Well that was a bizarre and frustrating 48 hours in which our beloved govt raised the ire of a large part of the population. Initially the Health Minister announced that walking dogs and going for a jog would be allowed during the lockdown. This made a lot of people happy and garnered much support for the lockdown. Then the Police Minister strongly contradicted him by making it very clear that neither activity would be allowed.-
The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering together -
The Gathering -
Baptisms at The Gathering -
Preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen -
Soup Kitchen Welcome To 2022 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 -
Staying fit as a family -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Well that was a bizarre and frustrating 48 hours in which our beloved govt raised the ire of a large part of the population. Initially the Health Minister announced that walking dogs and going for a jog would be allowed during the lockdown. This made a lot of people happy and garnered much support for the lockdown. Then the Police Minister strongly contradicted him by making it very clear that neither activity would be allowed.
We were given four days notice of the impending lockdown and that seems to have been the cue for action for the Zombie Domesday Preppers and their attendant madness. Despite pleas not to panic buy the shelves are stripped bare with very little available in any of the food shops.This morning Paula tried to buy stuff for our weekly Soup Kitchen and almost instantly regretted going anywhere near the shops. Thankfully we managed to scrape some bits together between us and so our last Soup Kitchen for a while will proceed. Thank you Lord!
It all leaves one feeling that April Fool's Day should be cancelled because no prank could possibly match up to the stupidity of what's going on out there right now.
This blog is long neglected now and I've been wondering about what to do with it. Should I shut it down? Should I just leave it as a souvenir of the last few years or should I delete it and move on to other things? Then with the lockdown being announced I thought I'd revive it for now and use it to keep a lockdown diary of sorts, so here goes... 
It is not and never has been my intention to lecture anyone on making changes in their lives, personal and physical changes are often an effort of immense self control and discipline, whilst spiritual or faith based changes are an effort of immense prayer and faith. Both are good and to be celebrated, especially the latter when we can give glory to God for new things and seasons.Exactly a year ago I found myself in a position of having to make some serious physical changes based on my health, though the changes would also require a lot of faith and prayer.
I may have said this once or twice before, but my greatest joy in ministry is raising others up and releasing them to fly in their own gifting.It was a joy yesterday to watch Precious open our worship and to hear Mongezi preach later in our Gathering.
But what I really loved was hearing another church member saying how they were blown away by the way Precious' opening tied in with the rest of our worship and Mongezi's word.
That's when you know the anointing is flowing.
Had circumstances been different and my brothers and I had been able to live with our dad I know he would have introduced us to boxing from a young age.Dad came from a notable line of amateur boxers in his hometown of Hawick in Scotland and even through the dark days of his illness he was always passionate about the sport.
So I'm quite chuffed with myself for having finally gotten around to taking up boxing, but I'm supper chuffed that Joel has now joined me and is also boxing at the same gym. That is a proud dad moment!
My health and fitness journey continues and I'm feeling very pleased with myself having lost 15kgs, gone down a couple of waist sizes and smashed my cholesterol down to a healthy 3.1. My blood pressure is absolutely normal and I'm enjoying the little things like not getting out of breath walking up a hill and generally having a lot more energy than I have had for a long time.It's taken a lot of hard work and dedication to not only keep going with the Boxing and Crossfit but to make the necessary lifestyle changes to back up the exercise.
I've always thought all diets are little more than fads and now I've demonstrated that by simply reducing portion size, reducing sugar and fat intake and balancing what I eat against my exercise plan anything is possible.
At The Gathering we've been trying to have a Baptism Gathering for a while now but the prolonged drought and lack of a suitable venue were problems. However, we finally managed to baptise seven of our members last night at Waterworld in the Strand (thanks Carl & Claire!).It was a great time of worship and celebration as each of those being baptised declared their faith in Jesus and the rest of the church rejoiced with them.
It was great to see The Gathering's Homework Club back up and running on Wednesday & Thursday this week, and it promises to be another great year.The kids were really buzzing about the restart with many of them hanging around The Gathering for a day or two prior to the restart and it was great to welcome so many familiar faces back and to meet a whole load of new ones..
The late start was due to it taking a while to find the right person to be our Facilitator, but once Marie was appointed the final admin went in to full swing to get everything ready, and it was so good to be back doing what we love.
I'm rather pleased with my training schedule over the last two weeks and I'm certainly feeling very good for it, not to mention the amount of weight I've lost. Let's just say that I'm under 15 stone for the first time in many years!I'm really enjoying my fitness journey and am having more fun than I could have hoped for and have a set of coaches who are so ready and willing to offer instruction, advice and help, they really do make my gym experience a class above any gym I've ever experienced before.
Thirty years ago today this beauty said "Yes!" when I asked her to marry me in Greenwich Park.It was to be another two and a half years before we got to tie the knot but it was worth every second of the wait! Not to mention how amazing life has been ever since.
I love you more than words could ever say!
I am the most blessed man on the planet.
As I said in a previous blog post, I knew that after 8 years of inactivity it was time to get fit again (hitting almost 103 kgs was quite motivational) and so I took up boxing and haven't looked back.So, for the first time ever I'm really enjoying the exercise. I used to like cycling but it was never this much fun and I never saw such dramatic changes in my body or general health.
Three weeks ago I committed to getting fit again and decided to give Boxing and Crossfit a go. This was no New Year's resolution, I don't do them, rather it was something that has been a long time coming. I knew that having given up cycling (yes I was very very fit back then and you can read my story here) I had to do something but wasn't sure what. Anyway, long story short and I'm now boxing twice a week and doing Crossfit once, and when Paula returns home I plan to box three times a week.
Having given up cycling about 8 years ago I knew I needed to get back in to a regular exercise programme, but until now had no idea as to what that would be given that enjoying it is very high on my list of priorities.Let me be honest, I find the regular gym mind numbingly boring and I'm always amused by the thought that some people get stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride a stationary bike. I think it's fair to say that regular gym is definitely not for me.
Following on from my post Unfolding Tragedy on Friday which I wrote about a gang related incident on Thursday evening in Firgrove, I felt prompted to change church on Sunday and rather than preach (I had a sermon on the I Am sayings of Christ all ready), The Gathering spent the morning praying for Firgrove and some of the issues affecting her right now.I set up four prayer stations (see the pic on the left) and gave a few pointers as to the kinds of things we needed to be praying about.
The Gathering responded magnificently and we had an amazing time together. Before we prayed at each station we sang a worship song as a prayer and then got busy interceding on behalf of the community.
Please pray for Firgrove and more specifically her children.Late last year we found out that two of The Gathering's Homework Club kids are leaders of rival gangs. Initially we found this quite amusing given the diminutive stature of said kids and the fact that they're only about 10 or 11 years old.
Rather than kicking off the New Year with some grand vision morning, we decided to do something a bit more practical that will help us throughout the year and will be a tremendous blessing at the end of the year.We're not against vision, far from it, but The Gathering's vision hasn't changed and our members are fully behind it, so rather let's move on in the things of God and see his Kingdom extended.
So this morning we looked at Psalm 103 and how David opens with a heart and spirit of praise, moves into thanking God for his benefits (blessings) and then lists them before returning to a heart & spirit of praise for our awesome God.
Thank you to all of you who contributed financially, in kind and prayerfully to The Gathering's Soup Kitchen Christmas Lunch, we really couldn't have done this without you.It was an amazing day and we feel tremendously privileged to have been a part of it and we hope & pray you're blessed too.
Thank you Lord!
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