Joel and Sam playing on the beach at Strand. We had a lovely morning with Pete & Ash and the kids, rounded off with a McDonalds lunch. It was such a pleasure to spend time with the Smyth family again as we rarely get to see each other these days. Pete & Ash were incredibly supportive friends during our time in Zim, especially as we struggled with the issue of moving on from the Just Children Foundation. Pete now leads the 'God First' church in Jo'burg.
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Dean and Paula in Blighty, autumn 2025 -
Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering -
Our beloved Palace - FA Cup winners 2025 -
The Gathering -
Baptising in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit -
Leaders preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen -
Soup Kitchen Xmas lunch
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng -
Thankful Thursdays -
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HOPE Home Based Care Team -
Gathering Ground -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Joel and Sam playing on the beach at Strand. We had a lovely morning with Pete & Ash and the kids, rounded off with a McDonalds lunch. It was such a pleasure to spend time with the Smyth family again as we rarely get to see each other these days. Pete & Ash were incredibly supportive friends during our time in Zim, especially as we struggled with the issue of moving on from the Just Children Foundation. Pete now leads the 'God First' church in Jo'burg.
Some of you may remember that Roger was Best Man at our wedding back in 1991.
On Thursday Dean joined some of the key CNP residents for a Thank you / Christmas lunch hosted by Chris Nissen himself. The lunch was great and the guys from CNP relly enjoyed the venue as the restaurant juts out into the sea with stunning views of False Bay, Table Mountain & the Cape Peninsula. Sadly, Chris Himself never pitched which was a real shame, but a good time was had by all regardless. Usefully, Dean got to meet some of the key players in the local police force including the station commander of Somerset West police station and the provincial director of Helderberg area police. Contacts which will definitely come in handy!
Dean & Joel went to the Nature Reserve again yesterday, mainly to give Paula & Eli a bit of a break but also to give Joel some special time with Dad. We had some real fun as you can see from the 'Dilemma' video posted below. We're not sure where Joel gets his flirting skills from but they're definitely not from his Dad (probably gets it from his mother!).Whilst we were feeding the ducks the Cape Weaver Birds were getting quite bold so we put some crumbs on a post a watched them swoop in and take them.
NB. The clip below is about 5mb and without a broadband connection may take a while to download.
The quality of the video is low but if you listen carefully you can hear him saying things like: "Yes Lord" & "Thank you very much". Also, watch for the hand and then listen carefully as he ends his prayer and launches into playing his guitar.
We hope you enjoy the video below as much as we do!
Here are a few photos from our 'flying' trip to Bloemfontein. We had a good trip despite the disappointment of not returning home with the baby. The good news is that we will definitely get the baby as soon as s/he is born and we'll keep you informed of happenings.
More photos can be seen on our Photoblog
Here we had just arrived in Bloemfontein. The weather was really hot with cloudless skies, beautiful!
Well, we're home...... without the baby!!! It has been a very emotional time in Bloemfontein. The birth mother has been induced 4 times - poor woman, but nothing happened. Her due date isn't till Sunday, so we're not quite sure why they advised us to come this week, but there we go, there must have been a reason.
Debs (together with Rachel) runs Emyezweni pre school in Lwandle (a township just outside Somerset West) with support from Ukuthasa a UK charity and Helderberg Christian Church. The pre school offers a valuable service to many parents who would otherwise have to stop working to care for their kids.
As promised, here's a photo from our trip. You can see more on our Photoblog; Finnie's In Focus.This photo shows Paula with Cyril, Danny, Michael, Alfred & Peter standing over Cape Town.
We had an excellent morning looking at Job. We concentrated on the character of the man, looking at the first 2 chapters, a little at his interactions with his friends and then a bit more in depth at God's response in chapters 38 - 41 and finally God's amazing blessing on a man of great faith. Our study was followed by an excellent time of prayer which is so encouraging as I was struggling to get 2 men to commit to regular participation at the beginning of the year. Praise God! We now have between 8 & 9 men each week and look to be growing.
We've had an excellent time with Andy Clasper from Queens Road Church in Wimbledon, it was a pleasure to spend time together and to be able to show Andy a little bit of what we're up to. Andy has also had a brilliant 3 week holiday in SA and has been able to experience things normally not on offer to tourists including playing Santa for 70+ children in Emyezweni, our pre-school in Lwandle township (enjoy the photo below).
On Thursday Dean's Bible Study met in the containers in CNP again, after a few months of not being allowed access. Praise God! It looks like we'll be able to meet in there each Thursday which will be so much better as it is so big. Also, this means as a group we can grow, which is one of our key aims for next year. Please continue to pray that we would be allowed to use the container without all the nonsense of CNP internal politics getting in the way.
Andy is with us from the UK and we're enjoying his company, Joel seems to have clicked with him and particularly enjoying running around on the baech with him. Yesterday morning we went to Boulders Beach to see the penguins and then in the afternoon we went to Chris Nissen. This morning Andy will be joining dean for the CNP Men's Bible Study.Hope you enjoy these photos from yesterday. There will be more on our Photoblog this afternoon.
