Recently the boys school held a Library Challenge in which the pupils and parents were encouraged to read as many books as possible within a specified time-frame and then write a brief review of each book. The lower school pupils just had to write about why they liked each book and what they learnt from it.
The challenge was taken very seriously in our house with Joel really enjoying reading more than normal and Mummy getting quite competitive!
It seems to have paid off as today at school it was announced that Joel had won 1st prize in the Junior Challenge and Mummy had won 1st prize in the Parent Challenge.
Apparently Joel was totally surprised by his win and had to pick his way through the assembled mass in assembly to collect his award from the principal. We're also told that he was really proud that his Mummy had won the parents prize.
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The Finnie family in Blighty, December 2021
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Dean and Paula pastor The Gathering together -
The Gathering -
Baptisms at The Gathering -
Preparing to serve at The Gathering's Soup Kitchen -
Soup Kitchen Welcome To 2022 lunch
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Serving hands - the heart of The Gatheirng -
Thankful Thursdays -
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HOPE Home Based Care Team -
Gathering Ground -
Staying fit as a family -
The Helderberg - The prettiest of the mountains we face
One of the joys of being involved in the stuff we are is that we get to distribute food to some of the most vulnerable and neediest people in Chris Nissen Park.Each month the food is provided by St. George's in Weald, Paula's home church and the Phillipi Trust here in Somerset West.
The distribution is specifically targeted through our home based care team; HOPE with the most vulnerable patients being at the top of the list. Amazingly, the usual gossip and jealousy which has often dogged feeding programmes in CNP and other places seems to be diminishing in CNP as the community are beginning to recognise how and why the food is distributed.
For us it's a real privilege to be able to bless some dear folk with desperately needed food which makes a massive difference to their daily lives.
A brief prayer request if you've got a few minutes over lunchtime. We've got a meeting at school today at 2.30pm in which we'll be meeting with Joel's teacher, the special needs coordinator and the principal to discuss the way forward for Joel. We know the school want the best for him as do we so it would be great if we were all singing from the same hymn sheet. We really value the school's support for Joel and we appreciate the good relationship we have with the staff.
Without going into too much detail, there's a strong likelihood that Joel may repeat Year 1 and whilst we're not totally against the idea (especially as he is actually a year younger than most of his classmates) we'd need to know that the school has a plan in place to ensure that he doesn't become bored and disillusioned with school particularly as it's not his favourite activity!
Without going into too much detail, there's a strong likelihood that Joel may repeat Year 1 and whilst we're not totally against the idea (especially as he is actually a year younger than most of his classmates) we'd need to know that the school has a plan in place to ensure that he doesn't become bored and disillusioned with school particularly as it's not his favourite activity!
Today is a day we've been dreading and hoping wouldn't come. Our landlady gave us 2 months notice so we have to be out by the end of November. The timing isn't great from our point of view given that we're just about to go away for 10 days in the school holiday and I'll be returning to Blighty for 10 days next month.On the other hand the timing feels right as we've talked a bit over the 3½ years we've been in this house about buying it. We're in the process of getting figures but right now it would take a financial miracle to allow this.
I was stunned this morning as immediately after switching on my cell phone an SMS came in from Home Affairs of all people.
When we applied for our ID books we were asked for our numbers but never really thought that we'd hear from them, based on previous experience!
However, here we are with an SMS telling me that my application is already in Pretoria and is on its way through the system as they process it.
Hopefully it will be ready by mid December as they promised.
We were really impressed by what he has done and amazed at how much Mrs Tinsley (Joel's teacher) has managed to cover. Joel really has come on a long way from the start of the year, especially as school is something to be endured (although we happen to know he does enjoy it).
Regular readers of our blog may remember Paula writing about the fundraiser she attended recently for the Christmas party for children who attend the ARV clinic at our local hospital (Down To Earth With A Bump). During the event the lady who owns the restaurant in the Nature Reserve invited Paula to bring her HOPE ladies for a treat lunch one day. So, today was the elected day and following our morning visiting in Chris Nissen, Paula and a friend transported the ladies to the Reserve for a real treat!
Eli is very lucky to have Aunty Lisa (Mrs Broekhuizen to Joel, you & I) and Aunty Batwisa looking after him every day and we're really blessed to have such free and easy access to Aunty Lisa every school day to be able to chat about what's going on and how Eli's doing. We were really pleased to hear that Eli is well loved by his friends and that he has "the softest heart of all the children as he's a really caring boy". He makes us so proud!
We spent the first bit of the morning at Home Affairs having decided to use the morning well. Having wasted 30 mins trying to get a passport photo done we were then told that because we're not South African we couldn't get our ID documents here in Somerset West but would have to go to Paarl. One hour later we arrived in Paarl and amazingly after just another 40 minutes we'd been fingerprinted and processed and on our way back home.
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