Joel's 4th Birthday

4 Today!

Wow, where did those brief years go? Joel's been very excited about his birthday and has been asking for a bike for a while. We had thought to get him a trampoline but when asked he said he wanted a bike and has been asking ever since. So, having sought some professional advice we got said bike and he was delighted. We had a slight panic on Saturday when he told someone that he was getting a blue bike, but the colour issue seems to be irrelevant now, phew!

Politically Correct Madness

Proof that some folk in the UK really don't grasp what it means to be 'multicultural' by applying some very skewed logic to the timeless children's fairy tale; The Three Little Pigs.

Feeding Program

On Friday we managed to do two months worth of food shopping for our feeding program. As ever the food was really gratefully received and has made a big impact upon those families which received it. We're continually grateful to our friends at Hertford Baptist Church for their generosity which funds the program. We're also really proud of our ladies in Chris Nissen who so faithfully package the food and distribute it, particularly Aunty Poppy who allows her house to be taken over for half a day whilst the food is sorted. We marvel at Aunty Poppy, she provides for two of her own daughters and they have both had babies this year with the younger one having twins and they all live in her house! As you can imagine life is a little hectic for the family but they serve so brilliantly and without complaining, a real model to us!

We know it's only March, but already we're having to plan ahead with regard to this feeding program. Our current funding runs out in December, after which we hope that our church will take on some of the responsibility for it. However, we have no idea whether that will happen or not. Either way, please join us in praying for the means to be available for this important work to be able to continue beyond 2007.

Play Date

Joel recently had his first friend from school come home and spend the afternoon playing. Stuart is a really sweet boy and Joel gets on really well with him, needless to say they had a lot of fun especially in the paddling pool.

Meetings About Meetings

Hazel has written a brilliant post on 'Martin and Hazel's Blog' about meetings. All I can say is Hazel is far better at expressing such things than I am so let me encourage you to take a look at their Blog and be entertained.

PS. If you enjoy meetings you might be offended

CNP Update

After taking things easy on Monday post Argus, I was back in Chris Nissen with a 'bang' on Tuesday. Or rather, life in CNP hit me with a bang. I started by visiting two men who haven't been to my bible study for a while. I'd been told they were upset with me, but as it turns out they weren't at all. It was great to spend some time just chatting with each of them and to hear from them about how they're doing, this always helps to stem the gossip. After seeing these two, I then spent time with Aletta and her new grandson, Justin. He really is a very beautiful baby and his mother is very proud of him!

Psychological Barrier

Since getting serious about my mountain biking and generally getting fit and losing several kilos I've been doing quite well and have been pleased with my progress despite the fact that I'm not on a full blown diet, I still enjoy my food but watch what I snack on. I also seem to have lost my taste for alcohol which really helps!

I was really disappointed last week when I hadn't lost any weight (didn't gain either) as I really wanted to get below the dreaded 90kg barrier. Anyway, I weigh myself every Monday morning to see how I'm doing and this morning I was 89.5kgs. I'm now below the 90kg barrier which seemed impossible not so many weeks ago and it's the first time in many many years that I've weighted so little. So now it's on to the target of 85kgs.

Cape Argus

Wow! I rode the Argus, lived to tell the tale and cracked a decent time of 4hours 6minutes according to my bike computer. The official results will be out on Thursday and I expect it to be a bit longer, maybe 4:20ish as I stopped for a few drinks along the way. My computer stops when I do but the official timing chips don't register stops.

Church Planting In Durban

Last Friday I had the amazing privilege of leaving all my boys and flying up to be part of a team that was gathering from all over South Africa to boost the current congregation of Hope Church, Durban and to encourage them by participating in all sorts of evangelism before the official church launch on Sunday afternoon.

Reasons We Love Africa - Pt2½

What can you say about the following pictures...not a lot so enjoy them.

It's Broadband Jim, But Not As We Know It

We finally have a 'broadband' connection. It's great to ditch the unreliability of dial up networking. However, our broadband is actually a 384kb bandwidth adsl line with a 1GB monthly cap for both uploading & downloading. Hardly the whizz bang one would expect in the 21st century, but a step in the right direction. And the cost for all this; a mere R500 (£40) per month, what a bargain - not!