News justin...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR. JONES!

Our very dear and old (in more than one sense of the word) friend, Justin, has just hit another milestone! Our GOOGLE SMS service isn't working at the moment (stupid VODACOM) so we aren't getting our IMPORTANT DATES SMS reminders so we are a bit behind on important events, but we'll get around to having you guys over for a nice dinner and maybe a boardgame or something, to celebrate the coming of another year, and the going of more of your life :)

God bless old friend!

Greg and Bronwyn - 2 years!

Life seems to pass us by very quickly nowadays. Our best man, Greg Landwehr, and his equally wonderful and lovely wife, Bronwyn, have been living together now for two years, and praise God they've been happily married for every single day of those two years!

Congrats guys and here's wishing you both a whole lot more of happiness and God's blessings, as well as copious amounts of little Landwehrlings clawing at your ankles :)

... speaking of which ... when are the kids coming along? :)

60s slideshow

For posterity's sake (the main gadget slideshow will change over time), here is a slideshow of some pictures I dumped on PICASA for now so you can get a taste of what fun we had at our 60th birthday party. Click to play the slideshow.

Janith + Rafael Campero - 12 months and still both alive!

Hey guys

Congratulations on making it to one year and still not having hurt each other in any nasty way :)

You own a house, you have a baby, what more could you want? What's that? Another baby??

Well done guys - we recall with great fondness that special wedding day, and I seem to have a knack of screwing up *something* whenever I MC - for your wedding it was the distinct honour of being the first friend to see Janith in her wedding dress, arriving at the chapel moments before going in, and when she said "hi Bryan", I replied with "when must they play the music?" instead of saying something gentle and reassuring, or at least complimentary :) ... ah well...

Hannah Thomas

The homegroup snuck out of church at 19h15 to go and visit the Thomas family. Rich Erasmus was preaching something about Hebrews 10:23-25 and connecting with community or something. Then he mentioned the 8pm movie, at which point our home group got up from various spots in the church and left. Hopefully he wasn't too confused :)



We spotted the lovely mother (some sort of super diet there), proud father, and adorable daughter. Layle snapped a shot but I failed to get it. She's apparently very sweet, very healthy, very audible, very hungry - and what lovely sideburns she has! Aubrey must be proud!



That's the update for now - Hannah Thomas, welcome to God's green earth.



An sms from her loving father arrived yesterday and reads:



"Sent: May 30, 2009 09:57

Going to have to take a rain cheque on tonight due a very small girl deciding to make her grand entrance onto God's great earth today. Going to be a long day, I'll keep in touch."



Interestingly, Layle observed that Hannah is a palindrome! ...And incidentally, she WAS just born yesterday!

Hoky is a bit croky

1979 on Star Wars Day (May the fourth be with you) Chris Hockaday was born. Now he's hit 30 and he's no longer a hoky religion - he's a croky one!!

Pity he's more of a Trekkie than a Star Warsian fan, but we still love him :)

Happy birthday Chris!!

Justin Jones + Bronwyn Ellis = wedding!

Today is their big day!

Jones is in the fast lane! Bronwyn's keeping up!

It's a glorious occassion!

Photographs etc. to follow :)

Oltman Botha 1978

About 31 years ago to the day, an old buddy of ours - Baas Oltman - was born to the Botha household with much fanfare, celebrations, and great plans.

31 years later, he's grown bigger, grown older, and grown bolder (sic). Who would have thought he'd be celebrating his 31st birthday just 6 days after our fourth democratic elections!! Sorry to say, FF+ hasn't become the new democratically elected government, but at least they're still around :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BAAS OLTMAN EN VEELS GELUK MET JOU VERJAARSDAG!

GROETE, DA'DIE JOHNSTONS

Braai at the neighbours (the Hoyer senior)

Mmmmmmm. Divine! Chops, porkies, steak, salad, curried carrots, three bean salad, potato salad, garlic bread.

What a great way to end the weekend away!

Here comes the sun!

Finally on our last day at the beach the sun has decided to join us! It has been an awesome time relaxing inside with the soothing rhythmic beating of the waves outside but being able to actually enjoy the entire beach experience (swimming and lounging on the beach) is just one step closer to heaven.

We attempted to brave the icy cold waters yesterday and it was do able, but for me, really cold (the rest of the group is just a bunch of polar bears. They're insane). Today has been far nicer. Earlier this morning we spent a good half hour floating in the water like a bunch of placated sea lions before beaching ourselves belly first in the shallows to enjoy a moment of quiet reflection.

