- The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
- 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
- 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
The Cape Doctor
Take a look at this pic of our trampoline which was picked up by a single gust and thrown about six metres through the air onto our gazebo frame and garden table. The gazebo frame had already been damaged by the wind so just in case there was any doubt about it the good doctor totalled it with the trampoline.
School Awards
It was a great time and we were very proud of our boys!
Eli's class teacher commended Eli for "Never backing down or saying no to a challenge". She has certainly got the measure of our boy!
Joel got an extra certificate for his "Diligence and hard work in guitar". In fact Joel's guitar teacher has been so impressed with his progress this year that he has been invited to play to the old folks on Friday when the school choir go to entertain them.
We ended up with three boxes and a bin bag full of crap which will be going to the landfill. Happily though we've ended up with a couple of boxes and a few bags of decent toys and clothing which will be a real blessing when we take them into Macassar and Chris Nissen in the next few days.
'Tis The Season To Be Giving..
Why? Because the number of donations we get locally increase exponentially and we're able to bless folk in Macassar, Chris Nissen, Broadlands and sometimes beyond that.
We've spent quite a bit of time sorting through donations over the last couple of weeks and it looks like we'll have a bit more sorting to do yet.
Bell's Palsy
Sowing & Reaping
Initially I thought it had to be the work of some mischief maker getting busy with Photoshop but on visiting the official website I downloaded the original and it is indeed free of any Photoshop jiggery pokery.
Look more closely at sum number 3 and see if you can work out the right answer.
Leopards In The Cape
The Cape Leopard Trust have been doing some sterling work in the Boland area logging details of known leopards, as well as using camera traps and physical traps to monitor the health and distribution of these splendid creatures in the Cape.
What a privilege too to know that some of the routes we mountainbike on we also share with some leopards.
Given how the media likes to sensationalise stuff and focus on the negatives the article leads with the grim statistic that the black majority are paid six times less than their white counterparts.
Showers Of Blessing
On Friday we joined with Every Nation here in Somerset West for their conference. They were hosting a guy called Marc Dupont who despite looking like a skinny Robin Williams was very good. We were particularly taken with his exposition of the name El Shaddai meaning God who is able to do that which you can't do for yourself. That is definitely our experience!
Superkids!
I managed to sneak a photograph (yes I turned the flash off) which isn't very good but it does at least show Joel with his truncheon and Eli (3rd from left) disappearing under his bobbies helmet.
It was a great evening and we're very proud of our boys!
"This Sunday we had the privilege of joining with our family at Church of Love & Grace in Mitchell's Plain to baptise three of our members together with eight of theirs.
We had an amazing time in God's presence with one of our member's granddaughter being saved. Hallelujah!
In the midst of our gathering we also honoured Martin & Mercia who celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. Martin was then involved in baptising his youngest daughter who had given her life to Jesus just last Sunday.
We thank God for an awesome time in his presence and look forward to doing this again very soon!"
It really was great to watch people stepping out in obedience to Jesus and to honour family in the same gathering.
TV Or Light?
The house was in total darkness apart from the telly and the couple wouldn't put a light on because the stark choice was TV for the evening or a light on for a few minutes. After we'd been chatting for a minute we were aware of the floor moving, it was alive with children under duvets and blankets trying to keep warm whilst watching the telly and half the kids belonged to the neighbours.
Heritage Day
To celebrate we spent the day with some Zimbabwean and Ugandan friends with Eli being the lone South African amongst us!
We had a great afternoon chatting and chilling and occasionally chasing one of the eight boys we had between us. They certainly mad it a very lively afternoon!
To finally get the chance to mooch around the place sans enfants was a real blessing and we'll definitely be back sometime soon.
I have been incredibly blessed by the fact that shortly after 1.30pm Paula said "I do" and I'll be forever grateful to her and to God for the amazing time we've had together ever since.
To marry someone special is great. To marry your soul-mate is fantastic. To spend a lifetime with the love of your life is simply awesome!
Here Comes The Bride..
Once again it was a bit of 'weddings R us' as Paula was chauffeur for the bride and Dean was the official photographer.
We had a lovely day and a lot of fun and were totally spoilt by our dear friends from Simon's Bay Christian Church who laid on an amazing day.
Joys Of Leadership
One thing I've always believed strongly in but rarely seen modeled is leaders praying together. I've seen leaders all consumed with the business of leading but rarely seen leaders praying for the sake of praying.
I realise business is important but prayer is way more important than the mundane!
