Another Reason Why We Love Africa!

Our washing machine broke recently, the door latch snapped, but given that the machine is 10 years old one can't really complain too much. In the UK this would have meant buying a new machine for sure, but Africa is the continent of the 'Fundi'. Dean popped out to a local appliance shop and bought a replacement door latch for the princely sum of R20 (less than £2), and fitted it to the old machine in under 5 minutes & Bob's your uncle, the machine is fixed!.

Bien Donné Expo 2005

This morning we went to the Bien Donné Expo which was basically an agricultural show with loads of tractors and stuff. Needless to say Joel was in 7th heaven seeing somany tractors, 'Scoops', quad bikes and other machinery. The whole event was very much a 'redneck' affair geared up for the Afrikaans farming community. Anyway, we all had fun and the stall holders were incredibly tolerant of the kids climbing all over the machinery, thankfully Afrikaaners do tend to be quite family oriented. Part of the reason for going was that Matthew's dad works for Toyota SA and they had a stand selling their forklift trucks.

A Good Laugh

Last night we went with a crowd of friends to a local pizza place which has a live band on Thursday evenings, the night was quite raucous and we all had a really good laugh (invariably at someone else's expense). During the evening we managed to get John (one of our FYP volunteers) on stage to sing 'Stand by me', poor lad only got up to go to toilet! Just as he thought he's finished, Sophie (John's wife) was also dragged up on stage, much to her embarrassment to sing 'The Lion sleeps tonight'. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Adoption update

Unfortunately, the birth mother of the little baby we were hoping to adopt refused to sign the adoption papers on Tuesday when ACVV accompanied her and her grandmother to court. As a result, we have told ACVV that we are withdrawing as potential adoptive parents from this situation. Naturally we were very disappointed and can't understand what happened between Friday, when she was happy to go and sign on her own and Tuesday. However, we had been praying for clear leading and you can't really get clearer than that!!

Adoption

We've deliberately taken some time before posting any news about the adoption as things have been a bit rocky and uncertain. However, that doesn't mean that everything is straightforward right now, because things are still tentative. We do need your prayers so want to let you know what's happening.

Another Week In CNP

We've had a really good weekend topped off this afternoon by spending a few hours at the seaside followed by fish & chips on the beach watching the sunset over Table Mountain. Joel had a ball and was getting really brave, wading through the breaking waves.

Here goes with an update on CNP..

On This Day In History..

Actually, in this week in history... and what a historical week it is.

Firstly Rosa Parks died, if you don't know who she was, where have you been? Rosa historically refused to give up her seat on a bus in America, allegedly the conversation was as follows:
"Are you going to stand up?" the bus driver, James Blake, asked.
"No," she answered.
"Well, by God," the driver replied, "I'm going to have you arrested."
"You may do that," Mrs Parks responded.

The rest as you might say, is history!

Rosa Parks 04.02.12 - 25.10.05

Court, Fostering & Reconciliation

Monday started with Dean taking Michael to the courthouse to get some legal advice as he's been served with a summons to appear on the 16th November in relation to his tenure in CNP. Basically, the house belongs to his father (Douglas) who wants Michael & Joyce out. Unfortunately for Michael, his father has enlisted both legal aid and the ANC so he has a very strong team, plus the fact that legally he is the householder. However, Dean believes that Michael has a strong moral argument for remaining in the house as his father is a danger to himself when left to his own devices.

Rollercoaster

We seem to have been on a constant rollercoaster since Wed last week when the ACVV called us. We've spent some time out praying together this afternoon (friends looked after Joel, or rather, he showed them around the Nature Reserve!) which has been immensely helpful. We've also talked a lot about the implications of fostering a child (initially) and the impact this will have on our family life, whether we resolved anything is another matter, but at least we talked and prayed!

Dean had Joel on his own again this morning whilst Paula had a bit of 'me' time although as ever work encroached, with Paula putting in a brief appearance at the church building for a Peer Education event. nevertheless, we all benefited from our various activities. Dean & Joel were building Duplo towers which were taller than Dean, whilst Joel simply enjoyed knocking them down!

