New Pound Coin

The Suffolk Gazette is a brilliant satirical news website (which the powers that be and those lacking in any semblance of humour would label as fake news) which has even fooled Sky News into reporting on one of its articles, much to the hilarity of those of us that love the Gazette.

Competition Winner

This has really made my day!

Jayden is the first Competition Challenge winner from The Gathering's Homework Club and we are thrilled for him.

Thank you Green Shoots for being such a brilliant partner to us.

The good news keeps on coming... as of next term we're moving from three to four sessions and this will allow us to serve 24 kids rather than just the 12 we can presently.

Thank you Lord for your favour!

How Big Is Your Church?

This is a question that has been bugging me for a long time and hopefully my response to it might stir some discussion.

I used to think that question bugged me because I lead a small church, but on reflection I've come to realise it's more about the kind of people that ask the question and the hidden motive behind it.

Not so long ago we were at a Hillsong Leaders Network meeting and the speaker posed a question to each pastor present: "If your church was to close down tomorrow, would anyone notice?".

Happy Birthday

I'm posting this a day late, but want to wish Joel a very happy 14th birthday.

Paula said it best on Facebook: "Today this amazing human turns 14! Happy birthday Joel! The courage and integrity with which you face life constantly inspires and challenges me and those moments when you "hit gold" and you laugh and find such joy are priceless. Keep on being all the young man that God made you to be and I pray that you blossom, flourish and fly high this year!"

Happy birthday son!

Local Disaster Declared

"On Friday 3 March 2017, a local disaster was duly declared and promulgated in the Provincial Gazette".

Finally the City of Cape Town is getting serious about our two year old drought!

It's good to know too that they are now targeting the highest water users and visiting their properties to issue fines. Sadly however, it's all too little too late, they should have been taking serious action six months ago.

Random Stuff

So here are a few random pics of things that we have been blessed with at The Gathering and things that we have done in the last few days.

Some of this is very random. You have been warned!

Having just passed our second year in our current premises we thought it was time to install a mirror in our bathroom, and having sought a quote from a local glass company (Lens Glass) they blessed us with the mirror for free.

A mirror might not seem like a particularly big deal, but having gone two years without one in the building, and with a few of us having been caught short with unfortunate marks or dirt that a quick glance in a mirror could have sorted out before any embarrassment occurred, we are very grateful for this blessing at The Gathering. Thank you Len & Jenny at Lens Glass!

Scorchio!

When we started our soup kitchen almost two years ago we received a lot of unhelpful and downright negative advice which I'm happy to say we totally ignored.

One of the more ridiculous bits of advice was that: 'you won't need to open in summer because no one wants soup when it's hot'. Well today was the hottest day of summer so far with the temperature indoors hitting 34°C and yet we served 50 people and our soup was all gone in fifteen minutes.

Christians Abroad Visit

We've just had a 48 hour flying visit from Colin & David from Christians Abroad and have to say it was a great visit! It was pure pleasure to entertain them, to show them what we're busy with in our ministry and to introduce them to The Gathering and some other dear friends, including one or two old friends in Chris Nissen Park.

Soup Kitchen

The Gathering's soup kitchen was great last night and it got us thinking about what we might expect this coming winter in terms of numbers.

Having been running the soup kitchen for almost two years we've established some patterns and the most noticeable one is how the numbers of folk wanting soup in summer is clearly down on the winter numbers.

Maths@Home

We're almost at the end of our third week of The Gathering's Homework Club and it's been an incredible ride so far.

From Precious being trained in the role of Facilitator just days before we started to our opening day with a ton of teething issues, to kids finding their feet and getting cheeky, it's all been good.

We had a very helpful visit on Monday from some of the Green Shoots team, they loved what they saw and gave some very positive feedback and suggestions which we're now working on.

We also decided to change the times of our Friday sessions because all the local schools finish at 1pm. So I had the joy of visiting each family and took the opportunity to find out how the parents and grandparents feel about the Homework Club. Well the response was overwhelming!

Homework Club

After many months of planning and preparing, we were able to unleash our excitement as we launched The Gathering's Homework Club yesterday.

We are running two sessions on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays from 3pm - 4pm and 4:30pm - 5:30pm serving 6 children per session (12 in total) and we already have a waiting list too!

