- 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
Women's Day Outreach 2013
Ephesians 3:20 tells us that God is "able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us"; we know this in our minds but do we really actually "know" this as our experience?
Square Pegs
We were both asked quite early on about what was different with this trip than previous trips back to the UK. This seemed to be born out of the fact that many folk commented on how happy and relaxed we appeared.
From Britain With Love
Tonight at our home group meeting we'll be showing the short film we made of the various responses folk gave to camera about our Roadshow presentations.
All we can say to those of you that spoke to camera is "Thank You!".
Been & Gone
We really did hit the ground running and by the end of the first week we were exhausted but absolutely thrilled with what we'd achieved.
The Final Curtain
It was a truly great evening with an incredibly diverse mix of people from the vicar who was responsible for Paula getting saved through to a complete stranger and his cousin who had seen the event advertised in the parish magazine.
London Town
In this photo the Shard certainly makes it's mark upon the capital.
Below it's interesting to see the view of the All England and to get the close ups of the TV camera crane.
We're really enjoying our Roadshow events and are particularly enjoying the variety of different contexts in which we get to present about Tree of Life and our amazing friends in South Africa.
Today we were in the well heeled town of Cobham and had the privilege of sharing our Roadshow with a lovely bunch of folk from St. Andrew's, Oxshott.
"What A Refreshing Change"
Many moons ago there was a certain brand of cider with the sales line: "What a refreshing change".
We reckon that this could be a good way to describe Christians Abroad.
In our recent meeting it was such a pleasure to be asked things like:
"How can we partner together to better serve the church?"
"What are your expectations of us?
"What is Tree of Life hoping to gain from this trip?"
These are refreshing questions to be asked by the leaders of an organisation that really cares about and for us and they are questions we've never once been asked before!
"Strike Three.."
Rather we've just finished our third Roadshow and once again it went really well. We were with Tuesday @ 2 a group of older folk who are a powerhouse of prayers.
We've been thrilled by the turnout for each of them so far and it's been great to reconnect with many old friends.
Aunty Poppy
She recently had a major heart attack and home life is very hectic and stressful for her.
Please pray for Aunty Poppy!
One More Sleep!
I guess we're at that point where things that haven't been done aren't going to get done.
Thankfully our Roadshow presentation is all finished, though that hasn't stopped me from checking it every few minutes to make sure it still works. Must switch tablet off!
FTM Roadshows
If you're near one of the venues on the dates above please drop in, we'd love to see you!
For more details Like us on our Facebook page where more details will be posted.
Scary Thought
It's not that the UK is scary, though watching Sky News we're often left feeling like strangers in a land that once was home. The scary bit is just how much work we've got to do before we board that plane.
Blogging From A To Z 2013 Reflections
Sadly time was a real issue and I failed dismally in my attempts to spend time looking at other blogs. I managed to visit everyone that left a comment on a post but beyond that I probably only blog hopped on a two or three occasions.
Z Is For Ω
Like the English Z, Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet and a fitting way to sign off from this year's A to Z Blogging Challenge.
It's been a lot of fun for me and good to give the blog some long overdue attention.
Hope you've enjoyed it too!
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
Y Is For Youth
Sadly because we're still quite small and lacking in resources we're not able to offer them much. In fact we pretty much ignore the young adults amongst us. Not because we want to, far from it! We did ask a couple to lead our youth work but sadly personal issues have prevented them from getting involved and we're a bit stuck as a church.
So please pray for good solid folk who could take a lead in this for us.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
X Is For Xylophone
In fact we have nothing that resembles a worship band in any way shape or form and yet we have some of the most liberating and meaningful worship I've ever experienced.
I remember several years ago when Matt Redman brought out his brilliant song The Heart of Worship and many churches responding by stripping their worship back to basics.
W Is For Website
It's not a very good one but it's a start.
We're not very good at keeping it up to date but it's still a good starting point for finding out a bit more about the church and for contacting us.
Feel free to take a look.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
V Is For Verse
John 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world".
I love the simplicity and the matter of factness about this verse. In this world you will have trouble. Not you might have trouble but you will have trouble. I always think of the verse when the age old discussion about why bad things happen to good people debate. Quite simply it's not about bad things happening to good people but rather just the simple fact that in this world you/we/me will have trouble. End of.
U Is For Unity
One of my joys in church life is marveling at how seemingly disparate groups of people can be brought together through genuine love.
