Sans Enfants

This week has started on a high and I'm particularly excited about the rest of it.

The high just gets higher as today we're off for two nights without the boys. We're sloping off to our favourite retreat in Pringle Bay whilst the boys will be in the very capable hands of Chl - sorry not allowed to say! What I can say is we'll be incommunicado and loving it!

I'm also looking forward to a meeting on Friday. Whilst it's not a meeting I particularly want it should be a time of laying to rest a lot of the nonsense of the last few months.

To top it all off I've been invited to preach again and am really looking forward to it on Sunday. That'll be twice in a month which is a bit of a novelty.

Bring it on!

Heroes Of The Faith - Pt 3

Whilst getting busy with the scanner recently I came across a load of forgotten photos from our time in Tanzania. We loved our year there and ere really sad that we ended up resigning from the project just a year into our two year stint. However it was at this time that we really got to know the amazing folk in this photo and had our views on Catholics radically challenged.

Let me start by telling you a bit about these guys...

Blog Stuff

In the course of a bit of blog admin (you might be surprised at what is actually involved in maintaining a blog regularly for almost 8 years!) I was pleasantly surprised and a little puzzled by some of the recent stats.

After the recent relaunch of the blog and it's integration into Facebook I knew I'd have a better idea of how many folk were reading the blog and roughly where and how the blog was being read.

Tea On The Beach

With the onset of winter, shorter nights and cooler temperatures we thought we should make the most of it and have fish & chips on the beach again especially as it was only 30°C today.

This is definitely becoming a favourite family activity, but what's not to enjoy about a stunning beach, breathtaking views and one's favourite peeps in the whole wide world to share it all with?

The perfect end to a great day.

Amazing Morning!

You know the life of the church is healthy when the leadership can sit down, sit back and allow anyone from within the church to bring a word of encouragement, a scripture or a testimony.

This morning was about exactly that as no sermon was planned but folk had been asked to spend time seeking God with a view to sharing this morning. How good it was to see a willing flow of folk bringing some amazing  testimonies, words and encouragements. What a joy to hear so much of how God is moving in the lives of folk and extending his kingdom in Mitchell's Plain.

Labour Of Love In Action

I'm so impressed with my mate Alfred and what he's doing in Grabouw. I've had the privilege of knowing Alfred for several years and first heard his gospel music many moons ago. he's a very gifted musician and singer and has a wonderful gift for being able to bring out the best in others.

If you're in SA and can help, either contact Alfred directly or give me a shout.

The original article in Grabouw Ads can be found here.

Perfect Saturday

What a perfect Saturday!

Took my boys to watch Rango at the flicks which was great, all washed down with plenty of popcorn and sodas. A great film which really is wasted on children. The humour is great and very dark in places.

After a brief lunch at home I then decamped into the garage with my boys to paint their new toy chests. Joel chose a Prince Of Persia theme and was particularly proud of his Hassansins.

Renovations

Joel finally moved into his new bedroom this evening and is very excited about it all. He chose the colour scheme and we have to say that despite some initial reservations about Grapefruit Red and green curtains the room actually looks good and it works!

Our new bedroom and bathroom are finished too so we now have room for visitors!

Many thanks go to our dear friend Michael who has been a total legend coming each day and just getting on with painting etc. Without his help we'd be nowhere near finished.

A Little 'Taste' Of Heaven!

Sometimes God gives us an incredible little taster of the blessings that are to come one day for those who love Him and serve Him.  Yesterday was one such day as Paula was privileged to escort her 5 lovely ladies, four from HOPE Home Based Care, Chris Nissen Park and one whom we trained and sent out into Broadlands Park, to lunch at the fabulous Taste Restaurant, Somerset West.

Ceroplesis Capensis

We encountered this chap on the beach on Sunday evening (see: Supper On The Beach) and had no idea what it was. After a bit of web research we discovered that it is the Ceroplesis Capensis beetle which is part of the Cerambycidae (longicorn beetles, timber beetles) family of beetles.

