The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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
Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng
Thankful Thursdays.JPG)
HOPE Home Based Care Team
Gathering Ground
Staying fit as a family
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Ever since the first drought we experienced here in the Cape back in 2004 I've kept a regular eye on the levels of Cape Town's dams. I like to note how much the levels have gone up or down and get a feel for what might be happening with the next round of water restrictions. Our latest drought began back in 2016 with a normally dry summer followed by a very dry winter, a pattern which repeated itself right up until winter 2020 when the local dams finally hit an average level of 100%.
A friend posted this one on FB the other day and it made me chuckle and reminded me just how much I love cartoons.
I love them in all their forms, from static one off jokes like this one, to Tom & Jerry whacking each other, each cartoon has so much to offer and I just love them.
If I had to nail down my favourites then Matt from the Daily Telegraph and Larson's The Far Side win along with almost anything by Warner Bros (but especially Pepé Le Pew) and Disney's full length cartoons, especially Treasure Planet, a completely underrated gem of a classic.
Tomorrow evening I have my second white collar boxing match in a rematch with my good friend Conrad.
Last time out we were the first fight on the bill, I don't think anyone took the two old guys too seriously, however we were declared the 'fight of the night' and so this time we're the last fight before the headline fight which is a charity match.
Just over two years ago when I decided to take up boxing I would never have thought I would actually step in a ring, but I have to say that it is a lot of fun and the sparring before hand leading up to it is brilliant.
I also can't think of a better way to get fit.
The stock speakers in my car were appallingly bad, so much so that the bass sounded like a cardboard box being hit with a wooden spoon, so something had to be done.
Having been quoted +/- R1400 I decided to have a go at doing the job myself. After a bit of research on YouTube on how to remove the door card and a few questions on a car forum, I set about the task and about an hour later I was very chuffed with myself.
And now the sound is WAY better than it was!
Life got a little hectic as we knew certain items would be banned from sale for the duration, and so many people went crazy with hoarding, and it wasn't just loo rolls!
Alongside doing the bulk of the donkey work in terms of collecting donations, I also get to do the fun bit of passing them on to those that are in need of them.
Over the last few weeks The Gathering has been blessed with just over 6 pallets of peanut sachets, with each pallet holding 72 boxes and each box containing 150 sachets. In total we've received about 450 boxes and as of today we have so far given 300 boxes away.
Further to my post a couple of days ago on Rejects Become Blessings, I've uncovered a little bit more of the story and I find it quite perplexing.
As I said in that post, some of the boxes we received were indeed rejected due to the odd leaky sachet, but the bulk of the boxes we received on Friday have been rejected for far stranger reasons.
Yesterday afternoon I was left feeling very deflated after once again running in to an unhelpful & unyielding branch of South African bureaucracy.
This morning I was blessed by the joy of borrowing a friends trailer and driving out to Muizenberg to collect 47 boxes of the peanut paste sachets that are so popular amongst our Soup Kitchen regulars.
It was pure joy and a real privilege to spend a few hours with my mate Shaddie this morning serving My Father's House as they prepare the food for their daily feeding programme providing for the most vulnerable members of the Simon's Town community and beyond.
I love what My Father's House are doing and their vision and motivation behind it all, so it's probably a good thing that we don't live any closer because I would invest more of my time in to their vision and work to the detriment of my main focus.
It's been a while since we were able to deliver any food parcels, so it was a joy to be able to package up just enough food today to be able to bless our HOPE Home Based Care ladies in Chris Nissen with a decent hamper each.
Despite the government recently easing our lockdown restrictions, life is still very tough for the poorest, so it was a privilege to be able to put a smile on the HOPE ladies faces as they received their hampers.
One of the joys of what we do is being able to collect donations, sort them and then send them out again to the right people/places to ensure they have the maximum impact.
So recently it was great to be in touch with a local who had several boxes of brand new flip-flops left over from a recently closed business enterprise. They were keen that the flip-flops were not sold but rather would go to people who need them and would appreciate them, which is where The Gathering comes in. Sadly some of the boxes were water damaged so we've had to bin the worst of the damaged flip-flops, but we were able to rescue seven boxes of 24 pairs to be given away. What a blessing!
Over the last few weeks we've seen some steady growth in the numbers coming for The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen as well as seeing some old regulars that were holed up in other places reemerging. And what we know from all of this is that the need for food is greater than ever!
So last night for the first time since our 21 day lockdown began almost a year ago, we used the 70lt pot, and we served over 150 cups and gave away thirty 1lt pots for folk to take home.
It's exciting to be serving so many, but it's heartbreaking that the need is so prevalent!
Normally this one in the month would be our quietest given that pensions and disability grants have just been paid, but such is the need in the current climate that we were far busier than we had expected.
What this confirms to us is what we already know; the need is very real and those that come for soup are genuinely grateful for the reliability of the Soup Kitchen.
South Africa's lockdown was eased a little on Monday which means life once again has some semblance of normality about it, whatever that is, and we could feel it in the community as things felt a little lighter than they have of late.
I'm excited today because I've begun to collect some detailed road maps of South Africa in preparation for Joel's 18th birthday road trip.
Joel & I are planning a 4X4 road trip around the whole of SA for his birthday so the planning can begin in earnest now.
Sadly, due to the pandemic and college dates for Joel we're having to delay the trip from March to his June/July break, but the advantage of that is that we'll have no major time constraints and can make it a bit of a more leisurely trip.
We can't wait!
It's a joy to be keeping fit and exercising together as a family and it's a joy to be a part of the CEY family, a gym with a difference.
This is a place where all are made to feel welcome, a place where we all remember where we came from and how poor we were when we started. There are no elitist attitudes and no space for the posers, and it's all the better for it.
Paula & Eli love the Crossfit whilst Dean & Joel are addicted to the Boxing and our bodies are loving the health benefits. It's win win in every way possible.
However, it is what it is and it was a joy to be able to gather freely, to worship without a mask and to share prayers and words of encouragement.
It was also a blessing to welcome a couple of new folk to join us online.
The Gathering will only grow from here.
Thank you LORD!
It's with a heavy heart that after the Christmas/summer break we have to reopen The Gathering online again.
Church life was really picking up towards the end of the year and we were seeing exciting stuff happening, but sadly with the new Covid variant being more virulent than before, we (along with every other church in SA) have had to close our doors on Sundays.
So, just as we did last time, The Gathering will be going back on to WhatsApp so that we can keep our gatherings in real time and open to contributions from members.
In the meantime we must pray that the virus is finally brought in to check so we can get back on with life.
I have three unicycles that I mix between, a 20", a 29" and a 36", each of which are quite different to each other with different purposes.
Eli also has his own 20" unicycle and I keep two other 20" unis in the garage for when folk fancy having a go at learning to ride.
The railing along the wall is part of the kit for teaching others to ride.
What a year it was! 2020 started with a bang as The Gathering set about getting its house in order in terms of being fully compliant with the terms of our Non Profit Organization registration, registering with SARS for tax compliancy, obtaining the relevant CCLI licenses to enable us to use music in church legally and a few other bits. The progress we made was quite amazing and we have now submitted three years worth of verified accounts and reports to the Dept of Social Development as part of our NPO compliance. We're still waiting on SARS, but given how slowly the wheels of bureaucracy turn here, Covid or not we'd probably still be waiting.
