King's Daughters

My name is Angela De Souza, I am the mother of four gorgeous children, Lorah-Kelly, Jordan, Daniel and Amy. My husband and I are the senior pastors of D7 Church and at the time of this writing I served in the capacity of Executive Pastor too.  I can honestly say that no recipe or formula for church building exists - God does not work in this way! D7 Church is living proof of this. Not because we didn’t try, we did try, we tried just about everything.  Oswald Chambers writes, “Never make a principle out of your experience, let God be as original with other people as He is with you.” In the same way I would say, don’t try and copy our journey or make principles out of our experiences, let God be as original with your church as He was with ours. We did not fit into a mould or a recipe, even though at first we tried to. Our bookshelf is lined with books that tell you what works and what doesn’t work. Our computer is filled with files of blog posts from mega-church pastors and docu

I am a sucker for Christmas cracker jokes!  I just love to laugh and I find them so very funny!  Here are the jokes from our Christmas crackers this year, what was your favourite Christmas cracker joke?

Photo by Lorah Kelly www.lorahkelly.co.uk 2011 has been the most amazing year and I firmly believe 2012 is going to be even more awesome!  In order to get read for 2012 I am going to have a little rest from my computer and reboot my system so that I am refreshed and ready for what God has planned!   Have a lovely Christmas, please consider buying some lovely books or one of our Cd's as gifts for your loved ones and I will see you back here on King's Daughters in the New Year, ready to start the year off with a 21 day Daniel fast. 

Allow me to introduce my lovely daughter to you, Lorah Kelly!  She is my eldest daughter who has recently set up a photography business and is doing so well.  Within a few weeks of her start-up she already had three wedding bookings and two family photo shoots.  Lorah is also an artist and will continue creating beautiful works of art too to complement her photography.  I find the combination of Lorah's talents beautiful and her photography is definitely accentuated by her artistic talent.  In order to support Lorah's business I have set up a page on my blog which I will update from time to time, please check in there and see what's new.  To find out more about Lorah's new photography business check out her website and Facebook page .    For Christmas she has photographed her own image and designed a stunning Christmas cards which are available for £10 for 20 or £5.00 for 5 or £1.50 each To buy your Christmas cards please contact Lorah and let her know how many

  The ups, downs, frustrations, joys and everything in-between on the roller coaster ride of church planting. I can honestly say that no recipe or formula for church building exists - God does not work in this way! D7 Church is proof of this. Not because we didn’t try, we did try just about everything. Our bookshelf is lined with books that tell you what works and what doesn’t work. Our computer is filled with files of blog posts from mega-church pastors, documents with strategy from other churches. We have attended conferences and visited other churches to try and learn about building a church.  It was only when we gave up and said so to God that we began to have breakthrough. This is our story. Cover Photo by Lorah Kelly   Available at: Amazon.com | Amazon.co.uk | Kindle Contents: Introduction In the Beginning Never Cancel Do Not Grow Weary A Wolf and Abandonment The Least and the Small Pitch Up and Press On Build a Great Team Why Me? It’s Not About You

It's with extreme joy that I want to announce that our latest book, Being a Women , is available for you to buy.  We have had an incredible journey together at our weekly Girl's Nights and this book is the result.  Together we have explored what it means to be a Godly woman, we have recorded our conversations and opinions and presented them to you in a lovely book.  Also, as an added bonus, Lorah-Kelly had done some awesome photography and added it to our book so we have something pretty to look at too.  A very girly book but don't be fooled, the content is extremely challenging!  There were nights when tears were shed at how hard it can be and nights when much laughter was shared at the pure joy of the journey. Be prepared for an emotional roller coaster ride as you read Being a Woman which is available here in the UK , also in the USA and coming soon to Australia .

What a privilege for me to be able to record another worship CD with my wonderful husband and my lovely Lorah along with the rest of D7 Band - a memory we made together that I will treasure forever!  We had a fantastic time recording our new album, In the Stillness, and I am really looking forward to sharing it with you as soon as it's becomes available.  In the meantime enjoy a silly video clip from us at the studio at hear a sneak preview of 'Show Me'!

D7 Band is busy holding auditions for a new drummer, so what do you think of Amy's drumming?  Super cute or what!  Seriously though, if you are a musician or a singer and would like to join our band please do get in touch, we would love to grow the team.

Yes that is me on the left in the purple wig!  There was a time when I was a clown.  Many years ago, my friends and I had a great time face painting and performing as clowns to earn a living. Just a little bit of useless information for you for a laugh.  Have you ever done anything interesting to earn some money?

