I’m working on the edits for the Friday Call to Worship to become a book! It’s been more encouraging than I could have imagined to go back through the past years, walking week by week with the me who didn’t know a pandemic or special needs parenting was coming. I’m preaching to myself and, once again, in awe that God stays the same while I wobble through the weeks.

We are giving the e-book version of “Called to Worship” as a gift to our friends contributing to our fundraiser…

Five years ago, I stepped into our front garden with a baby strapped to my chest. Rented tables with homemade placemats were set for 60. We served an American Thanksgiving dinner to our South African guests, choosing to give thanks while we didn't know our family's next steps. My husband and I relished in a garden full of laughter and warmth that day, never pausing to even taste the meal.

We ate leftover pumpkin pie in our garage late that night. It was a delicious and sacred moment, our own Thanksgiving faith-building feast when we didn't know what tomorrow held.

“We are never more fully alive, more completely ourselves, or more deeply engrossed in anything than when we are playing.” -Charles Schaefer

The Ladd family adults have had a heavy week. I haven’t been showing up for my kids the way I want to. So today, we play. Sunshine, peanut butter sandwiches, bodies in action. I don’t need to wait until it feels better.

We’re picking some of the BIG topics that we all have to address with our children again and again through every stage of life. It is so, so empowering to sit with other women around God’s Word, share stories, and let encouragement build up in the presence of worship, the Word and women. Please pray for me as I prepare a teaching on body image, purity and pornography. See the video and info below for more details. If you’re in Cape Town, PLEASE COME!

I've lived in Cape Town for almost eight years. That's the longest I've lived anywhere since I was 18. We got dealt a few hard blows upon arrival in the city we left everything for... so hard my stomach twisted in knots at the sight of that big, beautiful Table Mountain.

Eight years later, I've learned to love this city through the lens of special needs parenting and "a church to call home, a family to call our own". I know how the weather changes based on what side of the mountain you're on, to check tide times and wind speeds, and how to navigate the traffic.

Please pray for this event this weekend!

Southpoint Church is hosting workshops for moms called "Essential Conversations". We're talking Biblical perspective on big topics and taking home practical tools to engage with your kids at every stage of development.

I show up to church out of breath and in a full sweat - even on the coldest winter day! Have you ever noticed that everyone loses their ever-lovin’ minds when it’s time to get to church? …. Go anyway. Show up sweaty, frizzy-haired, with one sock on. Doesn’t matter. Your Father has good gifts for you in His storehouses, and He will clothe you in His grace, mercy, compassion, goodness and love…

Southpoint Church was full of Christmas cheer and laughing ladies today. Fifty women from all ages and stages sipped hot chocolate, snacked, decorated cookies, and participated in an oh-so-sassy Christmas re-gift game. We “stole” gifts from an almost-90 year old gem and celebrated another’s Christmas bun in the oven! 🤰(not me!!!!)

And that’s a wrap on our “At the Movies” series at @southpointct ! Shrek week’s “happily ever after” theme was just as sweet as it sounds. Benjamin and his best friend told me all about heaven over snacks, and Auntie Rachel glowed while she told me she worked with the Holy Spirit as she sewed Trudi’s Princess Fiona dress. We had lots of fun shaking things up for the series, but we kept our eyes on Jesus the whole time. He is everywhere, so why not practice finding Him in the silly and social things too?

Which Toy Story character did Chris dress up as?

Everything was AWESOME on Sunday at Southpoint Church. It’s school holidays in South Africa, and lots of folks go out of town. Instead of lowering expectations and planning for low attendance, Chris decided to go big - larger than life! We kicked off a four week series, “At the Movies”. Chris will walk us through the major movie elements using clips from popular movies and apply it to spiritual principles. We started off with heroes using The Lego Movie. We all dressed up like our favorite Lego heroes. One of our master builder church elders (an architect by profession) made a larger than life Lego costume with moving arms.

Yesterday the boys and I went to the V&A Waterfront to check out @logoshope_southafrica It’s the world’s largest floating book fair! Even more importantly,it’s a huge vessel with a huge mission. We were awed by this mighty missional tool to take literature, education and the Word of God all over the world. It was extra special to watch a young man take time to walk Lifa through an interactive experience of The Prodigal Son and show him new ways to spread the Gospel.

You might think you know what church looks like on a Sunday morning… but you’ve never experienced SouthPoint Church “At the Movies”. Action-packed, family friendly, fun and dress-ups of epic proportions for the next 4 weeks. Church + your favorite movies! Invite your friends! Dress up like a character from the Lego movie this week! See you at 8:30 and 10am!

Lifa is halfway through 11th grade and thinking about what comes next. Benjamin and Wyatt are ever-changing whirlwinds of personality and preferences - full of tackling, tickling, and tantrumming. We are going deeper and wider all at once at church and working through a missionary kind of sting we’re encountering for the first time after 14 years. Oh, AND, I’m learning how to cohabitate in my own body with an ever-present and absolutely crazy companion called perimenopause.

unMother’s Day: This one is not just for moms.

Chris and I stood on stage at the beginning of both servcies to welcome everyone. I had been awake since 3am with a rotation of small child issues, and Benjamin was having a harder than normal day. If I didn't need to be on stage that morning, I would kept the little guys home with me. Things were heading south quickly...

The little guys and I got rained out of Lifa’s rugby game sidelines again yesterday. We packed a picnic and headed to church to play our blues away. I seized an unexpected opportunity to teach Benjamin how to pray (with his mouth full) in every family ministry environment.

Sometimes I worry about our "YES" to remain in South Africa.

Chris and I wholeheartedly know God has authored every step of our story, and we are right where we are supposed to be. It is our joy to love and lead Southpoint Church.

I worry about the repercussions of my kids growing up without their grandparents, cousins, and extended family members. I wonder what it's like for foreign soil to be your only familiar soil.

I'm sitting in the counselor’s office at Lifa’s primary school…

I told my friends on the Help Club for Moms team that I was ready to start writing for them again…

Finally, it was two days before my first deadline, and my mind was still blank. On top of that, I felt completely overwhelmed by my own kids. I sent up a quick prayer for help as I dashed off to a play date that I was sure would be a disaster. IT WAS. Total disaster. But wouldn’t you know that my God met me in that mess?

Happy New Year! To tell you the truth, I can hardly remember the last weeks of 2022. Wyatt got strep throat, a virus and then a sinus infection. I had mastitis. My mom came in town. And we moved! My 2022 ended at 10pm because I knew 2023 was going to start early, and I was already wildly sleep-deprived. But here we are now, all settled in to a beautiful place God has provided, cherishing moments with my mom, and enjoying a Cape Town summer together. We are healthy, and the small people are finally sleeping again.

There was a lot of a lot in 2022. Here's a "Year in Review" in bullet points!