Facing The Mountain

Miles For Smiles

noreply@blogger.com (Finnie Family) — Fri, 25 May 2012 17:03:00 +0000

Eli and Joel had such a blast this morning at what has become their school's annual charity event. They were so proud to ride for Operation Smile in their Miles for Smiles cycle ride. They were particularly thrilled because the school is hoping to crack their target of raising R50,000 for much needed cleft palate operations for children this year and between them they have raised just under R2,000. Thank you so much to all you who so generously sponsored the boys, it really made a difference.

Amazingly though torrential rain had been predicted the sky cleared and we even had sun for, guess what, two hours while the event took place. Thank you Lord!

Eli rode with his usual gusto though, because the school had decided to host the event on the main road on which the school lies the under 8's had to ride around the car park which he was unimpressed about! This didn't stop him however and he whizzed round and round like a whirling dervish. Needless to say after an hour he had joined his brother and the 'big boys and girls' out on the road!!

Joel rode with pride as usual and it was good to see him clocking up the kilometres so confidently with his mates. Each child had designed their own T shirt for the event and they rode in teams of four so there will be plenty of prizes to be dished out on 11 June when the final total raised will be announced!

Mum and dad had a ball too! Dean spent the morning photographing the event and riding his unicycle round and round whilst Paula helped to marshal the event, a much needed job as all the children rode on the road. Several of the parents provided yummy snacks and drinks to keep the kids going so all in all what a great success. Well done International School of Helderberg you shone with pride today!!

Volunteers from Operation Smile

What a way to spend a morning at school

Eli got bored with the kiddies course so joined Joel on the big course

Mummy doing some marshalling

It was great to see the High School joining in the fun

A lot of fun was had by all!

Only one accident this year but it was a baddy. Poor lad, he won't forget it in a hurry!

See our previous posts on Miles For Smiles:

Miles for Smiles '11
Miles for Smiles '10
Miles for Smiles '09

Vicky

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:17:00 +0000

I was really saddened to hear of the death of Vicky last night. I knew he had been sick for a while now but it's such a shame to see yet another young man die of HIV related illnesses when he could and should have been on ARV's over two years ago.

I have some very fond memories of Vicky, he was a great member of my Chris Nissen bible study group and for a while a few years ago I would take a few of the guys through to Cape Town to see him in the TB hospital.After his stay there Vicky was very strong for a while and returned to work. Things were looking up but then a year or so ago he fell sick and wouldn't seek help.

I understand all the reasons as to why folk here don't seek medical help early if at all but it's all such a senseless waste!

A Rant

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Wed, 23 May 2012 18:12:00 +0000

In 2001 during some of Zimbabwe’s darkest days we drove from Harare to Cape Town, it was mainly for holiday purposes and a bloomin' good one it was too, but we also had to leave Zim' for a while due to the mess there. It’s a long story!

While we were in South Africa we had a great time and met some fab people, some of whom we went on to work with when we moved to SA three years later. I remember at the time having a number of conversations with folk about the Zim' situation and was asked the same question a few times.

“Do you think SA could go the same way as Zim'?”

My answer remains the same 11 years later but so too does the caveat I put on my answer.

I honestly believe SA cannot and will not go the same way as Zim' and I believe there are a number of reasons for this, amongst which include an independent judiciary, a fully independent and robust media and a multi-party parliament with a healthy constitution.

However, my caveat to this answer was this: SA must change and those that continue to enjoy privilege and prestige, mainly the white folk, must adopt change before change is forced upon them. Adopt change now and help to shape it or wait and do nothing and when change comes you won't like it.

Fast forward 11 years and I believe this even more today than I did back then. We moved to SA 8 years ago and all I’ve seen in that time is the whites retreating into gated communities, putting up ever higher walls and electric fences and bemoaning the fact that the govt is racist because whites are denied opportunities based on the colour of their skin (seem to have heard a similar story somewhere before). The wealthy have just got a lot wealthier, the houses being built are getting substantially bigger and yet the guys in the townships struggle more and more with each passing year.

