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.
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The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering together
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The Gathering
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Baptisms at The Gathering
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Preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen
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Soup Kitchen Welcome To 2022 lunch
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng
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Thankful Thursdays
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HOPE Home Based Care Team
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Gathering Ground
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Staying fit as a family
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The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Mammoth Event
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.
FA Cup Winners 2025
I'm just going to leave a few pics from the FA Cup Final here.
I'm still trying to process the emotions, the elation, the unbelief and the sense of history having been written...
Palace will forever be a part of the FA Cup story!
Soup Kitchen 10th Birthday
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.
Happy Mother's Day
Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely mums out there.
What a joy it was to enter our Gathering building this morning and see this Mother's Day greeting put up by out Homework Club kids on Friday.
72 Boxes Of Blessings
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.
Happy Place
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.
How Big Is Your Church?
NPO Certificate
This means that we can now open a bank account, register as a tax payer with the relevant tax people and apply for S18a tax exemption as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO).
The Gathering International

Today is a day of good news!
The Gathering International is now registered as a Non Profit Organisation (NPO) with the Department of Social Development (DSD), as a Community Development project.
Greatest Joy
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.
Last night's Soup Kitchen was as chilled as ever, especially as Remi was once again with us offering free haircuts to those that wanted one.
The evening was also brightened up by the visit of Fuad!
We've not seen Fuad for quite a while, so it was great to catch up with him again, and it was a joy to be able to bless him with a haircut as well as soup.
Dogs Of The Gathering
Whilst we were away over Christmas we got to spend a very happy hour with some good friends, chatting about life and having a laugh. I was struck by their new dog, a rescue from the local animal shelter. She's called Rosie and apparently has bitten everyone who has attempted to stroke her, including the local policeman.
Khayelitsha Boxing Academy
Quality Leadership
Last night we took time out to enjoy each other's company and to thank our leadership team for serving so faithfully this year.
It is a joy and a privilege to lead The Gathering with this remarkable group of people, and I love how in the Kingdom of God such a diverse bunch can come together in spirit, heart & truth to build something truly amazing for the glory of God's name.
Fountain Pen Day
However, having learnt of this day, I have to confess to being just a little bit chuffed about it because I've been a user and lover of fountain pens pretty much my whole life, and even to this day my preferred daily writing tool is my trusty Parker fountain pen which accompanies me pretty much everywhere I go.
Fighting Back... To Fitness
Secondly, I'm still quite a way off where I would like to be fitness wise since my operation. I had no idea quite how much it would knock me and quite how tough it would be getting back to where I was before the op'.
Thirdly...
X Is The Unkown Quantity
Many of you know of our ongoing saga in our efforts to get The Gathering registered with SARS (SA's tax collector) as tax compliant and exempt as a charity.
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