He looks quite nasty with the red stripes but I guess that makes for an excellent deterrent.

So there you go, you learn something new everyday!

Supper On The Beach

One of the things we love doing as a family is going to Gordon's Bay in the early evening, getting fish & chips from the best chippy around and enjoying them on the beach as we watch the sun go down.

The boys simply adore exploring the environment and messing around in the rock pools and this time playing tug o' war with a washed up kelp plant.

A large number of dead jellyfish also held their attention for quite a while as did a nasty looking bug (see below).

Joel's 8th Birthday

After what has seemed like months Joel finally celebrates his 8th birthday today!

He has been so keen to reach this landmark and was so excited last night before bed that it took him an age to finally go to sleep! On Thursday his class came for a now legendary Joel pirate party and they all had great fun. It was so nice to see such a great bunch of children together - some of whom Joel has now known and been at school with for more than 4 years.

Fun With Family & Friends

The long hot summer we have been experiencing in the Cape has brought out the South African in us!! We are thoroughly enjoying time on the beach together playing in the rock pools, swimming in the sea, walking the beach (whilst the boys race mum and dad in the sea!), eating fish and chips and generally enjoying the beauty in which we are privileged to live.

Dangerous Trees?

This sign immediately appealed to my sense of humour as I could just picture someone getting mugged by a dangerous tree.

As I was scanning loads of old photos recently I came across this one taken in Greenwich Park in 1987.

The sign was erected after the hurricane in '87 and many of the oaks in the park were in a bad way, hence the need for Elf 'n Safety to wade in.

Love And Grace

We had such an amazing time with Love And Grace Church in Mitchell's Plain this morning!

What we really enjoyed was the simplicity of the meeting.

Bible based and open to the Holy Spirit. Doesn't come much simpler than that really! Everything was God centred with leadership that felt no need to draw attention to itself which was quite refreshing after our church experiences over the last few years.

It's always great too when God rocks up, meets with you and leads you on further into his purposes. We certainly came away feeling very encouraged and motivated to get on with the next step of what God has in store for us.

Valentine's Ball

So the big day arrived - Joel's school mini Valentine's Ball!  We thought he wouldn't be all that bothered, but, how wrong could we be!!

Joel had everything planned.  He spent the entire day before worrying about what to wear and then spent an hour making a card for his Valentine (we'll let you guess who that is from the girls featured below!).

From the moment he got home today, Joel asked on the hour every hour how much longer he had to wait and from 4 o'clock was dressed and holding "the card" in his hand!

Silence

Silence is a great thing.

It can be very telling but it can also mean absolutely nothing. Silence between real friends is comfortable whilst silence between colleagues or those who assume a degree of authority can be uncomfortable.

Read into our silence what you will, or email us.

What I can tell you is that I've been out for a great meal with the love of my life!

Mission Ed' Videos Part 2

Here's the second video we showed during our mission ed visits. This is our informal photo presentation which is simply set to music with a few captions.

It's a lighter look at our lives at work and play, but mostly at play!

Part 1 is here.

Mission Ed' Videos Part 1

HOPE (Hands On, Prayer & Evangelism) Home Based Care Team video produced for our 2010 mission education trip to the UK. We used this video as part of our main Powerpoint presentation.

This video is a follow up to our previous HOPE video

It's The End Of The World As We Know It And I feel Fine

As many of you are aware from our recent mission education trip to Blighty, things have not been right in our church for quite a while and things really came to a head late last year when two of the elders resigned and left within a couple of months of each other. In short it boiled down to leadership issues.

On our return home we heard a few things about the church, though sadly nothing from the leadership about what was likely to happen and on Sunday Grace Community Church closed up and finished.

Wherever You May Wander...

So, we'd only been home for the afternoon and it started raining. What's that all about then?!?

