Chris Nissen - Making Progress?

For our entire time here we've been striving to network with other agencies and organisations (role players) to ensure a cohesive strategy in Chris Nissen. Part of our desire is too also wipe out any duplication of service into the community so as to strengthen the planned outreaches of the various groups involved. Frustratingly our efforts at building a network have been fairly fruitless and there are a couple of fairly obvious reasons for this. Firstly, besides ourselves as Helderberg Christian Church, there is no other agency or organisation which is in the community on a regular and committed basis.

Home Based Care Training

Saturday morning was the start of the realisation of a dream Paula has been carrying for Chris Nissen Park over the past 2 years. In the last 6 months the ladies in her cell group have received 2 sessions of HIV/AIDS awareness training and this was capped on Saturday by a whole morning of Home Based Care training. Over her months of visiting people in CNP it has become all too evident that many of the ladies are in fact doing the job of a home based carer with very little (or no) training, few resources and less than ideal environments.

Eli At 11 Months

Eli is 11 months old today. Wow, where did the time go?

We can't really express what a sheer bundle of joy he is and what a blessing he is to our family. Joel simply adores Eli and that is clearly reciprocal! 

We look forward to Eli being able to walk and keep up with Joel, as it looks like they'll have a lot of fun together (as long as Eli leaves Joel's train set alone).

Garden

Here's an update on how the garden is looking now that Spring is over and summer is allegedly with us (we say allegedly as it's been raining for 2 days, but it is very warm). The grenadilla bush has simply continued churning out its fruit so no complaints there. It's a pleasure to watch different plants come into bloom at different times. The Aloe Vera has finished flowering and now looks quite plain, whilst other bushes and trees are looking fantastic.

Eli

Dean's replacement lens arrived today (he smashed his old one at the Choices do - whoops!) so he had to fiddle with it and take a few piccys before the light went completely and Eli was very obliging. Joel on the other hand scarpered as soon as he saw the camera.

Chris Nissen

I had an excellent afternoon in Chris Nissen catching up with friends and visiting a few others that I hadn't seen for a while. I always enjoy spending time in Dina's house and today was no exception as Basil & Mary were there with a neighbours daughter whom they look after during the day. Lytton (Dina's grandson) was there with a friend as was Dina and we all had a good laugh and chat. I then went and spent a bit of time with Vissy, I'm always stunned at how well she looks! God has been so faithful in answering our prayers for her. We were convinced about a year ago that she had only days to live, and here we are a year later and she looks really good. Praise God!

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

Going to the Nature Reserve for tea on a Sunday afternoon seems to be becoming a bit of a tradition. Thankfully it stays open until 7pm during summer so we'll be able to enjoy many more lazy afternoons and evenings there. As you can see from the photos below, the boys really enjoy going. Joel loves seeing Spikey (the porcupine) and Eli seems to know that there will be plenty of food available!

TT Bike Races

Joel had a ball at the Twinkle Tots Bike Races this morning. He almost won his heat, but apart from that he loved being with his friends and just generally charging around the car park at his nursery. Needless to say the boys were very lively! Eli enjoyed himself too as he attempted to eat all the gravel on the car park, he failed but not for lack of trying!

It was a really good fundraiser for the nursery and everyone seemed to enjoy cheering for their kids and chatting with other parents.

Hope you enjoy the photos and the video below.

Bike Race - Preparations

Joel's nursery are holding a 'Bike Rally' tomorrow and there are prizes for the best decorated bike, so Joel & Daddy set about creating a masterpiece. Joel loved using 'real' paint and could barely contain himself. The biggest struggle for Daddy supervising was trying to persuade Joel to wait a while to allow one colour to dry before using a different one. Anyhow, he got the hang of it and did a sterling job.

Eli Standing

Here's a video of Eli standing. He's getting really confident now and has taken one step on a few occasions so he's sure to be walking soon. Scary thought!

Eli

We took this photo of Eli this morning as he was showing off with his standing. He's been standing freely for a while now, but yesterday he took his first step and took another this morning. Having has a child who didn't move for 18 months it's quite scarey having a monster who's been moving since he was 4½ months old! Eli is a week short of being 11 months.