Tuakau Christmas Parade

Two weeks ago (I know... late post) our church and Bible Club where in the Christmas Parade here in Tuakau. About 40 people from church and Bible Club turn up, which was a blessing. We had a great time sharing Jesus Christ with the people of Tuakau. 800 tracts and candy canes were distributed and many people read the signs. When we passed the judge she read the sign over the van on the loud speakers which read, "What is a man profited, if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" (Matthew 16:26) And then the sign Mercy was holding in the trailer which read, "We love him, because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19) Praise the Lord! :) 

So here's a heap of pictures from the day... I tried not to post too many, so as not to bore you all too much. :)

Mercy's Eleventh Birthday Party

:) Friends :)

Norah, Jacqueline, Nicolea, Paris, and Mercy

 Chicken Enchiladas was her request for dinner.

~

Mmm... they were good...

(Nothing like complementing your own cooking. :P But really, they were good!)

Ezra's looking at his plate wondering if that's all he gets. :P

 Norah showing the girls her games on her ipod.
The little girls enjoy her so much... she is always coming up and taking them out to play or something.

Time for gifts!

The best part of the party... right? Oh, wait, or is the best part the cake???

The dress Mama made for her!

And this picture didn't come out that good...

:)

Emmaline did a beautiful job on the ice cream cake!

Baptisms

This past Sunday we had four people who wanted to follow the Lord in believers baptism - Vicky, a girl from the University Bible Study; Brother Quilty, an older man from our church in Pukekohe; and Mercy and Malachi. It was so exciting to see these people take this step. We use a baptismal at a church about forty-five minutes north of Pukekohe, so there was several people from our church in Pukekohe, all those from Auckland Bible Baptist Church, and about 20 students from the University there. It was a great time of worshiping the Lord, watching these follow our Lord in believers baptism, and fellowship... oh, and food, we are Baptist! :) 

And to read my Dad's post about the day you can click on this link! :) It was a very busy Sunday with three church services and lots of driving and food prep and so on... but a exciting and very blessed Sunday! :) Praise the Lord! :)

And here is a few pictures form the day! :)

Vicky giving her testimony. She gave it in Chinese because all the students from the University are Chinese and because she's not great at English and neither are many of the students... and then Ethan translated it to English for the rest of us. 

 Vicky

 Mercy

 Malachi giving his testimony...

 ...and then being baptized.

Vicky and Mercy

 Brother Quilty, Vicky, Mercy and Malachi

A heap of students from the University and some Snyders talking.

 Shephine and Paris. 

(Stephine is a little girl from Auckland Bible Baptist Church and Paris is one of our club girls from Tuakau.)

 Little girls playing after tea.

 Emmaline and Joy(another girl from the Bible Study at the University.)

 Pastor Snyder and Pastor G fellowshipping over tea.

 Emmaline, Mercy, Vicky, Joy, Nicolea, and me(Jillian)

 Mrs. G and Vicky

And a random picture of Matthew leading music.

Paris and Mercy in there matching dresses for the day! :)

Happy Birthday Mercy Irene

9 years old

Cookies

Last Saturday we had two of our club kids over to make cookies! Irini is ten and Shikiel is 8 and they had a great time making cookies for Bible Club with us! And we all enjoyed too! I love working with these sweet Maori kids! So here is a few pictures from the afternoon!

Irini hard at work making Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies!

I helped Irini and Nicolea.

And Emmaline helped Shikiel and Mercy make some regular Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Then while the cookies were in the oven we played Uno!

Irini with her finished product.

And Mercy and Shikiel with their cookies.

And then when you go to the Snyders the highlight is always riding bikes!!!

Happy Birthday Nicolea Mae

Happy 10th Birthday Nicolea Mae Snyder!!!

~Well, a little late as her birthday was the nineteenth. Last Saturday Dad had to rent a van to pick up some things in the city and then in the afternoon he took us all to the beach for Nicolea's birthday. We started the afternoon with ice cream cones on our way to the ocean. We stopped at a national park and saw some beautiful views and the kids enjoyed all the space to run around. The beach was really crowded were we had planed to stop so we continued on up the road. We stopped by another park and walked out to ocean. The ocean was so beautiful to see. Where we were at on the beach we could see Waiheke Island and Ponui Island. At play ground near by we had dinner and Nicolea opened her gifts. After we started home Dad stopped by the beach that we had planned to stop at, because it was almost vacant, and let us play for a few minutes in the water. Then, together, we had a great ride home! It was so much fun to spend a day together! Driving together brought back the wonderful memories of deputation! Only we had four rows of three seats rather then two rows of three seats like we had in the truck!!!

Enjoying the ride!

Well, at this time, on the way home she was not very happy to be in her car seat.

Nicolea with her ice cream!

(Alicia behind her.)

New Zealand Scenery

Looking at a map of the park. "We should go do..." "No, lets go do..." "It would be neat to..." and at the end "Nicolea, its your birthday, what do you want to do?"

Linda taking a ride on Daddy's back!!!

Felicity

Nicolea

At the beach the tide was out so there was lots of rocks and small pools of water. Here the boys are looking at the crabs Matthew was segesting he would cook for supper.

The ocean floor when the tide was out.

Everyone in the family ect. me (Jillian). It is not very often at all that you can get that many Snyders into one picture! They were watching a remote controlled airplane when this was taken.

For Dinner we had Biohazard, carrot sticks, and sandwiches.

Nicolea ready for gifts!!!

A happy girl at the birthday party!

"You can have any two things out of my bucket!"

"Do you want one of these?!"

What a nice brother!!!

(He had that bucket full of stuff he gathered on the beach and said she could choose three because it was her birthday! He always has something from his collection of things for each of us at our birthday! What a great brother!!!)

Nicolea with her new cool glasses Ezra bought her!

Wow, she has a great BIG brother!

How many of you got Amway pans for your 10th birthday?!

Emmaline made her a very nice stationary keeper.

Ezra and Malachi having fun in the water!

The Beautiful Pacific Ocean!!!

That's Waiheke Island and Ponui Island in the distance.

I love this picture!

The above two pictures were taken as the sun was starting to go down. It was shining really beautiful and the pictures do not do it justice!!!

~We did not take Nicolea's birthday cake to the beach so on Tuesday the nineteenth we had her cake and birthday dinner. Homemade PIZZA for dinner and she had brownies with triple chocolate ice cream on them and homemade chocolate sauce on top!

The six youngest minus Mercy.

How many of those can you blow?!

Nicolea and her brownies!