Awesome Weekend

We've had an amazing Sunday and a very good weekend overall. Dean had Friday off as he had worked quite a few late nights and was feeling quite shattered emotionally having been a sounding board for some folk in Chris Nissen Park. Things are beginning to happen and it appears that Dean has gained the confidence of most of the key leaders within the community. We praise God for this as we asked you to pray that he would be accepted by the community as we left the UK and God is certainly answering this prayer! Please continue to pray for favour for Dean as he continues to build relationships in CNP.

On Friday we had a lovely family day in Cape Town and took Joel to the aquarium (we're members now so can go any time for free). He appeared to enjoy this even more than the first time we took him and his attention was held for well over an hour. His favourite appears to be the Kelp Tank which he can stand against and watch fish as big as himself glide lazily past him. The only negative of the whole weekend was when we discovered that our DVD player had cooked itself. We had planned to watch a film but had to change that. Such is life at times.

On Saturday Paula enjoyed a couple of hours on her own in the gym and steam room whilst Dean took Joel to Monkey Town. Joel really enjoyed seeing the monkeys and a highlight for him was when a Spider Tailed Monkey sneezed right in front of him. Joel giggled and then copied the monkey! He also enjoyed the chimpanzees who were being very silly, he also laughed at the monkeys feeding (Joel's eating habits were not dissimilar!).

On Sunday we knew that Steve Oliver would be speaking so we made an effort to get to church a little bit earlier so we could speak to him. Steve had a specific word for us back in May 2002 concerning our childlessness, so he prayed with us at that time, as you know we got pregnant shortly afterwards. We had emailed him to let him know that God had answered his (and our) prayer but we never heard back from him. We met again before the service and he was so excited as he'd used our testimony the previous evening at an Evangelists conference and was going to do the same in the morning. Needless to say that having the actual couple he was referring to in the congregation was really encouraging for him especially as he thought we were in the UK. The morning service was quite incredible with six people becoming Christians and many people being prayed for for healing. Steve asked if we would come and share our testimony again in the evening at Jubilee church in Cape Town which we were able to do. Again God was on the move and we heard that a total of 86 people had been saved across the related churches in the Western Cape in the morning. During the evening service a further six people got saved bringing the total to 92 new Christians in one day! Praise God!!!!!

This week will be a shorter week again as Friday is Heritage Day so we look forward to another long weekend.

Just as we finished writing this we heard that 'Tannie' Jane's husband died on Sunday night. Dean will have further news tonight so we'll let you know more tomorrow.

Lots of love

Dean & Paula