*Update* Tree Of Life is now defunctT is for Tree Of Life
It is a complete privilege to be leading Tree Of Life and especially to be leading it with such a great bunch of guys!
-
Dean and Paula in Blighty, autumn 2025 -
Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering -
Our beloved Palace - FA Cup winners 2025 -
The Gathering -
Baptising in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit -
Leaders preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen -
Soup Kitchen Xmas lunch
-
Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng -
Thankful Thursdays -
.JPG)
HOPE Home Based Care Team -
Gathering Ground -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
S is for Spiloxene CapensisI've blogged about this flower a couple of times before here and here and still maintain that it's my all time favourite flower.
The Spiloxene Capensis is also known as the Painted Peacock Flower and is actually classed as a weed. I have to say it's a particularly stunning weed!
Q is for QuarrelsomeBefore I get myself into trouble let me state that my amazing wife is NOT a quarrelsome wife!
I've chosen Q for quarrelsome today to highlight some of my favourite verses in the bible, or perhaps I should be clearer and say that I'm highlighting some of the verses that I think are funny.
Proverbs 21 verse 19 is a great place to start: "Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." I love the humour of this one and so too did the psalmist as he put it in there twice, see 25:24!
Proverbs 27 verse 15 is also in there twice and is also quite amusing. "A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;"
P is for PhotoblogYou might not know, but we also have a photoblog. It's called Finnie's In Focus and can be found here.
I'm not as faithful at posting on it as I once was, due largely to the fact that my DSLR is very old and tired now and I rarely take it anywhere with me. I long to upgrade it but that remains a distant dream for now.
O is for ObrigadoObrigado means Thanks in Portuguese
I first heard this word in Zimbabwe when we were working with a street kid centre in Harare. A few of the kids were from Mozambique so we regularly heard Portuguese being spoken by them.
One of the things that amazed me was despite how tough life had been for them either at home or on the streets these kids were very well mannered, always thanking people whenever something was done for them. They could certainly have taught many others a lesson or two in good manners.
N is for NewsLike many, I'm more than a little addicted to the news and read as much as possible. I say read because I rarely watch the news these days because invariably when I do sit to watch it I've read more in depth about the top stories than I'm going to get from a newsreader's soundbite. When I do get to watch the news I'm guilty of watching that triumph of style over substance known as Sky News. Oh the shame!
M is for MacassarMacassar is the town in which we serve the local church with Tree Of Life Church. We've been involved in Macassar for just over three years and love it. Most of our white friends here in Somerset West are horrified at the thought of us going into Macassar and very few white South Africans would dare to tread in such a place. The reality however is quite refreshing.
A bit of history...
K is for Kids, more specifically, my kids!I love my kids, they truly are my pride and joy!
I'm blessed to have two great boys and even more blessed to have two boys who are so very very different. I believe the fact that they are so different is what makes them such good brothers and friends. They rarely compete with each other, they know what they're each good at and really support each other. They truly are a pleasure to be around.
J is for JugglingJuggling is great because it's really easy to learn and looks very cool, especially once you learn a few simple tricks.
I love to juggle with fire because people are easily impressed by this and I also love the diablo as again the basics are very easy and even the simplest tricks can wow an audience.
H is for HokkieHere we are in 21st Century and still millions of South Africans live in hokkies or shacks. The root of Hokkie comes from the Afrikaans word hokkie which means kennel. So what we're saying here is that millions of South Africans live in what is often just a kennel and to be honest when I look at my dog's kennel I'm reminded that millions of South Africans live in a far worse off manner than she does.
Whilst blogging about my passions I seem to have had a few rants so here is a post dedicated to something I despise with a passion. I promise to be more positive for H!
Guinea fowl are the spawn of satan!
If you're one of those weird nut jobs that likes them I pity you.
My loathing of these hideous creatures stems from our time in Zimbabwe. Harry our landlord kept guinea fowl along with chickens and turkeys, each of which had the ability to be annoying. However, the guinea fowl took the prize for winding me up.
Family is one of my biggest passions!There is nothing I wouldn't do for my family, I'd walk a million miles to help them out and protect them.
One of my frustrations with family is the perception that you cannot be a family until you have children. The church is particularly bad for this. We struggled with childlessness for 11½ years and so often in that time we were made to feel like we weren't a family simply because we didn't have children.
One of my passions is eating out which thankfully is shared by my amazing wife. We especially enjoy eating at a decent restaurant and our favourite local is Taste run by good friends Anton and ED, if you're in the area you must go!
As you may have noticed I'm using the Blogging From A To Z Challenge to blog about the things that I am passionate about.One of my biggest passions is discipleship in the local church. In a secular sense we're talking about mentoring which basically means getting alongside folk and helping them to make positive choices in their lives and walking the walk with them through those choices. In the local church context it means doing just this but also helping them to know Jesus better by helping them grow in their faith and getting to know and understand the bible.
C has to be for Crystal Palace!
My beloved football team.
One of the things I love when the England football team play is that for a while every English football fan gets to understand something of what it's like to be a Palace fan. The England team is full of potential and is not short on talent, they are capable of winning every game they play and yet they so often fail leaving the fans disappointed yet again.
B is for Bikes.My bikes are important to me as I'm passionate about cycling and I'm really proud to have passed on a love of cycling to my boys.
I have to admit to not being sure how this happened but between the three of us we have six bikes, a trail-a-bike, a few frames and a mountain of spare parts lying around the place. I guess we ought to think about sorting it out and getting rid of a few bits but if truth be told we won't and the collection will just increase.
To start at the beginning is always a good thing and so here we are on April the first blogging the letter 'A'.A is for A to Z Challenge.
For a bit more info on what this is about check out the website or go to the Facebook page.
I've decided to blog about the things that are dear to me so most of my friends will know what the letter C will be about, the rest of you will have to wait until the 3rd.
We've just been really blessed with 3 days away on Farmer Koos's farm in Montagu with Grandad and Lesley.It was great to have some time out away from the usual stresses and strains of daily life and just chill in the middle of nowhere free from the shackles of modern technology.
The best bit of all though is seeing the boys roaming freely and safely on the farm, often accompanied by a pack of dogs and getting up to all kinds of mischief. It really is pure pleasure to watch them chill!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
