Firewood

Once again I'm ridiculously excited to get our winter wood pile sorted.  The fact that they deliver & stack the wood is an added bonus.

Here we have 1000 pieces of bluegum, which should see us through winter quite nicely as they disappear in to the wood-burning stove, our only source of heating in the house.

Testimony Sunday

Why a Testimony Sunday?
Why give a Gathering over to hearing what people have to say?

Scripture is rich in God’s people sharing testimony of what God has done and what God is doing in the lives of His people.

The Futility Of War

This is one of the best books I have ever read, and on the subject of WWI it simply is the best I've ever read!

Arthur Gould Lee wrote the book based on letters he sent to his wife Gwyneth Ann, and diary entries he wrote whilst stationed in France in 1917 serving as a fighter pilot with the Royal Flying Corps (R.F.C.).

Subsequent to the war he was able to add in previously classified information and together this gives the book an amazingly in depth but humane account of what it was like to be on active service at that time.

Happy Easter!

I love the local church and I especially love the expression of church that we get to call home.

The Gathering was on fire this morning as we celebrated Christ's resurrection from the grave, a cold & hard historical fact.

The worship was awesome and it was a joy to share a word laid on my heart a few weeks ago about the three times Jesus spoke to his Father from the cross, as well as giving a clear gospel presentation for those that don't know Jesus yet. 

24 Hours In The Life Of

It was an all action night at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen last night.

Whilst the Soup Kitchen itself passed off peacefully as usual, thank you LORD! It was chaotic outside with one of the local youngsters getting herself run over causing the driver to crash in to a parked car.

Amazingly the ambulance actually turned up (they rarely do in these communities!) followed by a fire engine (why?!?) and eventually a traffic cop showed up too.

Blessings Abound

It was such a blessing to have Shaddie & Liza from My Father's House ministering to The Gathering this morning.

As ever Shaddie was on fire and was stirred to share a specific word with two different members of church as well as having a word based on Daniel 3 for The Gathering.

This word fit perfectly with what God has been saying about the purchase of the building and it really stirred the hearts and faith of all our members.

Church In Action

It was gutting to get a phone call late in the afternoon yesterday informing us that the home of some of our Soup Kitchen regulars had been on fire, with the household losing everything they had.

But it was also a blessing as the community knows that in such circumstances they can turn to the church for some genuine relief and assistance.

Winter Warmth

On days like this we're really thankful for our wood-burner and the heat it provides.

Winter is in full swing down here at present, and our wood-burning stove in the lounge is the only heating source we have in the entire house, so it's a joy to see the fire roaring inside it on days like today.

Blessings

Recently one of the families we gave a food hamper to suffered a catastrophic house fire and lost everything.

So it was good to be able to respond as a church and bless the family with another food hamper as well as some good quality clothes and some toys for their children which were donated by local Christian friends.

You have to love it when Christians stand together as the church and bless those in need.

Elisha's Bones

I was so fed up with this yesterday!

After a couple of days of non-stop rain I had checked the local weather forecast and it said the rain had finished, so I hung the washing out, only for the heavens to open and leave the washing saturated.

I was not amused!

There was no way I was going out in that to get the washing in again, and so most of it ended up on the airer being dried by last night's fire, so I guess I shouldn't grumble.

Then this morning, the storm has cleared and we are blessed with wonderful clear blue skies, and we now have two loads of washing out on the line drying, which means we're fully caught up with the washing load (let's not mention the ironing pile).

Juggling

Having written several other posts about things I love and am passionate about, here goes one on my love of juggling and why I've never stopped since a mate taught me to juggle in 1990. 

This post really came about as a result of all the admin and tidying up I've been doing on the blog lately. As I was going through stuff I was surprised to discover that I have only actually posted on Juggling once previously in the 16 years this blog has been going, which is quite amazing given that it's something I really enjoy and never really stop doing.

Fires Still Raging

It's sad to see that the fires are still burning on the Hotties and the fire crews still battling so hard to contain them. The wind is really not helping things!

This was the backdrop to Eli's weekly football coaching in the local park.  Thankfully Radloff Park is unscathed by the fires and the estates bordering it seem to have got off quite lightly too. As Joel and I were walking Rosie we saw no signs of the devastation we had been warned about.

Fire!

Three wild fires are raging locally between Sir Lowry's Pass and the Schapenberg which is right on our doorstep.

The emergency choppers have been out for most of the afternoon doing their best to douse the flames but the wind is really vicious and they have now been grounded.

The pic here is looking from outside our house up the Schapenberg and it really is looking bleak.

The Gathering's New Year's Braai 2015

We have been planning a braai for The Gathering on New Year’s Day for quite a while now but I don’t think any of us could have guessed just how significant today would be. The day dawned beautifully and quickly turned into the hottest, calmest day we have had in months – perfect for a braai. We had bought enough food to feed a small army, ordered a jumping castle for the children, tidied up the garden and had had a stern talking to Rosie dog to behave herself!!

What a day of fun we have had! One thing that is clear is that in a relatively short space of time we have grown into a family who love each other, like each other and who would do anything for one another – what a privilege! We haven’t heard so much laughter ringing out from our garden for a long time as children devised new ways to jump onto the jumping castle (yes really!); Ziggy fell out of the hammock(!) and the new Chairman of the Ministry of Eating was announced from amongst us!

Meanwhile, back in April...

In the midst of playing about with the A To Z Blogging Challenge we've neglected the regular side of the blog, but it's May now so here we go with normal service being resumed.

With the five day weekend over I have to admit to enjoying the blissful peace and quiet in the office, no kids running around, making a ton of noise and being exuberant. Thankfully it's only short lived as they'll be back after lunch but the brief respite is very very welcome!

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - M

M is for Macassar

Macassar 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...

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - J

J is for Juggling

One of my favourite things!
Juggling 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.

Helderberg On Fire - Yet Again!

The Helderberg is on fire again!

After the horrific fires of two years ago when just about everything on the Hottentots Holland mountains was burnt between Gordon's Bay and Jonkershoek we'd have hoped we might have learnt our lessons.  Apparently not!

Word locally is that the Erinvale estate had a 'controlled' fire earlier in the week and today's fire is a result of a flare up from the controlled fire. So much for controlled, if it's true.

Christmas Day

We had a fantastic family Christmas day despite it starting at some unearthly hour! Eventually Dean let Joel and Eli open their stockings at 4am in the hope that they would then go back to sleep. Job done by about 5am but not for long! At least they were excited.

Christmas dinner was fantastic as ever thanks to Lisa's great cooking (courtesy of Delia) and it was great to actually have a family Christmas dinner on Christmas day for the first time in three years.

Weekend

The last two weeks have been pretty much a write-off as far as I'm concerned as two weeks ago I had a bout of flu which by last Monday was over and I was starting to feel much better but then on Tuesday I got hit by something else and was feverish and in pain for most of the week. Thankfully this weekend was much more back to normal! I was really annoyed by this having got through winter with no illness to suddenly get walloped just as the season is changing. Not good!

The rest of the gang have been fine throughout, suffering only the vagaries of a very grumpy dad and husband but they seem to put up with me well.