40th Birthday Party
On 13 May 2012, I turned 40 years old ... and although most people freak out at the mere thought of this, I have always been able to embrace my birthday milestones with joy and excitement and thankfulness that God has given me another year of precious life, to live out my dreams and enjoy my loved ones and my lovely friends for just that little bit longer! Some of you weren't able to join us for the event so a friend suggested that I post my speech on my BLOG for all to read ... so here it is ... a tribute and a thank you!
I must also include a BIG thank you to my parents, my brother and his family, my Mum-in-law Des and Brad's whole family who were not at the party so I didn't mention them in what was already a fairly long speech! Nonetheless, my family is so important to me and I feel incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful extended family whom I love and adore and I often wish that we all lived next door to each other so that we could share more of ourselves in each other's daily lives! God has been amazingly gracious in blessing me so richly with such a wonderful family ... and I am so grateful and thankful!
WOW ... firstly, I want to reiterate a big thank you to you all for being here tonight and I must say how fantastic you all look and how excited we are that you could join us to celebrate this momentous occasion and also, this sad farewell! I have to read what I've written as I know I won't make it through without a tear or two and I want to make sure I say everything that needs to be said ... and you'll forgive me if it takes a little longer as a result!
16 years ago, on 24 June 1996, I arrived in Australia and I only knew one person at the time. 10 years ago, I stood in this very room with many of you and celebrated my 30th birthday in similar style and today, I felt I had to take a nutshell look back at some of the major events these last 10 years have brought to my life ... 9 years ago, I became an Aunt for the first time to my sweet nephew Guy, 8 years ago, I became an Australian Citizen, 7 years ago, I went on a life time dream safari to East Africa and I became an Aunt again to my darling niece, Nicola. 6 years ago, I finally capitulated and agreed with God that it was time to be a missionary, 5 years ago, I left Australia for a big ship, the Logos Hope which was to change my life forever! 4 years ago, I met Brad, the love of my life and we got engaged, 3 years ago, I got married to the love of my life and had a fantastic honeymoon in Canada, the USA & Fiji. 2 years ago, miraculously, I fell pregnant and, 1 year ago, I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl, Kaylah Grace and this year, I'm moving to Perth and turning 40!! And those were just some of the highlights!!
In between and over the past 16 years, I have been incredibly blessed to have met each of you and as a result, we have shared the journey of life together since then. It doesn’t matter whether I've known you for all 16 years or only a few of these years, you have touched my life and made me the person I am today. I sometimes still can't believe how much God has blessed me by surrounding me with people who inspire me, motivate me, encourage me, love and care for me, amuse me, entertain me, and challenge me to be so much more than what I think I can be.
I have to make some special mention of a few people - to my darling husband Brad - the love of my life - I am so grateful that God brought you and ultimately Kaylah into my life. The past 4 years have been a whirlwind of fun and laughter, as well as a few challenges and rough realities, but mostly joyful bliss! Thank you for loving me for who I am, for believing in me, accepting me and all my faults, and for being the most perfect imperfect man to fulfil my life. I am so excited to be going on this next great adventure with you by my side and I know that God has us both firmly in the palm of His hands, and if I can steal a line from Moulin Rouge ... "Come what may, I will love you until my dying day!"
Al & Rory - you have been like family to me for many years and I have treasured the times we have spent talking about life, love and everything else! Watching my beautiful God daughters, Saphy & Kendra and adorable little Ty grow up has been such fun and I'm going to miss being included in your beautiful family dinners and gatherings. Thank you for just being there for me when I needed a sense of my South African roots and for grounding me in solid, Godly and loving advice and guidance when I needed wisdom and discernment.
Jono - You've been like a big brother to me and it has been a privilege to share some hilarious times with you and to receive your Godly insights into so many situations that have come along to challenge and grow our characters. You are a true friend indeed.
Rach, Karen, Ing, Nic & Mia - gorgeous girlfriends who have loved me, served me, been real with me and brought such joy and seasoning to my life. I am going to miss our chats over coffee, dinners and late night laughs over the years!
Charmaine - whilst we have only known each other for such a short time, in reality, I feel like we've had a lifetime of friendship in these past 18 months and the laughs, chats and fun times we've shared have been truly special, especially watching Ruben and Kaylah play together and have such fun! You have become such a dear and cherished friend and I'm going to miss our almost daily coffee catch ups but I know that we will undoubtedly continue to chat by phone or Skype at least 4-5 times a week!!
