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
Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng
Thankful Thursdays.JPG)
HOPE Home Based Care Team
Gathering Ground
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Rosie lived a good long life, but at sweet 16 she was struggling with the most basic of activities such as grooming, and walking was painful for her. So after consulting some dear friends with more experience of dog ownership than us, and a chat with the vet, we agreed it was time to do the right thing and let Rosie go.
Despite Paula's best attempt to scupper our UK trip by throwing herself down a hill, I did at least manage to keep one engagement.
On Sunday I had the joy & privilege of preaching at St Andrew's in Oxshott, one of our partner churches.
Of the thirty four wedding anniversaries we've celebrated, this is probably the most unusual.
We're still trying to process all that has happened in the last 24 hours and what it all means for our plans. Sadly we've had to cancel most of what we had planned, and our longed for family getaway has been canned for now. This is truly heartbreaking.
On Wednesday a few of the local SAFReC Chaplains visited Heartlands Baby Sanctuary in Somerset West to drop off a donation of nappies and to pray with any staff members who wanted prayer.
Entering into a life of full-time overseas mission has to be the toughest challenge in life. One can do all the training at specialised colleges, read all the books and listen to those who have served in overseas mission, but until you've done it, you simply cannot understand just how tough the life is! That's not to say normal life isn't tough, we know it can be.
We've noticed that The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen has been getting a bit busier week on week in the last few months, and last night's Soup Kitchen was quite a mammoth event.
For the last year, numbers had been dropping, though there remained a significant core of regulars and we were still regularly feeding well over 100 people, but the quantity of soup we were making each week had dropped down from 200 litres to somewhere between 70 to 100 litres a week, with the occasional Soup Kitchen dragging on for a while until the last of the soup had gone.
What is truly remarkable over the ten years is how the Soup Kitchen has grown and how in all that time we have only missed seven or eight, and only three of which were during Covid lockdowns.
Now, whether you believe in the New Testament person of Jesus is immaterial, there is more than enough evidence outside of the Bible to confirm his physical existence, his death and his resurrection.
The fact is that Jesus is not only documented in the eye-witness testimony of the gospels and Acts but He is mentioned as a historical person by over 50 non-Christian sources within 150 years of His life.
So here are ten historical facts about Jesus, from non-Christian, non-Biblical sources, which I have borrowed from the websites of far more learned fellows than I...
It's been a long time since The Gathering was able to bless our Soup Kitchen regulars and others with these amazing & delicious packets of goodness, so Soup Kitchen this coming week will be excellent! And I'm sure that it will be busier than normal as word spreads that we have these pastes.
I also got to test out the new barber's chair we bought so that Remi no longer needs to bend down to do his haircutting. The poor lad is serving his heart out giving amazing haircuts to our Soup Kitchen regulars, but all the while doing his back in because we didn't have a proper chair.
My reply was almost instantaneous, and remains the same today.
Quite simply, my greatest joy in ministry is raising others up and releasing them to minister in the Kingdom.
It's always an oddly exciting and satisfying event when our firewood is delivered each year.
We only get our wood once a year, and it supplies our wood burner in winter, which is our only source of heating in our house.
