pain and Hope

Marriage Year 10: Meet Richard and Wendy Sumner

Wendy and I have been married since December 2004 but in some ways it seems so much longer because we have done so much since then, including immigrating (twice) and starting a business. And let me tell you, those are both very stressful, and stress is not good for a marriage. I think that what I have realised about marriage is that it is not always a feeling but a choice. You choose to be [...]

Marriage Year 9 : Meet Bettina and Kevin van Antwerpen

Kev and I met in 2000, and started dating shortly afterwards. In 2002 I was diagnosed with a (thankfully non cancerous) tumour on my pituitary gland situated in the centre of the head just below the brain and behind the nose and eyes. Over the next few years Kev was a great support through numerous tests and scans and especially when I had my first brain surgery in 2004. After seeing the doctor a few [...]

a confession

Father, as i sit outside on the cold step and try for a moment to be still and to focus on You i am reminded of the Truth that You are SO BIG and i am so very small it feels like there has been such a great distance between us You and me and I know for absolutely sure that none of that is because You have stepped away i have just felt lost [...]

Taboo Topics: Singleness – Meet Beverley Rufener

Love (along with dating and of course mating eek) is a complicated beast, even more so when you are a Christian trying to forge a life(style) for one in a world that feels like it’s mostly built for twos.  Navigating rights and wrongs can be enough to derail any fledgling flirtation and the pressure us singletons put on ourselves to ‘get things right’ can be so overwhelming at times because when really is the right [...]

Taboo Topics: Singleness – Meet Cilnette Pienaar

I think it was during one of my road-trips through the country in 2012, somewhere in a backpackers close to Kimberley (of all places), where this verse became one of my favorite passages in the Bible: Song of Songs 7: 11 & 12 – “Come, my beloved, let us go forth to the field, let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards, let us see if the vine has budded, whether the [...]

Marriage Year 4: Meet Jade and Sean Poole

The relationship between Sean and I, like all couples like to affirm, is unique. We got married when I was 21 and he was 24, he had just returned from a working year in Norway and I had just completed my first year in theology, he was bearded with scruffy surfer’s hair and I was clean and caffeinated.People said things would change, that living together would be a huge adjustment and that the first two [...]

Marriage Year 5: Meet Lindsay and Nate Brown

Challenges seem to be our forte. In the 4 years we have been married, Nate and I have struggled through some pretty rough times. We both agree that last year was the hardest time in our lives. In the same week in February, Nate lost his job and I was diagnosed with an incurable disease, a disease that was threatening to kill me. If I were to tell you that we just turned the other [...]

What my Single Friends would like their Married Friends to know: Meet Chantelle Finaughty

There’s always a fine line between helping/supporting your single friends, and trying to ‘fix’ your single friends. Too often, what is well meant on the part of the marrieds, is sometimes interpreted as them trying to fix their single friends as if they’re broken or unfulfilled. This is not to say that single people don’t need or want any help from you, because we very much need your support. Being single does not make me [...]

Marriage Year 2 : Meet Elaine and Dave Kim

We got married December 28, 2012 You may come upon a day, or days, in your marriage where you reach the end of yourself and may even dare to say aloud in an empty room: "I don't want to be married anymore." You might even say it twice so God knows to take you seriously. This might sound utterly shocking, or, utterly familiar. To the former I say, may you always get along and resolve conflicts well; please don't [...]

Taboo Topics: Losing a child – meet Jess Kelly and Henry

This is a repost that Jess graciously allowed me to share - you can find the original over here and you can, and really should, consider following her blog, 'Jess in Process' - in this piece she talks about losing her four year old son, Henry, 14 months ago, to a brain tumour. FULL DISCLOSURE ***WARNING: GRAPHIC/DISTURBING CONTENT*** How have you been, Jess? I hear this from time to time.  It’s been 14 months since my 4-year-old [...]

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