School Of Unicycling
I get a real thrill out of seeing Eli riding his uni' but to see him ride it with a crowd really made my heart glow. It was great to hear Eli's classmates heaping praise and compliments on him, I think my favourite was hearing one of the lads telling the teacher "He makes it look so easy!".
Is Platinum Really Worth That Much?
Sadly it takes such an act for the story to become newsworthy.
In The Spirit Of Benny Hill
Late this afternoon we were playing about in the garage and used Paula's camera to record some unicycling. We put it on 'Miniature Effect' mode and this was the result. all that was needed was some classic music!
So here you have it, in the spirit of Benny Hill, less the sauce!
Conspicuous In Our Absence
Thankfully we've moved on from then and the simple reason for our conspicuous absence has been the sheer amount of stuff going on and not being able to keep up with it all.
Our last proper post was about our outreach back in June and here we are in August about to do another outreach this coming Saturday.
Eisteddfod
He's just participated in the local Eisteddfod again and improved on last year's showing by getting Cum Laude for his prepared reading.
Joel chose to read two pages from The boy In The Dress by David Walliams and really went to town on his characterisation. Even the judges commented on this and the humour he managed to convey.
Eli Unicycling
So here's a bit of fun to keep you going until we manage to post something over the weekend.
Enjoy Eli's latest exploits below...
A Tree Has Been Planted
If you managed to catch up with Paula at one of her recent Facing The Mountain Roadshows in Weald or Cheadle you will have seen our latest DVD offering.
If you didn't manage to catch up with Paula, shame on you you can watch the film right here from the comfort of your own computer screen.
We hope you find it helpful as you uphold our ministry here in Macassar in prayer.
So get some popcorn, put your feet up and enjoy the next 16½ minutes.
Outreach Weekend - Pt 2
It was a real family time as Tree Of Life were joined by Love & Grace from Mitchell's Plain and Simon's Bay Christian Church from Simon's Town.
Graham's team from Mitchell's Plain lead the worship, Shaddie brought a great word and Tree Of Life organised the celebration and lead it. It's such a blessing to be involved in churches working together for the extension of the Kingdom!
Outreach Weekend - Pt 1
It has indeed been a couple of weeks since the outreach and the reason it has taken so long to blog about it is that many of us are still blown away by the whole thing!
Miles For Smiles Assembly
"MILES FOR SMILES
THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
THANK YOU!
Through the combined efforts of the International School of Helderberg and Macquarie Securities South Africa, we raised a phenomenal R71878.70 [almost £5700] for Operation Smile South Africa!
Over the last 5 years we have raised almost R200 000-00 for Operation Smile.
Wonderwall
We're very proud of Joel as he played with his fellow guitarists at the school's Music Cafe this morning.
They played Wonderwall by Oasis and did really well.
Our local rag the District Mail ran this article today with a lovely photo of Eli in it.
Prayer Request
We have a few events planned, one of which will be to pamper ladies in the community by doing their nails, hair and make-up whilst serving them with coffee and a muffin.
Hair Pulling!
I'm no techno geek when it comes to computers but equally I'm not afraid of stripping one down and having a tinker. After all, if I do mess it up I'll only be saving the computer the time and trouble of messing itself up.
Miles For Smiles
In 2001 during some of Zimbabwe’s darkest days we drove from Harare to Cape Town, it was mainly for holiday purposes and a bloomin' good one it was too, but we also had to leave Zim' for a while due to the mess there. It’s a long story!
While we were in South Africa we had a great time and met some fab people, some of whom we went on to work with when we moved to SA three years later. I remember at the time having a number of conversations with folk about the Zim' situation and was asked the same question a few times.
My boy doesn't stay still for long, though the telly is teaching him to pay attention for increasing amounts of time. Not sure if that's a good thing or not?! Anyway, beyond the world of the electronic babysitter, Eli is one incredibly active young man and constantly looking for
Moonsquirters
A while back he asked if he could grow some tomatoes and somehow he managed to sweet-talk mummy into taking him shopping for seeds etc.
That was a couple of months ago and today Eli has eleven very healthy looking tomato plants which he actually grew from seed.
So this afternoon he was über excited to see that one of his plants has two small green tomatoes on it. Bless him, he had no idea what they were because they were so small and green, apparently "they don't look like the ones in the packets".
Mother's Day
Garden Centre
One of the things that never fails to amaze me about our friends there is just how generous they are and this morning I left Michael's feeling like I'd been to a garden centre.
