Dean's Week

Dean's week was generally good, but unfortunately he was told on Thursday that he could no longer use the containers in CNP for his Men's Bible Study group. The reason given was that the key will "..never be given to one of Dina's friends." Oh dear! The petty mind games have begun again. Thankfully Dina has risen above this and is not bothered, but the men in the group are absolutely livid. Cyril went to see the person who made the comment and got a few things off his chest (well done that man!).

This is such a pathetic situation and it's quite amazing that one person can decide who does or does not use the 'community' centre. Please pray against such churlish behaviour, it doesn't bless anybody.

The Bible study went well and we spent quite a bit of time discussing the future of the group. The first decision we made was to keep going through the winter break, which I'm really chuffed about as it means the men are beginning to own the group. We also agreed do some Old Testament character studies, so we'll start with Noah in a few weeks time.

On Friday Dean was able to go to Helderberg Hospice and get some colostomy bags for Sarah (Paula had taken her to hospital, see 'Life Of Contrasts' below) as she had been discharged by the hospital without having been given any! What utter madness!!! Dean has also referred another CNP resident to the Hospice and we're hoping this might be the start of a fruitful relationship with them.

Dean got his mountain bike back from the shop today after a very protracted saga. There was a problem with the front chainset being too big and this caused the chain to scrape up against part of the frame. Dean had wanted the frame to be repainted and for a smaller chainset to be put on. Eventually after about 5 weeks he's achieved 1 out of 2, with a new smaller chainset being put on. However, the damage to the frame is till very much in evidence! Customer service is almost non-existent here in South Africa with many shops having truly appalling attitudes to their customers once they've taken your money. On the exercise front Dean finally relented and joined the gym today. Paula has been going to the Virgin Active near us since we got here and it's been really good for her, plus Joel loves the crèche there. Hopefully Dean will benefit as much as Paula has.

We've passed the winter solstice down here which means that for you folk up North you summer is but over. Hopefully things will improve here within the next month, although we do need a lot more rain yet to fill the dams. They're running at about 60% full at present and if they don't fill up some more then we'll have another summer of water restrictions only they'll be more punitive.

As you can see in the photos below, Joel is on top form and causing chaos when given the chance! He doesn't seem too convinced by his new hairdo yet, but we really had no choice as the cream was so well ground in. Joel was in the bath for almost an hour and was getting really fed up with us rubbing his head trying to get the cream out. Poor love!