I'm not aware of any other aspect of life that can bring the unlikeliest people together for the good of themselves and their communities. Local church is amazing!
At Tree of Life we have South Africans, Angolan and Brits amongst us which makes for a great sense of diversity and I believe this reflects the nature of heaven.
T Is For Tree Of Life
I'm not going to repeat last year's post on Tree of Life but rather talk about the joys of the leadership team.
We're very blessed to serve alongside Gerrit & Sharon and Chris & Veronica, two quality couples with huge hearts for Jesus and the community.
S Is for Sundays
When I first became a Christian many moons ago I loved church. The church I was involved with was a new plant so things were exciting and we were on the cutting edge of things.
Since then my love of church has waned to the absolute low of 2010.
Between 2004 and 2010 I used to joke that we lived in the most beautiful place on earth and had the worst church life possible. I guess it's true, for every action there's an equal and opposite re-action.
R Is For Resurrection
So are we wasting our time?
I would argue that no we're not wasting our time.
John's gospel account of Jesus death is quite clear that when the Romans pierced Jesus' side blood and water flowed out. Anyone with a modicum of medical knowledge knows that in death blood and water separate. So we know that Jesus was dead. Also, he's been brutally attacked in his run up to the actual Crucifixion which would have helped to hasten his death.
Q Is For Queen Size
So Q is for Queen Size, as in bed.
Being a Brit I fully understand why a king size bed is smaller than a queen size bed and the reason makes a lot of sense. Traditionally the king's bed was a place of business, it had a perfunctory role. The queen's bed however was used by her for luxuriating in and being pampered, hence the size difference.
P Is For Pilate
I've always felt that Pilate got a bit of an unnecessarily unfair press for his role in Jesus' crucifixion.
O Is For Oom Paul
At 86 there's not much in life he hasn't seen and having been married to Molly for a little over 60 years with loads of children, grandchildren and great grandchildren there isn't much he hasn't done.
I've had the privilege of sitting with Oom Paul on a few occasions and consider him to be my very own Nelson Mandela. I've never met Madiba and am highly unlikely to ever have the chance to, but sitting with someone like Oom Paul is just as great a privilege!
N Is For Names Of God
I had a dream through my childhood that one day I would live with my dad but I was robbed of this dream at 18. Thankfully shortly after my dad died I was introduced to my heavenly father and now my dream has been fulfilled more than I could ever have hoped for.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
M Is For Macassar
I wrote a post on Macassar last year and rather than steal yet another post from last year's challenge I thought I'd have a go at writing something a bit different.
We still serve Tree of Life church in Macassar and spend a lot of our time in the community and we still love it! So in that regard nothing has changed and as a church we are still passionate about winning the community for Christ.
Tree of Life meets on Sundays at Macassar High school so it seems appropriate to focus on education in Macassar.
Education is generally a bit of a hot potato in South Africa and nowhere are the difficulties more pronounced than in Macassar.
L Is For Life
L could also be for the person I'm blogging about and it could also be for Lady because she is a remarkable lady. I guess I should also count this post as part of my Heroes Of The Faith series.
L is an amazing lady! She has two sons, both at high school, she's a hairdresser and lives with her mother. all quite unremarkable, but that's one of the things I love about the true heroes in life.
K Is For Kingdom
Are you kingdom building or empire building?
Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God 116 times across the four gospels, so it was obviously an important part of his message. Much of what we do in church is about building and extending the kingdom for His glory. Sadly this sometimes goes awry.
J Is For Jesus
Whilst there seems to be a growing fashion to remove Jesus from church as certain leaders gain celebrity status I have to say that for me and Tree of Life Church, Jesus is and will remain central to all that we do.
Lecture over!
I Is For Indecision
I couldn't come up with anything for I so I'll go away and hope that J might come along to rescue me.
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
This is a stolen /plagarised post from last year's challenge.
H Is For History
I'm not going to rejoice or gloat in her death (I've probably already said too much on Facebook and will no doubt get into trouble for this post) but neither will I mourn her passing. She was a deeply divisive politician and depending on your political persuasion she's either the saviour of the UK or the devil incarnate.
G Is For Grace, God & Go
This is a quote attributed to John Bradford (1510-1555), an evangelical preacher and prebendery of St. Paul's cathedral. Though there is no actual evidence to support this attribution I'm sticking with it because it's so fitting given that he is said to spoken these words whilst he was in prison.