Just up the road from where we live there are some large housing developments going on despite the economic climate. What amazes me is that the workers building the houses are from the townships. Each day they come to work and lay bricks etc. in houses that are 10, 20 or 30 times bigger than their RDP houses or shacks.

Someone up the road has recently acquired an Aston Martin DB9. It’s a truly stunning car but not really very appropriate in this context. Regardless of the driver’s view, he bought that car with money made of the backs of the black labourers who are barely paid a living wage for their troubles. Wherever that guy goes in his DB9 he has to drive past townships at some point each day. So how does he justify it?

My point here is that in the 8 years that we’ve lived in SA there is no indication of the whites/wealthy adopting change. Sure there are empowerment projects reaching into townships and helping some folk to improve their lot but the reality is that the majority of folk (for that read ‘black’) in the country are struggling by from day to day barely being paid a living wage.

At some point those guys are going to rise up and demand change and change will be forced upon the wealthy. Some will think it'll never happen but there is a precedent for it here in SA. A few years ago a wave of xenophobia swept through the townships as local black guys got angry at the Ethipopian, Somlian, Zimbabwean and other immigrants who they felt were taking their jobs and houses from them. I have no doubt that xenophobia played a part in this but I also believe that the underlying cause was a sense of economic injustice. Others were doing better than the locals (work ethics would require a whole other blog post) and they took up arms to sort the problem. I'm convinced that one day these same guys are going to wake up and smell the roses and realise that their fellow Africans are the least of their problems.

No doubt Aston Martin will sell many more DB9s before that day comes.

I'm going to follow this post up shortly. Stay tuned.

Mr Bounce

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:41:00 +0000

I could leave this as a wordless post with just the photos and most of you would guess who I would be talking about.

My boy doesn't stay still for long, though the telly is teaching him to pay attention for increasing amounts of time. Not sure if that's a good thing or not?! Anyway, beyond the world of the electronic babysitter, Eli is one incredibly active young man and constantly looking for ~~mischief~~ things to do. One of the things I love about him is how he'll take something he learnt and apply it to an area or something for which it wasn't really intended.

The trampoline is just one such example. Eli has been doing gymnastics at school (sadly it's on hold now until we can find a decent gym teacher) and he's been applying the moves he's been taught to the trampoline and as some of you may have seen on Facebook, the swimming pool, or rather any swimming pool he chances upon in the absence of one in our garden.

The difference between a mummy and a daddy around a trampoline can be expressed like this: "Stay in the middle junior, don't jump too high.". Daddy on the other hand tends to be more: "Higher my boy, now do a back-flip". Needless to say the gymnastics teacher was more of the mummy side of things.

Anyway, Eli has been doing some spectacular stuff on the trampoline lately and his cartwheels into swimming pools are coming along a treat!

Definitely Mr Bounce!

Cartwheeling into the pool

Mr Bounce when he's stationary

Moonsquirters

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Tue, 15 May 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Percy Thrower I am not so where Eli gets his desire for a bit of gardening is a mystery but one that shall be capitalised upon.

A while back he asked if he could grow some tomatoes and somehow he managed to sweet-talk mummy into taking him shopping for seeds etc.

That was a couple of months ago and today Eli has eleven very healthy looking tomato plants which he actually grew from seed.

So this afternoon he was über excited to see that one of his plants has two small green tomatoes on it. Bless him, he had no idea what they were because they were so small and green, apparently "they don't look like the ones in the packets".

We're not too sure what sparked his interest in growing tomatoes, I suspect that Charlie and Lola might have had a part to play in all of this, but it can only be good, especially if he actually starts eating the things.

Apparently spinach is next on his list of things to grow. One can only marvel at his choices and hope that somehow the freshly grown produce might encourage him to eat something green for a change.

Here's hoping!

Proudly showing mummy his tomatoes

The biggest of the two lurking in the greenery

Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Paula) — Mon, 14 May 2012 16:17:00 +0000

Yesterday was a particularly special day as Tree of Life honoured all the mums amongst our family on Mother's Day. We had a brilliant time together in church during which each mum was given a little, beautifully created posy of flowers with an attached t-light. We then got the men praying for their women, which was very special.

