We were saddened to learn this morning that Aunty Poppy is again seriously ill and has been admitted to intensive care.She recently had a major heart attack and home life is very hectic and stressful for her.
Please pray for Aunty Poppy!
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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
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng -
Thankful Thursdays -
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HOPE Home Based Care Team -
Gathering Ground -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
It hardly seems possible but it's now less than 24 hours until we get on the plane for Blighty.I guess we're at that point where things that haven't been done aren't going to get done.
Thankfully our Roadshow presentation is all finished, though that hasn't stopped me from checking it every few minutes to make sure it still works. Must switch tablet off!
We've begun sending out invites for our forthcoming Roadshows in the UK.If you're near one of the venues on the dates above please drop in, we'd love to see you!
For more details Like us on our Facebook page where more details will be posted.
The 2013 Blogging From A to Z Challenge was a lot harder than last year, mainly because it crept up on me and I had failed to plan ahead so on the 30th March I found myself desperately looking for a theme and subjects for it. Will I never learn?!Sadly time was a real issue and I failed dismally in my attempts to spend time looking at other blogs. I managed to visit everyone that left a comment on a post but beyond that I probably only blog hopped on a two or three occasions.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First
and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
Revelation 22:13
Like the English Z, Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and a fitting way to sign off from this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge.
It's been a lot of fun for me and good to give the blog some long overdue attention.
Hope you've enjoyed it too!
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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
Sadly because we're still quite small and lacking in resources we're not able to offer them much. In fact we pretty much ignore the young adults amongst us. Not because we want to, far from it! We did ask a couple to lead our youth work but sadly personal issues have prevented them from getting involved and we're a bit stuck as a church.
So please pray for good solid folk who could take a lead in this for us.
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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
We don't have a xylophone at Tree of Life.In fact we have nothing that resembles a worship band in any way shape or form and yet we have some of the most liberating and meaningful worship I've ever experienced.
I remember several years ago when Matt Redman brought out his brilliant song The Heart of Worship and many churches responding by stripping their worship back to basics.
*Updated* Tree Of Life It's not a very good one but it's a start.
We're not very good at keeping it up to date but it's still a good starting point for finding out a bit more about the church and for contacting us.
Feel free to take a look.
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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
I've posted before on my favourite verse and it remains my favourite.John 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 the simplicity and the matter of factness about this verse. In this world you will have trouble. Not you might have trouble but you will have trouble. I always think of the verse when the age old discussion about why bad things happen to good people debate. Quite simply it's not about bad things happening to good people but rather just the simple fact that in this world you/we/me will have trouble. End of.
Unity is a word so often bounded around but with seemingly little meaning, and yet in the church context it's incredibly important.One of my joys in church life is marveling at how seemingly disparate groups of people can be brought together through genuine love.
I'm not aware of any other aspect of life that can bring the unlikeliest people together for the good of themselves and their communities. Local church is amazing!
At Tree of Life we have South Africans, Angolan and Brits amongst us which makes for a great sense of diversity and I believe this reflects the nature of heaven.
I'm not going to repeat last year's post on Tree of Life but rather talk about the joys of the leadership team.
We're very blessed to serve alongside Gerrit & Sharon and Chris & Veronica, two quality couples with huge hearts for Jesus and the community.
I love Sundays! When I first became a Christian many moons ago I loved church. The church I was involved with was a new plant so things were exciting and we were on the cutting edge of things.
Since then my love of church has waned to the absolute low of 2010.
Between 2004 and 2010 I used to joke that we lived in the most beautiful place on earth and had the worst church life possible. I guess it's true, for every action there's an equal and opposite re-action.
Our faith rests on this one fact; Jesus' resurrection from the dead. So much so that even Paul acknowledged in 1 Corinthians 15:14 that "if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith".So are we wasting our time?
I would argue that no we're not wasting our time.
John's gospel account of Jesus death is quite clear that when the Romans pierced Jesus' side blood and water flowed out. Anyone with a modicum of medical knowledge knows that in death blood and water separate. So we know that Jesus was dead. Also, he's been brutally attacked in his run up to the actual Crucifixion which would have helped to hasten his death.
So Q is for Queen Size, as in bed.
Being a Brit I fully understand why a king size bed is smaller than a queen size bed and the reason makes a lot of sense. Traditionally the king's bed was a place of business, it had a perfunctory role. The queen's bed however was used by her for luxuriating in and being pampered, hence the size difference.
I've always felt that Pilate got a bit of an unnecessarily unfair press for his role in Jesus' crucifixion.
Oom Paul is a great man!
At 86 there's not much in life he hasn't seen and having been married to Molly for a little over 60 years with loads of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren there isn't much he hasn't done.
I've had the privilege of sitting with Oom Paul on a few occasions and consider him to be my very own Nelson Mandela. I've never met Madiba and am highly unlikely to ever have the chance to, but sitting with someone like Oom Paul is just as great a privilege!
You can choose which name of God you like the most, for me I like Father.I had a dream through my childhood that one day I would live with my dad but I was robbed of this dream at 18. Thankfully shortly after my dad died I was introduced to my heavenly father and now my dream has been fulfilled more than I could ever have hoped for.
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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
I wrote a post on Macassar last year and rather than steal yet another post from last year's challenge I thought I'd have a go at writing something a bit different.
We still serve Tree of Life church in Macassar and spend a lot of our time in the community and we still love it! So in that regard nothing has changed and as a church we are still passionate about winning the community for Christ.
Tree of Life meets on Sundays at Macassar High school so it seems appropriate to focus on education in Macassar.
Education is generally a bit of a hot potato in South Africa and nowhere are the difficulties more pronounced than in Macassar.
L is for life and abundant life at that! John 10:10 "I came that they may have life and have it abundantly"L could also be for the person I'm blogging about and it could also be for Lady because she is a remarkable lady. I guess I should also count this post as part of my Heroes Of The Faith series.
L is an amazing lady! She has two sons, both at high school, she's a hairdresser and lives with her mother. all quite unremarkable, but that's one of the things I love about the true heroes in life.
Here's a question for all church leaders...Are you kingdom building or empire building?
Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God 116 times across the four gospels, so it was obviously an important part of his message. Much of what we do in church is about building and extending the kingdom for His glory. Sadly this sometimes goes awry.
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