Today was very special as the HOPE home based care team, prospective carers and spouses of some of our patients received customised home based care and HIV/AIDS training from Nicky Welsh. This is something that Paula has been wanting for over a year now and it has taken this long to 'pin down' Nicky and make the most of her excellent training skills!! We had loads of fun as well as refreshing (for some) our knowledge and skills base and having the ability to further customise the training for our final session next Friday.-
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
Today was very special as the HOPE home based care team, prospective carers and spouses of some of our patients received customised home based care and HIV/AIDS training from Nicky Welsh. This is something that Paula has been wanting for over a year now and it has taken this long to 'pin down' Nicky and make the most of her excellent training skills!! We had loads of fun as well as refreshing (for some) our knowledge and skills base and having the ability to further customise the training for our final session next Friday.
Eli was whisked off to the Emergency Room for the first time this afternoon as he needed three stitches in his top lip.Initially we thought he'd fallen off his bike trying yet another daredevil stunt but it turns out Rosie (the dog) bit him. Daddy's first response was to get rid of the dog but the Dr that treated Eli reassured Mummy that this is quite a common injury and not to be too harsh on the dog.
It turns out that Rosie had just been given a bone and Eli bent down next to her to pick up a ball but Rosie thought he was going for the bone. The rest as they say is history.
One of my favourite quotes from Wiersbe which I feel is particularly pertinent to those of us in church leadership. I'm convinced more leaders would at least look wise, even if they're not, if they exercised Wiersbe's advice.
Our blog has been nominated in the Best Personal Blog category of the 2010 South African Blog Awards.This is pretty neat after 6 years of blogging, thanks to Jo for the initial nomination.
Please click on the image and cast your vote for Facing The Mountain
PS. Voting opens on 1st September closing on the 17th.
Montagu is a little taste of heaven on earth and that is exactly what we enjoyed as a family last weekend! We have loved staying at 'Farmer Koos's' farm over the years and the boys definitely treat it like a second home.The weather was perfect - 29 degrees in the winter! - beautiful sunny days. Joel and Eli spent the whole time outside making up adventures on the rocks which they could now climb, playing with the animals that roam freely around the farm and enjoying braai'ing and eating Dad's beef potjie!
We also enjoyed a great meal out together on Sunday night at Jam Tarts, a restaurant we have got to know. They cannot do enough to make us welcome and Joel, in particular, enjoyed his garlic prawns - which the lady knows to make, despite them not being on the menu!!!
As we were driving home yesterday morning we were amazed by how much snow there was on the Grabouw side of the Hottentots Holland mountains. Sadly I completely forgot to take a picture of the snow until this afternoon when I was on my way into Chris Nissen to deliver the maize meal and sugar to Tiny Bubbles Créche from the boys school.
Zantedeschia is the proper name for this beautiful South African flower more commonly (but wrongly) known as the Calla Lily. They say you learn something new every day and that's what I learnt today. Anyway, the point is that this beautiful flower is growing in our garden which I'm delighted about, though it seems the dog is too as she ate one of them!
From what I know of most other folk serving in a foreign culture far from home, from time to time they get asked something along the lines of "What does a typical day look like?" That's a tricky one to answer but here's a great post by Hazel on the subject: Two Days, One Life. What I also know from reading the various blogs and websites of other folk serving in a foreign culture far from home is that this is a bit of a dreaded question. In part because trying to explain running around in ever decreasing circles isn't really very edifying and telling folk that you drink tea or coffee all day whilst talking to locals isn't really deemed to be work by the good folk back at base. Added in to the mix is the need to justify to supporters why they should carry on supporting and it all becomes a bit sensitive.I would like to pretend that I am above such things but in reality I sometimes feel the need to justify my existence just like anyone else...
If like me you like spending a bit of time watching stuff on Youtube you may well enjoy the stuff where people get hurt. I'm particularly fond of the faceplant clips of cyclists going over the handlebars, but to be fair, I'm happy to watch just about anything that involves someone else getting hurt through their own foolishness. As the old (or perhaps more modern) adage goes; life's only funny until someone gets hurt, then it's hilarious.
We were privileged to attend another very special day in the life of the church as we celebrated the wedding of the daughter of two of our cell group members. Taswald and Chrisandre have been coming along to Grace for many months, and we have enjoyed getting to know them a little bit. Chrisandre's parents, Chris and Veronica are very special to us and we enjoy them and their input - albeit Chris is a Chelski supporter!!The wedding was beautiful... perhaps the simplest we have ever attended. The pastor was 'spot on' and the bride and groom's love for one another was so evident, they adore each other! Perhaps the loveliest part of the service was the prayer at the end for all marrieds - we all had to hold hands with our spouses - aaahhh!
One can only wonder at why someone needs to sit and hold the door closed and marvel at his bravery (or should that be stupidity) for actually doing it.
I finally finished my compost bin this evening, putting the door on and covering the sides with chicken wire to make it dog and rodent proof or at least rodent resistant. I'm quite chuffed and think it turned out well, even if I do say so myself. Now I just need to get an old bit of carpet to put on top to help the composting process.It's made from old pallets and apart from the latch and the nails for the chicken wire everything else is recycled so I can feel a bit smug about helping the environment.
This morning was a rare morning in that not only did I get a lot of the yucky admin jobs done but they seem to have been done quite well (even if I say so myself). I guess time will be the better judge of this but I'm optimistic that my efforts will stand the test.
Well I'm very excited about the relaunch of this blog.
