14 Years!

Today is our 14th (apparently that's Ivory) wedding anniversary! WOW! Marriage is such a brilliant thing, in Proverbs 18:22 it says: "He who finds a wife finds what is good and receives favour from the LORD." 14 years of marriage certainly feel like favour from God.

Paula & Joel arrived home safe & sound, it is so good to have them home. Joel has clicked back into his routine and appears to be so happy to be home, he's smiling all the time and enjoying rediscovering all his toys. Whilst Joel was away, I bought him a guitar and he hates to be parted from it now and we're really looking forward to Sunday when he'll take it to church. It's so good to have normal service resumed, the house is cluttered with toys and is a complete mess, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Reasons We Love Africa

Katrina - Christians Respond

I said in an earlier post that I would try and find a church website in New Orleans with relevant prayer topics etc, but unfortunately I've not found one yet. However, I did come across the following article and photos on the BBC News website.

It's brilliant to know that the church is responding to the gospel by reaching out to those hit hardest by hurricane Katrina. In Galatians 2:10 Paul wrote: "All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do." The poor are dear to God and close to his heart and when the church acts to help the needy God is really happy. The following article should warm our hearts too.

The following article is ©BBC.

Scarey Photo

Paula's younger sister, Jo, celebrated her 35th birthday this weekend so the family went out for a meal. As you can see from the photo below, there is a striking family resemblance between them all. The photo shows (left to right) Paula, Lisa, Dad & Jo

Dogs Chasing Kites

My weekend's been quite good so far (given that I've not managed a lay-in for 3 weeks, parenthood has definitely reprogrammed my body clock!), on Saturday morning I went to Hermanus on my own, the weather here at home was gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky (maybe Spring has sprung?) but as I drove over Sir Lowry's Pass the fog (cloud) was really dense and once through that it was quite overcast.

Jemma & Freya

Paula had a visit from Jemma & Freya the other day, (Jemma is a friend from All Nations) Paula really enjoyed catching up with Jemma again and spending some time with Freya. Joel was a treasure and helped her with just about everything and then copied her when she was drinking her milk. The things that amuse 2 year olds!

Three Days To Go...

Paula & Joel are enjoying their last few days together in the UK, only 3 (and a bit) days to go and they'll be home!!!!

Paula & Joel met up with Julia & Rebecca earlier in the week and went out for lunch followed by the kids playing together. They all had a good day, as you can see from the photos.

Coffee & Cake

We (John & I) took the CNP Bible Study to the Spur in Gordon's Bay for coffee & cake this morning and had great fun. Afterwards we drove up to the viewing point by Steenbrass Dam, which offers amazing views of False Bay. Hope you enjoy the photos below.

Katrina - The Aftermath

Looking at some of the blogs about Hurricane Katrina and life in New Orleans, it does appear that the authorities have dismally failed their citizens, leaving people to fend / fight for themselves, in many cases leaving people fighting for their lives without much success. Government at all levels has failed, locally and nationally and the mayor of New Orleans must take as much criticism as any other authority figure including Bush. Michael Moore has pitched in with a cynical open letter to Bush, which isn't really helpful as the time for mud slinging is not yet - soon but not yet. Now is the time for helping the survivors get their lives back together and help them to rebuild their communities. This will inevitably take a long time, but it's a job that has to start and it will need a huge commitment from all the players. What this job doesn't need is political point scoring.

Wimbledon

Paula and Joel spent the weekend in Wimbledon and stayed with Susan overnight. Paula had a great time chatting and catching up with Susan and then enjoyed meeting up with some old friends on Sunday after church. Joel really enjoyed church as the children stayed in for the whole worship time (here the kids go out after about 10 minutes) and then when he went to creche the 2&3 year olds had their own teaching time, so he thrived.

Hurricane Katrina

Further to my earlier post about the hurricane, I came across another blog: Eye Of The Storm which has lots of amazing photographs of the carnage caused by the hurricane, this Blog is so worth looking at! The best thing about this and the other blog is that they're by normal people living with the hurricane rather than your 'Kate Adie' types who just dip in and out and don't know what it's really like to live in and through the situation.

This is a photo of a train thrown 200 yards by the hurricane, apparently, no-one knows whether or not it still contains any chemicals.