Family, Fun, South Africa bound!

We ended the year with lots of festivities during the month of December. We hosted 5 gatherings at our home and 3 weekends of shows at Cavod. Our family was all here on Christmas Day! We had our Christmas Dinner at 1:00 on Monday, and made sure to plan our Christmas traditions around the Eagles game at 4:30! LOL! (Thank goodness they won! 😊) It was also a wonderful time celebrating the goodness of God and the birth of Jesus!

Everyone is in the picture above except for our youngest son Aaron and his wife Cara who were able to join us after lunch. I didn’t get many pictures as I was too busy hosting, however at Thanksgiving the kids arranged for our pictures to be taken professionally. And for Christmas, they had them printed on Canvas and framed for my family room wall! They even hung them for me, thanks to Rich, our son in law!! Such an amazing gift! Thank you Nicole Martin for your patience in capturing these beautiful images!

Here is a picture of our whole family! Thank you Edith Detweiler for allowing us to take these pics on your beautiful farm!

My hubby Dave & I, feeling so blessed!

Our daughter Tahnya & husband Rich with their 9 beautiful children!

Our son Derek and his wife, Ashley and their precious children!

Our son Aaron & his wife Cara & little Luca!

And of course I had to add a picture of Dave & I with our 11 grands. The oldest one is almost 19 and the youngest is 2. I love each age as they are growing up so fast! How time flies!!

Our family is not perfect by any means, but we do enjoy being together, and respecting and valuing each other. Life is short and each moment we have together is precious!!

I also managed to have fun with 3 of my dear friends, with an evening at Longwood Gardens. How special it was to share, laugh, and be silly together!

So after the busyness of December, Dave & I decided we wanted to have a quiet evening at home by ourselves to welcome in the New Year, that is if we can stay awake until midnight! Hahaha! The extrovert in me is “extroverted out”! LOL, which doesn’t happen very often!!

We needed this time together as I have been getting ready for our next adventure to Capetown, South Africa, leaving this Thurs. Jan. 4^th. We have 17 people going this year from Cavod, to host an arts camp for underprivileged children. We are joining a church there, House of Praise, to welcome 150-200 kids ages 10-18, Mon. January 8^th-Fri Jan. 12^th. We will have a closing program on Saturday, Jan. 13^th for the community to come and showcase what they learned all week! Our team consists of teachers, worshippers, “Ornate”, our dance theatre group, and they are all passionate about Jesus!

The kids can choose from 20 classes a day, that include hip hop, musical theatre, vocal class, art, drums, worship dance, acro, etc. We also added basketball and scrapbooking, which they love! We also have a time of small groups, games, feeding them lunch, closing out each day with worship, and sharing God’s word through ministry time! We were just there in April 2023 and made such an impact in the community that they begged us to come back and continue to build on what happened then. Our theme this year is “FULLY ALIVE, NEXT LEVEL”. We would really appreciate your prayers as this is an opportunity to love on these kids and give them hope and an opportunity to accept Jesus and change generations to come!

Here is a picture of our team going to South Africa, with 3 more teammates missing in this pic. We return on Monday, January 15^th. I will keep you posted!

This week is an exciting week as our students return to classes at Cavod after having a 2 week break for the holidays! They are excited to see each other and share their holiday experiences.

Prayer – “Thank you Lord for a great 2023. Through the challenging times, the highs and lows you have been there! Lord, please bring us to that deep place of intimacy with you, so that we can be victorious and have strength and peace in every situation. Help us to be intentional about each day, letting love abound in our hearts without offense for each other, in Jesus Name Amen.”

Here is my challenge and prayer for each of us for 2024, from Philippians 1: 6, 9-11

Being confident of this very thing, that He who begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

And this I pray, that your love may abound more and more in all knowledge and all discernment.

That you may approve things that are excellent , that you may sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,

Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God!

Hallelujah! These verses bring life and hope to my soul! Thank you Jesus! I am forever grateful for salvation, and His love and grace… that we can live in peace without offense! Grab hold of this truth, and let it change your life! It has mine!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! MAY YOU BE FILLED WITH MUCH VISION FOR 2024!

Much love to you all!

Connie Dienner

Executive Director