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The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering together
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Baptisms at The Gathering
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The Gathering's Soup Kitchen in action during the coronavirus
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Soup Kitchen Welcome To 2022 lunch
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng
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Thankful Thursdays
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HOPE Home Based Care Team
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Gathering Ground
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Staying fit as a family
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The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Well Done Lads!
Good To Be Back
This morning has been largely about getting a few of my UK purchases up and running which will hopefully make church and especially our Homework Club run a little better.
Flexibility

Maths@Home

From Precious being trained in the role of Facilitator just days before we started to our opening day with a ton of teething issues, to kids finding their feet and getting cheeky, it's all been good.
We had a very helpful visit on Monday from some of the Green Shoots team, they loved what they saw and gave some very positive feedback and suggestions which we're now working on.
We also decided to change the times of our Friday sessions because all the local schools finish at 1pm. So I had the joy of visiting each family and took the opportunity to find out how the parents and grandparents feel about the Homework Club. Well the response was overwhelming!
O Is For Outreach
The gathering has been running a Homework club for a few years now and it was an effective programme in terms of assisting local kids with their mathematics and seeing their grades rising across all subjects. Most teachers and educationalists will readily admit that when a pupil is confident in Maths it generally reflects on the rest of their schooling, so it has been great to be helping some of the local kids. It was also an effective piece of outreach in that it allowed us regular contact with their families and we loved serving the community in this way.
Lockdown Reflection
School Assembly

Paula put a proposal to the school about them getting involved in our Christmas outreach by providing pizza for everyone at the kitchen and gift boxes for the children that attend.
The school have responded brilliantly and after Paula spoke so well (with the PowerPoint slides) at the assembly this morning, the Student Council are meeting later today to sort out exactly how the students will respond.
Keep Taking The Tablets
With Precious confirming that she wants to be our facilitator it's all feeling very real and very exciting.
Soup Kitchen Xmas Lunch Photos
So here are the official photos of The Gathering's annual Soup Kitchen Xmas Lunch. You can see the full album here.
We had such an amazing day together with church and our volunteers and the lunch itself was an amazing time of serving and blessing our many friends who come to our weekly Soup Kitchen every Thursday.
Thank you to all our volunteers and contributors, you made the day very special indeed!
Soup Kitchen Comes Home
Once the Soup Kitchen began there was a lovely vibe and because most folk were able to sit in the same room as we were serving the soup it led to a few conversations that previously we would have missed out on. Hopefully that side of things will grow and opportunities to minister will increase.
As an end of term treat Eli's school had iced a load of cookies and they went down a storm with young and old alike!
Just before we began serving, some local decided to become the police and started shouting at the kids because they were being a bit lively, though he soon got the message that we're not a religious bunch who demand silence. LOL!
The Gathering's New Home
Now a lot of hard work begins before our first Gathering in our new home on the 2nd of July. I've spent about an hour compiling a long list of jobs and now I need to get a timetable together so we have a plan of action to get it all done in time.

One of the more ridiculous bits of advice was that: 'you won't need to open in summer because no one wants soup when it's hot'. Well today was the hottest day of summer so far with the temperature indoors hitting 34°C and yet we served 50 people and our soup was all gone in fifteen minutes.
Busy Week Done

The glass tinting works a dream and offers us a degree of privacy which is essential for our Homework Club, but it doesn't completely shut the outside world out. It was also a fraction of the cost of blinds.
Sad And Frustrated

Frustrating because it was of a theme that keeps rearing its ugly head, and sad because we the church are responsible.
Soup Kitchen
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.
Tekkie Walk

The walk was brilliantly organised with one person being given a ribbon (for each stop sign) and the responsibility of praying for whichever topic they had been given. Then before moving on to the next street, they tied the ribbon to the stop sign.
Before & After
It's been quite a journey getting to this point but we're thankful for all the blessings that made this possible, and to our guys at The Gathering who worked so hard to prepare the space ready for the installation. I also enjoyed sorting the plumbing and electrics, it felt like old times doing that stuff again.
Adopted Son
I've had a fantastic time, reconnected with many good friends, and spent time with school mates I hadn't seen in 35 years. I had the privilege of spending time with some truly inspiring fellow pastors & ministers and can't believe that a few of them even let me preach in their churches (I'm sure one day I'll be found out 😂 ).
But the greatest joy has been spending time with family, and this last week has been special as I've never spent so long with Paula's sister & brother-in-law on my own before. All I can say is that my love and respect for Lisa & Stephen grows exponentially each time I see them and realise just how much they quietly get on with as they serve and support others around them. I really love you both! XX
The Gathering's Next Home...
Following our prayerletter which we sent out yesterday and which can be read here, we want to explain a little more, give a bit more info to the background and answer a few questions...
At The Gathering we have never wanted a building for the sake of having a building, rather, we have always wanted a venue from which we can serve the local community from Monday to Saturday with Sunday Gatherings being merely the cherry on the cake.
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