Despite being fleeced of ninety quid by the thieving swines at BA for having bags over 23kgs (despite our almost 300kg allowance!) we had a long, smooth and easy journey. It's good to be back home and really pleased to be in the midst of unpacking and sorting things out.

On Our way Home

We're off to Heathrow in the next few minutes as we get ready for our 12 hour flight home.

We've had a great time in Blighty and it was fantastic to see so many friends again especially those we hadn't seen for nearly 20 years.

Apologies to those of you we didn't get to see, hopefully you might be able to make use of our spare bedroom in Cape Town sometime soon.

Mission Education - Final Sunday

Today was quite a monumental occasion as we did our last mission ed' visit with St. Mary's Cheadle.

What a great way to top off a brilliant week!

It was a very busy morning giving our powerpoint presentation in two services followed by lunch and a brief talk about some of our friends in South Africa and our photo presentation. This was all topped off with a 4 hour drive down South!

Facing The Mountain Roadshow - Sheffield

We had a lovely nostalgic drive over to Sheffield on Friday - re-visiting the place of our University days, early courting places, first house, church etc. etc! We also enjoyed the beauty of the area as we arrived in some beautiful late afternoon sunshine and watched the water cascading over the Ladybower Dam.

It was great to stay with friends, Tim and Liz Rose, from old CYFA venture days, whom we haven't seen for a long time.

Ladybower Dam

On our travels to Sheffield along the magnificent Snake Pass we decided to go on a bit of a nostalgia tour and show the boys a few of the sites. One of the most spectacular is Ladybower Dam and to top it off the dam was overflowing which was a real privilege to see.

The boys enjyed seeing Ladybower but were incredibly disinterested in the few other things we tried to show them. Kids eh!

Facing The Mountain Roadshow - Sheffield

This evening we'll be at 30 Bannerdale Road, S7 2DL in Sheffield for our final Facing The Mountain Roadshow.

Facing The Mountain Roadshow - Cheadle

We're really grateful to the folk who made the effort to join us for our Facing The Mountain Roadshow last night!

Big thanks must go to the Markham's for so generously hosting the evening, providing plenty of food and drink whilst opening their house up without knowing just who was going to rock up or how many would.

We had a brilliant evening catching up with some great friends and it was really good to be able to talk a bit about what we're doing out in South Africa and the challenges ahead.

Midweek Mission Ed'

This week in Cheadle is turning into exactly the kind of week we've always wanted with our supporting churches.

In between last Sunday speaking at St. Cuthbert's and this Sunday speaking at st. Mary's we've been busy with some midweek meetings. The joy of the midweek stuff is that we get to meet smaller groups of folk and speak a bit more candidly about the stuff we're involved with.

St. Cuthbert's

It's great to be back in Cheadle again and to be seeing a lot of old friends. We lived in the area from '95 for a few years before getting involved in overseas mission and always enjoyed the area, though we were gutted to learn that Haji's Kebab Shop has closed!

After a long drive on Saturday it was good to decamp from the car into John and Tricia's for a relaxing roast dinner before a busy morning at St. Cuthbert's on Sunday morning.

Our visit to St. Cuthbert's was great! We shared our Powerpoint presentation in the service which was followed by a cracking lunch and our photo presentation which was well received once again.

Good Evening

One of the joys of our mission education trips is getting to spend time with family and friends and finally after many attempts I managed to spend an evening with my brother.

A good evening was had which was topped off nicely with a visit to The Windmill for a real ale or two.

Next stop Cheadle to spend time with great friends in Cheadle and Sheffield. We're really looking forward to the next 10 days!

Lies, Damned Lies & Blame Shifters

Things in life I'm tired of:

Being lied to,
being lied about
and blame shifters.

The lying I can handle even if it does annoy me but the blame shifting is something I'm, not sure I'll ever get to grips with, especially when it's Christians doing it!

