Daily fun at LP!

Fun days spent with these kiddos down at LP! Morning trips down to the beach before naps. Yay for friends.(p.s. no pics of prego mama as I feel like a boat :) )

Caleb & Asher doing some excavation.

"Are we live?"

Three dolphins and a water princess.

I would like to say thanks to all my fans. I love you guys!

Casey is giving Asher some life advice.

Future model poses

Daddy & Ash

Love this happy pool boy. He is available for weekend jobs ;)

You want a piece of me?! (Thanks Josh Anthony for the good caption).

Beach time!!

We are down at the LP this week and have been to the beach twice so far. Rainy weather has forced us inside for the rest of today. Here are some shots of Asher at the beach from yesterday. Yes he is wearing his crocs. Getting him excited about touching the sand was a process. Eventually he was loving it.

A grandmother's legacy

I had two amazing grandmothers. They were both from a different time entirely. My mom's mom, H'y was absolutely incredible in the kitchen. My mom says she was awesome domestically, but on my visits I mainly got to experience the kitchen-side of things, so I will stick to that and leave the rest for my mom and her siblings to brag about. My dad's mom was also a domestic genius and always had food prepared just the way we all loved it to be. Thanksgiving at Grandma and Poppy's was always the best. You knew what you were getting and it was always fun to watch and "help" get things ready. I was always trying to learn her turkey recipe and how she always managed to make the gravy just so incredible.

Enter me, a girl who loves to create and use her artistic nature for everything coming after these two amazing cooks. I have always felt a great responsibility to carry on this legacy of amazing cooks, but do confess I often give in to easier to prepare meals and recipes over the good ol' fashion way of doing things. On occasion I get the urge to be adventurous and then it almost feels like these women are in the kitchen with me.  The other night we did home-made pizzas and I made the dough from scratch using my mother's kitchen aid mixer which we flew over from the states. She got this mixer for her wedding(even what every bride wanted in the '70s, not much has changed). The dough came out great and so did the pizzas. I got the dough recipe from here and have copied it below. I doubled it for three good-sized pizzas just to give you an idea of how much a batch could make; it also will vary on how thin or thick you want your pie, we like ours on the thinner side of life.

3/4 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 envelope active dry yeast

2 cups (or more) all purpose flour
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil

 

Pour 3/4 cup warm water into small bowl; stir in yeast. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 5 minutes.
Brush large bowl lightly with olive oil. Mix 2 cups flour, sugar, and salt in processor. Add yeast mixture and 3 tablespoons oil; process until dough forms a sticky ball. Transfer to lightly floured surface. KNEAD dough until smooth, adding more flour by tablespoonfuls if dough is very sticky, about 1 minute. Transfer to prepared bowl; turn dough in bowl to coat with oil. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour. PUNCH down dough. DO AHEAD Can be made 1 day ahead. Store in airtight container in refrigerator. ROLL out dough according to recipe instructions. (Start in center of dough, working outward toward edges but not rolling over them.)

Jeff's regina (ham & mushroom)

My, little bit of everything creation

Casey's, play it safe pie.

For thanksgiving this year I will be making my grandmother's awesome turkey and my H'y's pumpkin and pecan pie. These pies are famous and top secret. I cannot wait to indulge.

Anyone have great things their grandmother's passed down to them? Any holiday treats you are making in memory of loved ones? Please share :)

Problem solver!

A very cute video of Asher using this game cube thing to get a better look at things. He thought this up all by himself. I think I will have to be on the lookout for a step stool for him now. :)

12 years later and still got Passion!

On the 26th of September this year I attended a Passion World Tour event in Centurion.  I was first introduced to Passion ministries in college at Elon University through some friends in Campus Outreach. I actually remember listening to one of their first CDs in Carrie Pitkin(Russell)'s car. I was moved greatly by the music. This introduction was the start of something beautiful. In 1999 with some friends, we traveled to a worship event in Charlotte, North Carolina which was a gear up for One Day 2000. We thought it couldn't get much better than that event and then we went to One Day. We piled into a few cars and drove across North Carolina and Tennessee to get to a small town and a field where One Day was happening. God did incredible things in our hearts during those few days together. He did things in all of us that would prepare us for what we would give our lives to in the next ten years(maybe longer, I will let you know :) ) For me, it was at One Day that I first heard John Piper talk about not living for the American Dream and not coming to God with my shell collection-a statement and idea he would later incorporate into Don't Waste Your Life. At One Day I heard Louie say; "you can give your life away for the Lord on the mission field for a few years, what is a few years in the span of your whole life?" I thought, what is a few years, I can do that. Little did I know how much bigger God was planning for me than a few years.  Ten years into life on the field in South Africa, I can say it feels like only a few years still.

