Today is a strange day, and one I've know was coming for a long time, though I always hoped it never would come, but even now that the day has arrived, I'm torn in equal measure between heartbreak & excitement.
Today, Joel left home.
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The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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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
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng -
Thankful Thursdays -
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HOPE Home Based Care Team -
Gathering Ground -
Staying fit as a family -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
Showing posts with label uk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label uk. Show all posts
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
3 John 1:4
As a Christian, husband, father, pastor & chaplain, I don't think there is a greater joy as a parent than standing in the same room as your child in the presence of God, worshipping Him in spirit & truth together.
We're in the countdown for our trip to Blighty, and life just seems to get busier & busier.
In the midst of preparing for our trip, we're still juggling life and having to make some plans for the future, especially regarding my health.
We're really excited to be coming back to Blighty for a month, it means we'll miss a month of winter here, but most importantly, it means we'll get to spend time with Eli, having not seen him for over 18 months!
Time with family is always precious and a blessing, and to spend some of that time together celebrating the marriage of our oldest niece was just the cherry on the cake.
One of my biggest joys has to be talking to folk about my boys because they're both doing so well. They've both had some tough stuff to face and deal with and yet they've both overcome and each are in a really good place. Sometimes as I'm talking about them, I feel as if I'm making it up about how well they're doing, but then I realise I'm really not.
Back then the church was known as Town Church and was meeting in people's homes and then in Bligh's Hall in Sevenoaks Town centre.
(with apologies to The Art Of Noise)
So here I am in Blighty ready for the wedding or our oldest niece tomorrow, it's going to be a lovely day and a very special occasion, I feel privileged to be here and honoured to play a tiny part in the day in walking my sister-in-law down the aisle and leading the prayers for Suzi & Luke.
After an exciting ten days back in Blighty with family to celebrate our middle niece's wedding, Paula arrived home this morning, much to the relief of all the trousers.
The junior trousers survived and were fed, watered and made it to their various commitments on time as well as getting home again safe and sound, so I'll call that a win.
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.
Initially there was broad support for the lockdown despite the fact that before it started there had been no local Covid related deaths and infection rates were minimal.
Happy New Year to you all.
We've been thoroughly blessed with an amazing family Christmas (our first in 11 years) and New Year and this morning, after worshiping with the community of St George's in Weald we interred Paula's Dad's ashes in the graveyard.
This was a special time with family and was great to share with Paula's remaining Uncles & Aunts on her Dad's side. We were also thrilled to learn that his ashes were to be interred in the same place as her Mum's ashes. This truly blessed the family.
So, Christmas is done and we're entering an interesting year...
Eli enters his Matric year and is very keen to enlist in the British Army as soon as he can once his exams are over. Joel has applied for an internship and is hoping and praying he's successful. Please stand with him & us in praying for this.
He was a dearly loved father, father-in-law & grandad and we're very sad at the thought of never seeing him again.
If you only listen to or watch one thing on Black Lives Matter, listen to our good friend Dave speaking about his own experiences in the UK.
As white people we will never need our lives to be verified in the way that Dave and so many other black people have experienced at some point. That is why we are privileged and black lives matter.
#BlackLivesMatter
Pink Floyd announced the release of their Later Years ensemble late last year saying it would be released on November 29. Exciting times!
My lovely sister-in-law and family agreed to get it for me for Christmas and so began an almost 9 month saga that finally ended today when a courier handed me the parcel containing the LP.
My Palace made me proud as they supported Black Lives Matters on their shirt sleeves and their backs in place of their name,s and I love that they all took the knee in solidarity.
Last night President Ramaphosa addressed the nation to let us know about the reduction in regulations to Level 3 of our lockdown.At this point you have to wonder why we're bothering given that the government have once again caved in to the loudest voices and shifted the nation to an alert level somewhere between Level 2 & 3 but not fully one or the other. And in the midst of the confusion dear old Cyril wants South Africans to take personal responsibility for curbing the transmission of the coronavirus. Like that's going to happen! 😀😏
Following on from yesterday's post I felt the need to salute the generous heroes (locally & abroad) who quietly give to make it possible for The Gathering, My Father's House, the Night Shelter and countless others to be able to reach out to the most vulnerable and provide them with food parcels, soup kitchens, sandwiches, food vouchers etc.The generosity is real, as is the desire by many to help in whatever way they can to ensure that the most vulnerable are cared for, particularly in provision of the most basic human need of all.
I came across this the other day on social media and it really struck a chord with me, and after spending a couple of days explaining to a few folk some of the realities of lockdown here in SA for many that The Gathering reaches out to and ministers to, I thought it would make a good post on here.I have to confess to being just a little bit tired of hearing people in privileged positions (politicians and so called celebrities and a few others) telling the rest of us that 'we're in the same boat'. They trotted that rubbish out under austerity and it wasn't true then just as it isn't true now.
We are NOT in the same boat! We are in the same storm for sure but not the same boat. How some will cruise through this storm and how some will barely tread water in the hope of surviving are two very very different things.
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