Hurricane Katrina

Further to my earlier post about the hurricane, I came across another blog: Eye Of The Storm which has lots of amazing photographs of the carnage caused by the hurricane, this Blog is so worth looking at! The best thing about this and the other blog is that they're by normal people living with the hurricane rather than your 'Kate Adie' types who just dip in and out and don't know what it's really like to live in and through the situation.

This is a photo of a train thrown 200 yards by the hurricane, apparently, no-one knows whether or not it still contains any chemicals.

Face Painting

Today is Lytton's 2nd Birthday, so Dina asked John & Sophie if they would come into CNP and do some face painting. Sadly Lytton was too overwhelmed by the whole event to allow his face to be done, but the other kids really enjoyed it as you can see from the photos below.

Face Painting 2

Spickles (on the left) is one of Dina's grandchildren whilst Charlotte is Dina's youngest child.

Face Painting 3

Yet more faces to be painted. It seemed as if the kids would never stop coming!

Hurricane Katrina

I've read quite a bit about hurricane Katrina in the last few day, some good and some very poor. The worst was a supposed Christian website claiming that the hurricane is God's judgement on New Orleans. Where these people get this rubbish from is beyond me! If this really was God's judgement, then things would be significantly worst than they are right now! Read the book of Revelation for full details!

Football Voicemail Messages

I've just nicked these from another Blog which I stumbled across, they're quite amusing.

David James: "I'm not available right now so please leave ...damn, just dropped the phone..."

Wayne Rooney: "I'm at me gran's right now, leave a message I'll get back to you in 3 minutes

Harry Kewell - "Harry was on his way to the phone but has broken down after getting up out of his seat"

Sven G.E - "Hello Nancy, I forgot to set my alarm clock"

Bible Study

We've just had an excellent bible study, we were looking at the life of Elisha as a follow on from the life of Elijah last week. We had seven men plus John & myself which is our largest attendance so far. Ben joined us for the first time and Ernest came too (he doesn't normally like to come out in winter), it's also Ernest's birthday so John brought a cake along which went down well.

Joel On The Farm

Paula and Joel went to the farm in Weald with Joel's Godparents, Richard & Sal (Richard's family have been farmers for many years in the village) to see the animals and have a ride in a real tractor. Joel is just a little bit obsessed with tractors and 'scoops'. As well as riding the tractor and seeing the animals, Joel also watched the cows being milked which was very exciting for him.

Thank you so much Richard, Sal, Josh & Issac for taking Joel to the farm and for lending Joel so many toys whilst he's in the UK. You are such STARS!

Hope you all enjoy the photos below...

14 Days To Go...

Paula & Joel have been gone for a week now and I'm counting the days until their return. I know I shouldn't wish time away, but I'm really missing them!!!

Contrary to popular conception, there is no pile of washing up to be done, I haven't run out of mugs or teaspoons and I've only had one Pizza since being on my own! I am house trained and quite nifty in the domestic department when I put my mind to it, since I've been on my own the washing has all been done and there is only a small pile of ironing awaiting my attention. There's not much chance of me losing weight either as I seem to be cooking for two and then spreading the meal over 2 days - which is good.

Owl

Paula and I chatted on the internet last night (we've been using voice conferencing for almost 5 years, well before Skype) and Paula was telling me about a diaster involving Joel, a tube of toothpaste and Granddad's carpet, Oh Dear! Unfortunately this was followed up a bit later with poo - nice. It would appear from Joel's behaviour that he's missing Dad and dad is certainly missing Paula & Joel!!!

Nature Reserve

That wasn't the best weekend I've ever had, particularly being on my own for Sunday lunch, never mind. In the afternoon I went to the Nature Reserve armed with my camera and went on one of the longer walks (don't normally get a chance with Joel), the weather was stunning (very cold overnight) with cloudless skies and I took some lovely piccys, I hope you enjoy the ones below. 

Mixed Day

Dean has had a mixed day which started with a trip to the magistrates court to support Dina as Donovan appeared on two charges of assault. Unfortunately Dina was very angry and was complaining about ho so many people in CNP (especially our church members) were gossiping about her, however Dina proceeded to do exactly the same to the crowd of Rastas who were also there to support Donovan. Dina is so angry at the moment that she can't listen to reason, please pray for her as she said she is going to give up on church. This would be really sad and a real backward step in her life.

Billy No Mates

Paula was really fed up yesterday as Dina failed to make herself available despite the fact that she had agreed to meet Paula. Dean will try and catch up with Dina during the week. Please pray for Dina as she's really struggling with the situation at the moment and as a fairly young Christian she needs a lot of help in dealing with her emotions and how she handles other people. Pray too that Dean will catch up with Dina at some point this week.

Arrested!

As we said in our post on Tuesday 16th 'Interesting Afternoon', Dina's husband, Donovan has been arrested for allegedly assaulting two young men in CNP. Unfortunately, one of the alleged victims is the son of another church member; Aletta, who until this incident was good friends with Dina. Sadly, things are very tense between them now with Dina refusing to speak to Aletta. We really need you to join with us in prayer over this situation. We want to see Dina & Aletta maintain their friendship and to be able to support each other through this messy situation.

Table Mountain

We finally made it up Table Mountain on Sunday afternoon, we were on our way to Stellenbosch when we saw the the mountain was clear of cloud even though the weather was wet and cold. A quick detour home to get some waterproofs and we shot into Cape Town and up the mountain. There were very few people around which was great as it can get quite crowded on the top. Afterwards we decamped to the Mount Nelson for High Tea which was very civlillised, although Joel isn't quite ready for such activities!

Table Mountain

Paula & Joel in the cable car on our way up Table Mountain.

Cape Town

On Friday we arranged for Joel to be looked after and headed of to Cape Town. Unfortunately the cloud was hanging around Table Mountain so we weren't able to go up, but we managed to have some fun before heading off over Chapman's Peak to Simon's Town to see the penguins at Boulders Beach.

This photo is of Paula & Susannah in front of Table Mountain. As you can see the 'tablecloth' is obscuring the top of the mountain.

Hermanus

A delayed second part of the 'Cape Agulhas' post:

On our way home from Cape Agulhas we drove along the coast road to Hermanus in the hope of seeing some whales. There were a few in the bay but due to the grim weather they were quite a way out and certainly not performing for us. Never mind, we continued on the coast road and as we got to Gordon's Bay we saw several whales enjoying themselves and they were very close to the shore. As you can see from the photos below, we had a great view of the whales.

Cape Agulhas

We've just been to Cape Agulhas and then Hermanus with Susannah. When we arrived at Cape Agulhas the weather was truly appalling and the guy we got to take the photo of us nearly got blown off his feet, hence the lack of focus in the picture!

Interesting Afternoon

Dean had one of his more interesting afternoons in CNP today. Initially he took Tyrone and his mother to Hottentots Holland hospital and then returned to CNP for a meeting with the Social Worker from ACVV the Afrikaans Christian social service. Whilst Dean & Dina waited for the social worker Dina received news that her husband Donovan had been arrested. As the social worker was late we decided to go to the police station but passed the social worker on the way so had the meeting. This was a constructive session and although Dina has some issues with the social worker, she calmed down towards the end of the meeting and hopefully we can start working together a bit more.

CNP

Susannah went into Chris Nissen yesterday afternoon with Dean but unfortunately the weather was gross so they couldn't stay for very long. Susannah met Henna, mama Jane and Rosie who are members of Paula's cell and then had a brief guided tour of the community before being accosted by the kids to push them on the roundabout (see photo below). In the evening we went to Lorna's for an Indian which was very nice!