The sessions began with a sandwich and drink before the kids were finally able to get to grips with the tablets. They've been longing for this moment for a while and the joy and excitement was palpable.

It was a hectic afternoon as we grappled with teething issues and just generally figured out how it is going to work in real time, but despite the stresses involved in all of it, it was a fantastic afternoon!

Back To School

Finally the day has arrived in which our boys return to school for the new year.

Unlike many who are breathing a sigh of relief at getting rid of the kids again we really miss not having them around, though it is also good to get back in to routine.

Eli begins Grade/Year 7 and is taking it all in his measured step, he's gone with a wry smile on his face which would suggest his teacher has no idea what she's in for. Ha ha!

Fires Still Raging

It's sad to see that the fires are still burning on the Hotties and the fire crews still battling so hard to contain them. The wind is really not helping things!

This was the backdrop to Eli's weekly football coaching in the local park.  Thankfully Radloff Park is unscathed by the fires and the estates bordering it seem to have got off quite lightly too. As Joel and I were walking Rosie we saw no signs of the devastation we had been warned about.

Soup Kitchen

We had our first soup kitchen of 2017 last night and it was a very special time with a great vibe.

It all began very slowly and by ten past six we hadn't served a single person, but word got out very quickly and in a short space of time we had served 46 people.

Once our regulars began arriving we were given huge hugs from all the kids and enjoyed grateful smiles and banter with the adults in a very relaxed atmosphere. It's a pleasure to see folk so relaxed around church.

Hopefully we're starting 2017 as we mean to continue and we'll see tremendous growth of the soup kitchen and the church through it.

It was also a rare privilege to have Linda and Phillimon with us, normally they're busy with work commitments, and the vibe was assisted greatly by their presence and warmth towards those we serve.

Fire!

Three wild fires are raging locally between Sir Lowry's Pass and the Schapenberg which is right on our doorstep.

The emergency choppers have been out for most of the afternoon doing their best to douse the flames but the wind is really vicious and they have now been grounded.

The pic here is looking from outside our house up the Schapenberg and it really is looking bleak.

Life Is Cheap

We have been shocked again this morning as a church community by how cheap life is in Macassar and Firgrove.

Many of you will remember Linda's story from previous Road Shows in the UK. Linda lost 3 family members in a shooting incident that turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. Of course, the family have been through agonies as they try to process this and continue with life as the days and months unfold.

Birthday Boy

Here's wishing our baby a very happy 11th birthday.

When Paula first met him in Bloemfontein hospital at a mere 12 hours old he was simply labelled "Baby number 9".

This total world-changer, Eli (the Lord is my God) Thomas Finnie, is destined by the King of Kings to bring light and life to all he comes into contact with. This unique, highly slightly off the wall, loving, funny young man is going to bring together people of all different ages and cultures.

Christmas Soup Kitchen

Last night we had our Christmas Soup Kitchen at The Gathering and it was an incredibly fun and blessed time. It was great too that a few more of our members were able to be there and join in the blessing of our regulars.

Big THANKS go to the high school students & teachers at the International School of Helderberg for providing the shoe-boxes and to Pizza Cafe for the pizzas. The kids were thrilled with their presents and everyone enjoyed the pizzas.

Maths @ Home Presentation

We were thrilled to welcome Mark from Green Shoots to The Gathering on Wednesday night to give a presentation on their Maths@Home project which we will be running from January.

This followed an excellent evening last Wednesday of visiting the homes of many kids who attend our weekly Soup Kitchen. The response from their families was brilliant and that was reflected in the turnout for last night.

Blessings

We had the privilege of visiting our beloved HOPE Home Based Care ladies this morning and were able to bless them with small gifts thanks to the generosity of some special friends in Blighty.

It blesses us so much to be able to love on the ladies in this way and to hear their grateful hearts as they pray and give thanks to God for you.  This is true partnership.

Thank you to those that made this possible!

Shoeboxes

Today was a great day for The Gathering and our boys school; the International School of Helderberg, as the High School have been putting shoeboxes together for the children that attend our weekly soup kitchen.

Here we're receiving the first few boxes, we'll get the rest of them tomorrow and we can't wait to give them away next week when we bless our soup kitchen regulars with pizza too.

Joel and Eli are also thrilled because school finished for the year today. Hooray!