Selfie In The Nature Reserve

I'm not sure why, but for some reason somewhere along the line we seem to have stopped taking time out just for ourselves.

Sure we go out for dinner once a week and chat over a good meal & a drink, but that just being together for the sake of being together that we are all so good at when we're dating or courting just seems to have got lost along the way.

Happy Birthday Joel

So today we celebrate Joel's 19th birthday and we couldn't be prouder of the young man he is blossoming in to!

Paula wrote the following on Facebook and I can't say it any better:

"Happy 19th birthday to you Joel, our amazing miracle child! You have blown Dad and I away from the moment we knew about you. Today I celebrate you. You are thoughtful and kind, strong and courageous, an overcomer, wise and brave. I love that you are living a life of purpose, running hard after the things of God and unafraid of what people might think. Dream big and fly my boy, this dark world needs you! I love you forever and always."

Savouring Every Last Drop

It's always a joy to see our satisfied customers enjoying their soup at The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen, and it was a joy to watch young Anthony savour every last drop of his.

Once again we prepared 100 litres of delicious homemade Cream of Chicken Soup, only this time it had a slight Cape Malay curried edge to it which went down a storm.

The Gathering has been running the weekly Soup Kitchen for so many years now that we really shouldn't be surprised that yet again it was a really chilled vibe with lots of thanks and gratitude for the church's generosity in making sure everyone had their fill with plenty to take away too. 

However, every week we remain incredibly thankful to God for the peace and calm that pervades the Soup Kitchen.

Thank you LORD!

Exceptional Church

I do believe that in leading The Gathering Paula & I are privileged and blessed to be leading something quite exceptional.

This is not a boastful post, but rather a celebration of church and how The Gathering is (in my view) a quite excellent church.

Many will speak of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5) but few seem to allow it to flourish in the day to day reality of church life, but it's something that has always been a bit of a defining edge to our ministry.

10k Ride

There are a number of factors that have limited my time on my unicycles lately (laziness, the wind and a few other excuses...), so I decided it was time to stop making those excuses and just get back on with riding again.

So for the last couple of weeks I've been trying to crack off a couple of 10k rides on my Kris Holm 26er and generally I have managed it.

The joy of riding regularly is that I can feel my core getting a good workout which means that my back is less likely to cause me any grief, added to that the health benefits of regular exercise (as if Boxing 4 times a week wasn't enough!) and it's a win win.

Loadshedding And Then Some

South Africa has this ridiculous system called loadshedding in which the state monopoly power provider switches the electricity off at various points around the country for 2 hours at a time. 

Somehow they think it's all made more acceptable and manageable by having an actual schedule for this nonsense, but this schedule is adaptive depending on which particular stage of loadshedding we happen to be enjoying.

e-Sword For Android

I was very happy to see this exciting news as I opened up e-Sword on my computer this morning.

I've been using e-Sword as my go to Bible program on my computer for years, and to now have this gem on my phone is a huge blessing.

A To Z Blogging Chalenge 2022 - Theme Reveal

I will be participating in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge once again this year and I'm really looking forward to it. This will be my fourth participation having previously joined in in 2012, 2013 & 2021.

In my first Challenge (and last year's) I couldn't think of a theme so decided to keep things random, but this year, as in 2013 I have a theme. Hooray!

Sparring

It was great to be able to spar at Boxing again this morning. It's been a long time since we've been able to do this, so it was good to be at it again.

It might seem like an odd thing to be doing and enjoying (especially at my age), but there is something very satisfying, I guess almost cathartic, in stepping in to the ring to hit (and be hit) by someone else, but it really is a lot of fun, especially knowing that you both chose to be there and are keeping things under control.

Pure Joy

I will never tire of the joy of delivering blessings to others, especially the joy of delivering food to the two Soup Kitchens in Macassar which The Gathering supports.

This month we were able to give them a few boxes of peanut pastes, rice, soya mince, jam and washing up liquid each, plus an ice cream tub full of sweets for the kids which were left over from The Gathering's Soup Kitchen lunch back in January.

Fans

It was good to finally install some industrial quality fans in The Gathering's premises this morning.

Previously we had two domestic quality fans in the front and one at the back, and to be honest they were a bit rubbish. 

So it was a blessing to be able to use some of the money left over from the Soup Kitchen Christmas Lunch to buy five new good quality fans that will do a great job at cooling us all down. It's just a shame I only got to install them at the end of summer.