Eli's Dedication

On Sunday we had Eli dedicated at St. George's Weald. We decided to have the dedication in the UK rather than SA as family are here and we want them to be involved in Eli's life. The service was excellent and was followed by a massive lunch which several good friends joined us for. Many thanks to Lisa for putting so much effort into a magnificent spread!

Arrived

We arrived safely after a remarkably good flight. Dean has been very critical of BA in the last few years but they almost fully redeemed themselves on this flight. The staff were incredibly helpful and couldn't do enough to help which was really good.

Itinerary In UK

Well here we are an hour before we leave for the airport and I'm still doing emails!

We'll blog again real soon but for now here's a list of the important dates and events whilst we're in the UK:

Fri 9th June Arrive

Sat 10th England v Paraguay

Mountain Bikes & Baboons

Dean went mountain biking again last night with the regular crowd and again had a real blast on the mountains in Sir Lowry's Pass. The sunset is simply stunning up there as the moutains turn a pinky orange and the light through the trees is almost surreal. Once at the limit of where you can cycle to the views looking back over False Bay and Table Mountain are superb!

Last night Dean and the gang met a troop of Baboons out on the tracks and had some fun winding them up, although one has to be very careful and ready to sprint off VERY quickly should the alpha male take umbrage.

Experiencing nature so closely and in such peace is a real privilege and after a few stressful days in Chris Nissen it's great to be able to escape into the mountains, even if it is only far a couple of hours.

Ouma Sophie's Shack

With the onset of winter those who are living in 'informal' accommodation in Chris Nissen Park begin to suffer. You can see from the photos below the reality of life for Ouma Sophie. Life is hard enough without the extra pain and suffering brought on by the cold and rain. Sadly, this is not an isolated case in the community, but at least in this particular case we are able to rejoice as one of our church members has offered a small wendy house to Ouma Sophie so we're hoping to get it sorted out early next week. Praise God!

Chris Nissen Social

We had a 'Soup Social' at church last Friday for the folk in Chris Nissen whom we are directly involved with, church members, the men from Dean's bible study group and the ladies from Paula's cell group plus children.

A good fun evening was had by all and we plan to hold a few more socials in our efforts to get our church members and other Christians in the community to unite and stand together.

Beautiful Baby

Paula recently entered Eli into a 'Beautiful Baby' competition and we recently got the photos back. We hope you like the one below.

CNP

Quite where the time is going at the moment we're not sure and we just don't seem to get enough time to write anything serious on the Blog. We'll try in a few short lines to let you know what's happening in CNP and with us, so hopefully you'll be up to speed.

For those of you who don't know yet, we managed to get Eli's passport fiasco sorted out, thanks to our living God who is a lot more accessible than the British high commissioner in SA! We really value your prayers, and can confirm that God did indeed answer them.

Fundamentalist ?

A friend at church emailed this to me today and having read it thought it would be fun to post it and see what reaction (if any) it solicits. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did...

I'm reading some pretty interesting philosophy lately and came across this quote in an academic book on Christian Philosophy. Read it carefully and seriously... ; )

Plantinga and the "Real" Meaning of Fundamentalist
Having just stated that his Aquinas/Calvin model involves his belief in the “internal instigation of the Holy Spirit,” noetic effects of sin, and other specifically Christian beliefs, Plantinga writes this bit on what it really means to be called a “fundamentalist,”

The Child Within

Something about the sight of a new airplane excites the child within, so when photos were released of the Airbus A380 I was enthralled as this really is a behemoth of a plane!

Below are some photos of the A380 on its way to Heathrow taken by members of the public. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did (Joel thought they were quite cool too).

Food Parcels

Over the last few months we've been delivering food parcels to some of the neediest folk in Chris Nissen. We have fairly strict criteria as to who qualifies so as to avoid unnecessary conflict (not always successfully) and also to ensure that we really do target those in need. To ensure that this happens we work through relationship with some faithful Christians in the community whom we know we can rely on. We really thank God that we have such a circle of trusted friends in CNP!

Eli Can Travel!

Praise God!

Our prayers have been answered and Eli can accompany us to the UK in June! Today Dean flew to Jo'burg and then drove to Pretoria to get the document for Eli, all went very smoothly and wasn't too time consuming.

Dean has come home very tired but delighted with the result of his endeavour. We really appreciate all your prayers, God definitely smoothed the way and oiled the necessary cogs.

ANSWERED PRAYER!

STOP PRESS!!!!

God is answering our prayers.... Paul Boeteng, the British High Commissioner has agreed to our appeal and Eli will be allowed to fly with us - praise God!!! HOWEVER, we must get his passport stamped officially in Pretoria. So, Dean is now looking for the best flight price to go on that little expedition!

Thank you so much for your prayers, we really can't tell you what stress we were under here

Serious Prayer Need!

Following the final adoption order for Eli, we applied to Home Affairs to change his name (as ordered by the court) and at the same time applied for a temporary passport in his pre-adoptive name in order to allow him to accompany us on our trip to the UK in June. Home affairs were incredibly helpful and got the passport to us within 7 days but informed us that the name change takes up to 4 months (so will happen by August at the earliest).

Two weeks after we applied for the temporary passport, the British Govt. very unhelpfully announced that South African temporary passports would no longer be accepted for entry into the UK. This has put us in a very difficult position as it is simply not possible to obtain a full passport for Eli until after the name change has been completed.

For All The Mums Out There...

Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson©

A Rare Shot

It's not often that we get a photo with Dean in it as he's usually hiding behind the camera. Hope this one doesn't scare you!

Michael's House

On the Friday before Dean left for Lesotho we managed to get a wendy house for Michael for the exact amount of money that we had raised, so a HUGE thank you to those of you who so generously helped. Michael & Joyce feel tremendously blessed and are so grateful to God for His provision.

City Of Joy - Maseru

Reading the 'Welcome' leaflet

Welcome Break

We're off to Franshoek in the morning for two nights 'sans' kids! We've been trying to organise this for ages (it's not easy when you have no familial support just around the corner) so Joel will be with his friends Caleb & Michelle and Eli will be with another couple who generously offered to help us out.

We really feel the need for this time off and are marvelling at God's timing. We tried to organise this for a couple of dates but it kept falling through, but now after Dean's return from Lesotho and some serious issues arising in CNP this mini break has come at just the right time.

Home At Last

Just a quick update regarding Dean's Lesotho trip... after 12 hours of driving Dean arrived home 24 hours earlier than expected which was a really pleasant surprise for Paula and the boys, especially Joel!

In short, about 400 people were saved in Maseru and countless others were healed. We saw a massive out pouring of God's grace and healing in the city and are in awe of His saving power!

We'll post more later with some photos (Dean took about 650!) but for now bed is calling!

City Of Joy

I'm here in Maseru, Lesotho as part of a team of 100 helping to plant the City of Joy Community Church in Maseru. As Paula said below there are about 100 folk from 11 different churches around South Africa and the UK as well as a small core of people who will be the basis of the church. It is such an amazing privilege to be a part of this event and we are seeing God moving in the most amazing ways! We've seen a large number of salvations so far and lots of miraculous healings. It is so good to know that we do indeed serve the one true living God!

On the way into town this morning we stopped to pray for a man who had collapsed at the side of the road. He was definitely healed and then gave his life to Jesus as we prayed for him! We then took him back to the SU centre for some food. What an awesome privilege to be involved in this man's salvation.