Before going to spend the afternoon out with friends chilling and having a braai we had to make some special stop offs on the way giving flowers to the wonderful HOPE team ladies as well as one of our patients who has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Many of you may remember Betty whom we have spoken about in the past, she used to be full time carer to Ernest who was blind and not even a family member. Sadly Ernest died over a year ago and now Betty has terminal cancer combined with TB. She is a lovely lady and would very much value your prayers. Almost without fail the flowers were greeted with tears and comments such as, no-one has ever given me flowers or, I'm going to freeze them so I can bring them out again next year on Mother's Day!!! Such a small gesture brought so much love and warmth to some very special women.

The picture above is a testament to the heart of our HOPE ladies, Elise branched away to live in her own neighbourhood having been trained by the Chris Nissen HOPE team. She has been caring, often alone, for several people in her community for no pay for over 2 years now. Always with a smile and a cup of tea and ready to have a chat and a pray. Elise has warmed people's hearts and she is not afraid to share the gospel and make sure that patients are right with God and not afraid of the future. Little by little as Elise has been blessed from time to time with small gifts from friends in the UK she has saved this money up (though she could certainly have used it for any number of immediate needs). We were thrilled yesterday to see that she has now used the money to extend her house giving her some much needed extra space for her growing family. What a witness she is!

Garden Centre

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Wed, 09 May 2012 15:07:00 +0000

After a good morning in Macassar I decided to call in on Michael in Chris Nissen on my way home to see how his gate is holding up and just to enjoy being with my mate.

One of the things that never fails to amaze me about our friends there is just how generous they are and this morning I left Michael's feeling like I'd been to a garden centre.

My garden is going to be looking great by next summer!

Whilst there I also saw Aunty Poppy who showed me around her recently planted veggie garden. I have to say it was looking really good. Apparently Aunty Poppy and a few others have been equipped by an NGO to grow the veggies for four families each. What a great project!

A guinea fowl escaping before Rosie can chase it off

That will be 1-nil to me! :-)

Killing this rat was definitely the highlight of my day!!!

60 Years!

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:11:00 +0000

Sunday was an important day for Tree Of Life as we celebrated the 60th wedding anniversary of Oom Paul and Aunty Molly.

They are an amazing couple and I have had the privilege of sitting with Oom Paul a few times listening to his life stories. Forget about Kindle or any other form of interactive e-book, spending time with someone like Oom Paul is spending time with a truly interactive living, talking history book!

It was such a privilege to pray for this amazing couple and to honour them publicly. After our meeting we had a big family braai to continue the celebrations.

We might be a young church and small in number but we have couples amongst us who have been married up to 5 years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years and 60 years. In today's throwaway culture that's quite amazing.

Oom Paul

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - Review

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Mon, 07 May 2012 05:30:00 +0000

The Blogging From A To Z Challenge was a lot of fun!

I've enjoyed the discipline of blogging every day and giving the blog some long overdue attention. I think the best bit though has to have been meeting loads of other bloggers from around the world, sharing posts and comments and reading blogs that I might otherwise not have got to see. It was also interesting joining up with almost 1500 other bloggers all with wildly differing views on life, love and the universe but with a common goal of completing the challenge. At times it made for interesting reading and commenting, taking me to blogs I now follow and to a number that I would normally avoid like the plague, but it's good to be challenged and stretched. You can also see what other bloggers thought here.

I feel like I owe an apology to the schedule facility in Blogger as I used and abused it a huge amount. In fact by the time of my O post I had written and scheduled all but three posts. However, had I attempted to post fresh each day I would have sunk without trace and failed to finish the challenge.

I also ought to apologise to you my readers too, thanks for being patient and for not giving up on the blog, I/we really appreciate it! Somewhere along the line one of our Facebook followers abandoned ship but a few more got on board so that's all good.

At the bottom of this post are a few thoughts for the A To Z Challenge team.

