Our Family Photo Shoot

This is the slideshow from the photoshoot that we had on Manhattan Beach about 15 minutes from our house. Enjoy.

http://christinechoi.com/slideshows/portraits/therantalfamily/

Sean taught me how to make a slide show of my little digital pictures. Here is my first attempt.

http://s168.photobucket.com/albums/u169/cindyrantal/?action=view&current=RantalfamilyChristmas2007_0001.flv

Merry Christmas California Style

John just called and said Sean, Corrie and the girls just stepped off the plane. I am at home anxiously awaiting their arrival. Heather and Troy are coming tonight and Mark tomorrow.

John was invited to a Moms Group in Redondo Beach to be Santa Claus this week. We also caved to the Torrance way of decorating for Christmas. Yes, we bought a blowup. So far we are the only Nativity on the block. John loves decorating the house.

May the Lord give each of you peace this Christmas. He came to be our Savior. That's something to be thankful about.

Christmas Tree Prank

When the young adults in our church asked to use our house for a going away party for Micah, John and I made ourselves scarce. I was excited because I had found a skinny tree ,for little house, just that day at Big Lots. When we arrived home, the house was spotless and treeless.

They had hidden it in our"well" hot tub that we have never used. There were clues all over the house from the Bible. It was challenging even for a seminarian, but we finally found it. I'd

love to return the prank on them. I'm still thinking. :) We've got to channel that creativity! It was amazing.

Welcome John and Sharon to California

Almost 40 years ago at the University of Texas, the Lord brought my dear friend Sharon in to my life . Since then, we have always treasured our visits. Our John's have a great time singing and joking around. When we heard they were coming for Thankgiving, we just had to buy the local bird at Trader Joes, a Tofurky. Yes, a turkey flavored tofu thing. We had a big laugh with it We had 6 single guys over to our house on Thanksgiving along with our Wyoming Birbaris. Needless to say there were lots of leftovers!!!Yesterday we showed them our beach and our new life here in California. Since they live on a ranch in Wyoming, this was quite a contrast. Many years we have ridden horses on Thanksgiving at their place. This year they were served Tofurky and we combed the beach. It means so much when our friends and family take the time to come and visit us. We love you, John and Sharon.

Mission Accomplished

I just got back from the Spanish Consulate. I love it when someone says "We don't usually do it that way, but in this case we'll make an exception". How gracious is God when He shows us that his will in our life is an exception. As I was driving home, I thought about how we deserve death but in "our case" God makes an exception. Jesus paid the price for us. Life is full of common grace insights. I love it when He shows them to me.

Chery got the exception and they let "me" file her paper work. Now, we will pray for the visa to come in three months and not in six.

Please Pray Monday November 19!

My dear friend Chery Flores is trying to get to Spain to serve with MTW as a missionary. She has been to visit us in LA twice to get her visa. Both times the Spanish Consulate has said that she is missing some paperwork. Both times we have had a great time together. :) However,these trips are costing money. On Monday I will brave the freeways and go to the Spanish Consulate in downtown LA and to turn in all the papers. Pray that they will be accepted and Chery's visa will come as soon as possible. I love being able to do things like this especially for such a great cause as Chery's future on the mission field. Here we are on her last trip enjoying great food at the Farmer's Market.

Go Florida State Seminoles!

John and I were treated to a fabulous reunion with his two best friends from FSU. Ron and James were football players 40 years ago. These men have remained friends due to their strong love for the Lord. They were involved in many evangelism outreaches during these two years John attended school there. They are both married to wondeful Christian women and have great children.

We were given tickets to the game. What an exciting time for John.

James and another former player took us to watch the Seminoles in all their glory.

The stadium was full of 83,000 fans doing the Seminole chant.

Unfortunately, they lost in the last two minutes of the game when Miami scored two touch downs. It was still a fabulous weekend and a good time to remember how good the Lord has been good to all of us.

Meeting Vatan and his girls in Istanbul

We arrived by ship to Istanbul, Turkey at 6:00 pm. It was amazing to see the famous Blue Mosque and to imagine that in a few minutes my wonderful Turkish son would have flown 900 miles to meet me at the ship.

It was a very emotional reunion, since we had not seen each other in 8 years. This first night, his wife and baby stayed at the hotel to rest up for our big day.

Vatan took me to dinner and to coffee. We talked and talked. I had made him an album of his life in Colorado. We laughed and laughed as we remembered so many special times.

The next morning, we met Deniz and Mercan for breakfast. Deniz speaks perfect English. She is an amazing woman. She attended the University in Istanbul, so she was very glad to be there. They now live in a remote part of Turkey at an air force base. Vatan flies F16 jet planes. Funny that I taught him to drive a car when he was 18. Wow!!!

My heart was bursting to hold their precious six month old Mercan. She just lights of the room. She went right to me.

Vatan and Deniz are amazing parents. They have nurtured Mercan and loved her and it shows. I have never seen Vatan happier.

