Down On The Farm

We've just been really blessed with 3 days away on Farmer Koos's farm in Montagu with Grandad and Lesley.

It was great to have some time out away from the usual stresses and strains of daily life and just chill in the middle of nowhere free from the shackles of modern technology.

The best bit of all though is seeing the boys roaming freely and safely on the farm, often accompanied by a pack of dogs and getting up to all kinds of mischief. It really is pure pleasure to watch them chill!

Off To Camp

The next growing up phase in Joel's life started today as he very reluctantly went off on his school camp!  Every year the Years 4, 5 and 6 go to camp for 2 nights and it is apparently often supposed to be the 'making of them'! Joel has not been keen at all and we have had quite a few tears and do I really have to go type comments right up to this morning! So, we both survived the drop off this morning and Mum especially was pleased to see this photo taken of Joel with his mates just before climbing on the bus - even a hint of a smile - so hopefully all will be well!

For My Next Trick...

Having done the Cape Epic in 2009 and achieved a few other goals on my bikes I feel it's time for another challenge.

So here it is, my Nimbus 36" unicycle. The plan is to get fit enough to ride it in the Cape Argus next year 2013 to raise money for Miles 4 Smiles, a charity supported by my boys' school.

I've got a mountain to climb in terms of getting uni' fit, I need to fully master getting on it, especially in front of a crowd and I need to develop my core and thigh muscles to take the strain.

So far the furthest I've ridden on my 36er is a few laps around the school car park which is a million miles from riding the thing up Chapman's Peak or Suikerbossie.

Regardless of how tough it is I'm going to have a lot of fun along the way!

Happy 9th Birthday!

Our amazing miracle celebrated his 9th birthday today and what made the day even cooler than normal was the fact that Grandad had come out with Lesley to help celebrate. What a happy memory that he'll never forget!

We've had a lot of fun which sadly was interrupted by school, though Joel did enjoy seeing his friends and being the centre of attention for a bit.

The day was made even better by getting the things he had asked for, including an mp3 player and even more Starwars Lego and a celebratory meal at Taste restaurant.

All in all a perfect day to be 9.

Birthday Party

Joel had his birthday party a week early to accommodate a top secret event happening this Friday, stay tuned!

What a joy it was as he invited his four best friends from school to join him for a meal at a local restaurant followed by a movie at home and a sleep-over.

After dinner Transformers was the movie of choice with lashings of popcorn (we're still finding it down the back of the sofa - nice!). It was quite amusing watching it with five experts on the subject of Transformers.

Amazing Evening

Wow, what a night at home group!

We had planned to follow on from Sunday and give space for testimonies and to pray for folk. We had a great time and then at the end a visitor gave her life to Jesus. Fantastic!

Please pray for Bonita in the coming days and weeks as she begins a new life in Christ, pray too that she'll come along to Tree Of Life on Sundays and will be made to feel accepted and welcome.

Thank you Lord for a truly awesome evening!

Book Week

In conjunction with World Book Day on the 1st of March the boys' school held Book Week to celebrate reading and the wealth of knowledge available in books.

All kinds of fun activities were held including DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) when the bell rang at spontaneous times each child had to stop what they were doing and read. There were competitions and dressing up as well as storytime each day. Eli guessed the quote for The Very Hungry Caterpillar correctly on Tuesday and Joel got the quote right on Wednesday which was from Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows.

Perfect Day

It all started with a great 90 kilometre ride with my regular crowd and included a fast climb of Helshoogte which was a lot of fun! I'm really enjoying my riding again and it feels good to have lost 8kgs and be strong on the hills again. Hopefully I'll be on top form for the Cape Argus on the 11th of March. I'm really looking forward to it now.

This afternoon I was delighted to be able to watch the Palace game live on local TV and it turned out to be a very good game in which we made the Hammers look distinctly average. I guess it wasn't quite a perfect day though as we only managed a draw.

