A Passage I Love

JN 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

I love this passage simply because Jesus let's his followers know that troubles are guaranteed (not promised) for no particular reason (not for character building or testing etc) other than we are of this world and have to live in it. So being robbed or living through Hurricane Katrina are not judgement by some vindictive deity but rather just part and parcel of life on this planet.

Photo Update

Here are a few 'taster' photographs, you can see more on our Photoblog 'Finnie's in Focus'.

We'll post some more over the next few days too.

Catch Up

We've finally managed to get back onto Blogger after 3 days, apparently our monopoly phone company messed up and barred access to the service which is about what you'd expect from a monolithic uncompetitive monopoly. Gripe over and on with the posting...

Quite a lot has happened and we'll try and give a brief update on each thing...

Can't Access Blogger

We're emailing this post through in the hope that it will be posted automatically.

We haven't been able to log onto Blogger for over 24 hours despite trying several different computers.

Hopefully all will be back to normal soon, but if you happen to know why Blogger is down, please email us.

Action in CNP

Dean has just been to an excellent meeting at the municipality with Dina & Mama Jane regarding the vegetable garden in CNP and the proposed netball court for the community. Amazingly, the parks dept have agreed to give the community R1000 towards the vegetable garden for seeds, fertiliser etc so after almost 2 years the garden will now be utilised properly. The parks department have also agreed to fund the construction of the netball court and to supply the basic equipment such as hoops and balls. Needless to say Dina & Mama Jane were delighted and the community will be thrilled when they hear about this.

The Law Is An Ass

Dean accompanied Michael & Joyce to court this morning for the final eviction hearing. You may recall that Michael & Joyce are living with Michael's father (Douglas) who wants them to leave the house, primarily because he's an alcoholic and they've been trying to address this issue with him. As expected, the court made it's decision based purely on the law thus ignoring the moral arguments for Michael & Joyce remaining in the house.

Dean was quite angry afterwards as he feels that Michael & Joyce were steamrollered by Douglas's lawyer as they had no legal representation themselves (legal aid was refused and they can't afford legal fees) into signing a settlement document. This then allowed the lawyer to make direct representations to the chief magistrate in his chamber rather than having to go into court.

Emyezweni Pre School

Debs has just updated her Blog with some cute photos of one or two of the kids at the pre-school. Take a look at Deb's SA News

Here's one to whet your appetite

CNP Men's Bible Study

Dean had a great bible study on Thursday morning with a possible record attendance of 11, which is really encouraging, especially as most of the guys are now coming along regularly. We're continuing our series of Character Studies and this week looked at Paul and his life.

Left to Right: Cyril (in blue shirt),Danny, Michael, Basil, Peter, Trevor, Vicky, Alfred, Ernest & James.

Depictions Of Mohammed

Controversy over the publication of images depicting Mohammed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten has erupted into an international furor. While Muslim nations are calling for a boycott of Denmark, Europeans are divided as to whether they should stand up for Western principles of freedom of speech, or cave in to to self-censorship in the name of multiculturalism and fear.

Wed Afternoon In CNP

Dean had an interesting afternoon in CNP on Wed. He started by visiting Peter (one of the men in Dean’s bible study), whilst there a fight erupted in the street outside a shebeen and Dean noticed that a young man named Colby was one of those fighting. Later he bumped into Colby and whilst they were talking it became clear that Colby was drunk. This is articularly sad as Colby is a young man who has just joined the police force and he has a bright future.

Weekend Fun

We've had a lot of fun over the weekend despite the fact that Paula was unwell on Thursday evening and Dean was unwell on Sat evening. We think the cause is a dead animal in a newly installed storm drain outside our house. The stench drifts into our house and has been giving us headaches for a while now. Unfortunately, the developer who installed it says it's the Body Corporate's responsibility, the Body Corporate says the developer is responsible so we're stuck in the middle whilst they sort it out.

Table Mountain Fire

You should have heard on the news about the fire on the slopes of Table Mountain which is causing huge destruction to the Nature Reserve there. Sadly, the fire appears to have been started by an idiotic British tourist who flicked a cigarette end out of his car window. Thankfully a local guide saw him and made a note of his registration number and the police caught him.

