July 21′ Family News

Ministry

Beach Baptisms

For the first time since we joined Calvary Chapel Rosarito, we could be part of the beach baptisms. However, only Chris was able to go because Ziva still had the sniffles and Anja stayed home with her to let her rest. Once a month we have our baptisms at church, but this time we went to the beach, or more precise, Santa Monica Beach in Rosarito. A big crowd was gathered there to watch. 24 brave believers that hadn’t made the step got baptized that day and we had fellowship afterwards. Luckily, this time, Chris put on sunscreen so he didn’t get a sunburn.

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Anja

Band

This month, I was scheduled twice again, with the leader that I used to be with. Despite telling me last time, that he would give me a solo part, he didn’t do so either time. It made me a bit sad, but I decided to just give it my best. I was also thinking that it could have to do with a new singer that is with our band. She is singing alto, so the same that I am singing, because she is having trouble hitting the right note or sticking with the harmony. Apparently it helps her a lot when she can practice with me and I am always glad when I can help. It’s not always easy to stick with the harmony when the person next to you is singing off tune, but it’s a good practice for me.

Marriage Fellowship Band

With the new term, one of the couples, both are musicians by profession and part of the music ministry, decided to form a band for the marriage fellowship and I was asked if I wanted to sing. Since there is someone else singing alto, they asked me to sing the tenor, which is usually higher than the main melody, which is a challenge for me. However, it forces me to step out of my comfort zone and switch between head voice and chest voice. There is also no given harmony, so I always have to come up with one on my own, which is not a big problem. I actually enjoy being able to be more creative.

Livestream

When I am not singing on Wednesdays, I am usually on the camera. However, I have been using a chair the last two times. I am able to stand during the worship, but I need to stay on the camera for a bit longer, for the announcements and until the preacher comes up and has moved so I know how much space I need to give him. Every now and then, I am scheduled to do the sound for the livestream, which I enjoy. There are a couple of things that are difficult though. 1. It sounds differently on the livestream than on the headphones. 2. The sound on the livestream is delayed, so you always need to wait until your changes are audible. 3. Some of the drum parts sound weird on the livestream, so you need to lower the volume, which makes it more difficult to hear them. 4. When something is off on the main sound in the sanctuary, it’s off on the livestream too and there is nothing you can do about it because we get the sound from the sanctuary and basically just adjust the volume.

Fit2Serve

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We have met every Saturday morning from 9-11am for workout. So far, we only had two men showing up for one workout, every other time we were women and children. At first, I thought it was just because of the basketball practice and tournament that were both held on Saturdays, but the founder told me that it is very common to have more women than men in the workouts, which I find strange. However, the ladies that are coming to the workout are committed and are enjoying it and that is what matters the most. The least amount of participants so far was seven, when we had to hold our workout outside due to a youth conference and a wedding held at church. Our record so far was 17 participants.

Chris

Open Air Concert

On the 9th of July we held an open air concert. Beforehand, our amazing Pastor Mike gave me a budget to get some new lights for this event. I was planning for that event for about two month and it was quite the challenge for me to get everything together. Of course I wanted to use the new light controller and was trying to get the software ready for that moment, just to learn in the last moment that I still had an issue with the hardware driver. When we were setting up and testing the system, everything was working, but as soon as the sound and band were set up the whole system went haywire. Going through a moment of desperation, I finally decided to get our system from the sanctuary and use that one and it worked.

The concert itself was a blast and we could use our freshly revised fog machines. In between, our Executive Pastor Jesus Ochoa gave a short preach and four people professed faith after that.

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Chinese Lights

Having professionally worked with lights, I already know that pretty much every spot comes from China. However, I did not expect it to be such a struggle to get a simple power supply replaced. This time, I had to face a seller who was making empty promises over and over again to the point where he completely disappeared and did not respond to any messages anymore. Fortunately, I ordered over amazon and got a refund so I could get the power supply replaced in the end, but it took over 6 months of nagging. Now finally all our four big moving heads are working again, just right in time for the church planting conference in August.

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Family

One of our friend’s daughter turned 5 and we were invited to her princess Esther birthday party. It was the biggest party we have ever been invited to! Tons of balloons, a huge castle, a big princess piñata, a gift bag for girls and boys, a bouncy castle, a tacos bar, a salad bar, a fruit bar, cookies with the initial of the birthday girl and the location itself had a playground and an upstairs with games. We were blown away! Ziva really enjoyed the playground and ate a lot of fruit. Although the party officially started at 1pm and we arrived at 1:30pm, we were among the first to arrive and when we left by 4pm, because Chris had to do the lights at church, there were still people just arriving! Those Mexican parties are crazy!

