Fighting

Paula went in to Chris Nissen tonight to meet with Dina and some new women for tea and fellowship. She had also been invited to look in on the building of the new netball court and to meet the new team of girls and pray for them. Just as they were walking down to the site Dina disappeared like a shot and Paula realised that Sandra, the community leader was heading straight for her full of aggression. She immediately started her accusations about Dina and the fact that she didn't know about the project etc.etc. Thankfully, Shirley, the new leader of the netball team was with Paula and Paula managed to get Sandra to direct all her accusations at her.

Family Update

Where to begin since we last posted? So much seems to get crammed into a week leaving little time to worry about Blogging, so we're sorry if you're feeling out of touch. As well as this post, we've also just posted some photos on our photoblog: Finnie's in Focus.

Family wise we're generally OK although Joel has a really bad cold right now and Eli is showing signs of picking it up. Joel had to miss church yesterday which wasn't much fun, but he's managed to go to nursery this morning.

Eye Of God?

This picture has recently been posted on the web with the title "Eye of God". I was stunned by the photo from the Hubble telescope, especially when such pictures are viewed from the context of God's word...

Genesis 1:16-18 ...He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good

Psalm 8:3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place

Psalm 147:4 He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.

A Meaningful Update - At Last!

We apologise that it has been an age since our last blog update but life has been hectic, hectic!! We eventually moved house on Monday 21 February - typically it was the day of the first torrential rain of the year and we all sorts of furniture to move! Thankfully we managed to dodge the downpours and everything is now in situ. We have also had nearly 3 weeks of huge power cuts right across the Western Cape which has impacted everything from not being able to sterilise bottles, make a cup of tea, sew up curtains, cook dinner, wash clothes.

Family Photo

Steve & Anne Murphy from St. Christopher's in Pott Shrigley were on holiday in Cape Town recently and we caught up after church. We had an excellent time together and whilst they were with us they took the family photo below which we just received in our email.

Thanks Guys!

Adoption Update

The 60 day consent period has now ended which means that the birth mother can no longer change her mind and request her child back. This is great for us but must be awful for her. Please pray for her as she seeks to rebuild her life, also, give thanks as she is a Christian and knows Jesus as her saviour!.

The social worker was in court this morning and we're waiting to hear what the next step is. As you could imagine we're really excited to know that Eli is now ours pending the technical formalities of the legal process.

Please keep praying that all would go smoothly and quickly!

We're Back Online!

We've had an eventful few days moving house, as ever with such ventures, whatever can go wrong does go wrong, so our washing machine decided that it didn't like the new house and gave up on us, but not before it flooded the kitchen! Dean fell through the stairs on his way down, one step completely collapsed, but thankfully gravity was stronger than velocity so other than a gashed leg there was no real damage. In the midst of packing and moving we enjoyed a series of prolonged power cuts, generally losing the electricity for 7+ hours at a time which had a really negative impact on the jobs we needed to get done before and during the move. The cuts have finished for now but are due again in the next few months as the nuclear generators are repaired. Our phone eventually started working today only 10 days after it was supposed to!

That's A Good One!

Eskom (South Africa's monopoly electricity provider) has just blamed a massive 12 hour blackout across the Western Cape on the recent fires and the mist which covered Cape Town this morning! Incredible!

We always thought that British Rail was pushing it when they blamed delays on 'leaves' or the 'wrong kind of snow' but Eskom really has BR licked when it comes to pathetic excuses!

Yes we're cross that we couldn't have a cup of tea when we got up this morning! At least church was interesting and our guest preacher (Adrian Holloway) coped admirably and lead 6 people Christ. Praise God!!!!!!

Another Taster

Here's a couple more photos to give you another taster of the photos we've just posted at Finnie's in Focus.

We hope you enjoy them

A Passage I Love

JN 16:33 "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

I love this passage simply because Jesus let's his followers know that troubles are guaranteed (not promised) for no particular reason (not for character building or testing etc) other than we are of this world and have to live in it. So being robbed or living through Hurricane Katrina are not judgement by some vindictive deity but rather just part and parcel of life on this planet.

Photo Update

Here are a few 'taster' photographs, you can see more on our Photoblog 'Finnie's in Focus'.

We'll post some more over the next few days too.