We're really grateful for the way that Joel & Eli have been so accepting of Hayden and very caring towards him too.
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The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering together -
The Gathering -
Baptisms at The Gathering -
Preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen -
Soup Kitchen Welcome To 2022 lunch
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng -
Thankful Thursdays -
HOPE Home Based Care Team -
Gathering Ground -
Staying fit as a family -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
We're really grateful for the way that Joel & Eli have been so accepting of Hayden and very caring towards him too.
After much to-ing and fro-ing between various bureaucratic offices and a false start last week, our much anticipate prayer walk went off without hitch this morning.As a church we've been wanting to walk around Macassar and pray over the community but especially in the crime and drug hotspots, so today was the day.
This is a weekend with a twist in so far as it's four days long and we're up to a few different things.On Saturday Dean attended Josie's funeral, it was actually a celebration of her life rather than a turgid funeral and it was truly a joy to behold! The main thing that struck Dean though was just how different a middle class Cape Coloured funeral is to a Cape Coloured township one. It's hard to explain but the differences were palpable (hope that makes sense).
As for Hayden, what a treasure! He's been really well trained and even though he's not quite 3 he's perfectly happy to take himself off to the toilet and he's dry through the night as long as he's lifted. He slept brilliantly last night and despite the lift for a wee at 11.30ish he slept right through until 6ish which was perfect.
We heard today that Josie passed away late this morning after battling an infection for a few days.Josie was a great friend and colleague of Dean's, they always got on really well. Sadly we never managed to see her in hospital but Dean did see her a couple of times in Jamestown after she had retired and each occasion of catching up with Josie was a lot of fun. Paula remembers her best for her incredible gift of encouragement. She was always there for you and gave her Bible study ladies that extra little something to look forward to each week.
Michael has just been away on the Mighty Men weekend with Alistair Buchan (Faith like potatoes) but unfortunately came home to some devastating news.The welfare people have removed Hayden from his care due to Joyce's irresponsible behaviour. Unfortunately whilst Michael was away, Joyce left Hayden unattended whilst she was off drinking and a neighbour contacted the social worker to report the incident.
Zimbabwe wakes up to being 30 years old this morning. Happy Birthday Zim!
Sadly there's little to party about as the Desperate Despot continues to cling to power despite having wrecked the economy, beaten, raped, tortured, murdered, falsely imprisoned etc etc just about anyone who has ever expressed any opinion other than the zanu pf party line.
Read more on the Beeb: Zimbabwe celebrates 30 years of independence
A couple of months ago Josie, a dear friend from our time at HCC, was diagnosed as having a brain tumour and was operated on very promptly. Initially things looked to have gone well but in the last few days she has had a rough time with an infection. Sadly Josie was readmitted to hospital on Wednesday in an extremely weak condition. Apparently the doctors diagnosed her as having an infected body but they were unable to find the cause of it. We then heard during our leaders retreat that Josie was struggling to recognise people and was generally in a bad way.
The leadership team of Grace Community Church have just had a great night way staying at The Team House in Noordhoek Beach.
Eli was awarded Star Of The Week in his class again, this time for his hard work in writing and for being a thoughtful friend. Sweet!He's definitely our Star Of The Week!
This week's letter of the week is 'B' so for show and tell he took a brick and apparently was brilliant in describing how builders use them. Then the kids took turns to feel the brick and see how much it weighed. Eli was very proud of himself.
We had one of our best afternoons in a long long time as we joined Melvyn & Yolande and several other church members for a seafood potjie at their home in Macassar.All we can really say about it is that it was a fantastic afternoon filled with lots of laughter, amazing food and great friendship. It's always good to build on existing friendships but it was also good to get to know some other folk in church that otherwise we might not get a chance to know as a family.
One of the real highlights of living far from friends and family is when they come to visit! We have recently enjoyed a bit of whirlwind visit from good friends John and Tricia who hail from one of our partner churches in the UK. Joel was particularly excited to be seeing them as he well remembered their house in Cheadle as being the one where the airplanes fly over every 30 seconds!
Despite the silence on the blog we're still alive and very much kicking. We hate it when we don't keep the blog up to date but sometimes things happen in life which are just not appropriate to be shared in a public way so it's best just to say nothing. All we will say is that the last few weeks have been very tough as we grapple with issues which have been bubbling for some time and whilst we're prepared to put the past behind us and move on others aren't which is tough to deal with.So here's an overview of just what we've been up to....
Joel has had a brilliant Birthday and was delighted to get so much Star Wars stuff. He got two bits of Star Wars Lego including Darth Vader's Tie Fighter which was a much coveted pressie! He also got a Darth Vader costume, some Star Wars action figures and a Star Wars lunch box thanks to some great family & friends!To top it all off he also got some long desired Bakugan Brawlers which he sneaked into school to show his mates. Needless to say neither his teacher nor parents were too amused!
Happy Birthday to our amazing 7 year old Joel!A bit of a Star Wars theme going on with Lego, action figures and a Darth Vader costume.
At Joel's party yesterday his mates were well impressed with his Star Wars cake.
This evening we're out for a family tea at Joel's favourite restaurant so we'll post more about the whole day later.
It's Book Week at school this week so everyone gets to dress up today as a favourite book character. Joel chose Flat Stanley whilst Eli is Harry from Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs so he's gone to school replete with a bucketful of dinosaurs feeling very proud of himself.
Joel was a bit gutted when he arrived as so many of the kids were dressed as Ben 10 and other TV characters but Mummy pointed out that they'll all be immediately disqualified from the judging when prizes are awarded for the best and most imaginative BOOK characters. He cheered up no end at that news!
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