Holiday Time

We're in the midst of packing and sorting stuff ready for our annual holiday on Wednesday. No doubt there'll be the usual last minute panic with something forgotten or the sudden realisation that certain things no longer fit or work, but regardless we're really looking forward to some time out from the busyness of life.

Thankfully the house sitter is well sorted so at least Rosie will be well looked after even if we forget something else important.

20 September 2013 will go down in history as the day the earth lost a precious lady, a woman who spent her life giving and serving, a woman who loved Jesus with all her heart, all her mind and all her strength, a woman who loved her family and pursued unity at all costs.

Aunty Poppy was one of my first real friends in South Africa, very quickly she won her way into my heart and before long I regarded her as my South African mother. She loved me and my family with a passion and could never wait to see any visiting members of my own family from the UK, particularly my Dad!

Today we celebrate 22 years of married life and to celebrate, albeit a day or two earlier, we had a night away in Kalk Bay.

It was great to take some time out and just chill, free from distractions and the busyness of life. It was also great to reflect on the adventure God has taken us on in those years.

Family On A Mission Together

We had a very pleasant and enjoyable afternoon in Mitchell's Plain on Saturday with some of our close church family. It's a joy to know that we're serving our awesome God with some truly anointed people.


We're also excited about some of the changes being brought about amongst us and we can't wait to see what God has in store as his plans unfold for us all.

Exciting times!

Women's Day Outreach 2013

We recently asked you to pray for our Women's Day outreach on 9 August and are so thrilled to feedback now to you on how God awesomely answered your prayers!

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

Having written a reflection post about our recent trip to Blighty I felt challenged to write a more truthful one. Not that I was lying in the previous post, far from it, but there was more going on than I wrote about and it's pretty important stuff.

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 can't quite believe that after months of planning and preparing for our UK trip it's now over and we've been back home for a couple of weeks. Life is now back into its usual cycle of school runs etc. but we'll attempt to put a coherent reflection together.

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

Last night saw the conclusion of our Facing The Mountain Roadshows as we gave our final presentation to a select gathering of folk right here in Weald village.

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.
Fantastic!

London Town

I've just had a quick trip out on to the roof of Susan's house to take in the spectacular views over London.

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.


Half Time

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.

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!

..But we're not out!

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

We were saddened to learn this morning that Aunty Poppy is again seriously ill and has been admitted to intensive care.

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!

It hardly seems possible but it's now less than 24 hours until we get on the plane for Blighty.

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

We've begun sending out invites for our forthcoming Roadshows in the UK.

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

Here's a scary thought...one month from today we'll be boarding a plane for our UK trip.

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.

The 2013 Blogging From A to Z Challenge was a lot harder than last year, mainly because it crept up on me and I had failed to plan ahead so on the 30th March I found myself desperately looking for a theme and subjects for it. Will I never learn?!

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


"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First 
and the Last, the Beginning and the End."
Revelation 22:13

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

If you're of the praying persuasion please pray for us at Tree of Life as we have a great set of young adults and kids who join us faithfully every Sunday.

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.

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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2013.
We don't have a xylophone at Tree of Life.

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.