My bible study group - Ing, Paul, John, Ruth, Jono, Mandy & Paul, Bernd & Nicole, Karen & Stu - what a wonderful group of people to spend time with, grappling over the bible and yearning to know more about God's plan for each of our lives and for this broken world we live in. I am going to truly miss you all so much and will think of you every Tuesday evening and hope that we will continue to share our spiritual journey even from a distance.
Our Mission Prayer Team - Bel, Jim, Kiki, Jules, John, Rach, & Kristan - thank you for the faithful and dear friends you are to us - you have upheld us in prayer so many times, inspired us to draw ever closer to God and to live in His will, not ours, allowed us to be vulnerable and heartfelt in all our times together and inspired us to continually seek God's guidance, and rest in deep dependence and trust upon Him for His ways are higher than ours, His plans so much greater and His strength so much stronger than our faith could ever imagine. We will continue to seek your prayerful faithfulness and intercession in time to come.
Now to all of you who I have not mentioned specifically by name, I am truly grateful and blessed for your friendship and for being able to share a part of my life with you. You have taught me to drink in the joys, soak up the struggles, live in the realities and embrace the beautiful moments that life brings us and my hope is that we will remain in touch via the variety of modern "thingamajigs" available at our techno finger tips!
Sydney is in my heart, Manly and the Northern Beaches are now in my blood and after 14 years, St Matts will always be my spiritual home! I am truly sad to once again be leaving the beautiful spiritual family we have at St Matts ... but I know that moving to Perth is the right move for us - it's the right place for the right reasons and the right time and I can testify that, as God has already shown us, the next chapter of our life journey will also, God willing, continue to be God ordained and spirit led.
In closing, I want you to know that my prayer for each of you is this ... no matter what you do, no matter where you go, no matter who you meet and no matter how far away we may be from each other, that God will shower you with blessings that knock your socks off, that He surprises you each day in ways unexpected and delights you with His faithfulness and unconditional love and that in return, you grow closer to Him, you find peace in life's struggles, joyfulness in your unique journey and happiness in your heart because God is with us all. Most importantly, I pray that we will remain friends for life and on this note, I want to share some very special words from a beautiful song written by Michael W Smith which I spoke at my 21st, my 30th and now my 40th birthday celebrations because they continue to ring true in my life always ...
"Friends are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say Never because the welcome will not end
And though it's hard to let you go, in the Father's Hands we know
That a Life time is not too long, to live as Friends!"
May God bless you so that you can continue to be a blessing to others, may your spiritual journey continue to be seasoned with salty friendships and may your life journey continue to be filled with many good things and especially with good friends!
I must also include a BIG thank you to my parents, my brother and his family, my Mum-in-law Des and Brad's whole family who were not at the party so I didn't mention them in what was already a fairly long speech! Nonetheless, my family is so important to me and I feel incredibly blessed to have such a wonderful extended family whom I love and adore and I often wish that we all lived next door to each other so that we could share more of ourselves in each other's daily lives! God has been amazingly gracious in blessing me so richly with such a wonderful family ... and I am so grateful and thankful!
WOW ... firstly, I want to reiterate a big thank you to you all for being here tonight and I must say how fantastic you all look and how excited we are that you could join us to celebrate this momentous occasion and also, this sad farewell! I have to read what I've written as I know I won't make it through without a tear or two and I want to make sure I say everything that needs to be said ... and you'll forgive me if it takes a little longer as a result!
16 years ago, on 24 June 1996, I arrived in Australia and I only knew one person at the time. 10 years ago, I stood in this very room with many of you and celebrated my 30th birthday in similar style and today, I felt I had to take a nutshell look back at some of the major events these last 10 years have brought to my life ... 9 years ago, I became an Aunt for the first time to my sweet nephew Guy, 8 years ago, I became an Australian Citizen, 7 years ago, I went on a life time dream safari to East Africa and I became an Aunt again to my darling niece, Nicola. 6 years ago, I finally capitulated and agreed with God that it was time to be a missionary, 5 years ago, I left Australia for a big ship, the Logos Hope which was to change my life forever! 4 years ago, I met Brad, the love of my life and we got engaged, 3 years ago, I got married to the love of my life and had a fantastic honeymoon in Canada, the USA & Fiji. 2 years ago, miraculously, I fell pregnant and, 1 year ago, I gave birth to my beautiful baby girl, Kaylah Grace and this year, I'm moving to Perth and turning 40!! And those were just some of the highlights!!
In between and over the past 16 years, I have been incredibly blessed to have met each of you and as a result, we have shared the journey of life together since then. It doesn’t matter whether I've known you for all 16 years or only a few of these years, you have touched my life and made me the person I am today. I sometimes still can't believe how much God has blessed me by surrounding me with people who inspire me, motivate me, encourage me, love and care for me, amuse me, entertain me, and challenge me to be so much more than what I think I can be.
