It warms my heart to think of Michael & Joyce as a 'place of safety'. As a couple they have grown and matured so much in the 3 years we've known them and Michael has become a trusted friend whom we love dearly.
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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
"Tonight I am drinking the last of the cool drink we have, tomorrow there is no cokes or fizzy drinks in the house and no water mixers, if you want a drink you have a choice between tea with no sugar or water, that is it. I have nothing to offer my kids. I have used all my contacts , been everywhere and never been in this position before. I have not had beef for probably 3 months now and if you know me that's tough.
What will I be writing to you next that has run out, will it be no food in the house from tomorrow, who knows , someone please nuke this place and put us out of our misery, I am tired..............."
That was a quote form an email we received recently from our best friends in Zimbabwe. Somehow it conveys the truth in a very simple way that is so often missed by the mainstream media. Life in Zim is desperate and there are no immediate solutions waiting just around the corner.
Please pray for Zim and her people. Pray for the church, that she would be "..the light of the world" in a very dark place. Pray too for a Godly solution to the crisis in the nation. Man has no answers to this mess!
What will I be writing to you next that has run out, will it be no food in the house from tomorrow, who knows , someone please nuke this place and put us out of our misery, I am tired..............."
That was a quote form an email we received recently from our best friends in Zimbabwe. Somehow it conveys the truth in a very simple way that is so often missed by the mainstream media. Life in Zim is desperate and there are no immediate solutions waiting just around the corner.
Please pray for Zim and her people. Pray for the church, that she would be "..the light of the world" in a very dark place. Pray too for a Godly solution to the crisis in the nation. Man has no answers to this mess!
My official time was: 4:04:13, with an average speed of 13.51kph which was due to the numerous portage sections.
This was a tough race as the mud was far worse than at the last Stellenbosch race. Despite the race being 5km's shorter and with only 1200M of climbing as opposed to 1400M in the previous race this one felt tougher, probably because of the mud. Also, my maximum heart rate was 1bpm less on this race and my average heart rate was 2bpm less. I also burnt 4435Kcal on this ride! Think I've earnt a beer or two tonight.
Our best friends in Zimbabwe sent us this photo of some friends of theirs paying the bill for a meal out. The party of 8 had two courses and a few beers which came to Z$6million which they paid using Z$1000 notes. If it wasn't so tragic it might be funny but it really isn't anything to laugh about.Our friends in Zim really need your prayers, life is really tough with even the most basic of food items being scarce and very expensive.
How we long for change in that amazing nation!
In the midst of busy lives and endless running around it's really important to take time out as a family, to pull up the draw bridge and exclude the outside world. We spent quite a bit of time doing just that over the weekend and we've had some really great moments. Joel & Eli have thoroughly enjoyed so much attention and have provided some wonderfully entertaining moments for Mummy & Daddy.
Joel had a 'proud moment' on Friday as he had to walk with 'Aunty Zonkie' to the Principal's office to receive the Principal's Special Award sticker for excellent behaviour!! All the children in the class are gradually moved from number 1 to 10 for doing good things/excelling in some way and when they reach 10 they have to go and see the Principal. Joel's 9 to 10 moment came today as a result of willingly sharing the Batman costume with a classmate - something we have all been working on for weeks!
For fear of being overly negative, we'll not bore you with the details of our frustrations, but if you've been reading this Blog for any length of time you can probably figure it out.
On Saturday my friend Paul and me went to Stellenbosch for the annual Stellenbosch MTB Challenge. We entered the 60km race and didn't disgrace ourselves! We had a lot of fun but cracked fairly decent times. I've never seen so much mud! Everyboy was havin problems with the mud in their gears which made for some interesting moments.
The problem here is that South Africa generally doesn't have a book culture in the way the UK does and so books are very expensive. Harry Potter was going on sale at launch for the usual R240ish (£17). However, Paula happened to see a small notice at our local supermarket saying they would be selling the book for R149 (£10). We knew Paula would be at the supermarket around lunchtime but certainly didn't expect to find any copies left, but lo and behold, there were loads!
We were very blessed on our last night when Mike the farm mechanic baby-sat for us so we could enjoy the highlights of Montagu's nightlife. Sadly Montagu has no nightlife! Despite that we really did have a lot of fun together.
The Red Cross recently asked us to spend R10,000 on their behalf, the only condition being that the money be used to buy things for those in the greatest need. After a brief assessment (limited by time) we decided that aluminium roofing sheets would be very useful for those living in shacks. The money enabled us to buy 150 roofing sheets and enough nails to secure them (however, the recipients must take responsibility for fitting them). Today Dean delivered the sheets to those who needed them.
We'll post more in the next day or so.
The feed back from the two days has been very positive so hopefully we'll be able to follow it up later in the year.
Having had a hectic weekend of birthday parties and 'Project Fix It' this week is about to get a lot busier and more hectic. Dean has a ton of stuff to do in preparation for part 2 of Project Fix It such as collating the outstanding jobs, sorting teams for Saturday and buying the outstanding resources needed all of which needs to be squeezed in between his language studies.
