Gutted!

We had our trip to Table Mountain yesterday after church for our respective groups. The weather was great, no cloud in sight and a very excited bunch of adults keen to experience the mountain (most for the first time in their lives!). We got to Table Mountain just before 1pm only to find that the cable car had been closed 10 minutes before we arrived due to gale force winds at the top of the mountain. We waited for almost an hour and had our picnic lunch, but there was no sign of the wind abating. Sadly we had to leave without actually getting up the mountain.

CNP Men's Bible Study

We had an excellent morning looking at Job. We concentrated on the character of the man, looking at the first 2 chapters, a little at his interactions with his friends and then a bit more in depth at God's response in chapters 38 - 41 and finally God's amazing blessing on a man of great faith. Our study was followed by an excellent time of prayer which is so encouraging as I was struggling to get 2 men to commit to regular participation at the beginning of the year. Praise God! We now have between 8 & 9 men each week and look to be growing.

Chris Nissen Update

On Monday Dean spent the whole afternoon with Dina, when he first arrived she was furious due to a few events over the weekend involving a church members daughter, after half an hour Dina had calmed down and we had a really constructive discussion followed by a great time of prayer. Bethany our FYP joined in for part of this which was great. Paula then had an excellent time on Tuesday night with Dina following up on some of the issues Dean had discussed with Dina. We feel this is such an amazing part of our ministry, to be involved as a family in CNP and we really thanks God for this.

Warning, Scientist On The loose!

The BBC News web site is carrying a story entitled: "Science faces 'dangerous times'" and is about Lord May's last speech as president of the Royal Society. In his speech tonight (Wed) he is said to be speaking on the rise of 'fundamentalism and is to warn that core scientific values are "under serious threat from resurgent fundamentalism, West and East".

Andy, Father Christmas, Noddy Et Al

We've had an excellent time with Andy Clasper from Queens Road Church in Wimbledon, it was a pleasure to spend time together and to be able to show Andy a little bit of what we're up to. Andy has also had a brilliant 3 week holiday in SA and has been able to experience things normally not on offer to tourists including playing Santa for 70+ children in Emyezweni, our pre-school in Lwandle township (enjoy the photo below).

Photos From Andy's Visit

Joel & Dad jumping off a rock at Boulders Beach

Click on an image to see it full size.

Thursday

On Thursday Dean's Bible Study met in the containers in CNP again, after a few months of not being allowed access. Praise God! It looks like we'll be able to meet in there each Thursday which will be so much better as it is so big. Also, this means as a group we can grow, which is one of our key aims for next year. Please continue to pray that we would be allowed to use the container without all the nonsense of CNP internal politics getting in the way.

Boulders Beach

Andy is with us from the UK and we're enjoying his company, Joel seems to have clicked with him and particularly enjoying running around on the baech with him. Yesterday morning we went to Boulders Beach to see the penguins and then in the afternoon we went to Chris Nissen. This morning Andy will be joining dean for the CNP Men's Bible Study.

Hope you enjoy these photos from yesterday. There will be more on our Photoblog this afternoon.

Launchpad Party

As promised here are some photos from the Launchpad party held in honour of John & Sophie. To see more of Dean's better photos look at our Photoblog.

CNP Men's Bible Study Social

I forgot to take my camera to our Bible Study social last Thursday, however we did manage to find a disposable camera and get the photos put on CD so here are two of the better ones for you.

From left to right: Cyril, Alfred, John, Michael (in Palace shirt) Dean, Trevor, Basil, Danny & James

Miraculous Recovery

Thank you for your prayers for Joel, he woke up this morning as if nothing had been wrong over the last three days, Praise God! Today has been an almost normal day for him other than being quite tired. His cough has almost totally abated and his temperature is completely normal. We really value your prayers and we're really grateful to God for answering them so swiftly for Joel.

Joel

Joel is really struggling with his fever and has now developed a nasty chesty cough. As we write he's struggling to sleep as he can't stop coughing, also it's really hot tonight. please pray for healing and peace for the boy, he's really tired and desperately wants to be asleep. Pray for healing for him.

