O Is For Outreach

O is for Outreach

The gathering has been running a Homework club for a few years now and it was an effective programme in terms of assisting local kids with their mathematics and seeing their grades rising across all subjects. Most teachers and educationalists will readily admit that when a pupil is confident in Maths it generally reflects on the rest of their schooling, so it has been great to be helping some of the local kids. It was also an effective piece of outreach in that it allowed us regular contact with their families and we loved serving the community in this way.

N Is For Numpty

N is for Numpty

Paula & I were away for a few nights sans enfants (they're big enough and ugly enough to fend for themselves!) and were really enjoying the long overdue break when we got a rather desperate call from son #1.

M Is For Marshmallows

M is for Marshmallows

I was hoping that M might coincide with Monday, because these little marshmallow chicks seem to capture the essence of a Monday quite nicely and I would have had two Ms for the price of one, but never mind, they'll suffice on their own for today's M post.

I first saw this pic on FB where a friend had posted it, and it genuinely made me chuckle, so I hope you enjoy it too and I hope it brightens your day a little.

L Is For Lie Back And Think Of England

L is for Lie Back And Think Of England

L should actually be for MRI but tomorrow's M is already taken and this seemed to fit quite well, despite the coarse nature of the original meaning of the expression, so apologies for that.

On Monday I went for a Lumbar MRI and after all the prep for it I had a panic attack and had to be pulled out quite quickly.

I was quite cross with myself for my reaction, especially once I had calmed down about an hour later and thought rationally about it. I realised that my head would be going no further in the tube than it had been at the beginning, so there wasn't anything to get excited about, I just needed to calm down and lie back and think of England.

K Is For Kilograms

K is for Kilograms

Actually, that would be 6000 of them as The Gathering took delivery of six pallets of the peanut pastes we've been busy giving out lately.

Once again it was a total blessing to be able to receive such a huge food delivery and it's an even greater blessing knowing that we have already allocated all 432 boxes and they will be gone by Friday afternoon. 

J Is For Jesus

J is for Jesus

Well it be rude not to given that we've just celebrated Easter and I am a pastor.

So Easter has just been and gone and I had the joy of speaking to our church on Easter Sunday about the evidence for the resurrection and picked it up again this Sunday just gone, but looking more at the evidence that Jesus was physically/clinically dead, which really underpins the resurrection. After all, if he wasn't really dead then the resurrection didn't really happen. Only he was dead and it did happen and the evidence is overwhelming.

I Is For Indecision

I is for Indecision though arguably it should be for Déjà vu.

I couldn't come up with anything for I so I'll go away and hope that J might come along to rescue me.

I is also for I'm a few days behind and trying to catch up. LOL!

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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2021.

H Is For However

H is for However...

After yesterday's post, today I had a rare day in that I took the entire day for myself and simply hid away. I ignored my phone, stayed off social media for most of the day and went for a long walk on the beach before finally re-emerging and joining my lovely wife for a drink in a local wine bar followed by a curry.

So occasionally I might feel like giving up, however, I carry on because such moments are rare and times like this evening are what make life worth living.

G Is For Give Up

G is for Give Up

Actually that's wrong, G is for Don't Give Up.

This is not a pity post or one of those FB posts seeking attention, rather it's just an honest expression of the fact that occasionally, despite the encouragements and amazing things we experience in our ministry, there are times when I feel like giving up.

Thankfully I haven't so far, and I don't intend to because I love what I do, but also, I'm only human at the end of the day

F Is For Farts

We get some real crackpots associating themselves with the church here in South Africa and the competition to see who can push the limits the furthest appears quite intense at times.

One recent crackpot was labelled the "Prophet of Doom" because he sprayed his congregants with Doom (a local fly spray) in the belief it would heal them. He was later found guilty of assault. Enough said!

But now we have a clear winner in Pastor Christ Penelope who according to a local news article "farts on people to heal them".

E Is For Encouragement

E is for Encouragement

Life can be tough at times and quite often it's hard to see what impact we might be having on the world.

So today it was such an encouragement and a blessing to be approached by a well respected member of the community where our church meets and be thanked for all we do for the community. I particularly loved it when he said "I know you're not full on Sundays, but what you do during the week is really appreciated".

I've always believed that church is about what we do from Monday to Saturday so it was great to hear it's working in practice.

D Is For Dams

D is for Dams

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%.

C Is For Cartoons

C is for Cartoons

A friend posted this one on FB the other day and it made me chuckle and reminded me just how much I love cartoons.

I love them in all their forms, from static one off jokes like this one, to Tom & Jerry whacking each other, each cartoon has so much to offer and I just love them.

If I had to nail down my favourites then Matt from the Daily Telegraph and Larson's The Far Side win along with almost anything by Warner Bros (but especially Pepé Le Pew) and Disney's full length cartoons, especially Treasure Planet, a completely underrated gem of a classic.

B Is For Boxing

B is for Boxing

Tomorrow evening I have my second white collar boxing match in a rematch with my good friend Conrad.

Last time out we were the first fight on the bill, I don't think anyone took the two old guys too seriously, however we were declared the 'fight of the night' and so this time we're the last fight before the headline fight which is a charity match.

Just over two years ago when I decided to take up boxing I would never have thought I would actually step in a ring, but I have to say that it is a lot of fun and the sparring before hand leading up to it is brilliant.

I also can't think of a better way to get fit.

A Is For Absolution

My first post of the 2021 A to Z Challenge is a bit of a cheaty one. I didn't want to do A is for AtoZ, so rather I've chosen to use *absolution* in that I absolve you of any guilt should you not wish to read the 26 posts that will be coming this month.

Blogging From A to Z Challenge, April 2021

I last participated in the AtoZ Challenge in 2013 having also completed it in 2012, but sadly as I neglected the blog I forgot about this great challenge. But that's all in the past now, and so eight years on I'm participating once again.

Sweet Sixteen

It's Facing The Mountain's 16th birthday or Blogoversary today.

Who would have thought that when we started this back in 2004 that we'd still be in South Africa, never mind still running this blog!

Much has changed over the years, especially with this blog. We used to post via dial-up internet so had to keep posts short and generally without photos. Today we have a decent fibre optic connection and have no concerns about the size of what we post. Probably the biggest change to the blog though was the name change in 2010 (I've previously posted about that here).

Missionary Blogs

It's been a while but it's nice to see that Facing the Mountain has once again been featured on Missionary Blogs's Blog Watch as part of a feature entitled "Small Blessings?". Our featured post was Rough Night which we posted about some of our homeless Soup Kitchen regulars.

It's always a good feeling when one of your posts gets picked up in this way.

My Inner Nerd Came To Play

My inner nerd doesn't come out to play too often but he was given free reign over this one, which was just as well because it took quite some time to resolve.

The Contact page on the blog had stopped working and so I had to remove it and insert a new one. A simple enough task once one knows which bits of HTML to edit (there are plenty of blogs out there with useful instructions too).

Anyway, having got the Contact page back up and running, the "Submit" button was really bugging me because it was too wide, but worse, the text was partially obscured.

As the prosecutor in The Trial on The Wall by Pink Floyd said: "This will not do!"

It took an age to work it out (I couldn't find any help online), and it led to many unusual looking contact forms, but eventually I hit upon changing most of the values from 100% or 100px to auto, et voila. Perfection!

Labour Of Love

This is probably of no interest to anyone other than myself, but having spent the best part of the last few days editing various aspects of the blog, I'm feeling quite pleased with myself and am very happy with the results.