The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering together
The Gathering
Baptisms at The Gathering
Preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen
Soup Kitchen Welcome To 2022 lunch
Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng
Thankful Thursdays
HOPE Home Based Care Team
Gathering Ground
Staying fit as a family
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Whether you pick this book up because your magpie instincts are drawn the joyously attention grabbing cover, or because the subject matter piqued your interest; be prepared to enter a London you know little if anything about. A London that is riveting, absorbing and at Tom's hands, totally accessible, even if in reality most of it isn't.
It got truly spectacular as the rising sun just clipped the top of the moon on its way down making for some stunning views of it all.
Riding along the beachfront promenade is always a pleasant ride, but when there's such an amazing natural spectacle adding to the beauty of the place it takes on a whole different level of spectacular.
In fact they went even further and declared that Cape Town is "the greatest city in the world to visit right now". High praise indeed!
However, Cape Town wasn't ranked as the #1 city due to its appalling murder rate, which was one of the criteria taken in to consideration for each city considered.
I could have painted some black stripes on my car to make it look like a Zebra, but actually, this post is not about Zebras at all.
Truth be told I couldn't think of anything better and it seemed like a good way to say a bit about my upcoming adventure with my oldest son...
Joel turned 18 in March and as part of the celebrations of this event, we (he & I) will be going off on a three week off-road wild camping trip right around South Africa.
Ever since the first drought we experienced here in the Cape back in 2004 I've kept a regular eye on the levels of Cape Town's dams. I like to note how much the levels have gone up or down and get a feel for what might be happening with the next round of water restrictions. Our latest drought began back in 2016 with a normally dry summer followed by a very dry winter, a pattern which repeated itself right up until winter 2020 when the local dams finally hit an average level of 100%.
I'm excited today because I've begun to collect some detailed road maps of South Africa in preparation for Joel's 18th birthday road trip.
Joel & I are planning a 4X4 road trip around the whole of SA for his birthday so the planning can begin in earnest now.
Sadly, due to the pandemic and college dates for Joel we're having to delay the trip from March to his June/July break, but the advantage of that is that we'll have no major time constraints and can make it a bit of a more leisurely trip.
We can't wait!
"For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish." - Jeremiah 31:25
It's good for the soul to get away, especially at times like this when the world looks and feels so uncertain. We didn't think that our annual holiday would happen at all even just a few weeks ago, but thankfully after six months of serious lockdown, SA is beginning to open up again and traveling within the country is now a permissible activity.
Here are a few random photos from the last week or two which I wanted to post but didn't get around to.
The first couple are of our Soup Kitchen which is growing massively now that winter is here. The fact that we were regularly feeding 40+ people through summer was quite something, but now we're feeding 70+ and still more new people are coming each week.
The South African Weather Service has put out a severe storm warning as they predict the worst storm for 30 years is about to slam in to the Western Cape.
Having been at the Firgrove Shell for just over two years we've been given notice to quit the premises and so The Gathering is on the hunt for a new home.
To celebrate our twenty first wedding anniversary we had a very pleasant couple of nights away in the stunning seaside town of Kalk Bay on the Cape Peninsula, somewhere we've been wanting to explore for sometime.
We've just been really blessed with 3 days away on Farmer Koos's farm in Montagu with Grandad and Lesley.
On our travels to Sheffield along the magnificent Snake Pass we decided to go on a bit of a nostalgia tour and show the boys a few of the sites. One of the most spectacular is Ladybower Dam and to top it off the dam was overflowing which was a real privilege to see.
Things started well and just got better. The Eurostar was simplicity itself and a very pleasant ride. Arriving at Gare Du Nord was a cinch and our hotel was 3 stops away on the Metro. It also happened to be smack in the middle of two Metro stops, a 10 minute ride into town and a 10 minute walk from Sacre Coeur. Fantastic!