The story goes that one day as he was looking out of a window in the Tower of London he saw another poor soul being lead to his execution and uttered this now immortal phrase which has subsequently been used and abused to the point that it has entered the common vernacular of many cultures and languages around the world.
F Is For Fellowship
Fellowship is about sharing similar interests, ideals, or experiences which is pretty much what we do when we're with fellow Christians.
E Is For Ecumenical
One of the joys we've had in our many years in mission and leadership is that we've never really behaved as we should have. I'm not saying we were naughty or doing things we shouldn't have but rather I'm referring to the fact that we've never really gone to the churches we were expected to.
D Is For Discipleship
C Is For Conference
The theme was The Master's Plan which was highly appropriate for the Easter weekend.
I've never spoken at a conference before so was very excited by this opportunity but also a little nervous, especially about speaking in front of around 100 people.
B Is For Bible
The bible underpins our faith and is the building block for church life at Tree of Life.
This is our personal collection of bibles (there are a few missing scattered around the house and car) in the office just above my desk. We have goodness knows how many versions in at least 6 languages. Some are used a lot more than others, though increasingly I use e-Sword which is a brilliant bit of bible study software!
A To Z Challenge
Hopefully this will be the end of my cheating but I'll let you know if it isn't.
Book Week - Character Day
Eli might not look too thrilled but he chose to go as Little Brown Mouse from The Gruffalo whilst Joel is truly thrilled to be going as Gollum from The hobbit.
Truth is defined as an accord with fact or reality, or fidelity to an original or to a standard or ideal.
Truth is the opposite of falsehood and lies.
I recently sat with Joel and talked about one of my sporting heroes, Lance Armstrong and how his entire world of success, fame and celebrity was built on lies. Joel knows that as a keen cyclist I'm upset about the Armstrong story and he also knows there are two groups of people I hate in life: thieves and liars. I hope that using the story of Armstrong my boys will grow to respect truth and favour it.
Tree Of Life Turns One
It was a great time of worshiping together but it was also a humbling time for us as Dean was appointed as lead elder of the church. We really feel humbled and privileged to be tasked with this role and we're very excited about where God is leading us and what he is doing.
Back To School
We can't quite believe it but Joel is going into Year 5 and Eli into Year 3. Our babies are definitely no longer babies.
We're really excited for them for the coming year as they've both got good teachers with both of them being committed Christians.
After Joel's awful year this year he's got a teacher who's already seen him at his best and likes him. Eli is going into a class with a teacher we've known for some years now and Joel had a great time with.
A Quiet Morning With Man Tools
So dad and Eli spent the morning going to the salvage yard, buying some wood for R5, coming home and getting out the hammers, nails and power tools - heaven for Eli! He quickly decided that he was going to make a table and chairs for his two Build a Bears formerly known as Ron and Jackie after some lovely friends of ours in the UK and now (apparently) known as Ron and Harry seeing as one of them is ginger - therefore Ron Weasley - and the other must therefore be HP himself!!
Ernest - RIP
Thankfully Ernest was saved so we can rejoice in that. Also, he has the biggest family I have ever known and they've been amazing in supporting him, caring for him and loving him.
What a Year!
2011 was a true "annus horribilis" that started badly with just about everything that could go wrong going wrong.
Happy Birthday Eli!
Eli is such a joy and a total blessing to our family and we love him dearly.
Having had his party a couple of weeks ago, Eli's had a quiet day at home playing with his new toys and completing his 500 piece jigsaw. He's also very proud today of his brand new unicycle which has seen a bit of action today.
Now we're looking forward to our birthday tea at Eli's choice of restaurant tonight. So that'll be a massive bowl of spaghetti bolognese then!
We're Doomed
Thankfully Dad's Army was a comedy and Private Frazer's catchphrase never amounted to anything. I guess it's the same with all these predictions by the likes of Camping and misinterpretations of the Mayan calendar, they provide for some great comedy.
Sadly after the Mayan farce we have to wait until 2018 for the next comedian's prediction to be proven wrong. Someone called F. Kenton Beshore reckons the world will end between 2018 & 2028.
Christmas Hampers
This year we'll be distributing these sixteen hampers amongst our church families so we're just tidying them up and putting on a Christmas card from church so there's no doubt as to where they are from.
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