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There was a second birthday party we were invited to. It was a lot smaller and for the wife of one of our pastors. We met out on their big patio that is facing the beach, which they share with their neighbors. It was a more quiet party and Ziva was sleeping in the car through the first two hours. We took turns to be in the car with her until she woke up. They had a marachi band that was acutally very good. We usually don’t like this kind of music, but they did an amazing job! We did not stay until they opened the presents because it was getting close to Ziva’s bedtime, but we had a good time.

Ziva

Our baby girl turned 2! It’s unbelievable how fast time flew by! It seems like just yesterday when she was born and now she is really more girl than baby! Since her actual birthday was on Sunday 25th and there was a lot going on on that day, we decided to pre-celebrate on the 22nd. We gave her the “family presents” in the morning and had her birthday party with guests in the afternoon on the upstairs patio at church, ordered pizza and bought some cherry tomatoes and strawberries for Ziva. Some of the guests offered to bring something, so we ended up having a lot of drinks, cake and snacks, too.

We put together a slideshow with the best pictures from Ziva from the last two years which was on repeat the entire party. After we ate, we had Ziva open her presents. She had a lot of fun doing it and we were surprised at the amount of dresses she received – 12 in total! Some people didn’t just buy one, but two or more! We decided to put one dress on her every time we go to church. That way, everyone will be able to see the dress they gave her on Ziva. We then took a picture of Ziva with the cake and sang “Happy Birthday” while she was having a big smile on her face. The rest of the time, Ziva was playing with the other kids, or some of the guests and had a great time. She was laughing a lot. Thanks to all of you who helped to make Ziva’s birthday special, we really appreciate it!

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One of the guests gave us money and said, he wanted us to take Ziva to a store so she could choose something herself. We went up and down the aisles and the first thing she saw was a red race car. Yes, a red race car. We thought, okay, fine, let’s keep going and see if there is anything else she would like more. After going through all the aisles, we had four items in the cart. One of them was too expensive, so we put it back. The other items were a doll with two pets, a box of six cars and the red race car. When we showed her all the items in comparison, it was very clear that she liked the red car the most and that is what she ended up with.

We already told you that she likes to ask us about the cars that are parked on the side of the road. Lately however, she likes to watch them drive by. So Anja and Ziva walk down to the gate and sit on the sidewalk facing the highway, watching cars. She is especially interested when it is a truck, a red car or a motorbike. Sometimes we also walk a bit further so she can stand on a little hill that overlooks the intersection and watch the cars.

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Chris has been introducing Ziva to jumping. He holds her by the hands, has her go down and pulls her back up when she stretches her legs. She is not able to jump very high, but she seems to be getting the concept. Her vocabulary is also improving. She added “ights” for lights, downstairs (she only said it once), poo-poo (for poop), to-to (for car, German “auto”) and sisto (for sister). When Anja asks Ziva if she wants to feel her sister move, Ziva puts her hand on Anja’s belly and sometimes says sisto . It’s very cute!

We made an attempt to start to potty train Ziva more seriously. We have been putting her on the potty to poop, but we wanted her to go pee there too, so we put her on the potty every hour. However, after a couple of days, she seemed to regress so we talked to our go-to friends for childcare advice and decided to postpone the training. Interesting enough, Ziva has since asked to go to the potty every now and then. It’s nothing regular, but if she wants to go, we put her on the potty.

Pregnancy

Our girl seems to be growing a lot these days. I (Anja) can feel her stretching out, so that there is a hard bump on my belly, which hurts and even more so when I touch that spot. In general, the belly feels hard more often. I am also getting tired faster and at times, there is a aching spot in the groin area. It helps when I lie down or just put my legs in a position where the groin area is not being bent. People are always shocked when I tell them that I still have three more months to go. They always think the belly is huge. However, I always get compliments for the way that I look, like, “you look so good!”, “you don’t look pregnant at all, apart from the belly”.

One of our friends from church had her baby in the same hospital and with the same OB/GYN that we are with. Apparently, the hospital is very simple, but clean with good food. The important thing is to ask for a room with AC because otherwise, it’s simply too hot. They were also very pleased with all the medical staff and said they felt well taken care of.

Construction

Finally, all the roads are fixed and we are able to use the main entrance again. One of the gates is still not back in place yet, but at least we don’t have to drive on the bumpy dirt road anymore. Especially for Anja it’s a lot nicer.

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Prayer requests

• Health
• A good last trimester, healthy baby, easy and fast birth
• New servants for lights ministry
• New trainers for Fit2Serve

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