More Photos

Here are some photos taken this morning before Joel went to nursery. Joel seems to love Eli more with each day that passes and currently really enjoys wheeling him around in his pushchair. Between doing this and playing his guitar Joel is as happy as it's possible to be! Despite this we are experiencing some behavioural challenges as Joel copes with going to nursery 5 mornings a week and getting less attention from Mum & Dad than he's used to. We're going to try and address this so at lunchtime today Paula & Joel will go out on their own for lunch, hopefully they'll have a lot of fun.

Reality Of Life

These last few days in Chris Nissen have been really good in terms of time spent with people, but also in terms of putting life into perspective.

On Thursday last week we started our men's Bible study again after a long break. It was really good to catch up and hear everybody's news. Sadly, Cyril's cousin died earlier during the week, they shared their house in CNP, and now Cyril concerned about what will happen to the house as his cousin's family don't like Cyril very much. Also, Danny has been thrown out of his house, this is all very sad, but you may remember some of our posts about Anna Bop who died last year. Danny's house belonged to her, but after her death he remained in the house, but now Anna Bop's mother has sold the house. This is illegal in CNP as the properties belong to the CNP Trust, so now we're involved in sorting out this mess. Meanwhile Danny is staying with friends in the community but can't stay for long as his host are already severely stretched! Despite the bad news, I was really encouraged by the group and their attitudes and faith that as I drove home I realised that this group alone make my time in CNP more than worth it!

Family Life

We've not posted much over the last week or so, partly because we've been very busy but also because we were feeling a bit demotivated after a number of events which haven't made 2006 the best start to a year we've ever had! Dean being robbed was awful, but at least he was unharmed, then the head gasket on his car blew leaving us with a hefty garage bill and then our Harddisk crashed and we lost 3 months worth of photos (yes dean does do weekly backups but still disaster struck!).

Helicopters & Fire

There have been lots of fires in the Western Cape this summer and things are set to get a lot worst as we've just entered another drought period, although the drought shouldn't be as bad as last year. Late last week there was a huge fire in Grabouw which is just the other side of the mountains and shortly before that there was one in Franschoek which apparently destroyed an area the size of 40,000 football pitches!

Another Week For Paula

Paula had another good morning in CNP today. Dina went with her to introduce her to some new people and she met 6 new women, which is great! Her Tuesday evening social evenings will now start to be held in the homes of these people. They are all keen to get to know her and spend more time with each other. It was interesting that half of them were sick to a varying degree, from eye infections to asthma to bad hip, and none will go to the doctor. This is not because of cost, but because they don't trust them and are either scared or embarassed or both to go. This is not surprising as people are often needlessly and publicly humiliated by the doctor at the clinic. It is a long, hard slog to convince people that they must go. Paula now goes into CNP with an obligatory pack of Ibuprofen to dish out, but this is really not good and certainly isn't a long term solution. One of the ladies was so sick we had to lift her up to take the pills. Please pray for God to move so that this stigma is removed. They all want Paula or Dean or someone to go with them to speak to the doctor, but this just isn't possible.

Paula Back On The Circuit

Paula went back in to Chris Nissen on Friday for the first time since Christmas week and all our activity collecting Eli and getting ourselves used to being new parents!! 'Her ladies' were so pleased to see her again, but can't really understand why she won't take Eli in to see them there yet. We are doing this purely for health reasons in that Eli's BCG jab takes 3 months to kick in and the TB rate in CNP is so high that we can't take the risk. Maybe, making this stand ourselves as a family will shake people up to take their medication and see what a serious problem TB is in the community.

Dad Bloggers

I've just come across a Blog entitled 'Dad Bloggers' and so far I like what I've seen, not to say I agree with it all (it's not a Christian Blog for starters) but it's worth taking some time to read through what has been written.

Chris Nissen Park

Dean was in CNP again yesterday after an almost 3 week break (he did comment towards the end of the break that he needed to get back to work to get some routine into his life!) in which he has really missed his friends in the community. Apparently they missed him too, but we'll have to take their word for that!

Christmas Card

In case you missed our 'e'Christmas card click on the image below to view it. We hope you enjoy it even if it is belated.