Freedom Day - Sort Of

Today in South Africa we celebrate Freedom Day one of our many public holidays.

Freedom Day specifically celebrates freedom and commemorates the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994.

This year however it feels a little surreal celebrating something that we have all been stripped of for the foreseeable future.

Anger Is Growing

Since writing this yesterday the President has addressed the nation. However my opinion remains unchanged and unless genuine tangible action is taken to help the vulnerable this will end very badly!

I have to confess to a growing sense of anger over our lockdown.

I know the lockdown is the right thing to do, we need to protect the most vulnerable and flatten the curve to make it safe for all, I truly get that, I do.

What I don't get and am struggling with is the apparent lack of foresight and planning that has gone in to the situation, leaving the most vulnerable in dire straits.

Food Hampers

This morning we had the privilege of delivering seventeen food hampers (in the form of grocery gift cards) to some of the neediest families in Firgrove.

We got fed up with waiting for govt to come through with their food parcels and decided to get the ball rolling ourselves.

I Will Bless The Lord At All Times

We have been so incredibly blessed this morning!

Our Gathering was an awesome time together in God's presence and it was amazing to think that as a church we were scattered from Firgrove in to Macassar, Mitchell's Plain, Somerset West and the Eastern Cape, but we still Gathered in one accord and worshiped in spirit & truth.

The church cannot be stopped!

We were also blessed by one of our Gathering family members who sent us a photo of the food she had prepared for four of our Soup Kitchen regulars who live close to her.  You know that your church gets it when they are serving the neediest and most vulnerable out of their own limited resources.

Thank you LORD!

3 Year Old With A Crayon

Loving Lockdown

Here we are in day 21 of what was a 21 day lock down but which was extended into a 35 day lockdown, so we're well over halfway there (and living on a prayer), and I have a confession to make... I'm loving it!

I love being at home and not having to go out, I love having Paula around and I love having my boys at home.

How It All Ends

How will it all end?

I can see two things happening and I can see them happening in tandem under certain conditions.

Firstly, I think we'll get to a position where governments are almost demanding people go back to work because the world's economies simply cannot take such a massive hit.

Food Parcels? What Food Parcels?!?

There have been protests over the Government's promised food parcels in Mthatha and a mini riot in Mitchell's Plain.  Hands up those who didn't see this coming.... anyone?..... no-one?  Of course not, such actions are inevitable (but wrong) when people are given hope and then let down.

New Beginnings

I spoke on Sunday about new beginnings, but how sometimes we have to go through storms before those new beginnings, and looked at Jeremiah 29:10-12, Matthew 14:22-33 and John 16:33 (If you want to know how I used those scriptures you can watch my message in yesterday's post). The great thing about these examples of storms is that they all contained promises of God and in each of them God is with his people. So now we're having to get through a storm but when the storm is over we will be in an amazing time and place of new beginnings.  We truly serve an awesome God!

This got me to thinking about how church is being conducted on Sundays around the world...

Easter Sunday

Just like every other church The Gathering had to be creative in how celebrated Easter together and how we celebrated communion on this most special of all days in the Christian calendar.

Once again we took to WhatsApp and once again it was such a joy to be able to Gather knowing we were united in God's presence, whether we were in Firgrove, Macassar, Somerset West or the Eastern Cape.

Familiar Face

This warmed my heart today.

I've been wondering where some of our Soup Kitchen regulars are and how they're coping during this time when life for those living hand to mouth is almost impossible. So to see Roderick's picture suddenly pop up on the Facebook page of our local homeless shelter was brilliant.

This also means that if Roderick is in there safely until the lockdown is over, then at least a few others of our Soup Kitchen regulars are too, because he always travels around with the same small crew, so whilst we can't see them, we know that at least a few are safe.

If for nothing else, I'm truly thankful for this piece of great news!

Lull Before The Tsunami?