God did much in my life through Passion over the next few years and I was so excited when they were first coming over to South Africa in 2008. I was able to take girls I had been investing in and sharing their music with to a similar event that had major ramifications on my own life several years before. Would God do it again in me and in them for the first time? He did. We were blown away. Now four years later something amazing happened at that September gathering, I got to take Casey with me. My cousin, my daughter, the young woman God had placed in our lives permanently only three years before and had cemented legally earlier this year. My fourteen year old who has heard me talk about Passion and heard loads of the music produced from their events, this was a time for her to see and experience all the hype I had I been talking about.

We got there and the place was buzzing. When Chris Tomlin opened with his first song, Sing Sing Sing, we all started singing. Casey started singing and then I started crying. I was overwhelmed! 12 years after One Day God was still moving in major ways and in the hearts of many through this rag tag group called Passion. I never dreamed this life for myself when I was at One Day imagining all God could and would do through me in the next few years. I hope and pray the experience was encouraging for all who attended in Centurion, Durban, Kampala and Cape Town. For me I can say, God has done much but greater things are yet to come for Casey and myself and many more like us.

Casey & me after the party

Granny's birthday

A few weeks ago we celebrated Jeff's mom's birthday. What a time it was. Jeff was cooking the meat outside and then we all had cake inside. Jeff's brother Eamon is now 15. He and Casey are already outgrowing Cathy. They have also long surpassed me.

The Poet, John Piper

Always a favorite minister of God's word to me personally. Here John Piper uses his gift of poetry(also what he majored in University) to explain the gospel in a fresh way.  I hope it refreshes your day.
 

Is there a word to help us feel
     the weight of Adam's fall?
          All.

How heavy will this burden weigh,
     (Spare not!) on those who fell?
          Hell.

O Lord, so great this forfeiture!
     Was there sufficient reason?
          Treason.

Then whence could any traitor hope
     before your burning face?
          Grace.

But surely that will cost beyond
     our wage. How is it priced?
          Christ.

Entirely paid? By him? O God,
     and is that gift for me?
          Free.

I would receive this gift, O Lord!
     How soon would you allow?
          Now.

---

Latest Happenings from South Africa

It's been a long winter and we are finally seeing sights of spring. Here are some recent glimpses of the kids.

 

 

 

 

Mom & Ash in the snow

I also finally tackled and won with my grandmother-in-law's sewing machine and was able to make this tutu for Casey for a school project. She and I were very proud of my work!

Her group came 2nd in the class competition! Must've been the tutu.

A life worth noting

          I have picked up a book that was given to me in the summer of 1999 at an 8 week Summer Project. I brought it with me to South Africa in 2003 because I thought, I love this woman's life and I will definitely read about her life as soon as I get there. Well here I am 9 years later, 13 years from when I got the combined auto-biographical book Give Me this Mountain and He Gave Us a Valley by Helen Roseveare.  Her wisdom is not lost on me and I see God's timeliness in having me read her story now. Dead missionaries have much to teach us but so do some old living ones. Helen is still with us(87 years old and counting) and yet has so much wisdom to bestow upon us all. Here is an excerpt from her auto-biography on her understanding of being a missionary. 

 

“I believe that, at its simplest, a missionary is one sent by God to live a Christian life, usually amongst people other than his own. It is living which counts. This may include formal preaching, but it will certainly include personal relationships, and these often have to be worked out under most trying conditions.  For example, many missionaries discover that it is far from easy to adapt themselves to a completely different climate.  The native foods may be hard, not only on the digestive system, but also on the aesthetic tastes.  The language barrier may constitute a difficult problem, especially in early years.  One cannot choose one’s friends. Two missionaries of vastly different backgrounds, likes and dislikes may be thrown together for several years with no choice of other companionship.  One is often expected to do jobs for which one is not trained, and which may be actually distasteful.  Yet in all this, one is called upon to reveal Christ, to live a Christ-like life, to be a ‘missionary.’

