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
After an exciting ten days back in Blighty with family to celebrate our middle niece's wedding, Paula arrived home this morning, much to the relief of all the trousers.
The junior trousers survived and were fed, watered and made it to their various commitments on time as well as getting home again safe and sound, so I'll call that a win.
"They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" Revelation 12:11
They - that's God's people aka you & me - triumphed over him - that's the Devil - by the blood of the Lamb - that's Jesus laying down his life on the cross - and by the word of their testimony - that's what God is doing in our lives. So basically, it's all about God, every last bit of it, and that is why at The Gathering we give over a Sunday every now and then to testimonies, and when we do it's an awesome time in God's presence!
Things began with serving 140 litres of soup at The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen which was another blessed time of serving generously. This time everyone got a cup & a pot to takeaway and some even hung around for seconds.
It is always a joy to welcome a guest speaker but an absolute pleasure to welcome someone like Rose who is so anointed in her prophetic gift of ministering God's word to his children.
Well done to all the A2Zers who made it this far.
Ω (Omega) is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, so there's no cheating going on here.
At The Gathering we happily serve all comers regardless of their size, stature or status, we're not swayed by whether folk walked, just got out of a car or maybe got a ride to get there.
We serve everyone with the same level of grace & dignity and are as generous as we can be until the soup runs out.
The queue was one of the biggest we've ever seen and folk were patiently waiting from before 5pm knowing that we don't begin serving until 6pm.
As ever the vibe was very relaxed and despite waiting for quite a long time, everyone was very grateful for what they received.
I made 100 litres of Cream of Beef & Tomato soup for last night and though I say it myself it was rather good, and it certainly went down well with everyone because it was all gone in twenty minutes!
Paula went out and as she did so I was about to get in the shower when I heard a strange hissing noise. Initially I thought it was coming from her car, so I quickly threw my clothes back on and went out to check all was OK, but Paula had long gone, but what was that noise?!?
So this is H For Health - An Update...
Last year ended poorly from a health & fitness perspective. I already knew and accepted that between going on holiday in late September and hopefully flying to the UK for Christmas in late December I would be battling to keep the weight off, after all, what are holidays for if not a bit of indulgence...
My Dad was, is, and always will be my true hero!
Dad, born Donald Coutts Finnie in 1929 sadly died in 1984 (I was just 18) after a long battle against MS.
I won't bore you with the long story, but in a nutshell... when I was 2 (my two brothers were 4 & newborn) we were taken in to local authority care after my Dad was imprisoned for beating up our mother's boyfriend. Sadly, due to health issues which were complicated by his MS, we never got to live with Dad again, but he used to regularly visit us in the children's home and later I would cycle to see him most weekends.
Anyway, my Dad instilled a love of boxing in me and I used to love looking at his trophies and hearing his stories, though he was most proud of his brothers, particularly Dave who was a notable professional middleweight contender in Scotland.
However, not all things are equal.
Dean seems to be getting away with the lightest symptoms, Paula's definitely the worst and then some, whilst Joel is just really fed up with not being able to go to work.
Either way I know we're both feeling a bit rubbish, so it was nice to have a delicious Dirty Mac & Cheese with steamed broccoli for dinner, even if Paula couldn't taste it.
As a church we are fully committed to the working out of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5), so this morning we gave over our Gathering to a Seven Minute Challenge in which we allow members the opportunity to share God's word for up to seven minutes.
This morning Gloria, Linda and Leilani rose to the challenge. Each of them were diligent and faithful in their preparation and spoke with immense authority.
I'm not sure why, but for some reason somewhere along the line we seem to have stopped taking time out just for ourselves.
Sure we go out for dinner once a week and chat over a good meal & a drink, but that just being together for the sake of being together that we are all so good at when we're dating or courting just seems to have got lost along the way.
Paula wrote the following on Facebook and I can't say it any better:
"Happy 19th birthday to you Joel, our amazing miracle child! You have blown Dad and I away from the moment we knew about you. Today I celebrate you. You are thoughtful and kind, strong and courageous, an overcomer, wise and brave. I love that you are living a life of purpose, running hard after the things of God and unafraid of what people might think. Dream big and fly my boy, this dark world needs you! I love you forever and always."
