. Jeanelle very chuffed. Her team won against one of their biggest opponents, Reddam 6-4. Emile scored two tries in two different matches. They enjoy their sports a lot. We are very proud of them. Myself, Maruche and Noah were supporters.
After sports we went through to Bellville to help Conrad with stock takes which took us about 3 hours, before going to Somerset West.
Family tree
We had a visit from “oupa & ouma” over the weekend. We used the opportunity to show them around and what we’ve been doing the last few months. On Sunday morning, we all went for a walk along Kommetjie Beach (light house), enjoying the beauty of nature and awakening with a cup of coffee and rusks. We were sitting on the nearby rocks and just enjoyed the silence and roaring voice of the ocean in one onthers’ precence.
We spend time together, playing board & card games, cooking delicious food together and having fun. That’s what family is for, to support and love one another!
We are greatful to have a healthy relationship with Conrad’s parents and I really do love them as my own parents …
Building bridges – 1st FUNERAL in Eastern Cape
Mamma Phyllis, an elder woman in the Red Hill community’s sister passed away. During the week services has been held in their house and on Friday 19th June I left with Bantu to Eastern Cape in a Taxi for the funeral.
After experiencing real “AFRICAN TIME” and a long 13 hour drive in the taxi, with loud gospel music, we arrived in Alice, early the Saturday morning. As we arrived we walked into the fist service at the house where the closest family members attended. I had to share our trip in the taxi with the people. Bantu was my translator, and to him it was a huge privilege and honour.
We dressed in our best clothes quickly after a coffee break before the next service followed and more people joined. Mr. Khamnda shared from Jonah 2 – Jonah’s prayer. God safes us even if we go astray. At this point of time, I was asked to pray and to help carry the body to the car.
At the grave they basically did the same ritual as we do in our culture by throwing a hand full of sand, sing, pray and closing the grave.
When we came back to the house we had to wash our hands in order not to bring “bad luck” back from the grave yard. We all enjoyed a cooked meal with sheep, stamp and a glass bottle of coke.
The “kraal” is a meeting place for men. But I did not know that this was also the place where you urinate. In their culture, men never go to the toilet to urinate. Pride lies in the stink. The toilet is also a distance apart from the house – as we all know it as a “long drop”.
Sunday morning Babba William, Phyllis’s husband, initiated that we should do the ABC bible study together. I was so surprised and the local pastor and elders joined in the process. They liked it and agreed that All Nation teams should come to their village for outreach phase and plant Jesus in the form of these ABC groups. We shared from Philippians 4:1-9.
We headed back to Cape Town on Sunday afternoon. They literally sing you into the taxi, and gave appreciated good buys. We arrived on Monday morning 01:00 in Masipumelele where Simon & Marlese picked me up.
This whole experience opened my eyes. I believe that God will give us favour in these communities where we are working, because we not just share the Gospel with them, but we reached out to show we care and want to build bridges between cultural differences and that we can be an example of the truth of Jesus Christ salvation.
Time for kids – teaching Bible truths
One of the many blessings to do something like the CPx course is that you have more time with your wife and kids. Yesterday we were at the Africa-house and Emile was very upset because I disciplined him after he had an argument with other kids. He was angry because he wanted to do to them what they did to him (throwing stones).
I was thinking about this over the past 2 weeks, thinking how can we teach our children Bible truths. Like with this situation, how could I teach Emile to love his enemy? I had my Bible with me and asked God to give me scripture that would help to explain it to him. What an experience!
I opened my Bible at the book of 1 Peter, I was looking for the scripture that say’s it is an honour to suffer as a Christian (1 Peter 4:12-19). Before I could find it, I believe the Holy Spirit led my eyes to read 1 Peter 2:11-17, A call to Good Works. This scripture was so spot-on, wow! If you read it with the issue that I was discussing with Emile in mind, you will also agree.
One of the verses that really meant allot was verse 15, “For it is God’s will that you, by doing good, silence the ignorance of foolish people”. By sharing this scripture with Emile I could also explain to him that it is for the glory of God and not for the glory of our own flesh that we should do good to other people.
My Jesus experience today – confessing my unbelief?
This morning after Marlese and I dropped the kids at school, we went for a walk on Fish Hoek beach. On our way there, there was a testimony on Radio CCFM of how God owns everything in the universe. The lady said in her testimony “… if you are where God wants you to be, he can and will provide”.
At the beach we noticed that there were fisherman busy pulling in their fish nets. As we went closer we saw that their nets were quite full.
It was at this moment that it felt to me as if we were standing with Jesus at the beach. It felt like the moment just after He said to Peter in John 21:6 “Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find (some fish)…… they were not able to haul it in for such a big catch of fish were caught.
This morning these fishermen went in with their nets for a second time and they returned with an even bigger catch than the first and we were there to witness it! This experience has strenghtened my faith and that is why I would like to share it with you.
Have a look at some of the pictures and video clips we took with my cell phone.
A different way to be a witness….
I had the privilege to go to Bloemfontein (±1000km from Cape Town) to play in the SA Veterans National Tennis tournament last week. I was shortlisted to represent South Africa at the world champs tournament in Spain later this year.
If I performed well in the Vets tournament, I would have been selected for the team. Well it did not go well with me in the Tournament; I lost in the first round against Jodri Helman an unseeded player. He went forth and eventually lost in the final against Iain Purchase after nocking out the 2nd and 3d seeds.
I asked God why is it that I couldn’t do better in the tournament, is it all about not going to Spain? The answer was very simple, I quickly realised that God wanted me to interact with other players around the courts more than He wanted me to win matches.
To put it in other words, I practised what we have already learnt in the CPx course. I asked God, God what is it that I should see? Help me to see with Your eyes God. It was amazing when I started to see the need, how many people actually wanted to talk about God and to know more about God.
If I am chosen to go to Spain it will be a miracle (because of my poor performance in the Nationals tournament), but what I know is that I can be a very good witness for God on and around the court, if I am sensitive for the work that He wants to do through me.
Praise God!
