Eli's Latest Bike Trick

Eli's only been riding for a week without the baby wheels but he's already keen to develop some new skills on the bike.

Awesome Healing Confirmed!

Every now and then God chooses to 'blow our socks off' by revealing something HUGE about Himself that thrills us to the core. This morning was one such time for us. Paula went to visit Maggie and to encourage her with a bit of Bible study. Before they could even sit down Maggie confirmed that she had been back to the Day Hospital for a second HIV re-test to confirm her healing. Wonderfully, she is now in possession of two pieces of paper. The first is dated 1 Feb 2010 and has HIV+ written on it. The second is dated 17 May 2010 and clearly states HIV-!!!! To top it off, she has put on 4.5 kg in a week and yet she still has next to no food in her house. God has done a mighty, mighty work in her life and she and Paula could not help but jump around her room and praise Him for His grace and mercy. Maggie truly is a changed woman - everything about her is transformed from her appearance to her hunger for more and more of God.

Joel Rides His Bike

Following hot on the heels of Eli learning to ride his bike (Eli Rides His Bike) without the baby wheels (as my boys disparagingly call the stabilisers) Joel has mastered riding too and needless to say is very proud of himself. As is his Dad! We're definitely a bike mad household now.

Amazing Sunday & Awesome Healing!

This morning we were welcoming Gerrit into eldership so we were expecting a really good meeting especially as Evan Rogers had been invited to lead the worship. There's never a dull or boring moment when Evan's leading!

Gerrit's ordination (if that's the right word) was great and it's a privilege to have guys like him leading the church. Charl, one of the elders from HCC came and gave a short teaching on eldership and then the various leaders of Grace laid hands on Gerrit and prayed for him and Sharon his excellent wife. All in all a great time and topped off with a great lunch at Daniel and Zelda's.

Weekend

Winter seems to have arrived early and with a vengeance! The rain over the last two and a bit weeks has been horrendous with only the odd day of calmer weather. Thankfully we missed the really bad storm as we were in Franschhoek which doesn't seem to suffer from the Northwester like we do here. It all makes us very glad that the woodburner is in and the wood arrived (see: Firewood below) as it's the only form of heating we have in the house.

Firewood

Our winter wood pile arrived this afternoon so I'm well chuffed as we were running very low from last year's pile. We had enough left for the weekend (see the pile by Michael in the pic) but no more, so it all worked out quite nicely.

Eli Rides His Bike

Funnies In Franschhoek

What a welcome and much needed break that was! Two glorious days in the stunning town of Franschhoek being thoroughly spoilt and enjoying every minute of it. More on all of that later but for now we hopee you might enjoy these two offerings seen in Franschhoek.

Notice Of Absence

We've gone AWOL for 48 hours sans enfants.

Cell phones off, computer off.....bliss!

Miles 4 Smiles

This morning we all went off to 'Miles 4 Smiles' which has become the school's annual fundraiser for Operation Smile, a charity raising money for cleft palate & lip operations.

The boys had a lot of fun riding around their circuit and Daddy joined in the fun with his Trail-a-Bike and ended up giving loads of the kids rides around the course. He definitely earnt a beer this afternoon!

Mother's Day

I was invited by my boys to school this morning for their annual Mother's Day celebrations!! The morning started off with lots of muffins and coffee and general chit chat amongst the mums before we were treated to a little concert by some of the children. Joel was fabulous as part of the Junior Choir and entertained us with three amusing songs. We also had chance to do a bit of karaoke with one of the form teachers to Abba songs!

Polling Day

Some pertinent advice for the big day.

Happy Birthday

We celebrated Hayden's 3rd birthday on Monday with a low-key birthday lunch. He had a great time and loves the little black bike we gave him as now he can charge around with Joel & Eli. As for them, they really enjoyed helping Hayden celebrate his birthday, but especially helping him to blow out the candles on his cake.

We're really grateful for the way that Joel & Eli have been so accepting of Hayden and very caring towards him too.

Prayer Walk

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.

Prayer Request

I just found out this morning when I was in Firgrove that Aunty Patsy had a stroke on Tuesday. She seems to be doing well and she's up and about but the right side of her face is hanging down which is upsetting her.

Please pray for a full and speedy recovery.

Weekend

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).

Freedom Day

Tuesday next week is Freedom Day so just about the whole of South Africa takes the Monday off too and clears off for the weekend. In fact we had a constant stream of migrating traffic nose to tail outside our house (thanks to road works and a very unhelpful and poorly planned diversion) for 3 hours this evening which wasn't very pleasant. Enough ranting!

Settling In

So proud of our boys and the way they've handled Hayden coming into our family for a while. Maybe it helps that they've known him for a while but even so they are being very caring and considerate towards him.

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.

Place Of Safety

We are now officially a place of safety and have a court order to prove it. It's probably just as well that we have proof as I'm not sure we'd believe it otherwise.

So what precipitated this turn of events?

Josie, R.I.P.

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.

Prayer Request

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.