What Is Normal Anymore?

I guess none of us are living what we might like to think of as normal lives, even if you're classified as an essential worker, life will still be far from what was once normal.

Things are far from any semblance of normality here and we can only look on from a distance as family and friends in Blighty keep posting pics of a trip out or a walk they had in the park, at least y'all still have those privileges.

Whilst we're cooped up we've been a bit more in demand than we might normally be, and have been asked to contribute to a few ongoing video projects as well as attempting to prepare the odd bit of video for use with The Gathering over the Easter weekend.

It's all good fun and I have to admit to enjoying being a bit nerdy when it comes to playing around with various bits of digital media, it may well be my way of staying on the correct side of the camera.

Coming To Blighty

Dean will be undertaking a Roadshow Tour on his own this year, from 16 May until 5 June.

Quite simply we cannot afford to all come and the boys can't miss school like they once could. 😭

So, if you are in or around the Manchester, Sheffield, London or Sevenoaks areas, please come and say hello at one of my Roadshows or Church Visits, the dates are in the image to the right.

For the Sheffield and Wimbledon Roadshows, please save the date and I'll confirm the venues ASAP.

To The Gathering With Love

Whilst on our recent FTM Roadshow Tour in Blighty we asked if a few friends and supporters would mind to speak to our folk back at The Gathering.

This is the result and it was greatly appreciated by all at The Gathering!

That Was Blighty

Such is the modern world that I'm sat here at over 10,000 metres up in the sky and a little over 3,000kms from home but still able to access the internet via on board wifi.  I wrote that on the plane and then fell asleep and forgot to post it, so here is the blog post I wrote...

Well our long anticipated and planned for trip is over, we're just a few hours from being back home and it's been good to spend a few hours reflecting on the last five weeks.

Half Time

We're really enjoying our Roadshow events and are particularly enjoying the variety of different contexts in which we get to present about Tree of Life and our amazing friends in South Africa.

Today we were in the well heeled town of Cobham and had the privilege of sharing our Roadshow with a lovely bunch of folk from St. Andrew's, Oxshott.

"Strike Three.."

..But we're not out!

Rather we've just finished our third Roadshow and once again it went really well. We were with Tuesday @ 2 a group of older folk who are a powerhouse of prayers.

We've been thrilled by the turnout for each of them so far and it's been great to reconnect with many old friends.

One More Sleep!

It hardly seems possible but it's now less than 24 hours until we get on the plane for Blighty.

I guess we're at that point where things that haven't been done aren't going to get done.

Thankfully our Roadshow presentation is all finished, though that hasn't stopped me from checking it every few minutes to make sure it still works. Must switch tablet off!

Mission Ed' Videos Part 2

Here's the second video we showed during our mission ed visits. This is our informal photo presentation which is simply set to music with a few captions.

It's a lighter look at our lives at work and play, but mostly at play!

Part 1 is here.

Mission Ed' Videos Part 1

HOPE (Hands On, Prayer & Evangelism) Home Based Care Team video produced for our 2010 mission education trip to the UK. We used this video as part of our main Powerpoint presentation.

This video is a follow up to our previous HOPE video

It's The End Of The World As We Know It And I feel Fine

As many of you are aware from our recent mission education trip to Blighty, things have not been right in our church for quite a while and things really came to a head late last year when two of the elders resigned and left within a couple of months of each other. In short it boiled down to leadership issues.

On our return home we heard a few things about the church, though sadly nothing from the leadership about what was likely to happen and on Sunday Grace Community Church closed up and finished.

Wherever You May Wander...

So, we'd only been home for the afternoon and it started raining. What's that all about then?!?

Despite being fleeced of ninety quid by the thieving swines at BA for having bags over 23kgs (despite our almost 300kg allowance!) we had a long, smooth and easy journey. It's good to be back home and really pleased to be in the midst of unpacking and sorting things out.

On Our way Home

We're off to Heathrow in the next few minutes as we get ready for our 12 hour flight home.

We've had a great time in Blighty and it was fantastic to see so many friends again especially those we hadn't seen for nearly 20 years.

Apologies to those of you we didn't get to see, hopefully you might be able to make use of our spare bedroom in Cape Town sometime soon.

Mission Education - Final Sunday

Today was quite a monumental occasion as we did our last mission ed' visit with St. Mary's Cheadle.

What a great way to top off a brilliant week!

It was a very busy morning giving our powerpoint presentation in two services followed by lunch and a brief talk about some of our friends in South Africa and our photo presentation. This was all topped off with a 4 hour drive down South!

Facing The Mountain Roadshow - Sheffield

We had a lovely nostalgic drive over to Sheffield on Friday - re-visiting the place of our University days, early courting places, first house, church etc. etc! We also enjoyed the beauty of the area as we arrived in some beautiful late afternoon sunshine and watched the water cascading over the Ladybower Dam.

It was great to stay with friends, Tim and Liz Rose, from old CYFA venture days, whom we haven't seen for a long time.

Facing The Mountain Roadshow - Sheffield

This evening we'll be at 30 Bannerdale Road, S7 2DL in Sheffield for our final Facing The Mountain Roadshow.

Facing The Mountain Roadshow - Cheadle

We're really grateful to the folk who made the effort to join us for our Facing The Mountain Roadshow last night!

Big thanks must go to the Markham's for so generously hosting the evening, providing plenty of food and drink whilst opening their house up without knowing just who was going to rock up or how many would.

We had a brilliant evening catching up with some great friends and it was really good to be able to talk a bit about what we're doing out in South Africa and the challenges ahead.

Midweek Mission Ed'

This week in Cheadle is turning into exactly the kind of week we've always wanted with our supporting churches.

In between last Sunday speaking at St. Cuthbert's and this Sunday speaking at st. Mary's we've been busy with some midweek meetings. The joy of the midweek stuff is that we get to meet smaller groups of folk and speak a bit more candidly about the stuff we're involved with.

St. Cuthbert's

It's great to be back in Cheadle again and to be seeing a lot of old friends. We lived in the area from '95 for a few years before getting involved in overseas mission and always enjoyed the area, though we were gutted to learn that Haji's Kebab Shop has closed!

After a long drive on Saturday it was good to decamp from the car into John and Tricia's for a relaxing roast dinner before a busy morning at St. Cuthbert's on Sunday morning.

Our visit to St. Cuthbert's was great! We shared our Powerpoint presentation in the service which was followed by a cracking lunch and our photo presentation which was well received once again.

Good Evening

One of the joys of our mission education trips is getting to spend time with family and friends and finally after many attempts I managed to spend an evening with my brother.

A good evening was had which was topped off nicely with a visit to The Windmill for a real ale or two.

Next stop Cheadle to spend time with great friends in Cheadle and Sheffield. We're really looking forward to the next 10 days!

Mission Ed' - QRC

Today was a great day as we spent time with Queens Road Church right here in Wimbledon. This was our church family just after Joel was born right up until we left for South Africa in 2004 and we still have many good friends here.

As our mission education visiting goes this was the lowest key visit of all of them and yet one of the best too. We spoke briefly during an interview with Phil Moore about our work in SA and afterwards enjoyed catching up with many great folk.