Another Year Gone

Not too sure what happened to the school year that was 2011 but it seems to have whizzed by. There is one week left but let's be honest, very little gets done in the last week. that will make up for the busyness of this week with awards ceremonies and school concerts, but it's been really good fun.

It's been a great year for the boys, not least for Eli who can now read and write. we're very proud of him for this achievement!

Girls Will Be Girls!

I had a very eagerly anticipated "girly" coffee morning with 4 special ladies at my house today - it was time to get my wonderful HOPE home based carers out of their community for a few hours to just spend time chatting, laughing, eating and reviewing the past year! Each lady is a special nugget of gold, they will definitely be taking their places at God's top table one day!! It was so good to enjoy some lovely food and to potter around the garden chatting about patients and friends and our lives.

World Aids Day

The world seems to have gotten a bit complacent about AIDS and the devastating effect it has so it takes a bit of shock tactics to get the world to sit up and listen.
Hopefully Willy the Tourist might help to do this.

Encouraging Evening

Our life group in Macassar last night was such an encouraging and humbling time.

It was a real privilege to hear testimony after testimony of how God has moved mightily through the year to bring folk to the point of being excited about planting a new church into Macassar early next year. For some of the guys there last night this has been a torrid year, starting with the collapse of the church and the hassles resulting from it. Some have then lost jobs, had to move house a number of times, had family members die, one of our number has lost two brothers this year! Others have had to look after extended family to help out financially in tough times and one family have had a terrible time with drug dealers and all sorts of related nonsense.

Weekend Stuff

Summer seems to be toying with us at present as the weather has generally been pretty good during the week and then pretty horrid at weekends. Winter is definitely hanging on to the bitter end!

This last week and the weekends either side of it has been a good time for us as we've managed to sort out and rise above a bit of rubbish that was thrown our way and as a consequence find ourselves in a stronger position than before.

Praise God for friends who believe in the best of you!

Encouragement Through Perseverance

I've been really encouraged of late by John Wesley and more particularly by an excerpt from his diary. John Wesley (with his brother Charles) is one of the biggest names in 18th century British history, though his impact goes way beyond Britain's borders.

So here's the excerpt from his diary:

A Tale Of Two Guys

Here's a tale of two guys I care for very much and have a huge amount of respect for and two guys who are struggling through very different but equally tough times.

As I said a few posts below Ernest has just suffered a massive stroke. Thankfully he has an amazing family around him who are taking excellent care of him. As an outsider looking in it's a real privilege to see just how well loved Ernest is. My family circle consists of Paula, my fantastic sons and my brother. Ernest had 40, yes 40 members of family by his bed the afternoon after his stroke!

A Little Bit Of Admin

Hopefully many of you will have received our November update by email. If you haven't had it and would like to receive our monthly updates and quarterly prayerletters let us know and we'll add you to the list.

Now that we're (almost) no longer Crosslinks mission partners we're taking control of our monthly updates and prayerletters and we want to distribute these by email as much as possible. In fact we will no longer be sending the monthly updates by snail mail, apologies if this impacts you. If you have been receiving our news via snail mail but you have an email address please let us know as it's so much easier (and cheaper) to email them. If you're old fashioned like me and want a piece of paper in your hand then it's easy to print.

Occupy St Paul's!

I've been watching with interest over the last week or so the debacle surrounding St. Paul's and the ridiculous way in which things are being managed.

I feel I should make some things clear at the outset. Firstly, I support the Occupy London protest and think it has a very simple and valid message that the City and govt need to listen to.

B. A. Eli

In honour of our school's International Day tomorrow Eli asked for his hair to be like B.A.'s and Daddy simply couldn't refuse the opportunity to have a go at doing it.

Eli's well chuffed with it!

Not sure what his teacher or the Principal might think of it, I guess it might have to disappear in time for Monday morning.

Neighbourhood Watch CNP Style

So often in life it is the same people who do everything and this is often met with criticism or complaint.  In the case of Chris Nissen Park we are always so thrilled to see men and women who are solid, full of Jesus Christ and committed to serving in their community taking on the roles.

It is so exciting to see again two of the HOPE Home Based Care team taking the lead in Chris Nissen in the fight against crime. All of these ladies are loved in the community and we are proud of them. In particular go Anne and go Aunty Poppy!!

Wristgate

I had my last appointment with the orthopaedic surgeon today and he was well pleased with my progress.

After just 4 months, yes 4 months! I have 99% of movement back. The scar is diminishing and the swelling is almost gone. The surgeon reckons it will be a while longer before it's all normal again but he's really happy with my progress.

I've been cycling again for the last three weeks and generally carrying on as if nothing happened and barely notice my wrist anymore.

Ernest Update

Thanks for all your prayers for Ernest!

Ernest was discharged from Hotties yesterday (Monday) and went home with his family. He was much stronger than he was on Sunday afternoon, sitting up, moving his arms and able to speak a little. Please continue to pray for healing for Ernest.

Ernest

My friend Ernest had a serious stroke during the night. His family are with him at the hospital and I'm just about to go and join them. Things aren't looking good for him so please pray for him.

Without Words

Here's To The Future!

As we said in our Macaasar Update post below "This year has been a real rollercoaster ride with some scary white knuckle moments!". Arguably the scariest of these whiteknuckle moments has been trying to sort out where we go after leaving Crosslinks at the end of the year. Many of you will be aware that we've been mission partners with Crosslinks for the last 12 years and earlier this year we mutually agreed to call it a day in our partnership. 1999 seems like a long time ago now and we've had many good times serving with Crosslinks in those years but often there comes a time when priorities and views diverge onto different paths and as such it's time to bid farewell to Crosslinks though we'll remain with them until the end of the year.

Bandana Day

It's Bandana Day in South Africa as we're all encouraged to wear bandanas with the Sunflower Fund logo on to raise awareness of leukaemia and the South African Bone Marrow Registry which exists to find and match bone marrow stem cell donors for patients who need a transplant, such as those with leukaemia and other life threatening blood disorders.

Macassar Update

Despite the silence on the blog things have been busy and lots of things have happened which we haven't blogged about as we needed to wait for confirmation etc. Some of our biggest news will follow in another post in the next day or so but we're very excited!

This year has been a real rollercoaster ride with some scary white knuckle moments!

Holiday Time

We've just had a fantastic break as we enjoyed our annual holiday. It seems to have become a bit of a tradition to go to Greyton but to be honest it suits us as a family as we've all had a great break.

Dean got to ride with his boys again which they all love and Paula got some well deserved peace and quiet with a good book and cup(s) of coffee.

One of the real joys of this holiday has to be the fact that we park the car on arrival and don't use it again until it's time to go home. Bliss!

Celebration

What a morning we had as we hosted a celebration in Macassar.

The celebration was exactly what it said on the tin.

It was such a privilege to be back in Macassar, even if it was for just one morning.

Celebration Build Up

We've had a great morning in Macassar giving out flyers for tomorrow's Celebration in the New Civic Centre. We were few in number but big in hear and gave out a few hundred leaflets, had many good conversations and managed to pray with one or two folk. We had a good time praying with a guy called Willem who admitted he's a drinker and asked for Jesus to help him stop.