BBC News are running an interesting piece on South Africa's Covid-19 outbreak and why our numbers are so low in comparison with other nations, particularly more developed nations with superior healthcare systems.

I think many of us on the ground know full well why our numbers are low and it's because the government took decisive action very early. South Africa's lockdown was one of the earliest to be implemented in terms of the numbers of coronavirus infections and it's one of the most draconian lockdowns outside of China.

Lockdown Extension

So there we have it, 14 days in and we've just been given another 14 days taking us neatly to the end of April.

May promises to be a month of celebration, but before we get there you have to wonder just how many of the most vulnerable people are going to struggle through starvation, lack of income and no prospects of anything good on the horizon.

Essential Service

I was so happy this morning to be able to pop in to Firgrove. I managed to issue myself with an Essential Services permit and then go and deliver some grocery gift cards to our more vulnerable church members.

It was also a great joy to bless them with the gifts but an even bigger joy to actually see some of our guys, even if it was just for a few moments to hand over the cards and say "Hi' through their gates.  Having seen no one from The Gathering for a while it really blessed my soul to have just the briefest of contact with a few.

Hopefully the cards will help them all get through this week and then we can think about how we can help again next week.  For those that we gave the cards to today they have no income or received the paltry grant just over a week ago and are struggling financially.

Please pray for The Gathering's more vulnerable members who struggle at the best of times.

What Is Normal Anymore?

I guess none of us are living what we might like to think of as normal lives, even if you're classified as an essential worker, life will still be far from what was once normal.

Things are far from any semblance of normality here and we can only look on from a distance as family and friends in Blighty keep posting pics of a trip out or a walk they had in the park, at least y'all still have those privileges.

Whilst we're cooped up we've been a bit more in demand than we might normally be, and have been asked to contribute to a few ongoing video projects as well as attempting to prepare the odd bit of video for use with The Gathering over the Easter weekend.

It's all good fun and I have to admit to enjoying being a bit nerdy when it comes to playing around with various bits of digital media, it may well be my way of staying on the correct side of the camera.

Exciting Times

Until this afternoon I had only been out once during our lockdown and wasn't expecting to go out this afternoon, but I'm so glad that I did!

It all began earlier today as I was praying and lamenting the closure of The Gathering's Soup Kitchen. I suddenly had the thought to approach a friend of Paula's whose husband is an MP and ask for his help in registering to be one of the NPOs that would distribute the Government's pledged R50m of food parcels to the neediest during the lockdown.

Thought For The Day 2

Following on from Paula's Thought For The Day on Thursday, I shared a thought about life under lockdown from a local perspective.

ParkRun (unofficially)

Today saw the inaugural Bizweni ParkRun under a magnificent clear blue South African sky. The crowds (two dogs) were full of excitement and expectation for this new event.

We should at this point thank our unofficial sponsor Covid-19 without whom this event would not have been possible.

Thought For The Day 1

Thought For The Day for St. George's Weald

Reality Bites

South Africa is a pretty lawless place at the best of times. If you don't believe me try driving in to Cape Town one afternoon or pretty much driving around any urban area and pretty soon you'll realise that red lights mean very little, Stop signs are advisory and speed limits are merely suggestions.  It goes further with traffic cops regularly being seen using their cell phones whilst driving, regularly failing to obey the rules of the road and generally setting a very poor example for others to follow, and I'll not get started on the police being used by gangs to transport drugs...

Back To School.... Sort Of

We have always been very clear that we would not home school whilst serving overseas. It's a common choice for many that do serve overseas but we've seen too many stressed and frazzled mothers (let's be honest it's always mum who does it!) to believe it's a good thing.

Sadly however, like much of the rest of the world this is no longer a choice but something that has been foisted upon us.

And so today is *officially* the start of Term 2 for both boys.  To say that there's a degree of reluctance on their parts would be an understatement, though to be fair they have knuckled down in these first few minutes, hopefully that will continue.