Adoption & Fostering

On Wednesday we were approached by the ACVV (local Afrikaans Christian Social Service) to enquire whether or not we're still interested in adoption. This is something we feel passionately about and long to do. We had made a few enquiries about this since we've been here but each time the door seems to have closed firmly on us. So to be approached by a local agency is quite exciting (and a little bit scarey!). Basically they have asked us to consider a long term fostering arrangement with a possibility of adoption (but no guarantee) of a 3 month old boy. Obviously this would have huge impact on us as a family but also on our ministry here (in more ways than would be immediately obvious but we can't unpack that just now).

Weekend

We've had a really good weekend, on Saturday we went to Hermanus in the morning but sadly there were only a couple of whales and they were way off in the distance. That will probably be our last attempt this year to whale watch. We still had good fun with Joel who enjoyed clambering over the rocks and attempting to chase the dassies. In the evening we we went out to a Thai restaurant with our new friends Richard & Felicity, we such a good evening.

Missionary Friends

Some friends of ours in Thailand sent us a description of their weekend which included a visit to a Bhuddist temple. They described the situation well and included a couple of good photos.

MA

I've just been to Pretoria for three days as part of my Masters Degree with UNISA (University of South Africa). For those of you who don't know I'm doing a Masters in 'Social Behaviour in HIV/AIDS' with the school of sociology. The whole year with UNISA has been a bit disastrous with very poor communication being at the heart of the problem.

Monica

This morning we had a visit from Monica Brooks from Cheadle. Monica is currently on holiday in the Cape and took time out to join us for the morning, so we went to Chris Nissen to meet a few folk. As ever we were really well received and those who met Monica really enjoyed their time with her.

Hopefully Monica had a good time too. After lunch we took Monica back to her hotel in Cape Town and Paula went off on her own for a while whilst Dean & Joel went to the aquarium.

Weekend & Bits

Dean attended a Cape Elders meeting on Thursday to listen to Michael Eaton speak. Wow! what a privilege to hear someone of Michael’s calibre speaking, particularly in a leadership context. Michael has been at HCC all week conducting a series of evening meetings and this has been excellent, he must be one of the best biblical expositors alive today!

Notorious Typos

Sean posted these on his Blog Primal Subversion, we hope you enjoy them.

Notorious Typos

Here are a few publishing blunders from various editions of scripture...

* Blessed are the place-makers, Matthew 5:9. (instead of "peacemakers")

* Thou shalt commit adultery, Exodus 20:14. (omitted "not")

Frustrations

Paula drove down to Chris Nissen tonight to lead the memorial service for Anna (after last week's postponement) only to find that Aunty Blaby wasn't there and Dina had forgotten that she was coming! This is extremely common, but really frustrating. Not only is it physically annoying ie: in terms of wasted time, energy and petrol, it doesn't do the community any good either. We are assuming that there has been a circumstance beyond our control, but more likely, Aunty Blaby is grieving very deeply and just can't handle any more attention. Please pray that either one of us will be able to see her soon and help her with the process. Paula would also dearly love to share the message she has for people at this memorial, so please pray for an opportunity in the not too distant future, next week would be ideal for this.

Missionary Blogs

Our Blog was recently picked up by someone who runs a site called Missionary-Blogs.com. This is a great site for finding out what others are doing around the world. We've had a brief look through and there appear to be some great Christian Blogs out there.

On their Blog Watch page there are a few snippets of some recently posted Blogs. Please take a look and see how God's name is being glorified around the world.

Katrina

The media appear to have lost interest in Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath and with Rita not providing the expected (and even desired?) news stories the people impacted by these disasters are left to get on with life.

We said a while ago that we would try and find some info from local churches about what is going on and how we can best pray for those affected by the hurricanes. We eventually looked at the Willow Creek website (looking for something totally unconnected) and found the following information:

Birthday Braai

As we said in the post below, it was Dean's Birthday on Sunday and in the afternoon we had a braai with some friends. We hope you enjoy the photos of the kids playing together.


Caleb, Michelle, Joel & Matthew enjoying the food.

Life And Death

Saturday morning was another emotionally charged occasion for Paula as she went to support Anna's family at her funeral in CNP. It was a beautiful, fitting and simple service. Her little house was crammed full with friends and family leaving just enough room for the coffin. We sang our hearts out and the preacher spoke brilliantly about making sure your name is in the Book of Life (or at least that's what Paula gleaned from her limited Afrikaans!). Funnily enough, that is exactly what she has prepared to speak about on Tuesday at Anna's memorial service!