Starting tomorrow we're launching 'Project Fix It' in which we want to bless our church members living in the local townships by fixing up their houses to make them more tolerable for winter. Many of our members can't come to church in the mornings because they're too cold or wet. So, Dean has enlisted/conscripted a number of folk to come and undertake simple repair jobs such as replacing windows, fixing leaky roofs etc.
"What do you most miss from home?" & "What can we send you?"
These are two common questions which are actually quite hard to answer. When we were in Tanzania we welcomed just about anything, especially Pepperami sticks and Onion Bhaji Mix. However, here in South Africa we can get pretty much anything. Our local fish & chip shop is far superior to anything in the UK, as is most local produce and marmite is on the supermarket shelves. Our local pub (we don't frequent it too often) even serves Kilkenny on draught and Boddingtons is available in the local bottle store!
Today saw the culmination of months of prayer, planning and hard work as Paula hosted a meeting in the tent at Chris Nissen for mums of 0-3 year olds and mums to be. The idea was to reach out to this particular section of the community and find a way of getting alongside them as friends on common ground. To do this Paula and 2 fellow mums from the church held a coffee morning with talks on the benefits of breastfeeding and good nutrition for babies followed by a short gospel message.
Not long ago I stumbled upon a Blog entitled Telstar Logistics where they were following the story of a time capsule which had been buried in Tulsa in 1957 to be dug up 50 years later in 2007. The time capsule consisted of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere and a few other items. Unfortunately at the time of burying the Plymouth it's proneness to rust was still unknown.
We died and went to heaven on Sunday! Yes you did miss the rapture. Heaven was an assortment of real Indian curries cooked by Caroline (Morgen's mum). The food was sublime and we had a really relaxing afternoon with some other parents from Joel's school and Caroline's dad, Maurice who is visiting from the UK. Maurice is originally from India and having lived in Norwood for many years is also a Palace fan which makes him a top bloke! Dean & Maurice spent much of the afternoon playing pool but only when not eating curry. Joel had a ball with his friends Liam & Morgen, so much so that this morning he could only talk about Liam's house and going to play there again.
A while ago we had Joel Bird stay with us for a few days as he enjoyed a long weekend break from his time with Scripture Union in Jo'burg. Joel had to return to the UK a bit earlier than expected so he spent his final night with us before leaving.The boys were really chuffed to see Joel again and Eli took a real shine to him. I know Joel's parents will read this, so just to let you know that it was a real pleasure to have Joel stay, he's a real credit to you!
How to update without getting into trouble with someone? Probably not possible so here goes..
Chris Nissen is a real challenge at present. Mainly because some of our church members are behaving appallingly and preventing other non members in the community from either coming to church or trying out one of our groups.
Joel had the most wonderful, magical afternoon yesterday at his friend Ross's 4th birthday party. Of course it was a Pirate party and everyone came dressed and ready for action. As soon as we turned in to the farm entrance there were skull and crossbones announcing the venue and once there, the woods had been transformed with papier mache crocodiles in the stream with a plank to walk over; a croc' for pin the tale on the croc'; treasure hunting; signing their names in pirate blood etc, etc,. Ross's mum certainly has a very active imagination and I think she enjoyed it more than all the guests!!!
After a dreadful bout of measles I seem to be almost 100% which is a relief! I managed to ride in Jonkershoek for 2 hours on Saturday morning with a friend and it was great to be on the bike again after two weeks of inactivity. Thankfully my fitness levels weren't overly impacted by the sickness and I was able to climb the big hills with no problems.
I had another of those life-changing wake-up moments yesterday during my visiting in CNP. My ladies had been telling me about a woman called Mary (name changed to protect identity) who has recently been very sick with AIDS. They very much wanted me to visit and pray with her and see what the little home based care team can start to offer her. I was thrilled about this as I have wanted to meet her for some time. I was greeted outside the house by a stick thin woman carrying a big basket of washing and a huge smile on her face. I couldn't believe this was Mary, I was expecting a very sick person lying in bed, probably in a very smelly house. How wrong could I be. Mary is amazing! She has been very sick but is coming through the latest dose of illness. She had been to the clinic that morning and got more ARV's and Vitamin C. We sat and chatted about the importance of a good diet, which she fully understands. The problem is that she needs to eat before taking the pills or they make her very sick, and at the moment, there is no family income as neither she nor her partner work.
Terrific, I've got measles! Who ever heard of a 40 year old with measles? Pathetic isn't it.
I feel shocking but at least I have a name for it as I'm sure Paula was getting a bit fed up with my slow ambling around the house. The headache is incredibly painful, my eyes are really sore and I'm either freezing or roasting, not being able to get comfortable. For the last couple of days I've been craving sunshine to help me warm up. I ache all over so find playing with the boys almost impossible which is really gutting.