As promised here are some photos from the Launchpad party held in honour of John & Sophie. To see more of Dean's better photos look at our Photoblog.
Thank you for your prayers for Joel, he woke up this morning as if nothing had been wrong over the last three days, Praise God! Today has been an almost normal day for him other than being quite tired. His cough has almost totally abated and his temperature is completely normal. We really value your prayers and we're really grateful to God for answering them so swiftly for Joel.
Joel is really struggling with his fever and has now developed a nasty chesty cough. As we write he's struggling to sleep as he can't stop coughing, also it's really hot tonight. please pray for healing and peace for the boy, he's really tired and desperately wants to be asleep. Pray for healing for him.
Thanks!
Thanks!
A quick update... last night (Thurs) we went out with a group to say goodbye to John & Sophie. After 11 months serving here at Helderberg Christian Church, on the Frontier Year Project they're off home to the UK. We're all sad that they're leaving but know that God will use them mightily for His kingdom. In the morning John & I took our CNP men's Bible study group out for coffee & cake to say farewell to John, we had a great time and the men expressed real warmth towards John who will be sorely missed by the group. These 'jollies' were topped off with a staff breakfast this morning which was very pleasant.
We will continue to post some photos here, but obviously we'll post the bulk of them on the new photoblog. We'll try to post as regularly as possible and will include alternative views of the stuff you see on this blog.
On Saturday we went to the aquarium and met up with Richard & Felicity with Matthew. Joel and he had great fun charging around and shouting "Wow! Look at that!" when they saw the sharks. Joel has been to the aquarium more times than we can remember and yet he never seems to tire of it, which is great as it makes for a good morning when we go. Afterwards Dean went with Joel on a 30 minute boat tour of Cape Town harbour and they both really enjoyed it. Joel was a natural on the boat and so we're (or at least Dean is) now planning to take him on one of the glass bottomed boats in Hout Bay. Sadly we didn't have a camera with us so you'll have to believe us when we say the views of Table Mountain from the harbour were stunning.
On Wednesday we met with a social worker at a local children's home and were informed that 'yes' we can adopt. This was the 3rd piece of advice from as many professionals! Thankfully the social worker had done some checking out of issues and legalities and has put us in touch with a private social worker who we'll contact on Monday to arrange a meeting. So we're really excited again!
Our washing machine broke recently, the door latch snapped, but given that the machine is 10 years old one can't really complain too much. In the UK this would have meant buying a new machine for sure, but Africa is the continent of the 'Fundi'. Dean popped out to a local appliance shop and bought a replacement door latch for the princely sum of R20 (less than £2), and fitted it to the old machine in under 5 minutes & Bob's your uncle, the machine is fixed!.
This morning we went to the Bien Donné Expo which was basically an agricultural show with loads of tractors and stuff. Needless to say Joel was in 7th heaven seeing somany tractors, 'Scoops', quad bikes and other machinery. The whole event was very much a 'redneck' affair geared up for the Afrikaans farming community. Anyway, we all had fun and the stall holders were incredibly tolerant of the kids climbing all over the machinery, thankfully Afrikaaners do tend to be quite family oriented. Part of the reason for going was that Matthew's dad works for Toyota SA and they had a stand selling their forklift trucks.
Unfortunately, the birth mother of the little baby we were hoping to adopt refused to sign the adoption papers on Tuesday when ACVV accompanied her and her grandmother to court. As a result, we have told ACVV that we are withdrawing as potential adoptive parents from this situation. Naturally we were very disappointed and can't understand what happened between Friday, when she was happy to go and sign on her own and Tuesday. However, we had been praying for clear leading and you can't really get clearer than that!!
Actually, in this week in history... and what a historical week it is.Firstly Rosa Parks died, if you don't know who she was, where have you been? Rosa historically refused to give up her seat on a bus in America, allegedly the conversation was as follows:
"Are you going to stand up?" the bus driver, James Blake, asked.
"No," she answered.
"Well, by God," the driver replied, "I'm going to have you arrested."
"You may do that," Mrs Parks responded.
The rest as you might say, is history!
Rosa Parks 04.02.12 - 25.10.05
Dean had Joel on his own again this morning whilst Paula had a bit of 'me' time although as ever work encroached, with Paula putting in a brief appearance at the church building for a Peer Education event. nevertheless, we all benefited from our various activities. Dean & Joel were building Duplo towers which were taller than Dean, whilst Joel simply enjoyed knocking them down!
We've had a really good weekend, on Saturday we went to Hermanus in the morning but sadly there were only a couple of whales and they were way off in the distance. That will probably be our last attempt this year to whale watch. We still had good fun with Joel who enjoyed clambering over the rocks and attempting to chase the dassies. In the evening we we went out to a Thai restaurant with our new friends Richard & Felicity, we such a good evening.
I've just been to Pretoria for three days as part of my Masters Degree with UNISA (University of South Africa). For those of you who don't know I'm doing a Masters in 'Social Behaviour in HIV/AIDS' with the school of sociology. The whole year with UNISA has been a bit disastrous with very poor communication being at the heart of the problem.