Finally, in case you've not seen the blog at all in April here's a quick review of all 26 posts from A to Z, click on any image to go straight to that post. Enjoy!

E to Z below...

A few reflections on the challenge... I think you guys did a great job, having not done the challenge before I have nothing to compare it to but I was impressed with how you guys did and the fact that most of you even managed a comment or two on this blog. Cheers guys!
The A To Z navigation buttons just never worked for me. I noticed they didn't work on a few other blogs too, including The Warrior Muse. It would have been great to get the relevant issues sorted and to have had the buttons ready for the start of the challenge.
A small confession on my part, after the first day I rarely used the blog list, preferring instead to look at comments on blogs and visit the blogs of the commentors and then the commentors on those blogs and so on. This kept me fairly busy in the evenings and left my long suffering wife watching TV alone on a few evenings.
In my many years of blogging I've always been a bit miffed at how few comments I got, but thanks to this challenge the light went on upstairs and I realised that unless I comment on other's blogs no-one will comment on mine. This has now been rectified and no doubt I'm becoming a bit of an annoying commentor on various blogs. I also started following a large number of other blogs and was pleased to see Lee suggesting that if anyone visits a blog with under 100 followers to start following it. Sadly I didn't get too many reciprocal followers but hey ho, that's life.
All in all it was a great and highly enjoyable experience and one I will be participating in again without hesitation.
Finally, I see a lot of bloggers are asking for the sign up list to be categorised. I would ask that you pleased DON'T do it. I would normally avoid poetry blogs for example but enjoyed seeing some via the challenge. If blogs were categorised I would not have seen and commented on half the blogs I did!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
My final post in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012

Perigee Full Moon

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Sun, 06 May 2012 20:54:00 +0000

The moon is currently 28000km's closer to earth than normal leading to this amazing phenomenon know as the Perigee full moon which means it appears up to 14% bigger and 30% brighter than when it is furthest from the planet.

It's quite a spectacular phenomenon and I was quite pleased with these photos of the moon this evening.

Read more about it here on the BBC News.

The moon through the trees

Facepalm

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Sat, 05 May 2012 11:00:00 +0000

We just received this from our 'friendly' neighbourhood watch. sometimes I'm just so embarrassed to live where we do amongst the people we do. It's the last line that makes me hang my head in shame. Get a life folks!

"This week was a quieter week in our area although we did discover vagrants bedding down with their household goods on the field opposite Cherrywood Gardens in Bizweni Road. Last Friday I drove past and saw someone bathing in the river and on further investigation, he advised that he was living in the drain pipe / under the bushes further down the field. Residents from Oakbridge that boarder the field, should you see or hear anything untoward on the opposite side of your fence, please do not hesitate to contact our Police or your Security Company for them to come and investigate. If we allow any vagrants to infiltrate our area, it will be extremely difficult to get rid of them again."

I knew there was a reason why I don't like my neighbours much. Personally, if I see someone bathing in the stream and living in the storm drain I'd be more inclined to take him some food than get the police to chase him away.

May The Fourth

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Fri, 04 May 2012 05:30:00 +0000

Sorry, couldn't resist!

Gateway To..

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Thu, 03 May 2012 17:00:00 +0000

I don't get to spend as much time as I used to getting involved in practical projects and just generally helping to ~~bodge~~ fix things together again. So I was chuffed when Michael rang for a bit of urgent help yesterday.

A few moons ago Michael and I put a gate on the front of his property but at the time he was short of hinges (some might say he was unhinged asking me to help!) so he ~~bodged~~ fixed the gate to the post using the upright as the hinge. Not a great plan if we're honest and here we are a few years later with the gate having fallen apart. The gate frame used to be for the Tiny bubbles Creche sign but we took it off and riveted it directly onto the ~~container~~ classroom wall and Michael recycled the frame into a gate.

This morning I was able to go and get a few brackets and pop rivets ready to ~~bodge~~ fix the gate again. Ideally the gate frame should have been welded but we don't live in an ideal world, so we managed to rivet the brackets at the points where the upright had separated from the rest of the frame. We then riveted some old hinges I had lying around to the frame and then nailed them to the post. Voila! Gate ~~bodged~~ fixed!

