The Gathering International

Today is a day of good news!

The Gathering International is now registered as a Non Profit Organisation (NPO) with the Department of Social Development (DSD), as a Community Development project.

Festive Soup Kitchen

Things are getting exciting at The Gathering as we prepare for our three festive Soup Kitchens, beginning tomorrow.

We'll be serving 200 litres of home made Pea & Ham Soup. As well as serving our regulars with the usual packet of instant noodles, each recipient will receive a yummy home baked cookie, and the school age kids will each get a goodie bag containing a few school supplies together with a some sweets.

Tablets For Homework Club

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28

Sometimes it's hard to fully grasp the reality of this scripture, especially in the midst of difficult and trying circumstances.

Homework Club

We are thrilled that The Gathering's Homework Club has restarted. 

It's actually in its second week of the new school year and already we're full with quite a long waiting list.

We also have quite a lot of Gr7s from the local primary school asking to join so we are going to have to look at ways of accommodating them too. What a brilliant problem to have!

Our House Is In Order

No, not our new home, but rather our church house...

Late in 2019 I felt God give me a word for The Gathering about putting our house in order, so in Jan 2020 we kicked off the New Year with a couple of sermons on this subject drawing from 2 Kings 4:1-7 and Haggai 1:1-15.

I'll not bore you with the details of those sermons, but suffice to say that although at that time we had registered as an NPO, we were far from compliant with the Dept of Social Development's requirements. Also, we were using songs in our worship without the proper licences from CCLI, as well as being a bit lax in a few other areas.

Take That Loadshedding! Pt 2

In our seemingly never ending quest to defeat the inconvenience of loadshedding we are always looking for ways to keep the power on so as not to interrupt our Homework Club and other church activities that are reliant upon a decent internet connection.

So it's great to have a mini UPS which can power the modem and router for our fibre connection meaning we can stay connected in spite of Eskom's dastardly tricks in trying to defeat us.

Heartbreaking

As The Gathering's Homework Club runs down the last few weeks of the final term, we uncovered a tragic truth today that is also a damning indictment on the South African education system, but which also underlines why as The Gathering we want and need to take possession of the building we currently Gather in so we can better serve our community.

Exciting Times

Today was an exciting day for The Gathering as we were blessed with 23 boxes of peanut pastes from our dear friends at My Father's House in Simon's Town.

This means we can once again be generous with the pastes which have become incredibly popular amongst our Soup Kitchen regulars.

Not Defeated

It was great to see The Gathering's Homework Club continue through loadshedding on Thursday for the first time ever, and it's a blessing knowing that we no longer have to turn the kids away just because the electricity is off.

Sadly only three of the kids got the message for this week, but word is out and so the next time loadshedding is scheduled for when a Homework Club is happening the kids know that we'll be ready and waiting to serve them.

Cracking On

With loadshedding now in its 16th year and showing no signs of going anywhere anytime soon, it was time to make a plan to ensure life can go on (see Take That Loadshedding!).

So yesterday for the first time we were able to crack on with The Gathering's Homework Club through the scheduled two hour blackout thanks to our mini inverter which not only charged the tablets but then kept the router and wifi running for the 2½ hours for which the electricity was off.

Double The Excitement, Double The Blessings

Today was doubly exciting because not only is it a Thursday and we get to serve our regulars at The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen,but today our Matha@Home Homework Club restarted after an almost two year furlough thanks to the pandemic.

It just felt so right to have the Homework Club operating again and the kids were really enjoying themselves and the attention they were receiving from Delena our beloved facilitator.

100lts Coming Up

The highlight of my week is always The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen, and today I am blessed to once again be making 100 litres of delicious homemade Cream of Chicken Soup.

These are the main ingredients but I'll also be adding a lot of salt, pepper, garlic, herbs & spices and some soup powder just to top off the flavour.

Getting Ready To Launch

This is an exciting moment as we prepare to relaunch The Gathering's Maths@Home Homework Club after an almost two year break thanks to Covid.

The first eight children have been accepted and the letters are about to go out to their parents/carers to inform them that they can begin on Tuesday next week.

The Gathering's Next Home...

Following our prayerletter which we sent out yesterday and which can be read here, we want to explain a little more, give a bit more info to the background and answer a few questions...

At The Gathering we have never wanted a building for the sake of having a building, rather, we have always wanted a venue from which we can serve the local community from Monday to Saturday with Sunday Gatherings being merely the cherry on the cake. 

Fans

It was good to finally install some industrial quality fans in The Gathering's premises this morning.

Previously we had two domestic quality fans in the front and one at the back, and to be honest they were a bit rubbish. 

So it was a blessing to be able to use some of the money left over from the Soup Kitchen Christmas Lunch to buy five new good quality fans that will do a great job at cooling us all down. It's just a shame I only got to install them at the end of summer.

Video Update

We recently sent this video out to friends and supporters but reworked it to include subtitles so as not to exclude any one.

We hope it blesses you

Blessing Our Sisters

This is a little mentioned part of The Gathering's ministry to the neediest women & girls in our community.

For a few years now we have regularly been collecting sanitary pads and other sanitary products to give to the neediest and most vulnerable women in the community.

Initially this was aimed at the older girls attending our Homework Club because so many teenage girls simply miss school when they're menstruating because they have little or no access to the necessary products to help.

R Is For Resources

R is for Resources

Or rather the lack of them. 

Jesus told his disciples in Luke 10:2 that: "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few".

Homework Club 2019

It was great to see The Gathering's Homework Club back up and running on Wednesday & Thursday this week, and it promises to be another great year.

The kids were really buzzing about the restart with many of them hanging around The Gathering for a day or two prior to the restart and it was great to welcome so many familiar faces back and to meet a whole load of new ones..

The late start was due to it taking a while to find the right person to be our Facilitator, but once Marie was appointed the final admin went in to full swing to get everything ready, and it was so good to be back doing what we love.

Homework Club Awards Ceremony

This is a week overdue but it was great to celebrate another fantastic year of The Gathering's Homework Club last Friday 23rd as we held our now annual Awards Ceremony.

It's always a joy to celebrate the kids achievements and to show their families just how well they're doing, and some of our kids are doing incredibly well.