            It is then that one realizes it is not the journey in the steamer that changes one’s nature. I did not escape from myself by going to Congo. Rather, I came to know myself better, perhaps more as others had already seen me.  The ordinary trials and frustrations of life that meet us all were just as real in Congo, and in some ways, were more pronounced, as there were fewer ways of avoiding or circumventing them. For myself, it was only as I allowed the Lord to show me my own pettiness, or wilfulness, or pride, in different circumstances and problems, that I became willing to let the Lord teach me of himself.  ‘Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me,’ the Lord said ‘for I am meek and lowly in heart.’ “

     When I was a student involved with Campus Outreach, she came and spoke at one of our New Year's Conferences. I came home thinking, "wow, I want to be like her, I want to be a missionary." Her life and testimony inspired me deeply. I found the wisdom she spoke over us. You can enjoy it below as I and many other young women did that day. The question is not "is IT worth it? The answer would often be no, the question is "is HE worthy?" Yes, always yes! Thank you Dr. Roseveare. Thank you very much.

http://kiwi6.com/file/5c7xvagi1b

Animal farm

Asher loves animals it would seem. Something I didn't know until we went to this garden place that had a little petting zoo. We then had a time away together with our staff team and that place had some animals too. I couldn't get everything in but needless to say, Asher was into it all.

Hello Mr. Goat.

What can I say? I am just that cute.

Loving the ducks.

Donkey, come over here for a minute.

Just hold still while I see what you feel like.

More CCP fun

Here are some recent pics of Asher enjoying time with CCP and the Lion and Rhino park

See it as it is

Every year we have a mid-year conference for all the students we have been spending time with in the res/dorms. This conference is always a great time to gather all the students from the campuses we are working on together for a few days of fun and teaching. We are praying that about 400 students from these universities will take three days of their winter holiday off to engage with God and get crazy with other varsity/college students their age. Here's our recruiting video for this year. Take a peek and be jealous if you can't fly across the ocean to be there :) Asher, Casey and I will definitely be rocking it as Jeff leads worship for the event. Can't wait....24-27 June, where will you be?

Justice and Jesus

Hey friends- I actually made a podcast. The process took about a week of trial and error in figuring out how to load files onto the internet, etc. What a mission, but finally success!! BTW, totally recommend http://www.buzzsprout.com. You can do a free account with 2 hours of uploading available per month or buy space. Check them out. Oh, the podcast is not for the Viljoens. I am not sure what I would do with a podcast of myself. This one is for our church, Sophiatown Community Church. We are small but striving to preach the word in the incredibly diverse and rich culture of Johannesburg, South Africa. Jeff preached last week on retaliation. You can check the sermon here(I haven't edited the audio file or anything, that's my next phase in putting the sermons on the web). Beginners grace is needed. :) Great sermon and applicable in any culture I think.

Singalong 2

Phil Wickham has put out another free CD. Yay!
  

We LOVED his first Singalong album from 2008. If you love acoustic music, you will love this. For the link, click here. It's free until the 15th of June, so hurry over there. Also he's teamed up with Compassion International who help millions of children worldwide. We support a little girl in Uganda through Compassion International and have enjoyed watching her grow up and hearing about her family and love for Jesus. Click here to find out more about Compassion International.

Enjoy!

We love CCP!!

Each year a group of American students from the Atlanta region come over for 8 weeks of their summer/our winter, to partner with us on the campus of UJ Kingsway. They arrived last week Thursday and we have been busy busy busy with them here. We will be busy busy busy with them until they leave in July. Here's a picture of their team and expect to see lots of them on the blog in the coming months. :) Here's a starter below as well.  To see their blog click here. Enjoy! 

CCP 2012(N.Georgia, GA Tech and UGA students)

 

 

 

 

Jeff, Asher & John Langford(CCP Director)

Thanks John Newton!

I read this from Justin Taylor's blog(go see it here) that gets dumped in my email each day. I always enjoy the little things he has to say. I hope you find it equally encouraging. This tidbit is by John Newton who you can find out more about here. Good news friends, good news indeed.


I am not what I ought to be.
Ah! how imperfect and deficient.
Not what I might be,
considering my privileges and opportunities.
Not what I wish to be.
God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him.
I am not what I hope to be;
ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as He is.
Not what I once was,
a child of sin, and slave of the devil.
Thought not all these,
not what I ought to be,
not what I might be,
not what I wish or hope to be, and
not what once was,
I think I can truly say with the apostle,
“By the grace of God I am what I am.”
—John Newton (1725-1807), cited in Letters of John Newton, p. 400.