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
M is for Marshmallows
I was hoping that M might coincide with Monday, because these little marshmallow chicks seem to capture the essence of a Monday quite nicely and I would have had two Ms for the price of one, but never mind, they'll suffice on their own for today's M post.
I first saw this pic on FB where a friend had posted it, and it genuinely made me chuckle, so I hope you enjoy it too and I hope it brightens your day a little.
L should actually be for MRI but tomorrow's M is already taken and this seemed to fit quite well, despite the coarse nature of the original meaning of the expression, so apologies for that.
On Monday I went for a Lumbar MRI and after all the prep for it I had a panic attack and had to be pulled out quite quickly.
I was quite cross with myself for my reaction, especially once I had calmed down about an hour later and thought rationally about it. I realised that my head would be going no further in the tube than it had been at the beginning, so there wasn't anything to get excited about, I just needed to calm down and lie back and think of England.
K is for Kilograms
Actually, that would be 6000 of them as The Gathering took delivery of six pallets of the peanut pastes we've been busy giving out lately.
Once again it was a total blessing to be able to receive such a huge food delivery and it's an even greater blessing knowing that we have already allocated all 432 boxes and they will be gone by Friday afternoon.
J is for Jesus
Well it be rude not to given that we've just celebrated Easter and I am a pastor.
So Easter has just been and gone and I had the joy of speaking to our church on Easter Sunday about the evidence for the resurrection and picked it up again this Sunday just gone, but looking more at the evidence that Jesus was physically/clinically dead, which really underpins the resurrection. After all, if he wasn't really dead then the resurrection didn't really happen. Only he was dead and it did happen and the evidence is overwhelming.
I is for Indecision though arguably it should be for Déjà vu.
I couldn't come up with anything for I so I'll go away and hope that J might come along to rescue me.
I is also for I'm a few days behind and trying to catch up. LOL!
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This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2021.
After yesterday's post, today I had a rare day in that I took the entire day for myself and simply hid away. I ignored my phone, stayed off social media for most of the day and went for a long walk on the beach before finally re-emerging and joining my lovely wife for a drink in a local wine bar followed by a curry.
So occasionally I might feel like giving up, however, I carry on because such moments are rare and times like this evening are what make life worth living.
Actually that's wrong, G is for Don't Give Up.
This is not a pity post or one of those FB posts seeking attention, rather it's just an honest expression of the fact that occasionally, despite the encouragements and amazing things we experience in our ministry, there are times when I feel like giving up.
Thankfully I haven't so far, and I don't intend to because I love what I do, but also, I'm only human at the end of the day
One recent crackpot was labelled the "Prophet of Doom" because he sprayed his congregants with Doom (a local fly spray) in the belief it would heal them. He was later found guilty of assault. Enough said!
But now we have a clear winner in Pastor Christ Penelope who according to a local news article "farts on people to heal them".
E is for Encouragement
Life can be tough at times and quite often it's hard to see what impact we might be having on the world.
So today it was such an encouragement and a blessing to be approached by a well respected member of the community where our church meets and be thanked for all we do for the community. I particularly loved it when he said "I know you're not full on Sundays, but what you do during the week is really appreciated".
I've always believed that church is about what we do from Monday to Saturday so it was great to hear it's working in practice.
Ever since the first drought we experienced here in the Cape back in 2004 I've kept a regular eye on the levels of Cape Town's dams. I like to note how much the levels have gone up or down and get a feel for what might be happening with the next round of water restrictions. Our latest drought began back in 2016 with a normally dry summer followed by a very dry winter, a pattern which repeated itself right up until winter 2020 when the local dams finally hit an average level of 100%.
A friend posted this one on FB the other day and it made me chuckle and reminded me just how much I love cartoons.
I love them in all their forms, from static one off jokes like this one, to Tom & Jerry whacking each other, each cartoon has so much to offer and I just love them.
If I had to nail down my favourites then Matt from the Daily Telegraph and Larson's The Far Side win along with almost anything by Warner Bros (but especially Pepé Le Pew) and Disney's full length cartoons, especially Treasure Planet, a completely underrated gem of a classic.
