Stephanie (My Daughter) Testimonies

Stephanie testimony
Ethan
From: Dunggate (Original Message) Sent: 09/08/2005 08:35
Praise & Thanks Message from Stephanie

Hi to all who know of me and blessings to all you guys who have been praying and taking an interest in me and my life recently. I just wanted to write a brief note to tell you first hand what God’s been doing in my life these last 6 months, concentrating on the latest events.

Firstly I’d like to share how God has trusted into our care a baby boy (now 4 weeks old Ethan). Some of you are aware of how my husband’s brother died (age 11) of cycstic fibrosis (CF) and being genetic, my husband a carrier, we had a high risk of our little one having it. Good news came last Friday when the midwife confirmed that Ethan does not have CF. I was so happy I cried with joy, I am so proud to know a God who has the power to change lives and heal where there is pain. We are privileged and I just want to shout THANK YOU GOD!! Thanks to you who prayed too – we really appreciate your prayers, fantastic when we have a good report!

Another testimony, we have a website called www.findachristian.org which aims to find accommodation and jobs etc for UK based Christians (however we are looking at expanding worldwide!!). We have been having an amazing response recently which is awesome! The site has been running for a year now, my husband Brendan (who’s a kinda give-anything-a-go guy) decided that he’d try his hand at web design and came up with the site. It’s funny how God gives you the (very rough) tools and says go for it and then I’ll do my bit! Well that’s what happened, we didn’t know much about it all and to see where it is now shows God’s hand in it! We are consistently running with 2 postings a day now, without advertising the site, I constantly ask myself, how do these people know we’re here, I rarely get answers but that’s fine! A beautiful woman who I know little about but know she’s called Lorraine has been such a blessing to us! Lorraine has been our prayer warrior for the last couple of months and since then it’s amazing to see what’s taken off, here’s just a brief overview: We needed to automate the site, we have been trying to do this since we started up, our web host has started to do this for us for free!! We have needed some help to advertise the site, we have had 2 offers of help from people, Brendan has waited 3 months to be able to earn any commission in his job, his employer told him last month (month 4) was his best ever month in 15 years so he has a healthy commission cheque coming soon on which we agreed to put towards some advertising – exciting!! So thanks to Lorraine for praying for our site on a regular basis, we strongly believe she has had a massive impact on it since all this happened since she started praying, I’d just like to encourage her to keep up the good work.
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A message from me Elaine.
I would just like to add thank you to all who prayed. A little note for those who do not know the background.

Stephanie and Brendan left UK Christmas Eve 2004 to Minister in Asia their itinery was set to go to New Zealand 1st Brendan's homeland, when they found Stephanie was pregnant against the odds as she had a cancer scare 2 years earlier. So the plans had to have a bit of a turnaround. God miraculously kept them safe when Tsunami hit They was told the risks for her unborn baby would be unwise to follow their plans as Phi Phi and Phuket their first call had been hit badly and the diseases that followed.

The Lord used them in another area where people were being airlifted to a safe place. I said briefly so I will finish soon, lol, It was a hard week not knowing for 5 days if they were dead or alive I just want to praise God that my Son Paul was such a comfort I am blessed that he also loves Jesus and said Mum where is your faith, do you think God would give them this Ministry, bless them with this baby and then let them all die!

Once again I want to thank you brothers and sisters for your prayers and it is good to be able to give you an update of how God has answered them.
Love in Jesus Elaine (aka Dunggate building up the walls) Neh 2:12-18
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From: Dunggate Sent: 14/08/2005 14:58
Something else re Brendan's work, when we first came to the country we had the intention of setting up our own business. Brendan offered to buy half of someone's business but he wasn't interested so Brendan looked for work to have an income while we got started. He was upfront with his new employer (who is a contact christian from our church) as the businesses don't overlap but are connected. We did a newspaper article over the weekend and when Brendan went back into work on Monday his boss said he didn't realise how serious we were and how he would like Brendan to consider a partnership with him. God has sooooo gone ahead of us and paved the way!

One last thing!! God's been busy! When we left London we found our landlord a new tenant, painted the living room while we were there and were overall the best tenants we could be. We cleaned thoroughly before we went and made sure there were no loose ends.....apart from not cancelling the standing order in time as this was over the Christmas period. Well presumable the landlord seen this in his favour as a bonus and almost 3 months later after emailing him (as we were overseas) he replied saying we owed him money for carpet cleaning and damages (an inventory was done with the new tenants present so 2 witnesses) and was deducting £150 from us and would return the rest of the money! We knew this to be untrue and kept believing God will justify and He is in control.....over 6months! Justice came this week when we took him to court and won the case.

So that's my testimony lately to show that God is doing amazing things and I will praise his name every day as He commands - even when Satan tries to burst my bubble by breaking my car, he will not win as the battle is already won!

Thanks for all your prayers

Stephanie

xx

From: Dunggate (Original Message) Sent: 11/07/2005 09:17
Hi everyone!!! Thank you for your prayers

WE HAVE A BABY BOY, Ethan John Hills was born at 1.50 this morning, ON HIS DUE DATE....!!! well kind of, its not like stef to be on time so we are all amazed, he is 7 pound 14 oz and very heathy, stef did great, was an un complicated labour she was only labouring in the hospital for 4 hours, I have attached his photo. Hope everyone is well, probably a bit shaken after all that happened last week... Stef sends her love as do I...

