Adoption & Fostering

On Wednesday we were approached by the ACVV (local Afrikaans Christian Social Service) to enquire whether or not we're still interested in adoption. This is something we feel passionately about and long to do. We had made a few enquiries about this since we've been here but each time the door seems to have closed firmly on us. So to be approached by a local agency is quite exciting (and a little bit scarey!). Basically they have asked us to consider a long term fostering arrangement with a possibility of adoption (but no guarantee) of a 3 month old boy. Obviously this would have huge impact on us as a family but also on our ministry here (in more ways than would be immediately obvious but we can't unpack that just now).

Weekend

We've had a really good weekend, on Saturday we went to Hermanus in the morning but sadly there were only a couple of whales and they were way off in the distance. That will probably be our last attempt this year to whale watch. We still had good fun with Joel who enjoyed clambering over the rocks and attempting to chase the dassies. In the evening we we went out to a Thai restaurant with our new friends Richard & Felicity, we such a good evening.

Missionary Friends

Some friends of ours in Thailand sent us a description of their weekend which included a visit to a Bhuddist temple. They described the situation well and included a couple of good photos.

MA

I've just been to Pretoria for three days as part of my Masters Degree with UNISA (University of South Africa). For those of you who don't know I'm doing a Masters in 'Social Behaviour in HIV/AIDS' with the school of sociology. The whole year with UNISA has been a bit disastrous with very poor communication being at the heart of the problem.

Monica

This morning we had a visit from Monica Brooks from Cheadle. Monica is currently on holiday in the Cape and took time out to join us for the morning, so we went to Chris Nissen to meet a few folk. As ever we were really well received and those who met Monica really enjoyed their time with her.

Hopefully Monica had a good time too. After lunch we took Monica back to her hotel in Cape Town and Paula went off on her own for a while whilst Dean & Joel went to the aquarium.

Weekend & Bits

Dean attended a Cape Elders meeting on Thursday to listen to Michael Eaton speak. Wow! what a privilege to hear someone of Michael’s calibre speaking, particularly in a leadership context. Michael has been at HCC all week conducting a series of evening meetings and this has been excellent, he must be one of the best biblical expositors alive today!

Notorious Typos

Sean posted these on his Blog Primal Subversion, we hope you enjoy them.

Notorious Typos

Here are a few publishing blunders from various editions of scripture...

* Blessed are the place-makers, Matthew 5:9. (instead of "peacemakers")

* Thou shalt commit adultery, Exodus 20:14. (omitted "not")

Frustrations

Paula drove down to Chris Nissen tonight to lead the memorial service for Anna (after last week's postponement) only to find that Aunty Blaby wasn't there and Dina had forgotten that she was coming! This is extremely common, but really frustrating. Not only is it physically annoying ie: in terms of wasted time, energy and petrol, it doesn't do the community any good either. We are assuming that there has been a circumstance beyond our control, but more likely, Aunty Blaby is grieving very deeply and just can't handle any more attention. Please pray that either one of us will be able to see her soon and help her with the process. Paula would also dearly love to share the message she has for people at this memorial, so please pray for an opportunity in the not too distant future, next week would be ideal for this.

Missionary Blogs

Our Blog was recently picked up by someone who runs a site called Missionary-Blogs.com. This is a great site for finding out what others are doing around the world. We've had a brief look through and there appear to be some great Christian Blogs out there.

On their Blog Watch page there are a few snippets of some recently posted Blogs. Please take a look and see how God's name is being glorified around the world.

Katrina

The media appear to have lost interest in Hurricane Katrina and her aftermath and with Rita not providing the expected (and even desired?) news stories the people impacted by these disasters are left to get on with life.

We said a while ago that we would try and find some info from local churches about what is going on and how we can best pray for those affected by the hurricanes. We eventually looked at the Willow Creek website (looking for something totally unconnected) and found the following information:

Birthday Braai

As we said in the post below, it was Dean's Birthday on Sunday and in the afternoon we had a braai with some friends. We hope you enjoy the photos of the kids playing together.


Caleb, Michelle, Joel & Matthew enjoying the food.