I've got a totally new template with some neat features in it.
I've almost got a new name, there is a clear frontrunner at present but there's still time to stick your two-penneth worth in so go on and give it a go. You can submit your ideas via any of the following: blog comment on this post, Contact Us button at top, Facebook or good old fashioned email. Now if that's not enough options you need help!
I've got a totally new template with some neat features in it.
I've almost got a new name, there is a clear frontrunner at present but there's still time to stick your two-penneth worth in so go on and give it a go. You can submit your ideas via any of the following: blog comment on this post, Contact Us button at top, Facebook or good old fashioned email. Now if that's not enough options you need help!
Cancer really is the word no-one ever wants to hear and is a word that can truly crush even the bravest soul, so as I was reading Pete's Personal Blog I was really encouraged by his positive outlook on the diagnosis and prognosis.
On our last trip to the Sciencentre we got a kit for making an air powered car with a coke bottle so this afternoon I set about having some fun with the boys seeing just what this air powered car can do. As you can see from the video below the results weren't stunning although we did have some better successes later on. The main thing we found was that the harder we pumped the car the better it did on the grass.
I'm bored of the way it looks, I'm bored of the name (more on that in a mo'), I'm bored of the layout and I'm fed up with the lack of interaction from you our readers, assuming that anyone is actually reading this stuff given that hardly anyone ever leaves a comment.
Today is the last day of the school holidays and we had a lot of fun with the boys as we took them to one of their new favourite places - the MTN Science Centre in Cape Town. This is always a great fun and educational day out for the family - and they do great coffee, which is a bonus!!We certainly have 2 very different boys, 1 is thrilled at the prospect of school re-starting tomorrow and the other is very non-plussed... no prizes for guessing who is who!! Despite that, both are very much looking forward to seeing friends again and mum and dad are thrilled at the prospect of life returning to 'normal' again and being able to get on with work without having to dance around the other in terms of child care!
Today Paula celebrates her birthday so to help her we all piled into a coffee shop in The Strand for lots of coffee, milkshake and cake.It's been such a lovely day that we just had to take a stroll along the beach to ensure we all had sufficent room for the cake which seemed to work well.
Paula has been pleasantly overwhelmed by the number of sms's and phone calls from friends wishing her a happy birthday and feels particularly loved by our family at Grace!
We had an absolutely fantastic time together.The atmosphere was so free and open and everyone felt able to be vulnerable and to share needs etc. The Holy Spirit was given huge freedom to move among us and we experienced an amazingly intimate touch as God ministered amongst us.
For fear of repeating the post below I'll not say too much here, rather I'll let the pics do the talking, click the link under the last pic for the full album. Suffice to say that we had a great day which was rounded off nicely by Ronaldo et al.
I love it when England play because it allows the rest of the English footballing fraternity know what it's like being a Palace fan. You have a great team with brilliant potential, you should win every game and play your opponents off the field and yet somehow you manage to make it all look like really hard work and have very little to show for your endeavours. That's what it's like being a Palace fan, but as Palace fan I got used to that a long time ago. Sadly for the rest of the England fans the reality may just be dawning.Despite Rooney et al's best efforts to ruin our amazing evening they thankfully failed in their quest. Yes the game was a turgid affair and we made the Algerians look good but it was still an amazing vibe and the Cape Town stadium still impresses and it was great to share the evening with our mates Jo and Mark!
We're enjoying one of South Africa's many public holidays. Today is Youth Day which is a really important date in SA's history. We first became aware of this holiday whilst in Tanzania where today is celebrated as the International Day of the African Child. The date was deliberately chosen to coincide with the massacre of children during the Soweto Uprising in 1976 when on June 16th about ten thousand school children marched in a column more than half a mile long, protesting about the poor quality of their education and demanding to be taught in their own language.
From having stressed about the best way to get to the game and what time to set off Michael & I decided to go with Daniel and Zelda (Daniel leads Grace Community Church) to Grand West and get the park n ride shuttle from there and it all went perfectly though a bit of a hiccup on the way home as the promised bus never materialised and we had to take the train which was interesting!
30 Jun 202012 Jun 2010
So today they had their faces painted and my English son chose the South African flag whilst my South African son chose the English flag. So which one is the traitor?
I'm now really excited as Michael will be here for 4pm and then we're off into Cape Town for the Uruguay v France match. My first ever World Cup match. Can't wait!
Joel and Eli were proud and thrilled to come home from school today with Certificates for Outstanding Contribution for raising so much money for Miles For Smiles! Thank you so much to all of you who contributed and made this possible. The school have raised over £2500, which is great news for the children needing the operations. Well done everyone for your combined efforts!!
Family life continues apace with the boys thirst for knowledge and new experiences seemingly insatiable, but to be honest we'd have it no other way. At a very simple level life revolves around eating, sleeping, school and riding their bikes and whilst this is not an inaccurate summary of life it's also far from the whole picture.
Joel's particularly excited as we're taking him and Eli to the Portugal v N.Korea game as his teacher has Portuguese roots and he loves his teacher!
We're just thrilled to have this amazing once in a lifetime opportunity to see some of the world's greatest football players right here in our own back yard. What a privilege!
As a church we decided to serve coffee & donuts from a tent on the edge of the playing fields and it has to be said that our tent was brilliant! We were by far the best stall there and as a church we were well represented throughout the event and with two teams in the competition we certainly achieved our aim of raising awareness of Grace Community Church.
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.
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.
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!
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! 
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.
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