Love Brendan and Stephanie

From: Dunggate (Original Message) Sent: 25/12/2005 12:51
Dear All
Firstly Happy Christmas! I hope you are looking forward to the holiday season and have stocked up on the necessary 2-week shop for 2 days as per usual

I will start with our adventures of the last 6 months in descending order so not to bore some - you can just skip the rest and hook up with the most recent events! Of course you wouldn’t I know!!

This month of December. We are planning to go to Napier for Christmas day. Brendan’s mother’s sister is planning a HUGE family Christmas for her 5 brothers and sisters, plus partners and children, it’s going to be massive (and terrifying for me!) Napier is on the East coast about half way down the North Island. What we’re planning is to buy a tent (we’re getting it today) and packing up the car and travelling for 5-7 days around the North Island, camping style! Should be interesting……..let’s see how Ethan sleeps under the stars – our plan is to not move from the campsite until evicted, heheheeheee.

Onto other things, Brendan has become Tauranga’s Property Manager tycoon. He’s scored a pretty good job, doubling his salary once more (as in London) and getting a brand spanking new Holden Barina (Vauxhall Corsa to you and me (why do they give the same car a different name in other countries??) He also mentioned how hot it was the other day and the boss is now buying him company shirts – saves a fuss in the morning. It’s going to be another one of those “bend over Brendan we want some sun to shine” scenario…… works for me!

Us; B and me are reading the Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis, christian author and very interesting parallels to the bible, there’s some food for thought. The movie premiers here next weekend so we are looking forward to going to that – my aim is to power-read through the last chapter this week.

Me, well, kind of getting myself back to normal (whatever that is!) Starting to look more like moi so that’s a step in the right direction. Still 2 dress sizes bigger than when I left London but told not to do high impact aerobics while breast-feeding so getting fit walking around The Mount instead.
Have been restoring old furniture in my spare time which is looking very nice indeed and making wall hangings (hopefully to sell). I’ve also been finding my creative side in all sorts of new ways by picking up a paintbrush and canvas and painting! The results are two unfinished pieces at the moment but I had to prioritize so we’ll see how they go and whether I’ll be doing anymore. Kind of liking the creative bit, haven’t done things like this for a long time, don’t get me wrong now, I don’t have loads of time on my hands / not a lady who lunches / bored housewife…… I cram this stuff in cos I don’t want to say I’ve been doing “nothing” when people ask me!! I’ve also bought a jigsaw puzzle of 1000 pieces and am playing with that too. Can I be any more exciting you ask? Well listen, it sure as hell beats 10hrs a week sitting underground in some strangers armpit – so stop mocking me OK!! J

Well, enough of me, here’s the update on Ethan – who most of you are waiting for, hehehee. He’s now 5 months. These are the tricks he can do:
Scream loud enough for you to hear over there! Just kidding (almost). No, he’s a very good baby and I’m very impressed but also have a new found empathy with single parents – my hat goes off to them. I used to think, “ how hard can it be? Feed it, change it, nurse it, play with it, bath it, put it to bed.” Eeeeasyyyy. Yeah right! That’s all I’m saying.
He sleeps up to 10 hrs a night (sometimes)
He is now eating solid foods, he loves mashed avocado, carrot and sweetcorn.
He likes having a bath and once did a poo in a bath with mum……glorious! Yellow floaties……ugh.
He appears to be teething now and dribbles lots and bites your finger so hard that it can be red – ouch!
I gave him a bath in the baby bath today and he was on his tummy, pushed himself up onto his knees and deliberately pushed himself away from the side as if to sit up (I was holding him of course).
He sits up by himself, he needs watching cos sometimes he’s moved from where you put him and that’s a bit of a shock! He can make it on his own though.
He is able to do push-ups now so it surely won’t be long before he’s crawling.

Ok, bored now? I’m running out of time to do this month by month thing. I hear a sigh of relief from some! Just a brief update on what else has happened. We’re very happy in our home, we’ve decorated the living room now to how we like it (it is the only room in the house but at least it’s our mark on the place). We’ve dug up nearly all the garden and we’ve got orange and lemon trees which are nice. Monique and Martin (old flatmates from London) came to visit last month which was lovely to see them. Erin who’s originally from the States but we met in London is now living in Auckland and came for a bit of R & R the other week which was lovely to have her here to inspire with her arty streak. Donovan is also in Auckland and we’ve been up to see him and Erin a couple of times. We’ve had the pleasure of going to CLC Auckland (christian life centre) which is like Hillsong so that’s been pretty cool, quite a big church. We’re also settled into a very cool church 5 mins drive away, really friendly people, coffee mornings n stuff, went for a bbq with some guys from there today which was nice. Pastor Ange is a bit mad!! She’s, as she says, all mouth, so a real chick who’s got lots to say (but good stuff though!) What else? Well before Ethan was born Tony and Vicky came over to see us too! Great to catch up with them. Missing everyone heaps but am very happy here and hope that you’ll all be over sooner or later to see me. I’m not coming back EVER so book your tickets now – the sooner you book, the cheaper the fare people.

Love to you all, don’t forget to email / write and tell us your news. I might not get back to you straight away but you are in my thoughts.

Lots of love
Brendan, Stephanie and Ethan Hills

They are now back in the UK I just wanted to get some of these backlog posts up which I had saved
Elaine