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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
Eli is 11 months old today. Wow, where did the time go?
We can't really express what a sheer bundle of joy he is and what a blessing he is to our family. Joel simply adores Eli and that is clearly reciprocal!
We look forward to Eli being able to walk and keep up with Joel, as it looks like they'll have a lot of fun together (as long as Eli leaves Joel's train set alone).
Here's an update on how the garden is looking now that Spring is over and summer is allegedly with us (we say allegedly as it's been raining for 2 days, but it is very warm). The grenadilla bush has simply continued churning out its fruit so no complaints there. It's a pleasure to watch different plants come into bloom at different times. The Aloe Vera has finished flowering and now looks quite plain, whilst other bushes and trees are looking fantastic.
I had an excellent afternoon in Chris Nissen catching up with friends and visiting a few others that I hadn't seen for a while. I always enjoy spending time in Dina's house and today was no exception as Basil & Mary were there with a neighbours daughter whom they look after during the day. Lytton (Dina's grandson) was there with a friend as was Dina and we all had a good laugh and chat. I then went and spent a bit of time with Vissy, I'm always stunned at how well she looks! God has been so faithful in answering our prayers for her. We were convinced about a year ago that she had only days to live, and here we are a year later and she looks really good. Praise God!
Going to the Nature Reserve for tea on a Sunday afternoon seems to be becoming a bit of a tradition. Thankfully it stays open until 7pm during summer so we'll be able to enjoy many more lazy afternoons and evenings there. As you can see from the photos below, the boys really enjoy going. Joel loves seeing Spikey (the porcupine) and Eli seems to know that there will be plenty of food available!
It was a really good fundraiser for the nursery and everyone seemed to enjoy cheering for their kids and chatting with other parents.
Hope you enjoy the photos and the video below.
Joel's nursery are holding a 'Bike Rally' tomorrow and there are prizes for the best decorated bike, so Joel & Daddy set about creating a masterpiece. Joel loved using 'real' paint and could barely contain himself. The biggest struggle for Daddy supervising was trying to persuade Joel to wait a while to allow one colour to dry before using a different one. Anyhow, he got the hang of it and did a sterling job.
The good news is that Dean doesn't have TB! Praise God!! The bad news is that he's going to have to see the Dr. and try to sort out his cough and wheeziness as it's been going on for quite a while now. Dean is really frustrated as he can't shake off the cough but really doesn't want to take any more antibiotics. Probably the biggest frustration is not being able to go cycling, he's missed two rides this week and one last week, so he's trying to sort out a ride for tomorrow.
Ditch Internet Explorer today!
The weekend was quite manic with a lot of runnig around, with not much family time to be had, so yesterday afternoon we had another picnic tea in the Nature Reserve. The boys love being there and it really is a lovely place. The only shame is that it still closes at 5.30. Thankfully in Nov' they extend it to 7.30 which will be much better. As we were leaving we were treated to a rare sighting of a Bontebok calf, we were all pleased with that! Normally the mothers keep them hidden for quite a while but this one was only a few days old and proudly parading around with the herd.
Please pray for Dean as he's struggling with his third bronchial infection in a short space of time. Dina and others in Chris Nissen have nagged him to have a TB test so he'll go and get that done on Monday. Dean's sure he hasn't got TB especially having read up on the symptoms. However, it is possible that he keeps getting ill from his incredibly regular contact with TB sufferers in CNP. After his last illness Dean had barely recovered when he took a few TB patients to the clinic in his car. Such close proximity when your immunity is low is not great! Please pray for a sustained period of good health for him.
In our recent post: 'Nothing Of Note' we mentioned the fact that we had changed Dean's car for a 'bakkie' (pickup in English) to assist us in our work in Chris Nissen. Here at last are some photos of the bakkie doing exactly what we wanted it for.