I have to make some special mention of a few people - to my darling husband Brad - the love of my life - I am so grateful that God brought you and ultimately Kaylah into my life. The past 4 years have been a whirlwind of fun and laughter, as well as a few challenges and rough realities, but mostly joyful bliss! Thank you for loving me for who I am, for believing in me, accepting me and all my faults, and for being the most perfect imperfect man to fulfil my life. I am so excited to be going on this next great adventure with you by my side and I know that God has us both firmly in the palm of His hands, and if I can steal a line from Moulin Rouge ... "Come what may, I will love you until my dying day!"
Al & Rory - you have been like family to me for many years and I have treasured the times we have spent talking about life, love and everything else! Watching my beautiful God daughters, Saphy & Kendra and adorable little Ty grow up has been such fun and I'm going to miss being included in your beautiful family dinners and gatherings. Thank you for just being there for me when I needed a sense of my South African roots and for grounding me in solid, Godly and loving advice and guidance when I needed wisdom and discernment.
Jono - You've been like a big brother to me and it has been a privilege to share some hilarious times with you and to receive your Godly insights into so many situations that have come along to challenge and grow our characters. You are a true friend indeed.
Rach, Karen, Ing, Nic & Mia - gorgeous girlfriends who have loved me, served me, been real with me and brought such joy and seasoning to my life. I am going to miss our chats over coffee, dinners and late night laughs over the years!
Charmaine - whilst we have only known each other for such a short time, in reality, I feel like we've had a lifetime of friendship in these past 18 months and the laughs, chats and fun times we've shared have been truly special, especially watching Ruben and Kaylah play together and have such fun! You have become such a dear and cherished friend and I'm going to miss our almost daily coffee catch ups but I know that we will undoubtedly continue to chat by phone or Skype at least 4-5 times a week!!
My bible study group - Ing, Paul, John, Ruth, Jono, Mandy & Paul, Bernd & Nicole, Karen & Stu - what a wonderful group of people to spend time with, grappling over the bible and yearning to know more about God's plan for each of our lives and for this broken world we live in. I am going to truly miss you all so much and will think of you every Tuesday evening and hope that we will continue to share our spiritual journey even from a distance.
Our Mission Prayer Team - Bel, Jim, Kiki, Jules, John, Rach, & Kristan - thank you for the faithful and dear friends you are to us - you have upheld us in prayer so many times, inspired us to draw ever closer to God and to live in His will, not ours, allowed us to be vulnerable and heartfelt in all our times together and inspired us to continually seek God's guidance, and rest in deep dependence and trust upon Him for His ways are higher than ours, His plans so much greater and His strength so much stronger than our faith could ever imagine. We will continue to seek your prayerful faithfulness and intercession in time to come.
Now to all of you who I have not mentioned specifically by name, I am truly grateful and blessed for your friendship and for being able to share a part of my life with you. You have taught me to drink in the joys, soak up the struggles, live in the realities and embrace the beautiful moments that life brings us and my hope is that we will remain in touch via the variety of modern "thingamajigs" available at our techno finger tips!
Sydney is in my heart, Manly and the Northern Beaches are now in my blood and after 14 years, St Matts will always be my spiritual home! I am truly sad to once again be leaving the beautiful spiritual family we have at St Matts ... but I know that moving to Perth is the right move for us - it's the right place for the right reasons and the right time and I can testify that, as God has already shown us, the next chapter of our life journey will also, God willing, continue to be God ordained and spirit led.
In closing, I want you to know that my prayer for each of you is this ... no matter what you do, no matter where you go, no matter who you meet and no matter how far away we may be from each other, that God will shower you with blessings that knock your socks off, that He surprises you each day in ways unexpected and delights you with His faithfulness and unconditional love and that in return, you grow closer to Him, you find peace in life's struggles, joyfulness in your unique journey and happiness in your heart because God is with us all. Most importantly, I pray that we will remain friends for life and on this note, I want to share some very special words from a beautiful song written by Michael W Smith which I spoke at my 21st, my 30th and now my 40th birthday celebrations because they continue to ring true in my life always ...
"Friends are friends forever if the Lord's the Lord of them
And a friend will not say Never because the welcome will not end
And though it's hard to let you go, in the Father's Hands we know
That a Life time is not too long, to live as Friends!"
May God bless you so that you can continue to be a blessing to others, may your spiritual journey continue to be seasoned with salty friendships and may your life journey continue to be filled with many good things and especially with good friends!
posted by Vanoosh at
9:37 am
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