I feel shocking but at least I have a name for it as I'm sure Paula was getting a bit fed up with my slow ambling around the house. The headache is incredibly painful, my eyes are really sore and I'm either freezing or roasting, not being able to get comfortable. For the last couple of days I've been craving sunshine to help me warm up. I ache all over so find playing with the boys almost impossible which is really gutting.
This week has been a bit testing so far and we would really value your prayers. It all started a bit badly on Saturday when Paula woke up to find she couldn't open one of her eyes. It turned out that she had been bitten by a spider. All is well now, after a massive shot of hystamine, but it wasn't pleasant.
Now Dean has been complaining of terrible headaches, achiness and general 'not very well' type symptoms. This morning he came out of the shower sporting a beautiful all over rash. By 10 o'clock he was diagnosed with having measles... he is not a happy chappy to put it mildly. As when Paula had chicken pox for the first time aged 35, Dean says this is the worst he's felt in a long while.
Now Dean has been complaining of terrible headaches, achiness and general 'not very well' type symptoms. This morning he came out of the shower sporting a beautiful all over rash. By 10 o'clock he was diagnosed with having measles... he is not a happy chappy to put it mildly. As when Paula had chicken pox for the first time aged 35, Dean says this is the worst he's felt in a long while.
I rode the Tru Cape 40km mountain bike race this morning and whilst I enjoyed it I'm now very tired and just a little bit sore, more about that in a minute! I rode with my friend Paul and a friend of his, Paul & I ride early on Wed mornings. This was my first MTB race and like an idiot had to choose what is arguably the toughest on on the calendar. The race venue was the Grabouw Country Club and the surrounding mountains.
So here are three local scenes we've pulled from Google Earth:
Today was a really good session for the simple reason that most of my old faithfuls turned up! Eight men came today which after the last couple of weeks is brilliant. I deliberately hadn't prepared a specific study as I wanted to talk about the future of the group and the direction of it. I'm really pleased that the guys decided they do want the group to continue, but more importantly they want to get back to doing 'proper' bible studies. This means a lot more work for me but it's a price I'm happy to pay! For the last few months we've been following the same material as the rest of the cell groups but it hasn't really been very good for my study group as most aren't members of our church. So, starting next Thursday we'll begin working our way through the book of Acts, looking at it's background, context and meaning of the text.
We've just had a very long weekend thanks to two public holidays, Freedom Day on Friday and Workers Day on Tuesday. Everyone seemed to take the Monday off too to make the most of the break. We had lots of fun, especially as we had 'big Joel' staying with us for the weekend. We last met Joel when he was 2 years old, we were part of a CYFA camp leadership team on which Joel's dad was the Vicar.
It's so great to live with a 4 year old!! Not only are they the boss, they know it all and they live in a fantasy world - how brilliant. Whilst we run around worrying about life, the rent, what to eat, cars breaking down etc. Joel is fighting imaginary battles with Captain Hook and watching at every twist and turn for the crocodile. He will not go out without his sword and would in fact prefer to be in full Peter Pan costume no matter how hot it is. He will relent and wear school uniform only because he knows that his little Peter Pan and Captain Hook figures are in his school bag all morning just outside the classroom window! He is never happier than when he plays with his pirate ship whilst watching Peter Pan the movie. When playing outside he is always flying and changes his happy thought daily.
Here's the first installment of holiday photos and stuff. One of the joys of the farm and the Montagu area is that there are lots of mountain bike trails, so there's much fun waiting to be had. I did several small rides around the farm as sadly the website had oversold their '3 Mountain Bike Trails' which turned out to be almost non-existent.I was able to ride over a few hills and into the neighbouring farm in the next valley but apart from that most of my rides were spent trying to hack a way through the fynbos, which is only fun for a few minutes until your legs are gashed open.
Ben's Blog is always worth reading but this post is very good. Enjoy..
We're safely back from holiday and we'll post about it tomorrow with some photos.
We arrived home to hear that Jacques one of the Rastas in Chris Nissen has been murdered whilst working away from the community. He had picked up some hitch hikers and whilst dropping two off he was carjacked and murdered. The funeral is on Saturday so Dean will attend.
Jacques was a really nice guy and it was quite typical of him to be giving lifts to strangers, being keen to help folk out. He was a gifted musician too, playing the flute in a Rasta band.
Please pray about this as it could be a great opportunity to witness to the Rasta community in Chris Nissen. This murder will also have knocked the community quite badly so please remember them in your prayers.
We arrived home to hear that Jacques one of the Rastas in Chris Nissen has been murdered whilst working away from the community. He had picked up some hitch hikers and whilst dropping two off he was carjacked and murdered. The funeral is on Saturday so Dean will attend.
Jacques was a really nice guy and it was quite typical of him to be giving lifts to strangers, being keen to help folk out. He was a gifted musician too, playing the flute in a Rasta band.
Please pray about this as it could be a great opportunity to witness to the Rasta community in Chris Nissen. This murder will also have knocked the community quite badly so please remember them in your prayers.
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