My garden is going to be looking great by next summer!
They are an amazing couple and I have had the privilege of sitting with Oom Paul a few times listening to his life stories. Forget about Kindle or any other form of interactive e-book, spending time with someone like Oom Paul is spending time with a truly interactive living, talking history book!
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - Review
I've enjoyed the discipline of blogging every day and giving the blog some long overdue attention. I think the best bit though has to have been meeting loads of other bloggers from around the world, sharing posts and comments and reading blogs that I might otherwise not have got to see.
Perigee Full Moon
It's quite a spectacular phenomenon and I was quite pleased with these photos of the moon this evening.
Read more about it here on the BBC News.
*Facepalm*
"This week was a quieter week in our area although we did discover vagrants bedding down with their household goods on the field opposite Cherrywood Gardens in Bizweni Road.
Gateway To..
A few moons ago Michael and I put a gate on the front of his property but at the time he was short of hinges (some might say he was unhinged asking me to help!) so he
Meanwhile, back in April...
With the five day weekend over I have to admit to enjoying the blissful peace and quiet in the office, no kids running around, making a ton of noise and being exuberant. Thankfully it's only short lived as they'll be back after lunch but the brief respite is very very welcome!
Friday was Freedom Day, a very important day in South Africa's history and today is Workers' Day so most folk also took Monday off to make the most of it all and we've certainly made the most of it though if truth be told it will be nice to get back to some semblance of normality (whatever that is).
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - Z
At least it is in the Greek alphabet.
"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." Revelation 22:13. The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, outside of God there is nothing.
I try to live my life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, though I know I often fail. This may be unappealing and a bit of a turn off if you don't profess a faith but I can't help that. I hear all the arguments for and against God and increasingly hear the vocal anti-Christian lobby of Dawkins et al and find myself even more convinced of my faith.
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - Y
OK, so it's a bit tenuous but I'm still expressing my surprise at having completed the A To Z Blogging Challenge. Yes yes there's still Monday's post but that's already written and scheduled to post.
I've had a lot of fun doing it, I've met some great new cyber friends and visited some really good (and the odd strange) blogs. I'll definitely be doing it again.
One of the highlights for me has been the encouraging comments and hearing that one or two folk have been eagerly looking forward to see what the next letter would be about. I hope you've enjoyed it too.
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - X
X has to be for X-rays
Not that I'm passionate about these things but we've had our fair share of them done in our eight years in South Africa.
It all begins with chest x-rays for immigration to prove that one is clear of TB, which is a bit of a joke as the Western Cape has one of the world's highest prevalence rates of TB and some medics reckon that everyone living in the Cape carries TB.
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - W
One of my boys favourite activities has to be walking Rosie. We're pretty slack at it and don't walk her anywhere as much as we should but when we do it's a lot of fun.
Rosie adores being out and about, exploring the park, chasing the Ibis and Egrets and occasionally gets to play in the stream if it's been wet enough.
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - V
If you're visiting our blog for the first time or arrived via the Blogging From A To Z Challenge we'd like to welcome you to our little corner of the web.
We've really enjoyed running this blog over a few years. In fact if you take a look at our Archive you'll see that we've been blogging since the 10th of July 2004 when we were preparing to move to South Africa from Blighty. Back then the blog was called Adventures With God but we rebranded the blog a while back, see our About tab for more on this.
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - U
Just because this is one of my passions doesn't mean I'm very good at it and trust me, I'm not! I do enjoy it though.
It all began many moons ago when I asked Paula for a unicycle for my 30th birthday. I was really into juggling and wanted to try something different. I was blessed with a DM Ringmaster and despite several attempts to ride it it got neglected and largely forgotten. Then in 1999 we went to All Nations for a year and one of the students had his giraffe uni there and with a few tips I decided to invest in learning to ride my Ringmaster.
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - T
T is for Tree Of Life
It is a complete privilege to be leading Tree Of Life and especially to be leading it with such a great bunch of guys!
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - S
I've blogged about this flower a couple of times before here and here and still maintain that it's my all time favourite flower.
The Spiloxene Capensis is also known as the Painted Peacock Flower and is actually classed as a weed. I have to say it's a particularly stunning weed!
Blogging From A To Z Challenge - R
Our ever faithful guard dog and friend, she's half Rhodesian Ridgeback, half Border Collie, the latter part making her a very busy dog but she is beautiful!
She was named by Joel though he has no idea why he chose the name or where it came from.
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