Paris Part 2

Things started well and just got better. The Eurostar was simplicity itself and a very pleasant ride. Arriving at Gare Du Nord was a cinch and our hotel was 3 stops away on the Metro. It also happened to be smack in the middle of two Metro stops, a 10 minute ride into town and a 10 minute walk from Sacre Coeur. Fantastic!

We had a great time mooching around the city, enjoying the sites, cuisine and the wine. We'd gone just to chill and other than visiting Notre Dame weren't too fussed about seeing too much else.

We'd certainly been loaded up with plenty of advice on the best things to see and do which we totally ignored.

Jigsaws

Life is not like a jigsaw puzzle. It doesn't come neatly packaged in a box with a picture on top to show how the pieces go together.

How we wish that more folk in life would grasp this simple analogy and accept that often in life we make it up as we go along and have to trust that we're making the right decisions for the right reasons.

As Christians we pepper it all with prayer but that still doesn't give us any superior knowledge as to what is necessarily the right or wrong way. We step out in faith, trusting...

Paris

The city of love with the love of my life.

What more can I say?

Paris

We're off to Paris on the Eurostar in the morning for three glorious nights sans enfantss and can't wait!

No kids, no phone, no internet, no interruptions. Just great company, lots of great food, French wine (still the best by a long way) and some of the best sights of Europe.

Do Not Disturb!

Disney

This might sound like stating the obvious, which it is, but Disney is best not viewed through the eyes of a cynical 40 something!! I hated being part of a never ending advert, being ripped off and, being nagged by endless health & safety announcements (which everyone ignored anyway). The list goes on but as I said, Disney is best not viewed through the eyes of a cynical 40 something.

Disney is best seen through the eyes of a highly excited 8 year old!

We had a great time with family and it was good for Joel & Eli to spend time with their cousins as this is a rare treat. I also enjoyed spending time with Bethy, our middle niece, as we made the most of the late night rides to go on the bigger rollercoasters that the others either couldn't ride or wouldn't ride.

Christmas Day

We had a fantastic family Christmas day despite it starting at some unearthly hour! Eventually Dean let Joel and Eli open their stockings at 4am in the hope that they would then go back to sleep. Job done by about 5am but not for long! At least they were excited.

Christmas dinner was fantastic as ever thanks to Lisa's great cooking (courtesy of Delia) and it was great to actually have a family Christmas dinner on Christmas day for the first time in three years.

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all a

Very Happy Christmas

and a

Blessed New Year

Love from

Dean, Paula, Joel & Eli

XXXX

Eli's 5th Birthday

Eli had a day of two halves as he celebrated his 5th birthday today.

The first half of the day was at Grandad's where the family made a fuss of him with some great presents.

The second half of the day was spent back  in Wimbledon (after the now regular trudge along the M25) where he finally got to play with his toys.

The day was then topped off with a lovely family meal at an Italian taverna in Wimbledon where genuine Italian gelato was the winner!

Mission Ed' - QRC

Today was a great day as we spent time with Queens Road Church right here in Wimbledon. This was our church family just after Joel was born right up until we left for South Africa in 2004 and we still have many good friends here.

As our mission education visiting goes this was the lowest key visit of all of them and yet one of the best too. We spoke briefly during an interview with Phil Moore about our work in SA and afterwards enjoyed catching up with many great folk.

Drat And Double Drat!

Drat this pesky snow and its meddling in our affairs!

Friends

One of the joys of our kind of lifestyle is that when we do make it back to Blighty we're able to make time for friends we've not seen in a while and today was one such occassion.

We first met Peter and Sue through CYFA Ventures many a moon ago and we've not seen each other for many many moons! Sadly we only had time for a coffee but it was still great to meet up again and swap news etc. Hopefully it won't be so many moons before we see each other again!

HMS Belfast

Thanks to some great friends we were able to take the boys into town again for another memorable day out. This time they chose the Belfast and were really fascinated by all that they saw.

Joel particularly loved the replica sick bay where a real operation was being performed (by models!).  Eli was very taken by the shell room and enjoyed becoming the Admiral and 'steering' the ship for a while.  It was a really good fun family thing to do and we had a blast.