The gate now works again and should last several more years before requiring any further ~~bodging~~ fixing.

The hinges now riveted to the frame and nailed to the post

The brackets ~~welded~~ riveted to the frame

Apologies for the poor quality photos but that's the price you pay for using a cell phone camera!

Meanwhile, back in April...

noreply@blogger.com (Finnie Family) — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:30:00 +0000

In the midst of playing about with the A To Z Blogging Challenge we've neglected the regular side of the blog, but it's May now so here we go with normal service being resumed.

With the five day weekend over I have to admit to enjoying the blissful peace and quiet in the office, no kids running around, making a ton of noise and being exuberant. Thankfully it's only short lived as they'll be back after lunch but the brief respite is very very welcome!

So here's a bit of an update on what has been going on in April besides abusing the alphabet.

We continue to be blown away by God's goodness and his grace being poured out on Tree Of Life Church. We describe church as "Church unplugged" because we have very little if anything in the way of resources. No worship band, no instruments, no experienced worship leader etc etc. We often scratch our head in amazement that anyone would want to be a part of this church given how chaotic it all seems at times. And yet people don't just want to be a part of it they have thrown themselves in and are part of the family. Family is something that shines out amongst us. We feel this physically as folk bring along their own extended families but also spiritually as we grow together and help each other work through the realities of daily living and some really tough issues.

Dean especially feels like this is a baptism of fire as he's straight in at the deep end of leading and pastoring the church but it's also something he has wanted to do for years but been prevented from doing so it's great to see him flying in what God has called him to do. A couple of years ago a dear friend had a picture of Dean as a caged bird unable to spread his wings, but they also had a word from God that he was going to open that cage. We really believe this has happened with the planting of Tree Of Life.

Some of the ladies in church recently joined Hillsong for their Colour Sisterhood conference and each of them came away having met with God, their gifts having been stirred up and each of them wanting to make a difference in the life of the church. Fantastic stuff. We were also very grateful to Hillsong for giving us very heavily subsidised admission and providing the transport. They really do get what church is about as they know that we're never going to join them and yet they still selflessly and unconditionally give to us. Thank you Lord!

Paula preached for a second time, bringing us a great word on Sunday (see the pic above). Paula was feeling very challenged through the Hillsong conference to step out more, so Dean asked her to preach the very next Sunday. Paula unpacked the story of the Canaanite woman and her demon possessed daughter. Jesus tells her to go away and the disciples get cross with her but she's persistent. Jesus likens her to a dog and she responds "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Matthew 15:27. Clearly Jesus is taken a bit off guard but is impressed by her faith. The thing is, we're all dogs until we're saved and it's worth remembering that as we go about life remembering to care for folk, love them as Jesus commanded us to and make every effort to share the gospel with them.

We're very excited about this coming week especially Sunday as we're having another testimony Sunday and also celebrating Oom Paul and Molly's 60th wedding anniversary. Good things are happening!

Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Finnie Family) — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:44:00 +0000

Today is the last day of a marathon five day weekend which has been a lot of fun.

Friday was Freedom Day, a very important day in South Africa's history and today is Workers' Day so most folk also took Monday off to make the most of it all and we've certainly made the most of it though if truth be told it will be nice to get back to some semblance of normality (whatever that is).

SA has twelve public holidays throughout the year and even one of the local businesses has been making fun of this lately suggesting that World Cup Remembrance Day will soon be added to the list.

We've had some great days out including a trip to the aquarium and a trip to the cinema, but mostly we've been enjoying some long overdue family time at home and the weather hasn't spoilt things too much.

Getting back into the rhythm of school and work won't be easy!

Joel enjoying playing in the garden

As winter settles in some of the sunsets are truly stunning

Our protea is in flower again, sadly it always looks at its best immediately prior to flowering.

The man!

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - Z

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Z is for Ω

At least it is in the Greek alphabet.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End." Revelation 22:13. The Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end, outside of God there is nothing.

