Life has been so full and eventful and FINALLY.... A blog! Sorry for the long silence. 

We are finding joy, squeezing all that we can out of each day: celebrating life, in awe of God, loving people, cherishing each other, enjoying the family, and revelling in nature and our beautiful town. 

We deal in moonshine in JBay

Writing a blog forces us to reflect a bit and savour what has been happening, ranging from trips away to plenty of coffee, laughing and doing life with community.

Family and friends 

Ian's sister, Joy, from Cape Town, his brother and sister-in-law, Donald and Isobel, from White River, and friends Sharon and Dale, and Frans and Hilke, from Pretoria.  

Ian visited Pretoria near the end of March, sadly for the memorial of Keith Waterston. He used it as an opportunity to touch base with many friends, and of course, spent a few days in Middelburg with Heather and family.

We have had some lovely visits with David and Robynne, since they are so close now, and Amy pops out of the woodwork now and then from Cape Town. 

Canasta!

In June, we did part of the Tsitsikamma hike with David, Robynne, and Amy. We walked only 6 km, stayed two nights at Blaauwkrans huts and then walked the 6 km back again. It was a glorious weekend, warm weather, beautiful scenery, and lots of laughs and good company.


Late June, ealy July saw Judy take a trip up to Middelberg to see Heather's family. Sadly, just before the visit, Nathan's father, Anton, passed away, and so the trip was a bit different than expected, but it was good to be with them.

Nathan, Emily, Olivia, and Heather and Judy in the front.


In that same time, Ian joined a team from Global in going up to a game farm near Bedford. The farmer has American hunters come down in the winter, and all the meat from the hunting, he donates to charity. So our team helped host the visitors, and process the meat. It was something quite different for Ian.

We have a trip coming up with Amy and William to Addo Elephant Park as well as a trip to Namaqualand to see the flowers in August.

Community life

We are integrally involved in many people's lives, being an encouragement and an inspiration. This largely happens on a friendship level, but we are also involved in planning church and other meetings. One evening, we were invited to visit a life group that has 19 adults, and 21 children aged 10 and under😲. They said we should just come and share our wisdom from over the years. It was such a lovely evening; they asked such great questions. 

We are continuing with our Veritas training, a long-term course in Bible exegesis (correct Bible analysis), and loving it.



A St Francis brewery hosts a monthly fundraiser for Hospice, called "Story Slam" where five speakers tell a real life story of themselves in five minutes each. Judy bravely told her story about walking with MND, generously peppered with humour, of course. You can watch Judy's talk here.  Ian spoke the following month, relating how he swam back to shore with his sinking kayak! No recording available unfortunately. 

Judy also shared her testimony in church, which you can listen to here.

We got together to run some fun Science workshops for kids in the school holidays! They were a huge success, and there are requests for more. 🤓


What's going to happen next?

Chromatography: splitting ink into its colours

Endothermic and exothermic reactions

Poisonous gases stay outside!


Judy's health

There is a gradual weakening in Judy, especially her left arm and hand, but she is still able to do most things. At times, we are more aware of her physical vulnerability, and that is hard. Her speech continues to be slow, but thanks to the exercises from the speech therapist, still clearly understandable. This has not held her back from spending meaningful time encouraging various ladies. 

Ian's building project  

This finished in March, freeing him up to focus more on his calling: spending time with men, so that they may 'spur one another on to love and good deeds'. Defining this has not been easy and your prayers would be appreciated.  

Prayer pointers

  • For Judy to maintain her health and keep choosing joy
  • We are trusting God for a supplementary source of income 
  • For us to stay sensitive to the Holy Spirit for the focus of our ministry






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