After church on Sunday we had a really lazy afternoon in the Nature Reserve with Deb's & Rach' (both of whom Joel adores). We took a picnic tea and simply sat and chatted and played with the boys, brilliant!Debs with Eli
Mama Jane asked a while ago if Dean would take some photographs of the twins Birthday party on Saturday. Sisi & Booty were 5 and had a great afternoon. Their friends were particularly plaesed with the party packs that Mama Jane and Aletta had put together. Once again Mama Jane models something really positive in the community!
A very dear friend emailed us recently and was commenting on a something we had said about Joel enjoying stickers and described how one of her sons is also into sticky things.
David (not real name) heavily into stickers at the moment! So much so that he found 6 pantyliners, stuck them on a bit of paper, drew on them, and then insisted on showing them to the Betterware lady when she came to collect her catalogue. Ohh the shame!!
That made us laugh, hope you enjoyed it too.
PS. Apologies to the original author of the above quote as it was used completely without permission!
David (not real name) heavily into stickers at the moment! So much so that he found 6 pantyliners, stuck them on a bit of paper, drew on them, and then insisted on showing them to the Betterware lady when she came to collect her catalogue. Ohh the shame!!
That made us laugh, hope you enjoyed it too.
PS. Apologies to the original author of the above quote as it was used completely without permission!
Meanwhile, back on the ranch... we were having lots of fun, playing silly games, watching Tom & Jerry and playing on the swings.
As ever, the highlight of my week is my Men's Bible Study. This morning (and next week) I got the men to share a favourite passage from scripture and explain why the passage speaks to them and why it's a favourite. Two of the men have spoken to me privately to say they can't do it but the rest are all having a go. This is great as after two years they really should be able to take some responsibility for the group and what we study. Hopefully we can build on this exercise and start to develop their Bible reading skills and encourage them to be more active in sharing their faith. Please pray for this!
We've not Blogged anything of note for a while now, mainly because we've been busy but also because sometimes we experience things that it's simply not appropriate to write about very publicly - and we're not going to elaborate now!Dean had a great 40th Birthday and party. We had promised to post some photos, unfortunatley we were enjoying ourselves too much to bother taking any! So all we can post here is the invite for you to marvel at.
Dean's birthday celebrations have been ongoing over a week & a bit and concluded on Monday when Paula had arranged for the boys to be looked after whilst we went for lunch in Franschoek. Then, halfway through the meal, Paula informed me that we were staying the night! Wicked!! My only concern here is the depths of my wife's deceipt! I had no idea!!!!
We went out for lunch with Joel today to celebrate Dean's 40th. Joel was delighted to be eating pizza - again! We had a lot of fun, especially as Paula had earlier delivered a cake to the restaurant. Joel was chuffed to blow the candles out for Daddy who was struggling a bit due to his age! Eli was being looked after by some friends. As you can see below, Joel doesn't do kiddy portions.
Click here for the BBC article and make up your own mind.
Aunty Kuku died in the early hours of yesterday morning. Sadly this is the third death in Chris Nissen in 4 days. She had really struggled since Patrick's death last year and was deteriorating rapidly. Paula spent some time with Aunty Kuku before we went on holiday and felt at the time that she had said goodbye. The funeral will be next Saturday as there is another big funeral this Sat in the community.We're really grateful to Aunty Kuku's family for looking after her so diligently since Patrick's death, they really did do a great job!
Our dear friend Hazel and her husband Martin have had a website about their ministry for a while now, but recently they have started a Blog too. The Blog can be seen by clicking Martin & Hazel's Blog and their website can be seen here.
Eli's highlight was probably learning to pull himself up and then cruise the furniture, he also really enjoyed the beach.
We're Back!We've just had a wonderful couple of weeks in Sedgefield, chilling out with the boys and re-acquanting ourselves with each other, brilliant! The weather was OK, we managed 4 days on the beach and were only housebound on one day due to really heavy rains.
We had a lot of fun doing all sorts of stuff. Joel discovered pizza and can't get enough of it. He also discovered Tom & Jerry and giggles himself silly watching it.