Thanks!

Where Did The Week Go?

A quick update... last night (Thurs) we went out with a group to say goodbye to John & Sophie. After 11 months serving here at Helderberg Christian Church, on the Frontier Year Project they're off home to the UK. We're all sad that they're leaving but know that God will use them mightily for His kingdom. In the morning John & I took our CNP men's Bible study group out for coffee & cake to say farewell to John, we had a great time and the men expressed real warmth towards John who will be sorely missed by the group. These 'jollies' were topped off with a staff breakfast this morning which was very pleasant.

Bird Flu On The Ark

I wonder what would have happened if it had been true.

Finnie's In Focus

We've just started a new 'PhotoBlog' called "Finnie's In Focus" Do take a look and let us know what you think. The aim of this new blog is to give you both a wider view of what we're up to and a more focused view of our lives here.

We will continue to post some photos here, but obviously we'll post the bulk of them on the new photoblog. We'll try to post as regularly as possible and will include alternative views of the stuff you see on this blog.

Grasshopper & Bits

On Saturday we went to the aquarium and met up with Richard & Felicity with Matthew. Joel and he had great fun charging around and shouting "Wow! Look at that!" when they saw the sharks. Joel has been to the aquarium more times than we can remember and yet he never seems to tire of it, which is great as it makes for a good morning when we go. Afterwards Dean went with Joel on a 30 minute boat tour of Cape Town harbour and they both really enjoyed it. Joel was a natural on the boat and so we're (or at least Dean is) now planning to take him on one of the glass bottomed boats in Hout Bay. Sadly we didn't have a camera with us so you'll have to believe us when we say the views of Table Mountain from the harbour were stunning.

Adoption

Wow the rollercoaster doesn't seem to want to stop just yet!

On Wednesday we met with a social worker at a local children's home and were informed that 'yes' we can adopt. This was the 3rd piece of advice from as many professionals! Thankfully the social worker had done some checking out of issues and legalities and has put us in touch with a private social worker who we'll contact on Monday to arrange a meeting. So we're really excited again!

Another Reason Why We Love Africa!

Our washing machine broke recently, the door latch snapped, but given that the machine is 10 years old one can't really complain too much. In the UK this would have meant buying a new machine for sure, but Africa is the continent of the 'Fundi'. Dean popped out to a local appliance shop and bought a replacement door latch for the princely sum of R20 (less than £2), and fitted it to the old machine in under 5 minutes & Bob's your uncle, the machine is fixed!.

Bien Donné Expo 2005

This morning we went to the Bien Donné Expo which was basically an agricultural show with loads of tractors and stuff. Needless to say Joel was in 7th heaven seeing somany tractors, 'Scoops', quad bikes and other machinery. The whole event was very much a 'redneck' affair geared up for the Afrikaans farming community. Anyway, we all had fun and the stall holders were incredibly tolerant of the kids climbing all over the machinery, thankfully Afrikaaners do tend to be quite family oriented. Part of the reason for going was that Matthew's dad works for Toyota SA and they had a stand selling their forklift trucks.

A Good Laugh

Last night we went with a crowd of friends to a local pizza place which has a live band on Thursday evenings, the night was quite raucous and we all had a really good laugh (invariably at someone else's expense). During the evening we managed to get John (one of our FYP volunteers) on stage to sing 'Stand by me', poor lad only got up to go to toilet! Just as he thought he's finished, Sophie (John's wife) was also dragged up on stage, much to her embarrassment to sing 'The Lion sleeps tonight'. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Adoption update

Unfortunately, the birth mother of the little baby we were hoping to adopt refused to sign the adoption papers on Tuesday when ACVV accompanied her and her grandmother to court. As a result, we have told ACVV that we are withdrawing as potential adoptive parents from this situation. Naturally we were very disappointed and can't understand what happened between Friday, when she was happy to go and sign on her own and Tuesday. However, we had been praying for clear leading and you can't really get clearer than that!!