A Taste of the Last Two weeks at Redeemer PCA

John and I attended Patricia's opera recital at Chapman University. She sings on our worship team.
Timothy and his mom came for dinner. Timothy is 2 and will have a new baby sister or brother in August.
My new believer and friend Veronica, and her husband Oscar and baby Melanie. Veronica is faithful to come to Moms and Tots and to church. How's that for a tatoo.
Chris and April celebrate their first baby shower and our 3rd at Redeemer. Chris is a deacon and April led the children before I arrived.
Alfred(our other deacon) Pastor John, Daniel and Mike all gathering for the"baby shower".

Those Crazy Seagulls!

This is not our beach in California. I wish I had had the joy of giving my niece, Emily her first beach experience. This is in Georgia. I thought it was amazing. Emily, our seagulls in California are much nicer! Wish you could come and see me so I could show you.

Mark's Latest Work

We have prayed for children at Redeemer. God is answering. That calls for a logo. Mark rose to the occasion and provided this for our Children's Dept.

I just love it. He is starting his own design business. If you need any design work done, contact him now before he gets too expensive for any of us to afford.

John and I are proud of him and his God given talents. Thanks, Mark.

Newest Jenna and Sophie Pictures

Jenna is turning 3 in two weeks!
Sophie is walking and even talking at almost 16 months.

Thanks Katie, for the wonderful pictures.

Bike Riding on Mondays

Some friends in our church gave us bikes to store in our garage since we live so close to the beach. We finally made the maiden voyage last Monday. We peddled about 12 miles all together from Hermosa Beach to El Segundo. It was so beautiful, I didn't even realize I was exercising until the next day. Hopefully it will be our Monday routine after volleyball. Suffering for Jesus in Southern California!!!!!

Violin Concert in Palos Verdes

Roger and Christine Moore took us to a concert in a home in Palos Verdes Estates about 15 minutes from our house. Here I am with the violinist. She told me that her father made her practice 5 hours a day when she was 5 years old. She was magnificent.

This was the view from the house where the concert was played. Our house is out there somewhere about 1 mile from from the coast.
Yoko Matsuda and Reiko Honsho are world class musicians. They have played all over the world but enjoy these small intimate concerts. They played Mozart and Schubert. The view and the music were a feast for the ears and the eyes.

Birthday Celebrations and the Simpiches

Celebrating Barbara's 85th birthday. She is a diabetic so I served her a cake that was a round of gouda cheese. She and Ben have been at our church for many years.
I surprised my dear friend Christine, in black, with a 60th dinner party with her two closest friends and their husbands. They drove almost two hours away for the event. She was shocked. I love a good surprise. Christine is an assistant principal in Watts. She has been such a good friend to me since I have moved. David Simpich emailed me and said that he and Debbie were coming to Riverside (90 minutes away) for a performance. I was thrilled to take 9 ladies from our church. His performance of the Ugly Duckling was absolutely marvelous. None of them had ever seen anything like it.
It was great to see David and Debbie, our wonderful friends from Village 7. Look for his upcoming performances. He is opening his own theater in Colorado Springs.
Onilla told me about The Mission Inn in Riverside. We had a fabulous lunch outside on the terrace after the performance.

Moms and Tots

Vanessa and Veronica are new moms coming to our class. Veronica received the Lord after class in January. She and her husband, a believer, are coming faithfully to church.

Let the Little Children Come

The future elders of Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
This is 5 month old Melanie. When Sarah Goldschmidt at ECA called and said there was a high chair in the 6th grade garage sale, I never imagined it would be used in California for new little babies in my life.
Matthew has a great smile and goes to Christian School.His Bible knowledge is remarkable. He is a big help since most of the children coming are unchurched. Keep praying for children to come to our church. God is blessing.

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.