For lunch ,we went to an outdoor restaurant where we could actually lie down. The Turkish music was playing and we could relax and just get know each other again. It was if we had never been apart. Thank you, Vatan and Deniz for an amazing day. Thank you for all the beautiful gifts you gave me. Thank you, Mom for this precious gift of this trip. I praise God that He included this day in His plan for my life.

Thanks Mom and Todd for a Great Time

Here I am in front of the cave on Patmos where John wrote Revelation.
Santorini is one of the most beautiful Greek Islands
The famous Acropolis in Athens

It was amazing to be able to walk the streets of Ephesus where Paul preached.
Some ruins in Rhodes

My mother and my brother Todd gave me a fabulous time touring the Greek Islands and Turkey.
We were gone for 12 days. The weather was just perfect. I can't believe I got to see all these places.

Greece, Istanbul and Vatan

Many of you will remember our Air force Cadet ('96) from Turkey. He became like a son to us and a brother to our kids. He now flies for the Turkish Air force. My mother has invited me to go on a Greek Cruise with her from October 2-13. One of our stops will be in Istanbul. Vatan is bringing his family, Deniz and Mercan, nine hundred miles just to see me. Please pray for Mercan. She is six months old and has some serious kidney concerns. They will meet me in Istanbul at the dock. They will give me a personal tour of Istanbul. I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I have dreamed for many years that we could visit him. Please be praying for our time on October 7. We have not seen each other in many years.

Saturday- Musician, Massages, Lattes, and Jumper Cables

Saturday we had our kickoff for the fall Bible Studies. Evie (the church secretary) planned quite a day. We had a massage therapist in the nursery, a professional barista, a recording artist and great salads. Evie is just amazing. After it was over, she even jumped my car, since I had left the lights on. All I had to do was emcee the event. It was a great day for the women in our church. Bless you, Evie!

Friday in LA

Friday night we drove to Santa Monica to attend an event for The Arts and Entertainment Ministry. The founder of this group is an ordained PCA pastor. It was amazing to see fine art, short films, and hear live entertainment from Christian artists who make a living in the LA arts community. We invited Keiz and Aaron,(on the right) a new couple who have just started coming to our church. They just got married two months ago.
They are so much fun. Matt Bean, next to them was one of the film directors. Beth (next to him) does editing for Wheel of Fortune. Aaron actually knew Matt from USC. Matt was just hysterical.

Thursday with Mom's and Tots

I went to Redondo Beach (just a few miles from my house) with Lauryn and Timothy and their moms. The toddlers had a great time chasing pigeons. I still can't believe this is my beach. It was an incredible day. There was also a small Farmer's Market on the pier where I picked up some peaches. Gotta love this place.

Wednesday at the Dorcas Circle

Our wonderful Dorcas Circle finished two more blankets. We were able to mail them to a man in Wheaton,Illinois who will be taking them to Ukraine in October. They will be given to the missionary who was Heather's team leader. Heero will distribute them to widows who need a warm blanket as well as the love of Jesus.

Amelie's Baptism

Today John baptised Amelie Lopez. We are sad that we will be losing this precious family. Danny and Angie will be moving to New Mexico where Danny will teach high school."Papa" John is so good with babies. Amelie seemed to take the whole thing very seriously.

Mary Alice Our oldest member of Redeemer

Today, I visited an amazing lady. MA is 86 and has been coming to Redeemer for a very long time. She lives in the most adorable little cottage in Manhattan Beach. She paid $9000 for it 50 years ago. The lot alone is worth a million $ today. I am not exagerating!
She gave me some cuttings from her garden. She takes 8 mile hikes in the mountains. I am hoping she will take me soon. She is still driving the freeways. She takes care of the communion table faithfully. These tiles are her front porch. The small little girl is her nameplate on her house.

The Cinnamon Children

We are blessed to have the Cinnamon Family joining our church. John took the parents through the new members class while I created fun with the children. I think this is one of my best ideas yet. I had them for 5 hours. For almost two hours, we worked and created an amazing spider web in my back yard. Matthew, the seven year old stayed the most focused. However, Michael, the three year old got into it,too. It was such a piece of art,I kept it up for three days.

Seventeen Children attend Redeemer's VBS

Thank you all so much for praying. God blessed our first VBS( Vacation Bible Saturday). John was Noah and we had a great balloon rainbow. When my new friend, Sandy came at 7:00 am to assemble the rainbow, she decided to donate it to the cause. Two little nine year olds were the puppet voices of the animals on the Ark. It was their first puppet show performance. We were all amazed. We had twelve volunteers who worked faithfully all day. Then John recruited the men's Bible Study to come and clean everything up. We know at least one new family with two children who will be coming to church tomorrow. It was so much work since John and I created the materials. It was well worth the effort. One of the teachers donated all the materials. Thanks to Oriental Traders and the Lord's great mercy, we pulled off a marvelous day.