Chatting

Some of the CNP menfolk stopping for a chat on their way home from work. Thankfully unemployment within the community is quite low.

Playground

Kids playing in CNP. The swings are still holding out and the kids are having a ball enjoying a sunny break from the rain.

Scrapyard

Many folk in CNP seem to turn their gardens into scrap yards. This household has 3 wrecks in the garden and they're trying desperately to get one car working so they can go into business.

Live8

We've recently been asked what we think about Geldof's Live8 and the general issue of Africa, Aid & Debt Relief. These are huge areas and brief answers will always be inadequate. However, we will try to respond as briefly as possible.

Firstly, anything which moves this glorious continent toward debt free existence should not be knocked gratuitously, after all, Africa really needs all the help she can get. We fully support the principals of the 'Make Poverty History' campaign and are pleased to see Gordon Brown doing so much to champion African poverty. Equally however, Africa cannot be generalised about, especially in terms of development as the continent is huge and incredibly diverse. If you've not travelled to more than a handful of countries you can never fully grasp the diversity of this beautiful land!

Dean's Week

Dean's week was generally good, but unfortunately he was told on Thursday that he could no longer use the containers in CNP for his Men's Bible Study group. The reason given was that the key will "..never be given to one of Dina's friends." Oh dear! The petty mind games have begun again. Thankfully Dina has risen above this and is not bothered, but the men in the group are absolutely livid. Cyril went to see the person who made the comment and got a few things off his chest (well done that man!).

It Wasn't Me

Joel had a bit of a disaster at lunchtime... he discovered a pot of Sudocrem and spent quite a while in his bedroom massaging it into his scalp as well as the carpet and on the door. We tried really hard to wash it out but unfortunately the cream is waterproof and after using a whole bottle of washing-up liquid we had to resort to some fairly drastic action...

Drastic Action

As you can see, drastic actions lead to drastic consequences! Thankfully Joel has a lovely smile to compensate for the 'knuckle dragger' hairstyle. If only it was as easy to get the carpet clean.

A Day In A Million!

Thursday morning marked a one-off highlight for Paula and her mum's and grannies cell group! They all went off to the Spur (equivalent of UK Aberdeen Angus steak houses) for coffee and dessert courtesy of a wonderful gift from 2 very special people in the UK (thank you, thank you!). It was a tearjerker as 4 of us drove in to Chris Nissen to collect the ladies and children. All 15 of them were there eagerly waiting, dressed up to the nines, some even with new hair do's and everyone else wondering where they were going!!

Praying The Future

As you might have seen from the posts below we've just had Mary (our Pastoral Director) from Crosslinks stay with us for a few days. Mary's visit was a great time, as we were able to take some time out to visit some of the sites such as Cape Town, the penguins at Simon's Town and drive over Chapman's Peak. We really enjoyed her visit and it was great to have a Crosslinks visit at a time when there is no crisis (present or looming) which need sorting as was the case in Zim when Andy Lines visited!

Panorama

Panoramic view of Hout Bay seen from the road on Chapman's Peak

Chapman's Peak

Paula & Mary standing in front of Hout Bay as seen from Chapman's Peak.

Cape Town

Paula & Mary in Cape Town. Unfortunately Table Mountain was covered in cloud so we were unable to go up, however we had a great time walking around the Waterfront and then going on for a drive over Chapman's Peak.

Emyezweni

Here are some photos of Emyezweni taken on Monday morning when we popped in briefly with Mary. Crosslinks are considering the possibility of SMILE teams coming and serving at Helderberg Christian Church and Emyezweni would be an excellent place for SMILE'rs to serve.

To see more photos and learn more about Emyezweni visit Deb's SA News

Nature Reserve

Dean, Paula, Joel & Mary in Helderberg Nature Reserve. We had a lovely afternoon walking around with Joel as he chased some Bok and discovered a tortoise.

Father's Day

Joel & Dad on Father's Day.

Excited By Penguins

Joel was enthralled by the penguins and made sure that he pointed out each penguin that he saw, as you could imagine we were viewing penguins for quite a while!

Exploring The Beach

Not really sunbathing weather, but this didn't stop Joel from looking for a close encounter with the penguins. Sadly, there were none on the beach today.

Mary, Paula & Joel.

We've posted a similar picture before with our dear friends from Zimbabwe. This really is an amazing experience to get so close to the penguins.

Enjoying The View

What a stunning view! Even Joel made time to stand and enjoy it.

Pesky Penguins!

We thought this was quite amusing.

A Day Of Contrasts

Dean went to Patrick's funeral in Chris Nissen Park this morning. It was a moving service conducted by Donald, one of the community leaders. He did an excellent job and Francois our lead elder at church gave a short preach. This was great and has really helped our witness in the community. Patrick's family were deeply upset, but again Aunty Kuku barely registered any kind of emotion, we are really concerned for her.