Hopefully Monica had a good time too. After lunch we took Monica back to her hotel in Cape Town and Paula went off on her own for a while whilst Dean & Joel went to the aquarium.
Sean posted these on his Blog Primal Subversion, we hope you enjoy them.
Notorious Typos
Here are a few publishing blunders from various editions of scripture...
* Blessed are the place-makers, Matthew 5:9. (instead of "peacemakers")
* Thou shalt commit adultery, Exodus 20:14. (omitted "not")
Notorious Typos
Here are a few publishing blunders from various editions of scripture...
* Blessed are the place-makers, Matthew 5:9. (instead of "peacemakers")
* Thou shalt commit adultery, Exodus 20:14. (omitted "not")
Paula drove down to Chris Nissen tonight to lead the memorial service for Anna (after last week's postponement) only to find that Aunty Blaby wasn't there and Dina had forgotten that she was coming! This is extremely common, but really frustrating. Not only is it physically annoying ie: in terms of wasted time, energy and petrol, it doesn't do the community any good either. We are assuming that there has been a circumstance beyond our control, but more likely, Aunty Blaby is grieving very deeply and just can't handle any more attention. Please pray that either one of us will be able to see her soon and help her with the process. Paula would also dearly love to share the message she has for people at this memorial, so please pray for an opportunity in the not too distant future, next week would be ideal for this.
On their Blog Watch page there are a few snippets of some recently posted Blogs. Please take a look and see how God's name is being glorified around the world.
We said a while ago that we would try and find some info from local churches about what is going on and how we can best pray for those affected by the hurricanes. We eventually looked at the Willow Creek website (looking for something totally unconnected) and found the following information:
Saturday morning was another emotionally charged occasion for Paula as she went to support Anna's family at her funeral in CNP. It was a beautiful, fitting and simple service. Her little house was crammed full with friends and family leaving just enough room for the coffin. We sang our hearts out and the preacher spoke brilliantly about making sure your name is in the Book of Life (or at least that's what Paula gleaned from her limited Afrikaans!). Funnily enough, that is exactly what she has prepared to speak about on Tuesday at Anna's memorial service!
We're both getting stronger and putting the worst of the illnesses behind us. Dean definitely suffered a bit worst than Paula, but Paula was still very unwell. We are so grateful to Felicity for taking Joel off our hands on Wednesday, there's no way we could have got through the day without her support. Dean said his tummy felt like the roundworm he had in Tanzania whilst the diarrhea was like his Shigela dysentery he had in Zimbabwe, sounds nice doesn't it!
We have both been really sick for the past 48 hours with some sort of a virus. Unfortunately, it led to Dean vomiting up blood all of last night and we are both wiped out from this and lack of sleep. We have a very wonderful friend however, who, on hearing this, came and washed our dishes, picked up Joel and took him home to her place to play with her 2 year old son for the day. This was absolutely fantastic, allowing us to sleep for the day and try to recuperate. In 14 years of marriage, we have never been so sick at the same time. There was no way we would have been able to look after Joel today, so thank God for friends! We are both feeling a little better tonight- weak but not as sick.
I eventually found out yesterday (Monday), after much phoning around, what had happened to Gert. It turns out that he was discharged on Friday shortly after arriving at hospital. He had 2 X-rays taken and was given a letter of referral to Ikhwezi clinic (where he'd been on Friday morning!) and then left to get himself home. So that's why the hospital couldn't trace him on Friday evening. Yesterday afternoon in CNP we managed to piece the whole story together. Gert had no means of getting home after being discharged and certainly couldn't walk, so he spent 2 nights sleeping in the hospital car park and spent the daytimes in the waiting room. Luckily, a lady from CNP attended the hospital on Sunday evening and whilst there bumped into Gert and brought him home.
This is an outrageous story but sadly a true one! Sadly it's not an uncommon story for folk in Chris Nissen. In fact, the ambulance had been called into CNP on Thursday for Gert but never arrived.
This is an outrageous story but sadly a true one! Sadly it's not an uncommon story for folk in Chris Nissen. In fact, the ambulance had been called into CNP on Thursday for Gert but never arrived.
Dean had an excellent small group this morning with 8 men attending which was a first. They all said they enjoyed the study (we were looking at Samuel) and said they would come again next week, so that's really exciting. To think that just a few months ago I was struggling to get 2 regulars to commit! The three new guys this week were Danny (Anna 'Bop's' partner) Trevor & Willem (see photo below). The group want to continue our season of Character Studies so we will carry on with that and include some New Testament characters in the coming term.
During her visiting in CNP on Friday, Paula went to visit Anna 'Bop', a dear friend suffering from AIDS, who very recently became a Christian and who had been attending Paula's cell group on her stronger days. Anna was really weak, but was battling courageously. They prayed together and Paula gave her some baby porridge in the hope that she might be able to keep it down, as she wasn't able to eat anything. Sadly Anna died on Monday morning. Obviously, this has been a bitter blow for Anna's family and all her friends. Death is never easy, even when you watch someone you love slowly deteriorate. Tonight Paula went in to visit Anna's family.
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