Testimony Sunday

"They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony" - Rev 12:1

This morning our gathering was given over to sharing testimonies of what God is doing amongst us and what an amazing morning we had!

As the weeks have gone by we have watched God at work in people's lives but to actually hear some of the accounts this morning was a privilege and truly humbling.

The Widow's Offering

I've always loved the story in Mark of the widow's offering. As Jesus sits and watches the offerings being given he sees many rich folk giving lots and then along comes a widow and drops two coins into the offering. Mark 12:41-44 has the full story:

"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Learning To Fly

Just got to say what a great morning it was with Tree Of Life again.

It is such a privilege to see guys who have been stifled for so long finally spreading their wings and learning to fly again!

This morning Chris brought a word and it was brilliant. What an encouragement to see folk stepping out into new things with Jesus. I've never heard Chris speak like he did this morning but I know that as a church we are going to be hearing a lot more as he flies in his faith.

It's Church Jim...

I've been wanting to blog about church for the last two weeks but haven't really got my head around what has happened or found the right words to describe how fantastic it has been.

Our inaugural Sunday was great and all I could say to the guys afterwards was that had I been able to plan the meeting in detail it wouldn't have gone as well as it did. Praise God for his infinite grace! However, planning and executing one meeting is easy, doing it week in and week out will be the challenge.

New School Year

The new school year starts today for our boys and they're both looking very grown up in their formal white shirts.

They were both really excited about returning to school and catching up with their friends. Both boys have got great teachers again this year so we're really excited to see how they are going to fly again in the year.

Joel is now in Year 4 which is quite a step up for him. Things become a lot more formal from now which should be good for him. Joel will also join the junior school camp for the first time this year, which will involve three nights away from home. The parents are very excited about this!

Tree Of Life Planted!

What an amazing privilege to be a part of the start of tree of Life church in Macassar this morning!

Thank you Lord!

Tree Of Life Church

Today is a very exciting day as Tree of Life Church meets on a Sunday morning in Macassar for the very first time.

Please join us in praying for God's name to be glorified as his kingdom is extended in Macassar.

Drum Roll Please...

Just 24 hours to go...

So this morning we're out in Macassar inviting people to join us tomorrow.

Our big prayer is that the Holy Spirit would go before us and rock up on Sunday, please join us in prayer for this.

Plant A Tree

This morning was a morning of mixed emotions for the Macassar crowd as it was our final morning as part of Love & Grace Church as we're planting into Macassar from next Sunday.

The mixed emotions are born out of the many friendships we've all built with folk in Mitchell's Plain and the excitement of moving into something new with God. We'll miss our friends at Love & Grace but we know we'll see each other again soon and we'll remain in contact with each other.

Merry Christmas

A very Happy Christmas to you all!

Lots of love

Dean, Paula, Joel & Eli

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Eli's 6th Birthday

A very happy birthday to our special six year old bundle of endless energy and fun!

It hardly seems possible that it is six years ago today that Paula flew to Bloemfontein and held Eli for the first time as she waited to bring him home.

This little bundle of joy has transformed our family life with his boundless energy and sense of fun and also making us a truly international family.

We're so grateful to God for the miracle that is Eli and especially grateful that he blessed our lives!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI!

♫♪♫School's Out For Summer♪♫♪

Many of you who heard us speak on our last mission education visits or came along to one of our Facing The Mountain Roadshows will remember our two biggest prayer requests. Firstly we asked you to pray that we might be able to go church planting again, although we had no idea how this would be possible at the time. Secondly we asked that you join us in praying for our boys coming year at school but especially for Joel as we had some reservations about his year ahead.

Thankfully we serve an amazing God who answers our prayers.

WHCYIAMWOTGOC

On the BBC News website there is an article entitled "What would Jesus do?: The rise of a slogan"

It makes for an interesting read but I find myself disliking this logo quite intensely. I've always felt that it's a bit of a silly question for two reasons. Firstly, as the article points out, we don't really get much of a clue as to how Jesus conducted himself away from the limelight and so we can't really answer the question.