Big Joel, Little Joel

A while ago we had Joel Bird stay with us for a few days as he enjoyed a long weekend break from his time with Scripture Union in Jo'burg. Joel had to return to the UK a bit earlier than expected so he spent his final night with us before leaving.

The boys were really chuffed to see Joel again and Eli took a real shine to him. I know Joel's parents will read this, so just to let you know that it was a real pleasure to have Joel stay, he's a real credit to you!

Winter

With winter being set in the time spent out in the garden is at a real premium so we have to make the most of the brief spells between deluges. Yesterday we had just under one inch of rain and that's fairly average at present. Amazingly even the locals have stopped saying "We really need the rain" or "I love the rain" which is quite something. Being British I have a built in dislike of the rain and as much as we may really need it I really don't care for it at all!

Update (Of Sorts)

How to update without getting into trouble with someone? Probably not possible so here goes..

Chris Nissen is a real challenge at present. Mainly because some of our church members are behaving appallingly and preventing other non members in the community from either coming to church or trying out one of our groups. 

Should He Stay Or Should He Go?

Firstly I need to make clear that the title of this post is not an issue for ourselves at present. We're committed to the local church and for the moment God has led us to serve Him at HCC. That will only change if God clearly leads us into newer pastures but until such a time we're happy to be obedient to the call He's placed on our lives. That's not to say that we don't find things (many things) frustrating at times.

Ahoy There Me Hearties!

Joel had the most wonderful, magical afternoon yesterday at his friend Ross's 4th birthday party. Of course it was a Pirate party and everyone came dressed and ready for action. As soon as we turned in to the farm entrance there were skull and crossbones announcing the venue and once there, the woods had been transformed with papier mache crocodiles in the stream with a plank to walk over; a croc' for pin the tale on the croc'; treasure hunting; signing their names in pirate blood etc, etc,. Ross's mum certainly has a very active imagination and I think she enjoyed it more than all the guests!!!

Friends To Play

Joel had his friends Liam & Morgen to play after school one day this week and much fun was had by all. As ever, Eli crashed the party and struck up a friendship with Liam who was very kind to him. The house was complete chaos for a few hours between lunch and their mums picking them up, but it was worth it.

Health & Fitness

After a dreadful bout of measles I seem to be almost 100% which is a relief! I managed to ride in Jonkershoek for 2 hours on Saturday morning with a friend and it was great to be on the bike again after two weeks of inactivity. Thankfully my fitness levels weren't overly impacted by the sickness and I was able to climb the big hills with no problems.

A Wake-Up Moment

I had another of those life-changing wake-up moments yesterday during my visiting in CNP. My ladies had been telling me about a woman called Mary (name changed to protect identity) who has recently been very sick with AIDS. They very much wanted me to visit and pray with her and see what the little home based care team can start to offer her. I was thrilled about this as I have wanted to meet her for some time. I was greeted outside the house by a stick thin woman carrying a big basket of washing and a huge smile on her face. I couldn't believe this was Mary, I was expecting a very sick person lying in bed, probably in a very smelly house. How wrong could I be. Mary is amazing! She has been very sick but is coming through the latest dose of illness. She had been to the clinic that morning and got more ARV's and Vitamin C. We sat and chatted about the importance of a good diet, which she fully understands. The problem is that she needs to eat before taking the pills or they make her very sick, and at the moment, there is no family income as neither she nor her partner work.

Measles

Terrific, I've got measles! Who ever heard of a 40 year old with measles? Pathetic isn't it.

I feel shocking but at least I have a name for it as I'm sure Paula was getting a bit fed up with my slow ambling around the house. The headache is incredibly painful, my eyes are really sore and I'm either freezing or roasting, not being able to get comfortable. For the last couple of days I've been craving sunshine to help me warm up. I ache all over so find playing with the boys almost impossible which is really gutting.

Testing Times

This week has been a bit testing so far and we would really value your prayers. It all started a bit badly on Saturday when Paula woke up to find she couldn't open one of her eyes. It turned out that she had been bitten by a spider. All is well now, after a massive shot of hystamine, but it wasn't pleasant.

Now Dean has been complaining of terrible headaches, achiness and general 'not very well' type symptoms. This morning he came out of the shower sporting a beautiful all over rash. By 10 o'clock he was diagnosed with having measles... he is not a happy chappy to put it mildly. As when Paula had chicken pox for the first time aged 35, Dean says this is the worst he's felt in a long while.

