Home At Last

Just a quick update regarding Dean's Lesotho trip... after 12 hours of driving Dean arrived home 24 hours earlier than expected which was a really pleasant surprise for Paula and the boys, especially Joel!

In short, about 400 people were saved in Maseru and countless others were healed. We saw a massive out pouring of God's grace and healing in the city and are in awe of His saving power!

We'll post more later with some photos (Dean took about 650!) but for now bed is calling!

City Of Joy

I'm here in Maseru, Lesotho as part of a team of 100 helping to plant the City of Joy Community Church in Maseru. As Paula said below there are about 100 folk from 11 different churches around South Africa and the UK as well as a small core of people who will be the basis of the church. It is such an amazing privilege to be a part of this event and we are seeing God moving in the most amazing ways! We've seen a large number of salvations so far and lots of miraculous healings. It is so good to know that we do indeed serve the one true living God!

On the way into town this morning we stopped to pray for a man who had collapsed at the side of the road. He was definitely healed and then gave his life to Jesus as we prayed for him! We then took him back to the SU centre for some food. What an awesome privilege to be involved in this man's salvation.

Whilst The Cat's Away!

I thank God for our boys... it is as if they fully understand that mummy can't do everything!! They are both being absolutely fantastic whilst Dean is away. Joel in particular, is being a little angel - thanks for your prayers. He does, of course, miss Dean and asks for him everyday, but he is being very good for me. Tonight was a classic as I stood on a chair in his room to put up his black out material and I heard a little voice behind me - don't fall off mummy! OK I will remember that advice, thank you!

Please keep praying. After a long journey and a tyre blow out whilst Dean was driving, the team arrived in Lesotho safe and well. There are about 100 people from 11 churches in South Africa helping out. Dean says it is very exciting and that no one in Maseru can fail to know about the new church starting on Sunday. The evening meetings start on Thursday, so do pray.

CNP Update

This last week has been very emotional and stressful in CNP, not least because we've been working hard to try and resolve Michael & Joyce's housing situation. Well, Praise God! we've managed to get a wendy house for them. We can take no credit for this as Michael actually rang a local Christian radio station to tell them of his plight and an elderly couple called in to say they had a wendy house and they were willing to halve their asking price which amounted to the sum we had raised! So Thank You to those of you who helped!

Family Weekend

We had a really good long Easter weekend which started with spending the morning at Spier vineyard, they have an excellent play garden for children and do lovely picnics, they also have a small Cheetah reserve which was a treat. 

Evelyn

Dean & Joel popped into CNP briefly this afternoon, mainly to catch up with Michael but also to see Dina. Remarkably as we discussed this at lunchtime, Paula suggested I take Joel to see M.i.c.h.a.e.l to which Joel immediately said: "I see Michael", how did he know that was the name we were spelling out? Never mind!

Easter & Other Bits

He is risen!

He is risen indeed!

Easter is such an amazing time in the Christian calendar as it marks the time in which Christ was murdered but then triumphantly rose from the dead (after giving the devil a good kicking for 3 days in Hades!). Wow what an awesome God we serve!

Gospel Of Judas

There is much debate, speculation and misinformation circulating about the so called "Gospel of Judas", so rather than try to set out our stall in terms of how it does or does not impact on our faith and the Bible as we know it, We'll direct you to the Blog of Ben Witherington who has written some excellent and eminently readable stuff on this whole controversy. In fact, read his whole Blog, it's all really good stuff!

Suffice to say that we agree with Ben's view.

Michael's House

As promised yesterday we're posting photos of the shack that Michael & Joyce are forced to live in (hopefully) temporarily. The first thing to say is that if we had a dog, we wouldn't let it live in these conditions! No-one should have to tolerate this and yet for many in Chris Nissen this is sadly the norm.

The shack seen from the front

Chris Nissen Park Update

Dean visited Michael & Joyce this afternoon in their 'shack' and was appalled by the conditions they've been reduced to living in. When it rains their bed gets soaked, and they have to pay for the privilege!! Tomorrow Dean will take some photos of the shack so you can see just how awful their living conditions are! Michael is trying to remain faithful and believe that God is going to provide his family with some permanent accommodation but he's really struggling and cries himself to sleep at night.

Bloemfontein Zoo

We spent the day after the conference in Bloem and took Eli to meet the social workers who had facilitated his adoption at that end. They were delighted to meet Eli and will pass on some photos we left to the birth mother. This also closes that stage of the adoption and will be the last time we meet with the organisation in Bloem.

