Noordhoek Sunset and the Smokey Haze

 Last Monday night Jason and I took the advice our friends gave us and headed to Noordhoek. Its a town about a 25 minutes drive from us and as you can see the beach there is incredibly beautiful. If you have been hearing any news about Cape Town lately I am sure you have heard about the wild fires that lasted most of this past week. They stretched for miles and most of our mountain is charred and black. All that to say the clouds in the sky in these pictures are not clouds at all but actually smoke. The fires burned on the mountain right behind us as we watched the sun go down on the horizon. It was such a mix of golden light and eerie haze. Beautiful and terrifying all at the same time. Needless to say we will be going back to Noordhoek lots more times and if you come visit I am sure we will take you there too.

Chasing the Sun

On Saturday night I needed to get out of the house and do something even if it was only for a half an hour so Jason lovingly obliged and off we went. It was quite a dreary afternoon in Muizenberg and really cloudy so we decided to chase the sun. Sometimes you just need to find it. We started driving towards Fishhoek because we could see the gold reflecting on the water in that direction and as we rounded the big turn on the road around the mountain there it was. Gold light everywhere. It was beautiful and found us gazing with mouths open. We parked on a random street, jumped out, and started taking pictures. These are the result. The two at the end are from the drive back and show the dreariness on our side of the mountain. The gold is always there you just have to look for it.

Hope your weekend was as beautiful as ours was.

Matthew Mole Concert at Kirstenbosch

We were able to go to a concert this past Sunday with some good friends and it was a wonderful time. The concert was at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (if you come visit we will be sure to take you there, hopefully even for a concert!) which is incredibly beautiful. You look at the mountains and feel like you could be in Jurassic Park and a dinosaur could run out at you any minute, or at least we felt that way. Thankfully there were no dinosaurs just 6000 people picnicking and listening to some good music. The main act was a local man form Cape Town who has gotten quite famous in South Africa in the past year named Matthew Mole. He has a lovely voice and lots of charm while preforming which makes his awkwardness between songs rather funny. I'd recommend giving him a listen HERE if you like singer songwriter kind of folky music with a non-corny Christian twist or if you are a girl looking for some cute wedding sings then he's your man. Don't worry guys you will like it too! 

We had perfect seats which out lovely friend Shannon rushed ahead and secured with all of our blankets. South Africans know how to do things like concerts. They picnic. I love it! Good food, blankets, fresh grass, open air, music. What could be better for a Sunday evening especially after a busy long week of starting off ministry for the new year. Why yes please, I shall go every Sunday.

Anyway, the rest of our week was lovely too. We started up at Bethesda on Monday and got filled in on all the information. We did Awake as usual on Wednesday and then prayed and worshipped while getting the vision for the year and figuring out the logistics the rest of the days. The Bethesda team this year doubled! Such a good thing but it means we have a lot of figuring out to do with roles and tasks and a bit of rearranging to figure out where we will all fit in. Give me a few more weeks and I will have a much better picture of life here for you. 

Have a lovely Tuesday! 

Awake Promo Video

This is the promo video made for our ministry's main local outreach. The doors are open every Wednesday evening from 5-9 so if you are around the Muizenberg area it is definitely worth popping in! (Or if you are from anywhere else in the world it is worth the plane flight. Cough cough beautiful friends and family in Canada. Come visit!) I can promise free coffee, awesome people, beautiful music, and the presence and love of God. We love Awake and it is often the highlight of our week! 

We have been working at Awakes since we arrived in South Africa a few months ago but since tomorrow is the first day of Bethesda reopening after the holidays we start as official staff tomorrow. Yay orientation! We are just a little excited about it. We are so fortunate to get to work with such amazing people in such an amazing place with such an amazing God.   

Cape Town Bay to Bay

This past Sunday I ran in a race! I love running and this was the first race I have done in a couple of years and my first ever 15km. I was a bit nervous as I really hadn't trained at all and had been feeling sick with a sore throat the week before but thankfully I felt nice and healthy so I just decided to go for it. The first 5km were a gradual uphill which then turned into the most beautiful cloudy cool downhill you could imagine. It was the most beautiful run I have ever done and I couldn't help taking pictures along the way with my phone. Hence these photos for the blog. We brought our phones so we could find each other easily in the midst of the thousands of people at the end and I am glad I had it. There should be a market for racing and photography, a marriage of art and running. I was that runner pushing it up the hill and randomly taking photos along the way without breaking a stride. I loved it!  

I had no idea what goal to set for myself but they said the first 3500 runners got medals so I made that my goal and secretly hoping to come in with a time around 1hr10 but that was only a guess. Thankfully I got both and actually finished 93rd over all out of I think at least 2000 more likely 3000 people some of which ran 30km and finished with the 15km. I am hoping in a few weeks I can find the results officially online and the number of people who actually ran. Yay 93rd! 

So this run marked the beginning of lots of races in Cape Town I hope. There are so many here that you could probably run a big one a month. There is a half soon I think we will all run so I am looking forward to that. Anyway this is the link to the race if you are interested: Race Link.

Happy running!

Cherry Picking

Yesterday we got to go cherry picking with some friends we have made here in Muizenberg. It was so much fun. I ate way way way to many while picking and don't even want to look at the big bowl of the ones we brought home. They were so delicious though and it will be nice to do same baking and make some smoothies with them. We drove way out of Cape Town through some beautiful mountains to get to Ceres. Ceres, like the juice. It's fruit country and a lot of the fruit you buy around the world comes from there.

Any ideas of what I should make with them?