We're off to Sedgefield on holiday tomorrow morning for 2 weeks and have absolutely no intention whatsoever of Blogging whilst away!
See you all in 2 weeks.
See you all in 2 weeks.
Getting the Shakes is the Blog of Roger & George and their preparations for emigrating to New Zealand. Their lives have been very hectic of late especially as they race around and try to catch up with friends and family before they leave on Sunday! Wow that came round really quickly!
Rog' is an excellent writer and his Blog posts are always good. Recently he Blogged about our brief overnight stay with them when we were in Blighty and you can read this post here.
Keep an eye on the WHSmith bestseller list, one day Roger will be there with his novel!
Recently Bell Valley Initiative held a 'graduation ceremony' for the 10 volunteers they have trained in Chris Nissen Park. One of the local free rags picked up the story and ran it on the front page. As you can imagine the guys in CNP are really pleased to be in the paper.
We had a great morning on Saturday, taking the boys to the Aquarium, we were surprise by how much Eli enjoyed himself whilst Joel wanders around as if it's his 2nd home, which in fairness it almost is as we have been members for over 2 years now.Hope you enjoy the pictures, we'll post some video on Monday.
I've long held the view that science is little more than a value or belief system rather than the exact and objective discipline it claims to be. Whilst some branches of science definitely have value (medicine is a class example) not everything done in the name of science is objective or empirically quantifiable.
Despite it being winter here in the Western Cape, it's very much a growing season. Primarily because the Southern Cape is the only part of the African continent in which it rains in winter, consequently, keeping on top of the grass is almost a full time job in itself.There are however some great benefits to this, and one of them is the variety of blooms etc. which can be seen in the garden. Whilst we make no claims to be related to Percy Thrower we are enjoying having a decent garden, Dean recently bought a wheelbarrow and a few implements to do some stuff (sad!) which he's enjoying.
There has been a real baby boom in Chris Nissen in the last few weeks. Sadly, this boom is amongst the teenagers with several having given birth, several about to give birth and several more due in the next nine months. There seems to be a lot of negative peer pressure amongst the teenagers to have sex which inevitably leads to pregnancies. The other massive negative in this is that they are having unprotected sex despite the very real dangers of contracting HIV.
This will mean little if anything to you in real terms other than you may notice a few character issues as certain bugs are ironed out. The address remains unchanged, but the Blog itself should look a bit leaner and crisper.
At last our recent bout of illnesses seems to be over. The last two weeks in particular have been a complete write off as one or other of us has been unwell. We've just had a great weekend, On Saturday Joel was at a birthday party which he really enjoyed and then we lazed around in the afternoon. On Sunday we had a young couple over for dinner which was great, they've recently moved into the area and are still finding their feet. The weather was also much better than predicted so we were able to spend a bit of time in the garden which both the boys love, especially on their swings.
We had an excellent ladies cell group last Thursday. Thank you so much for all the prayers as God is speaking to us in a wonderful way this term. I have decided to bite the bullet and we are studying Mark's gospel this term. We are literally reading a chapter and a half each week at home and coming to the group with our thoughts, insights and questions. I knew this was risky as several of my ladies can't read, but they are really doing so well. Those who can are reading to those who can't and everyone is coming ready to share. We are having the most interesting and lively discussions. It is also so good and powerful to read God's Word together each week in the group.
Create Your Own Zoo
As part of Paula's birthday present I bought her a hammock to relax in the garden and yesterday finally got a chance to hang it up. Joel immediately took to it and once ensconced in it he ordered us to bring his drink and book. Not sure where he learnt to use a hammock but he was a complete natural at it!
With the onset of winter we've been using the wood burning stove in the house quite a lot. Imagine our shock when our bedroom filled with smoke and the carpet around the chimney was smouldering! Thankfully we caught it just in time and were able to prevent the house from burning down. This was a bit of a shocker especially as our landlord is overseas, thankfully we managed to find the original installer who came and sorted it out pronto.
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