We then spent the afternoon in the zoo before flying back to Cape Town in the evening. Joel really enjoyed himself in the zoo, especially chasing the Cape Ground Squirrel which was incredibly tame.

Adoption

Eli is legally our son!!!!!

We met with our social worker this afternoon who handed us the final adoption court order. The accompanying letter states quite clearly that: "According to the provisions of the Child Care Act 1983 (Act No. 74 of 1984), your adopted child is now regarded as if born to you."

WOW! PRAISE GOD!!!!!!!!!!

Michael's House - Update

For the last few days Dean has been trying to help Michael sort out some alternative accommodation given that he and Joyce have been evicted from his father’s house and must leave there by midday on the 31st of March. The last two days have been particularly frustrating as we simply don’t have enough money between us to buy a ‘wendy house’ (we underestimated the full cost by half) despite some very generous gifts from some of you.

Action In Chris Nissen Park

Further to our post on 9th Feb (Action In CNP) about a meeting Dean went to with Dina, Mama Jane & Shirley at the municipality to talk about the potential of them installing a netball court and assisting with the finance of the community garden, we can follow up with the proof of good news.

The municipality has at last acted in CNP and the netball court has been laid and marked out. Now we are just waiting for the posts, nets & balls to be delivered and then the ladies will start to compete properly.

Islam - A Peaceful Religion?

So Islam is a peaceful religion?

I can't imagine the Afghan who converted to Christianity (Abdul Rahman) was feeling very peaceful about the mass response towards him from other Muslims, given that most believed that he should be put to death. Indeed, Sharia law dictates that he should be put to death!

See the BBC new website for details:

Afghan Christian (search results)

Table Mountain

On Saturday we eventually had our much delayed trip up Table Mountain for our respective cell and Bible study groups. The weather was perfect, not a cloud in sight and no wind. We spent about 2 hours at the top and everybody appeared to have a great time. Only 2 or 3 folk had previously been up Table Mountain which made the occassion all the more special for everyone. The cable car was particulalry amusing for those who hadn't been before, especially once it started rotating after it had begun its ascent.

Frontier Year Project

We have a great tradition of FYP volunteers coming through the church here and at present we have two young ladies from the UK. They're doing a variety of stuff including visiting in CNP on Monday & Friday afternoons which is a real help.

Sarah has started her own Blog about her experiences including some insights on Chris Nissen, you can see her Blog by clicking HERE.

Birthday Weekend

Joel had a lot of fun over the weekend celebrating his Birthday. The party on Saturday was great and all the kids had a lot of fun, even the parents seem to enjoy it and they all commented very positively on how we had structured and organised the event. Joel's friends were incredibly generous with the presents they gave him, we were quite stunned at some of the stuff and Joel was delighted with his new favourite toys.

On Sunday we celebrated his Birthday proper and opened a few presents before church, followed by lunch out and more presents on our return. The definite favourite is the Duplo dragon from Eli, Joel hates to put it down.

Enjoy the photos below:

Michael's House

We wrote recently about Michael & Joyce being evicted from the home they share with Michael's father. The eviction date is March 31st which is looming very closely now.

In our last post about this situation we mentioned the possibility of you helping us to provide Michael & Joyce with somewhere to live. We are currently looking at 'Wendy Houses' which are basically large garden sheds with 2 or 3 rooms in them. These 'houses' sell for around R4500 (£450). We currently have approximately £200 and need to raise the balance as soon as possible.

If you would like to help (no amount is too small!) please email us or leave a comment on this post and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.

Thanks in anticipation of your help!

Fighting

Paula went in to Chris Nissen tonight to meet with Dina and some new women for tea and fellowship. She had also been invited to look in on the building of the new netball court and to meet the new team of girls and pray for them. Just as they were walking down to the site Dina disappeared like a shot and Paula realised that Sandra, the community leader was heading straight for her full of aggression. She immediately started her accusations about Dina and the fact that she didn't know about the project etc.etc. Thankfully, Shirley, the new leader of the netball team was with Paula and Paula managed to get Sandra to direct all her accusations at her.

Family Update

Where to begin since we last posted? So much seems to get crammed into a week leaving little time to worry about Blogging, so we're sorry if you're feeling out of touch. As well as this post, we've also just posted some photos on our photoblog: Finnie's in Focus.

Family wise we're generally OK although Joel has a really bad cold right now and Eli is showing signs of picking it up. Joel had to miss church yesterday which wasn't much fun, but he's managed to go to nursery this morning.