The Widow's Offering

I've always loved the story in Mark of the widow's offering. As Jesus sits and watches the offerings being given he sees many rich folk giving lots and then along comes a widow and drops two coins into the offering. Mark 12:41-44 has the full story:

"Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.

Learning To Fly

Just got to say what a great morning it was with Tree Of Life again.

It is such a privilege to see guys who have been stifled for so long finally spreading their wings and learning to fly again!

This morning Chris brought a word and it was brilliant. What an encouragement to see folk stepping out into new things with Jesus. I've never heard Chris speak like he did this morning but I know that as a church we are going to be hearing a lot more as he flies in his faith.

It's Church Jim...

I've been wanting to blog about church for the last two weeks but haven't really got my head around what has happened or found the right words to describe how fantastic it has been.

Our inaugural Sunday was great and all I could say to the guys afterwards was that had I been able to plan the meeting in detail it wouldn't have gone as well as it did. Praise God for his infinite grace! However, planning and executing one meeting is easy, doing it week in and week out will be the challenge.

New School Year

The new school year starts today for our boys and they're both looking very grown up in their formal white shirts.

They were both really excited about returning to school and catching up with their friends. Both boys have got great teachers again this year so we're really excited to see how they are going to fly again in the year.

Joel is now in Year 4 which is quite a step up for him. Things become a lot more formal from now which should be good for him. Joel will also join the junior school camp for the first time this year, which will involve three nights away from home. The parents are very excited about this!

Tree Of Life Planted!

What an amazing privilege to be a part of the start of tree of Life church in Macassar this morning!

Thank you Lord!

Tree Of Life Church

Today is a very exciting day as Tree of Life Church meets on a Sunday morning in Macassar for the very first time.

Please join us in praying for God's name to be glorified as his kingdom is extended in Macassar.

Drum Roll Please...

Just 24 hours to go...

So this morning we're out in Macassar inviting people to join us tomorrow.

Our big prayer is that the Holy Spirit would go before us and rock up on Sunday, please join us in prayer for this.

Plant A Tree

This morning was a morning of mixed emotions for the Macassar crowd as it was our final morning as part of Love & Grace Church as we're planting into Macassar from next Sunday.

The mixed emotions are born out of the many friendships we've all built with folk in Mitchell's Plain and the excitement of moving into something new with God. We'll miss our friends at Love & Grace but we know we'll see each other again soon and we'll remain in contact with each other.

Merry Christmas

A very Happy Christmas to you all!

Lots of love

Dean, Paula, Joel & Eli

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Eli's 6th Birthday

A very happy birthday to our special six year old bundle of endless energy and fun!

It hardly seems possible that it is six years ago today that Paula flew to Bloemfontein and held Eli for the first time as she waited to bring him home.

This little bundle of joy has transformed our family life with his boundless energy and sense of fun and also making us a truly international family.

We're so grateful to God for the miracle that is Eli and especially grateful that he blessed our lives!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELI!

♫♪♫School's Out For Summer♪♫♪

Many of you who heard us speak on our last mission education visits or came along to one of our Facing The Mountain Roadshows will remember our two biggest prayer requests. Firstly we asked you to pray that we might be able to go church planting again, although we had no idea how this would be possible at the time. Secondly we asked that you join us in praying for our boys coming year at school but especially for Joel as we had some reservations about his year ahead.

Thankfully we serve an amazing God who answers our prayers.