Petition

Recently I started a petition on the UK Government's petition website.

At first glance it may appear to have an anti South African stance about it, but it really doesn't. Saly, I was limited to a certain number of characters and after several attempts this was the best I could come up with.

This isn't anti South Africa or South Africans, far from it. What it is about is stopping what I feel is a gross injustice.

Testimony Sunday


Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story
(Psalm 107:2)

Wow, nothing warms a Pastor's heart more than seeing their flock growing in Christ, hungry for more of the Holy Spirit and stepping out in faith, sharing their often deeply moving stories of how God is at work and has been at work in their lives.

This morning at The Gathering we gave our gathering over to testimony. We like to do this a few times throughout the year because it's good to hear what the Lord is doing in each other's lives.

Dear Mark Carney,
I'm sure you're a very nice man but would you please just stop talking for a while.
Every time you speak you run the UK down a little bit more and the Pound takes a tumble.
Please just stop talking!
Yours sincerely
Dean

Voting Day

Today is Voting Day in South Africa as the country goes to the polls to vote in the Municipal elections.

For me it's a day that gets me quite angry given that I've lived here for 12 years, am a Permanent Resident with a constitutional right to remain in the country and yet I can't vote.

The last 24 hours or so have been horribly wet and cold but mornings like this make it worth it.

I took this earlier this morning whilst walking Rosie in our local park.

Sadly despite all the rain of the last couple of weeks our dams are still desperately low and we need some serious downpours before summer begins.

Family Therapy

One of our better purchases in Blighty was the classic Pie Face game and today we managed to get some squirty cream and play.

Watch the video below and decide for yourself how much fun this game is.  All we can say is this was a great family therapy session and can't recommend it highly enough!

We were a little bit early when we renewed our vows two Sundays ago, our Silver Anniversary isn't until the 14th of September, but the opportunity was too good to miss what with us being back in St. George's for our last Sunday.

We had a great morning and must thank St. George's and the Rev Mandy Carr for allowing us to hijack the bulk of the morning service to do this!

It was also a great privilege to celebrate with some truly special friends, we know many couldn't make it and we missed you, but we're thankful to those of you who were able to join us. 

I had the privilege of speaking for a few minutes and I did say that we should really call this "a celebration of Paula's madness" having put up with me for 25 years.
Such is the modern world that I'm sat here at over 10,000 metres up in the sky and a little over 3,000kms from home but still able to access the internet via on board wifi.  I wrote that on the plane and then fell asleep and forgot to post it, so here is the blog post I wrote...

Well our long anticipated and planned for trip is over, we're just a few hours from being back home and it's been good to spend a few hours reflecting on the last five weeks.

Click the image to see it full size
I'm delighted to say that Aunty Henna is home again!

She had pneumonia and has high BP. I was thrilled to visit today and find family members buying her food and pouring over her Discharge form with a dictionary!! As usual, everyone was waiting for me (the non medic!) to explain the medication! So what have you been up to I ask her, "praying" she answers! She really is my very own Aunt Clara from The War Room!! Such fun also to see her face as she was blessed with a DVD player, one of her heart's desires

Thank you Lord!

Go-Kart A GoGo

Today is a public holiday and what better way to spend it than on servicing/upgrading the boys' Go-Kart.

First job was to replace the broken front axle, it was a bit of a swine to do given that it involved drilling right through the length of the wood, but the finished job looks and works a treat.

Next up I swapped the old crate seat for a scavenged school style seat which I'd seen on a building site whilst out walking Rosie.

Personally I'm really chuffed with how it's all turned out and the boys gave it their approval declaring it to be "cool".