Half-Way

We're half-way through our mission ed' trip and over half-way in terms of speaking engagements so it's almost downhill until we return home.

For now we're back in Wimbledon for our last 'quiet' stretch before Christmas after which it all gets very busy again as we have a few things on before our tip to Cheadle early in the New Year.

"I Can Do That!"

This is also my first HD movie so I'm quite chuffed with it.

A Day To Remember

We've had such a good day in London!

We started off at the Natural History Museum where it was obligatory to see the dinosaurs and creepy crawlies, of course. Followed by the mammals where Eli wanted to see a tiger and then we spent loads of time looking at various whales etc whilst Eli tested the interactive displays to check they really were child proof. Job done!

Hertford

On Sunday we had one of our busiest mission education visits as we were at Herftord Baptist Church where Dean preached twice in the morning which was followed by lunch and our Powerpoint presentation and informal photo slideshow. We always enjoy visiting Hertford as we've known many of the folk since 1999 when we began studying at All Nations in Ware.

Freeze Before The Thaw?

The snow has melted a lot overnight in the rain which also means the big freeze never materialised. At 8pm the outside temp was down to -8°C but by 11pm it had warmed up to around -5° and it must have kept getting warmer. It's hardly an Indian summer out there now but it is a welcome relief!

So we're off to Hertford at lunchtime today ready to speak at two services tomorrow morning followed by our Powerpoint over lunch as our mission education trip continues. Really looking forward to seeing good friends again!

Thaw Before The Freeze

We managed to venture out to Tunbridge Wells this morning after spending an hour or so clearing the drive (and car) of snow.

All was going really well until we were ¾ the way up Morley's Hill leading out of Weald when another driver decided he was coming down regardless and forced me off the road. Three attempts later we made it with the subtle odour of burnt clutch.

Walking Off The Pain

I'm not entirely sure how, but in getting our bags in from the car last night I put my back out and have been in a lot of pain ever since. I've never had real backpain before and am not enjoying it one little bit! Sitting down is the worst so I've found that if I keep walking things are a bit better.

So having had a short walk with my boys this morning which they enjoyed right up until the cold killed the fun, I then had a decent walk this afternoon down to Westwood Farm.

Before & After

I took the first pic of the car after making it onto the drive and abandoning it where it stopped. Since then the snow has barely stopped and now the car is well and truly stuck for the time being.

Guess we're not going anywhere in a hurry!

Sledging!

With two very excited boys in tow Daddy got to go sledging for the first time in donkey's years.

After a slow but thankfully uneventful drive to Weald we managed to get to Grandad's house without incident. sadly the guy who backed up to let us pass wasn't so lucky as he wrote off the car behind him! We took a bit of a run up to the drive and once on abandoned the car where it stopped.

Richard was then a star as he came and picked us up in the Landy to take us to the farm.

There's Snow Business Like...

Joel and Eli finally got to experience snow for the first time and they loved it! Joel has wanted to play in snow for years so he was really thrilled to be in Susan's garden finally playing in it.

Snowballing Daddy seems to have been the highlight (Mummy was a bit wiser and remained firmly indoors - only cos she doesn't have any wellies!) but building a snowman came a close second. Daddy was sent back indoors to find a carrot for the nose and something for the eyes and the result looks pretty good for a first ever attempt by the African boys.

It's Snowing

Apparently the current snowfall is the earliest in the UK for 17 years and we have two very very excited boys who are desperate to be playing in it.

This is the view of our garden in Wimbledon which leads me to surmise that if the snow has settled this much down south in London Town how much worse/better must it be out of town.

Guess we'll find out tomorrow when we'll be venturing down to Weald.

Chillin' Out

What else is there to do in this freezing weather than to chill in front of the telly?

Don't you just long for those days when you could lounge around on the furniture like that?

Got to admire Eli's style there!