Blog Stuff

In the course of a bit of blog admin (you might be surprised at what is actually involved in maintaining a blog regularly for almost 8 years!) I was pleasantly surprised and a little puzzled by some of the recent stats.

After the recent relaunch of the blog and it's integration into Facebook I knew I'd have a better idea of how many folk were reading the blog and roughly where and how the blog was being read.

Tea On The Beach

With the onset of winter, shorter nights and cooler temperatures we thought we should make the most of it and have fish & chips on the beach again especially as it was only 30°C today.

This is definitely becoming a favourite family activity, but what's not to enjoy about a stunning beach, breathtaking views and one's favourite peeps in the whole wide world to share it all with?

The perfect end to a great day.

Amazing Morning!

You know the life of the church is healthy when the leadership can sit down, sit back and allow anyone from within the church to bring a word of encouragement, a scripture or a testimony.

This morning was about exactly that as no sermon was planned but folk had been asked to spend time seeking God with a view to sharing this morning. How good it was to see a willing flow of folk bringing some amazing  testimonies, words and encouragements. What a joy to hear so much of how God is moving in the lives of folk and extending his kingdom in Mitchell's Plain.

Labour Of Love In Action

I'm so impressed with my mate Alfred and what he's doing in Grabouw. I've had the privilege of knowing Alfred for several years and first heard his gospel music many moons ago. he's a very gifted musician and singer and has a wonderful gift for being able to bring out the best in others.

If you're in SA and can help, either contact Alfred directly or give me a shout.

The original article in Grabouw Ads can be found here.

Perfect Saturday

What a perfect Saturday!

Took my boys to watch Rango at the flicks which was great, all washed down with plenty of popcorn and sodas. A great film which really is wasted on children. The humour is great and very dark in places.

After a brief lunch at home I then decamped into the garage with my boys to paint their new toy chests. Joel chose a Prince Of Persia theme and was particularly proud of his Hassansins.

Renovations

Joel finally moved into his new bedroom this evening and is very excited about it all. He chose the colour scheme and we have to say that despite some initial reservations about Grapefruit Red and green curtains the room actually looks good and it works!

Our new bedroom and bathroom are finished too so we now have room for visitors!

Many thanks go to our dear friend Michael who has been a total legend coming each day and just getting on with painting etc. Without his help we'd be nowhere near finished.

A Little 'Taste' Of Heaven!

Sometimes God gives us an incredible little taster of the blessings that are to come one day for those who love Him and serve Him.  Yesterday was one such day as Paula was privileged to escort her 5 lovely ladies, four from HOPE Home Based Care, Chris Nissen Park and one whom we trained and sent out into Broadlands Park, to lunch at the fabulous Taste Restaurant, Somerset West.

Ceroplesis Capensis

We encountered this chap on the beach on Sunday evening (see: Supper On The Beach) and had no idea what it was. After a bit of web research we discovered that it is the Ceroplesis Capensis beetle which is part of the Cerambycidae (longicorn beetles, timber beetles) family of beetles.

He looks quite nasty with the red stripes but I guess that makes for an excellent deterrent.

So there you go, you learn something new everyday!

Supper On The Beach

One of the things we love doing as a family is going to Gordon's Bay in the early evening, getting fish & chips from the best chippy around and enjoying them on the beach as we watch the sun go down.

The boys simply adore exploring the environment and messing around in the rock pools and this time playing tug o' war with a washed up kelp plant.

A large number of dead jellyfish also held their attention for quite a while as did a nasty looking bug (see below).

Joel's 8th Birthday

After what has seemed like months Joel finally celebrates his 8th birthday today!

He has been so keen to reach this landmark and was so excited last night before bed that it took him an age to finally go to sleep! On Thursday his class came for a now legendary Joel pirate party and they all had great fun. It was so nice to see such a great bunch of children together - some of whom Joel has now known and been at school with for more than 4 years.

Fun With Family & Friends

The long hot summer we have been experiencing in the Cape has brought out the South African in us!! We are thoroughly enjoying time on the beach together playing in the rock pools, swimming in the sea, walking the beach (whilst the boys race mum and dad in the sea!), eating fish and chips and generally enjoying the beauty in which we are privileged to live.

Dangerous Trees?

This sign immediately appealed to my sense of humour as I could just picture someone getting mugged by a dangerous tree.

As I was scanning loads of old photos recently I came across this one taken in Greenwich Park in 1987.

The sign was erected after the hurricane in '87 and many of the oaks in the park were in a bad way, hence the need for Elf 'n Safety to wade in.

Love And Grace

We had such an amazing time with Love And Grace Church in Mitchell's Plain this morning!

What we really enjoyed was the simplicity of the meeting.

Bible based and open to the Holy Spirit. Doesn't come much simpler than that really! Everything was God centred with leadership that felt no need to draw attention to itself which was quite refreshing after our church experiences over the last few years.

It's always great too when God rocks up, meets with you and leads you on further into his purposes. We certainly came away feeling very encouraged and motivated to get on with the next step of what God has in store for us.

Valentine's Ball

So the big day arrived - Joel's school mini Valentine's Ball!  We thought he wouldn't be all that bothered, but, how wrong could we be!!

Joel had everything planned.  He spent the entire day before worrying about what to wear and then spent an hour making a card for his Valentine (we'll let you guess who that is from the girls featured below!).

From the moment he got home today, Joel asked on the hour every hour how much longer he had to wait and from 4 o'clock was dressed and holding "the card" in his hand!

Silence

Silence is a great thing.

It can be very telling but it can also mean absolutely nothing. Silence between real friends is comfortable whilst silence between colleagues or those who assume a degree of authority can be uncomfortable.

Read into our silence what you will, or email us.

What I can tell you is that I've been out for a great meal with the love of my life!

Mission Ed' Videos Part 2

Here's the second video we showed during our mission ed visits. This is our informal photo presentation which is simply set to music with a few captions.

It's a lighter look at our lives at work and play, but mostly at play!

Part 1 is here.

Mission Ed' Videos Part 1

HOPE (Hands On, Prayer & Evangelism) Home Based Care Team video produced for our 2010 mission education trip to the UK. We used this video as part of our main Powerpoint presentation.

This video is a follow up to our previous HOPE video

It's The End Of The World As We Know It And I feel Fine

As many of you are aware from our recent mission education trip to Blighty, things have not been right in our church for quite a while and things really came to a head late last year when two of the elders resigned and left within a couple of months of each other. In short it boiled down to leadership issues.

On our return home we heard a few things about the church, though sadly nothing from the leadership about what was likely to happen and on Sunday Grace Community Church closed up and finished.

Wherever You May Wander...

So, we'd only been home for the afternoon and it started raining. What's that all about then?!?

Despite being fleeced of ninety quid by the thieving swines at BA for having bags over 23kgs (despite our almost 300kg allowance!) we had a long, smooth and easy journey. It's good to be back home and really pleased to be in the midst of unpacking and sorting things out.

On Our way Home

We're off to Heathrow in the next few minutes as we get ready for our 12 hour flight home.

We've had a great time in Blighty and it was fantastic to see so many friends again especially those we hadn't seen for nearly 20 years.

Apologies to those of you we didn't get to see, hopefully you might be able to make use of our spare bedroom in Cape Town sometime soon.

Mission Education - Final Sunday

Today was quite a monumental occasion as we did our last mission ed' visit with St. Mary's Cheadle.

What a great way to top off a brilliant week!

It was a very busy morning giving our powerpoint presentation in two services followed by lunch and a brief talk about some of our friends in South Africa and our photo presentation. This was all topped off with a 4 hour drive down South!