MA

Dean had a long two days in Pretoria on Thursday & Friday last week, he was at the induction for his MA. This our big news at the moment. Dean will be doing a Masters Degree in Social Behaviour and HIV/AIDS with UNISA, the course is over 2 years by distance learning. Needless to say Dean returned home quite stunned by how much work will be involved over the 2 years and the academic level at which he will have to work, but he feels that it is a challenge worth facing up to.

Joel & Duwayne

Joel walking with Duwayne in CNP. Duwayne is one of Patrick's grandchildren and a very sweet little boy

Great Day

Dean had a great day in CNP today and spent a long time with Patrick and his family. The photo of him is with his grandson Eugene. Patrick was far more lucid that he has been for a long time and we all had a really good laugh together! Dina arrived towards the end and was telling us that 3rd Degree (local version of Panorama) are to interview her on Friday in relation to some missing money from the CNP trust. We were pulling her leg saying that they wanted to see where she parks her Mercedes, poor Dina she was quite concerned but laughed a lot!

At Last!

Over the last week or so Joel has been taking tentative steps in walking but hasn't really gone for it.  Today Joel walked for ages in the local shopping mall surprising us and providing much amusement for many passers-by.  We are so grateful to God that at last Joel is walking and h just looks so proud of himself!

Patrick

Patrick with his grandson Eugene

Encouraging Weekend

Dean was invited by our neighbour Don to join him and three friends for an early morning prayer meeting. Dean really enjoyed meeting with a small group of men as this is something he is looking at starting in our church here. The only downside was that they met at 6.30 on Saturday morning, a bit of a shock for him!

Tortoise

Joel & Tortoise at the Helderberg Nature Reserve.

TB

Dean had a meeting with one of the Sisters at the Govt clinic in Nomzamo (opposite CNP) this morning to talk about the TB epidemic which is sweeping through CNP. We've agreed to organise a TB awareness day in the community and to involve as many other agencies as we can to assist with the day. We're planning for this to coincide with World TB Day on 24 March.

Roller Coaster

Tuesday started with an email from Paula's sister telling us that Michael Howard had died. Michael was the vicar in Weald for several years and was due to retire in a few months. We had tremendous respect and love for Michael and his family and they were key supporters of our ministry. Michael will be sorely missed by a lot of people and especially in the village of Weald, please remember them in your prayers.

FYP's

Today was the first full afternoon that the Frontier Year Project (FYP) were with Dean in Chris Nissen Park (CNP). Their main role on a Monday afternoon is to follow up on the children who attended Sunday school and to make contact with their families. We hope that this will build further bridges between the church and the community as well as encouraging the parent/s to come along to church. Please pray for this initiative as we believe this could be a real blessing to the church, the children and their families.

Tough Week

This week seems to have been completely manic for both of us but probably more so for Paula, we don't feel that we've had a chance to catch our breath. The week culminated with our hard disk collapsing leaving us with a complete headache! We've lost lots of emails and a months worth of photos which is very frustrating! We were budgeting for a new laptop later in the year but have had to bring that forward to late Friday afternoon. On Friday we also had the dentist and as new patients the dentist wanted to do x-rays etc. This led to Paula getting a bit of bad news and has to go back for a few more appointments.

Busy As Ever

.This week has been a great week so far, not least because Joel has decided that standing unaided is actually a good thing and something he wants to do!  We're rejoicing that he is making such major moves towards walking, and he certainly appears to be happy.  Joel had his second day at nursery today and again he appears to be thriving on it, however he was so hyped up that he didn't have his lunchtime sleep so mum & dad are feeling a little frazzled!

This afternoon we went to a braai with another English couple who are getting involved in a variety of social action projects and it looks like we may be able to develop some positive links and share resources which would be great.

Table Bay

Us at Table Bay, Cape Town

New Beginnings

Today has been an exciting day of new beginnings! Firstly, Joel started nursery - what a proud day for mum and dad! He seemed pretty pleased with himself too going off with his little tortoise shape bag packed with goodies and art T shirts etc etc. Paula stayed with him for about 2 minutes before one of the helpers had him engrossed in a puzzle on the floor - oh well, no time for "I'll really miss you mum"!! Apparently he was an absolute angel all morning and had a ball - particularly during wet play, when Joel took it literally and got completely soaked to the skin! The leader also noticed how much he loves music and said that he has a really infectious belly laugh which had them all laughing! Thank God for a flexible, friendly little boy!

Where Was God In The Tsunami?

Where was God in the Tsunami?

We've just heard that the latest death toll for the tsunami is now 280,000 and rising.  We've also heard many questioning the where's why's and how's of God and his role in the tsunami.  We  believe that the creator God needs no defending and we have no intention of defending him.  However, we would like to offer some thoughts to those that would ask the questions; how could a loving God allow the tsunami to kill so many? or where was God whilst the tsunami was killing thousands.

However, let us make it clear that this is a personal perspective based on our faith in God.

Items For Prayer

Please pray for Michael and his daughter (we don't know her name and M was to upset to give it) as she has been attacked. She definitely has a broken arm and it appears that she has been raped, although we can't confirm this. Michael is really upset and feeling very angry, pray for grace as he comes to terms with his daughter's ordeal.

Breakthrough

Dean had a good day in CNP today -if a little sad too- as he spent over an hour with Michael and his wife Joyce counseling them after a long weekend of rowing and domestic violence.  This is an area Dean has been wanting to get involved with and so to have an opportunity to work with a family in this was really good.  Michael was very receptive and appeared to be genuinely remorseful, whilst Joyce appeared to be glad that he had been open and honest with someone.

Sad News

We've had a really good week, both in CNP and out and about, however Paula is really looking forward to this week as finally all the groups she and Joel attend restart after the summer holiday. Also, we should know in the next couple of weeks whether or not Joel has got a nursery place. Please pray that he will as this would free Paula up to commit more time to her role in the church and to the cell group she is starting later this month.

Missing Blogs

Below are two Blogs that for some reason weren't published.

Wheelchair at last!

Dean took Patrick and his 2nd daughter to the physiotherapist again today and the physio commented on how well Patrick is progressing. We then had a conversation about our attempts to acquire a wheelchair to no avail. Amazingly the physio said that we could take their brand new one (just had to fill in a few forms) and they would get another one for themselves, Brilliant!!! Patrick and his family are well chuffed! Now we need to find someone who could build him a ramp from the street to his front door.

New Year

Welcome to 2005!

What will this year have in store we wonder? If any of the previous years are anything to go by it should be time to buckle up and hang on for the rollercoaster is about to be launched....

Dean has been back in CNP since Tuesday (as well as visiting a bit during the Christmas break) and learnt that three folk died on Christmas day.

Lonely This Christmas (no apologies to Elvis or Mud)

It's New Years Eve as we write and once again we find ourselves on our own. This seems to have been the story of Christmas for us this year. Our original plans were scuppered by our friends 'outlaws' who forced them off to Durban. Failing any further invites we decided to do our own Christmas and bought the turkey etc. only to receive a half hearted 'sympathy invite' very late on. Christmas day was great, Joel was able to open his presents at his speed and play with each one before moving onto the next so he wasn't swamped. We had a lovely Turkey dinner in the evening under the stars in the garden.