You might be wondering what me sanding has to do with Jordan's birthday! Well, for her birthday this year we completely redecorated her bedroom!  We had three days while she was away to paint her walls, remover her carpet, sand the floors and buy her cool stuff for her room! It was hard work but we did it!  Here is the end result :) Happy Birthday Jordan - We are all very proud of the lovely young woman that you have become.  Enjoy being a real princess in a real princess bedroom. xxx

...and it's not what you think! Amy decided to take all the books off the middle shelf so she could have a little nap.

Daniel & Amy I love children - they are so sweet and innocent and say the most profound things at times. Today I was driving home from church with Daniel in the car. We were chatting and he said that he was scared of getting arrested by the police. Concerned, I asked why. Here is what he said, "Because Tyler said that I was a naughty boy and that the police will arrest me." I replied to that with a swift, "You are not a naughty boy and the police will definitely not arrest you." "But Tyler said I am naughty", he replied "Well I said you are a good boy and Tyler said you are a naughty boy, so who are you going to believe." "God", Daniel innocently replied. Surprised by his response I thought I would probe a bit more. "What does God say about you then?" I asked "I don't know", Daniel said. "Well why don't you ask Him Daniel?" Daniel shyly replied, "I don't know how to.&q

Daniel's Christmas School Play Daniel the singing shepherd Getting ready to play in the snow Eric being creative with the camera :) Amy helping mommy start the snowman It's a GIRL!  Meet Matlida the snowlady

My wonderful daughter Lorah, has been putting loads of effort into her own blog lately!  I thought I would take a moment to share it with you as it is well worth subscribing to.  Lorah is the Creative Pastor at our church and is doing incredibly well with all that God has given her to do.  She is faithfully sharing the journey that she is on through her blog, take a look here .  This Sunday Samuel & Lorah preached for the first time and I am so proud of them, have a listen to their message here .   

My lovely 15 year old daughter got right on the case the second I Blogged about Human Trafficking !  She created this gorgeous picture for her FaceBook page and challenged all her friends to do the same.  It's amazing what can be done if people pull together - we really can make a difference one small step at a time.  Have you done something creative too to support this cause?  Let us know about it in the comment box below.

Recently we celebrated Lorah's birthday party. I have shared the morning activities with you but have just come across the photos of the evening's celebrations - the fancy dress party!  So here are some snaps for you to have a chuckle at.  Have a great weekend.  xxx I went as Lavender Daniel & Amy went as Lions... ROAR Max, Dave & Ewen were Lumberjacks

This week has been full of family news & you are getting a live account! It has been very eventful week for us! Today is Lorah's 19th birthday which started with a nice pancake breakfast only a few minutes ago :) Keeping the facts in mind that it is Lorah's birthday , what mistakes can you spot in the photo? More news to follow soon as the birthday adventures continue.

Today is a really special day, Daniel started school! For Daniel it was a little different from all the other children though, he had three women fussing over him and shedding tears as he walked away into his classroom. Lorah, Jordan & I took Daniel to school this morning and made such a fuss! Daniel wasn't fussed at all and got on with this new season in his life with confidence. Oops better stop blogging and rush off to fetch him, wouldn't want to be late on his first day. Here we go again, Lorah, Jordan & I off to fuss some more.

Jordan & I had a bit of a girly night last night. Jordan found a recipe for a home made facial mask and a solution for refreshing our eyes - tea bags! As you can see in the photo, the mask didn't stick too well onto our face. I think we should have ground the oats a little finer. Also, we had to alternate which eye we had our tea bag on as we were watching a movie while allowing our mask to work it's magic on our skin. So if you are in the mood for a bit of a pamper or just a really good laugh, here is our recipe: 3 tablespoons of pulverized oats whole milk yogurt 1 tablespoon of olive oil Juice of half a lemon Apply the mixture to your face. Leave it on for 10 to 15 minutes. Rinse with lukewarm water, then pat your face dry.

Every year, at the end of the year, I like to make a photo album of all the highlights of that year. I sat down a while ago to catch up on this and realised that I haven't done one for two years. It seems that since we planted the Church , life got very hectic and simple things like taking photos & making memories took a back seat! Why am I sharing this with you? Because it is important, probably the most important post on my Blog yet. More often than not, great memories are intentionally made, they don't just happen. You have to take time out of your busy schedule and focus on making a memory. Even the simplest of things can be memorable if you take the time to soak them up. One of my fondest simple memories is of Daniel & Amy dancing . It was a very special moment that I could have missed if I didn't take the time to light a fire, put on some music and just sit down with them in the living room. Another moment was when Eric & I decided to take lunch breaks t