CNP Update

Things have been very frustrating in Chris Nissen for a while now, mainly because the same old issues of gossip & jealousy keep rearing their ugly heads and damaging the work we're doing. Frustratingly it's church members who are the worst and behaving terribly. Things came to a head last week when Paula was told by some ladies that they want to join her cell group but are afraid to because of certain church members. I then had one of the men in my group tell me that he was no longer coming to my bible study as he was scared of one particular church member who verbally abuses him and accused my group of gossiping about them.

MTB Race

I rode the Tru Cape 40km mountain bike race this morning and whilst I enjoyed it I'm now very tired and just a little bit sore, more about that in a minute! I rode with my friend Paul and a friend of his, Paul & I ride early on Wed mornings. This was my first MTB race and like an idiot had to choose what is arguably the toughest on on the calendar. The race venue was the Grabouw Country Club and the surrounding mountains.

Google Earth

We're a little way behind most in terms of playing with Google Earth, mainly because our connection at work is 'broadband' but the computers don't have XP and our home computer has XP but only very recently have we had a 'broadband' connection (see previous post: It's Broadband Jim, But Not As We Know It).

So here are three local scenes we've pulled from Google Earth:

Videos

Perfect Sense is of Joel singing along to his favourite song; Perfect Sense parts 1 & 2 by Roger Waters (ex Pink Floyd). He makes me so proud with his choice of music!

Bible Study

Today was a really good session for the simple reason that most of my old faithfuls turned up! Eight men came today which after the last couple of weeks is brilliant. I deliberately hadn't prepared a specific study as I wanted to talk about the future of the group and the direction of it. I'm really pleased that the guys decided they do want the group to continue, but more importantly they want to get back to doing 'proper' bible studies. This means a lot more work for me but it's a price I'm happy to pay! For the last few months we've been following the same material as the rest of the cell groups but it hasn't really been very good for my study group as most aren't members of our church. So, starting next Thursday we'll begin working our way through the book of Acts, looking at it's background, context and meaning of the text.

Long Weekend

We've just had a very long weekend thanks to two public holidays, Freedom Day on Friday and Workers Day on Tuesday. Everyone seemed to take the Monday off too to make the most of the break. We had lots of fun, especially as we had 'big Joel' staying with us for the weekend. We last met Joel when he was 2 years old, we were part of a CYFA camp leadership team on which Joel's dad was the Vicar.

Life In Perspective

It's so great to live with a 4 year old!! Not only are they the boss, they know it all and they live in a fantasy world - how brilliant. Whilst we run around worrying about life, the rent, what to eat, cars breaking down etc. Joel is fighting imaginary battles with Captain Hook and watching at every twist and turn for the crocodile. He will not go out without his sword and would in fact prefer to be in full Peter Pan costume no matter how hot it is. He will relent and wear school uniform only because he knows that his little Peter Pan and Captain Hook figures are in his school bag all morning just outside the classroom window! He is never happier than when he plays with his pirate ship whilst watching Peter Pan the movie. When playing outside he is always flying and changes his happy thought daily.

CNP Stuff

A strange old week in Chris Nissen Park last week typified by the complete absence of members from my bible study and only two ladies from CNP at Paula's cell group. Part of the problem is the plethora of public holidays just now, as folk get into holiday mode and find it hard to get back into a normal routine. This coming weekend is another long weekend with public holidays on Friday and Tuesday, so Monday is also a write off for many. Whilst it's great to have some time off it can get a bit frustrating from a continuity point of view so this week and next will probably be no different.

Holiday

What a wonderful two week break we had on Rietvlei farm outside Montagu on ‘Route 62’ just off the Garden Route. The farm was a fully functioning wine and fruit farm with peppers on the side. The pepper harvest was well under way whilst we were there and each day we got to throw the spoilt harvest to the pigs and goats. Needless to say Joel & Eli thought this was great. In fact, Eli got so into it that he took to throwing all his food to the pigs which became a bit of a problem!

Health & Fitness

Here's the first installment of holiday photos and stuff. One of the joys of the farm and the Montagu area is that there are lots of mountain bike trails, so there's much fun waiting to be had. I did several small rides around the farm as sadly the website had oversold their '3 Mountain Bike Trails' which turned out to be almost non-existent.

I was able to ride over a few hills and into the neighbouring farm in the next valley but apart from that most of my rides were spent trying to hack a way through the fynbos, which is only fun for a few minutes until your legs are gashed open.

Match The Picture..

Here's an excellent post from Ben Witherington's Blog: You Look Tired-- Exegeting Proverbs. Match the Picture with the Scripture.

Ben's Blog is always worth reading but this post is very good. Enjoy..