Josie, R.I.P.

We heard today that Josie passed away late this morning after battling an infection for a few days.

Josie was a great friend and colleague of Dean's, they always got on really well. Sadly we never managed to see her in hospital but Dean did see her a couple of times in Jamestown after she had retired and each occasion of catching up with Josie was a lot of fun.  Paula remembers her best for her incredible gift of encouragement.  She was always there for you and gave her Bible study ladies that extra little something to look forward to each week.

Prayer Request

Michael has just been away on the Mighty Men weekend with Alistair Buchan (Faith like potatoes) but unfortunately came home to some devastating news.

The welfare people have removed Hayden from his care due to Joyce's irresponsible behaviour. Unfortunately whilst Michael was away, Joyce left Hayden unattended whilst she was off drinking and a neighbour contacted the social worker to report the incident.

Local Church - The Truly Radiant Bride!

I love the local church and being a part of it. Partly because it's a very unpredictable thing and as such it has to remain flexible so as to accommodate all who enter. Another part of why I love the local church so much is that no organisation, NGO or other body can respond to local needs with the speed and accuracy of it.

Happy Birthday Zim!

Zimbabwe wakes up to being 30 years old this morning.

Happy Birthday Zim!

Sadly there's little to party about as the Desperate Despot continues to cling to power despite having wrecked the economy, beaten, raped, tortured, murdered, falsely imprisoned etc etc just about anyone who has ever expressed any opinion other than the zanu pf party line.

Read more on the Beeb: Zimbabwe celebrates 30 years of independence

Prayer Request

A couple of months ago Josie, a dear friend from our time at HCC, was diagnosed as having a brain tumour and was operated on very promptly. Initially things looked to have gone well but in the last few days she has had a rough time with an infection. Sadly Josie was readmitted to hospital on Wednesday in an extremely weak condition. Apparently the doctors diagnosed her as having an infected body but they were unable to find the cause of it. We then heard during our leaders retreat that Josie was struggling to recognise people and was generally in a bad way.

Leaders Away

The leadership team of Grace Community Church have just had a great night way staying at The Team House in Noordhoek Beach.

Star Of The Week

Eli was awarded Star Of The Week in his class again, this time for his hard work in writing and for being a thoughtful friend. Sweet!

He's definitely our Star Of The Week!

This week's letter of the week is 'B' so for show and tell he took a brick and apparently was brilliant in describing how builders use them. Then the kids took turns to feel the brick and see how much it weighed. Eli was very proud of himself.

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

For the last two Thursday evenings our church has joined with Victory Worship Centre in Macassar for two incredible meetings. Last week we hosted Jeff Kidwell from The Bay in Muizenberg and this week we had John Hosier from Brighton (although he's actually been with Jubilee for a year). Jeff taught clearly and succinctly about the Holy Spirit and then moved into an amazing time of application which was very exciting. This week was a bit calmer as John spoke on the Grace of God and unpacked Romans 8:28-30. John has a phenomenal gift of teaching!

Potjie Fun

We had one of our best afternoons in a long long time as we joined Melvyn & Yolande and several other church members for a seafood potjie at their home in Macassar.

All we can really say about it is that it was a fantastic afternoon filled with lots of laughter, amazing food and great friendship. It's always good to build on existing friendships but it was also good to get to know some other folk in church that otherwise we might not get a chance to know as a family.

Visiting Friends

One of the real highlights of living far from friends and family is when they come to visit!  We have recently enjoyed a bit of whirlwind visit from good friends John and Tricia who hail from one of our partner churches in the UK.  Joel was particularly excited to be seeing them as he well remembered their house in Cheadle as being the one where the airplanes fly over every 30 seconds!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun

Despite the silence on the blog we're still alive and very much kicking. We hate it when we don't keep the blog up to date but sometimes things happen in life which are just not appropriate to be shared in a public way so it's best just to say nothing. All we will say is that the last few weeks have been very tough as we grapple with issues which have been bubbling for some time and whilst we're prepared to put the past behind us and move on others aren't which is tough to deal with.

So here's an overview of just what we've been up to....