Humble hospitality

If you often have soup for dinner, why not pop over to Deb's post about the effect just a bowl of soup can have. Humble hospitality allows people to welcome others even when they don't have much. Dave has often said that it is better to joyfully serve someone a peanut butter sandwich than to fuss and stress about an elaborate dinner. I don't think I've served guests just soup and bread for dinner yet, but maybe it is time to do so! Hospitality is not about entertaining or impressing, it is about extending love to others and welcoming them into our lives. Read Deb's post and be inspired!

Soup for dinner?

Soup has traditionally been thought of as a first course to a three course meal. I don't know about you, but I never make three course meals! So soup and homemade bread has become a full meal for us. It is filling and nutritious, and there is not really a need for anything else. Besides, I can make a whole huge pot of it, freeze some, and have easy meals stored away. The gift of a giant pot (not pictured) was one of my most valuable wedding presents!


Our table is full of wedding/engagement gifts. Place mats, plates, bowls, pot, glass candle sticks, salt grinder . . . we also love using some crystal candle sticks that Dave's Mum and Dad gave us. It is wonderful to have a table that reminds of us of the many loving people God has placed in our lives.

What about you? Do you ever serve just soup and bread for a main meal at your house?

Helping your own husband

And the LORD God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable to him.” Genesis 2:18.

This verse gives us a summary of the role of a wife toward her husband. Just as Eve was created to be Adam’s helper, so God intends that each wife will help her own husband. While feminists have derided this role as life in second-class, Christian women know that God’s design is best.

As a new wife, I am at the beginning of my journey of helping my husband. I have mainly concentrated on helping my husband through willingly embracing the things the Bible indicates a wife should aspire to. I have also tried to support Dave in his research career, simply through being positive about it and trying not to complain about various difficulties such as travel. Dave’s work of studying trees is part of his role in taking dominion over the earth and providing for us.

One thing I have discovered is that my ideas of being a helpful housewife and Dave’s ideas don’t always match! For example, I believed that a good wife is frugal and is always looking for new ways to save. When I expressed this to Dave, he said we were frugal enough. I am still careful with our money, especially when it comes to groceries, but I have changed some of my ideas about budgeting.

As wives, we need to find out what our husbands want us to focus our attentions upon. Not all the good things we read on blogs, about frugality or other aspects of homemaking, will be a help to our husbands. On “A Deeper Love” I have written a lot about gardening and the Creation Mandate. However, my main reason for focusing upon this is my husband’s passion for us to grow our own vegetables. If Dave thought vegetable growing was a waste of time, I would not put as much energy into this.

Assess whatever you read on blogs on the basis of your husband’s priorities. All of us should seek to shape our priorities around God’s word, but that will look different in each family and season. For now, I’m working on the main thing Dave has told me would help him: being happy! I am generally happy, but tend to get worried and stressed at times. Learning to relax, and develop a quiet spirit, is my main challenge in being a helper. What about you?

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

Dave and I have been finding marriage a joy, despite all the challenging adjustments and discoveries, from day one. There is nothing like a prolonged separation, though, to make us realise just how much we do love each other and delight in each other's company! Since Dave arrived back on Monday, from nearly three weeks away, we've been rejoicing in God's gift of marriage. We are amazed that God has given us more than we dreamt of or deserved, in the gift of each other. A life partner who loves God is sure worth waiting and praying for.

Our trip: Day 6

On May 20th we went to Taronga Zoo in Sydney. I'd been looking forward to showing Dave one of my favourite places!

The trip over to the zoo on the ferry is beautiful, with lovely views of the harbour and Opera House.

We watched an amazing bird show, which involved a number of large birds swooping over our heads! Dave posed as a bird . . .


I posed as some type of rat with large ears . . .


As always, I was enthralled at the meerkat enclosure. I found out from the Lonely Planet guide to South Africa that there is a whole attraction/conservation centre devoted to meerkats there . . . hmmm, sounds like a must-see if we're in that area. Meerkats are the best!


I was far less thrilled with part of the orangutan display, which would lead visitors to believe that they are made in the image-of-an-orangutan rather than in the image of God.


As if all day at the zoo observing everything from lionesses to seals wasn't enough, we also went out that night!

Here we are in Sydney on our way to the Phantom of the Opera.

We went to the opera with the couple we stayed with, Phil and Brenda. It was an enthralling show. I was scared when that chandelier started coming towards us, and thought the themes were very dark, but appreciated the amazing set and performances.

Who will care for the orphans?

God tells us in the book of James that pure religion cares for orphans and widows. Since marrying Dave and realising the enormous orphan problem in South Africa, I've grown increasingly determined to do anything I can to help orphans. Dave has also become increasingly passionate about this part of God's word. It is as though marriage has helped us to more deeply understand what God has called us to as Christ's followers.

We would love to adopt as many orphans as we could care for, but currently all doors toward doing that are firmly slammed shut. They will be for at least another three years, and maybe even after that. We recognise that only God can open these doors, and if he chooses not to we will never adopt any children. This grieves us deeply, and has brought me to tears several times, but we can't give up on caring about orphans simply because we cannot make adoption happen.

This afternoon I have been researching two organisations that help orphans, which we could perhaps support through our prayers and donations.

I'm excited about Izulu Orphan Projects in South Africa, where we could perhaps even visit orphan households we were supporting. We may be able to further investigate the work of this organisation when we next travel to SA.

I've also been investigating the blog of Paul Myhill, who is based in the USA and has a focus on orphans across the world.

You may also be interested in Ithemba Lethu, an amazing organisation that Dave's former church began. Ithemba Lethu runs a transition home, from which they aim to return children to their former communities or place them in foster or adoptive homes. The babies there are fed with donated breast milk, the best possible food for them!

Please pray for us as we seek out ways to care for orphans. We would love to do more than "just" give or pray, but right now that seems to be the maximum we can do. Pray that God will lead us to more opportunities to live out his command.

Our trip: Day 5

On Day 5 of our trip, it was already time to leave Brisbane, Queensland, to go to Sydney in the state of New South Wales.

We spent the morning with my brother Darian who, amongst other things, trimmed his palm trees . . .


We also enjoyed chatting with Darian's wife Trudy and playing with their three wonderful kids . . .



On the way to the airport, we spent a couple of very enjoyable hours at the Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens and ate lunch there. The gardens were beautiful, and the bonsai collection was especially impressive.


We arrived in Sydney in the afternoon and caught a couple of trains to my aunt (Mum's sister) and uncle's house, where we had dinner.

We stayed the night with friends of Dave's, who would soon become "our" friends! That is one of may excellent things about marriage . . . friends multiply!