It's almost time for a braai now with the neighbours (who also happen to be the owners and Steve's grandparents) so Kat and Steve have gone out to quickly enjoy a bit of low-tide foraging along the ridge (you might be able to just make them out in this picture in the centre of the frame against the backdrop of some crashing waves). Joe and I are chilling on the deck with some popcorn and coffee (no coffee for me though, because I'm no addict).

Good times indeed.

Sunday by the beach

Tea with the owners (Steve's grandparents)! Promises to be fun :)

Steve's new car

Vehicle of choice for our relaxing getaway

Operation Rescue Zim Mission Mission (ORZMM)

It's 07h30 on the 13th Day of April, 2009. The message comes in. Zim Mission Team 2 needs help. Should we choose to accept this mission, we must be ready to mobilise in the next hour and head for Vereeniging. We would be sacrificing our long sleep in on a public holiday, a network session @ UKZN, and any semblance of "day-off". We don't hesitate for a moment. The Mission needs us, and we could do with a mission.



The twins, Julian and Nick, are ready to go with us, but owing to the nature of our mission, we don't need a demolitions expert or a sharpshooter, and there's no room for the extra personnel, so we have to take what we've got, and get moving.



Hunger is hitting the mission team, with Jed Skinner radio'ing to HQ "are they going to be bring food?". We know the situation is getting even more desperate every minute that goes by. These guys need our help. The Mugabe Regime has even managed to infect Megan with some diabolical (or at least, it's dia-something) illness - those evil thugs.



Word on the wire is that there might be a rescue team closer to the extraction point, and now Kat & I are just spending the last anxious minutes waiting for the green light or the word to stand down. These avo sandwiches will have to do to steel our nerves in the interim.

UPDATE:
The mission was aborted. Not the Zim mission, but our mission to rescue the Zim missionaries. Turns out there was someone else nearby that could salvage them from their situation, so Kat and I were ordered to stand down. Which was a good thing, because I'd finished my avo sandwiches and I was starting to get a bit jittery again.

Gary Lewis hits 30...

Hectic! What on earth is going on in June, people??

Okay, I know the answer to that, so please, let's not elaborate.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GARY LEWIS - you're 30, you're crusty, you're married, you're somewhere in Ireland... and nothing else has changed, right? Yeah, I know how you feel :) 30 is a little over-rated.

Enjoy managing your middle - the metabolism goes into hibernate mode at our age. These youngsters (our wives) wouldn't understand that, so they just keep feeding us the same old heart-attack-inducing oily and greasy foods.

Keep well, hope Sharon spoils you rotten with a cholesterol-free rice cake (at your age, you need that).

God bless,
BrYan and KateY

Revd. Erasmus turns 40!

In the spirit of you getting my birthday wrong (you said the 5th, I am the 4th), happy birthday for yesterday Rich! Hurray! 40. How does it feel?

Much love
The (new) Johnstons
Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you!

Legal beagle Briggs

Happy attorneyhoodshipthingimajig to Attorney-at-law Heather Briggs!

Hurray!

All rights reserved, and without prejudice, we salute and congratulate you, but maintain our legal requirement of reasonable distance!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Afro Billy (AKA Willima Tinkytonk)

Hey Bill!

I would like to start by saying "you're getting old" but that would be stupid, because you're already there... you can't be getting something you've already got ... so instead, I'm just going to say THERE'S NO WAY TO STOP IT! IT WON'T STOP! YOU'RE FADING AWAY!

Happy Birthday dude :)
BrYan & Kat.

Robin and Emma are MARRIED!

Just spent a lovely day with two of our dearest friends, Robz and Emma, at their wedding. It was fantastic to see two very-much-in-love people get together and celebrate the "upgrade" of their relationship with each other.

Robin, well done - you've found yourself a gem and you deserve that!

Emma, you looked stunning today! Oh, and good luck (haha) - you complement Robz so well and always bring out the best in him (and everyone). You two will do great because we know you love Jesus and he is your cornerstone.

Really had an awesome time and we're glad that we could have been there to share it with you guys :)

Some pictures are on my personal blog, at:

http://brattex.blogspot.com/2009/01/lovely-couple.html

Note this is THE FIRST photograph of you two published ANYWHERE.

Enjoy :)

God bless
Bryan & Kat

From BrYan's Blah Blah Blahg

The first official post of Robin and Emma at their wedding.