I try to live my life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ, though I know I often fail. This may be unappealing and a bit of a turn off if you don't profess a faith but I can't help that. I hear all the arguments for and against God and increasingly hear the vocal anti-Christian lobby of Dawkins et al and find myself even more convinced of my faith.

The most preposterous claim by the likes of Dawkins is that Christians are not capable of free thought or of questioning what they are told. I would argue it's the other way around. Dawkins and his acolytes are the ones blinded by ignorant and irrational arguments. The bible is full of people questioning God and their faith and in the apostle Paul we have a fantastic role model for free thinking and questioning the status quo.

As Paul said in Romans, I am not ashamed of the gospel.. and as such I don't really care what you think of me or my faith. I'm not worried if you attack my faith or if my faith offends you, it's just that I believe in the living God and am happy to let you know this. Yes you could beat me in an argument using science and goodness knows what else but I've seen and experienced too much as a Christian to turn my back on Jesus. Also, I am deeply skeptical of the world and what it has to offer, whilst the world may deride my faith, it has little if anything of any value to offer in its place. I've seen and experienced some of what the world has to offer and it's not nice, it's not pretty and it does more harm than good. What I can tell you is that the faith journey I've been on over the last 27 years has radically transformed me from an 18 year old messed up waster and I simply have to give thanks to the living God, the Alpha and Omega.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Here endeth the series Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - Y

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Y is for Yowza!

OK, so it's a bit tenuous but I'm still expressing my surprise at having completed the A To Z Blogging Challenge. Yes yes there's still Monday's post but that's already written and scheduled to post.

I've had a lot of fun doing it, I've met some great new cyber friends and visited some really good (and the odd strange) blogs. I'll definitely be doing it again.

One of the highlights for me has been the encouraging comments and hearing that one or two folk have been eagerly looking forward to see what the next letter would be about. I hope you've enjoyed it too.

I've also enjoyed the discipline of committing to the blog and being intentional in my approach to it. I'm not sure the 'Schedule' facility will forgive me for abusing it as much as I did but without it I would have fallen at an early hurdle. As you can see from my master list I made some changes as I was going and 'I' was definitely for Indecision! I chose not to blog about my boys for E and J as I felt it was a bit unfair on them. Other than that I just blogged about the things that are important to me. Next year I'll try to come up with a more interesting theme.

What to blog about next?

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X YZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - X

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

X has to be for X-rays

Not that I'm passionate about these things but we've had our fair share of them done in our eight years in South Africa.

It all begins with chest x-rays for immigration to prove that one is clear of TB, which is a bit of a joke as the Western Cape has one of the world's highest prevalence rates of TB and some medics reckon that everyone living in the Cape carries TB.

Life with two boys in the house also somewhat predictably leads to hospital trips and the inevitable x-ray. Having said that, the biggest injury in our house to date was me smashing my wrist!

One very cool aspect of getting x-rays done here is that it's all digital so you get a CD with the x-rays on to take home. Actually you're supposed to give it to the Dr but they always have the x-ray already uploaded onto their computer so aren't interested in the CD. It's great to get home and play with the disc pretending to be very knowledgeable!

Hopefully we'll not be rushing off for anymore x-rays anytime soon!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W XYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - W

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

W is for Walking The Dog.

One of my boys favourite activities has to be walking Rosie. We're pretty slack at it and don't walk her anywhere as much as we should but when we do it's a lot of fun.

Rosie adores being out and about, exploring the park, chasing the Ibis and Egrets and occasionally gets to play in the stream if it's been wet enough.

Most of the time Rosie has to put up with chasing around the garden after the boys on their bikes so a walk makes for a refreshing change for her.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V WXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

Chasing after Rosie

No chance of catching her!

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - V

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

V is for Veteran Bloggers.

If you're visiting our blog for the first time or arrived via the Blogging From A To Z Challenge we'd like to welcome you to our little corner of the web.

We've really enjoyed running this blog over a few years. In fact if you take a look at our Archive you'll see that we've been blogging since the 10th of July 2004 when we were preparing to move to South Africa from Blighty. Back then the blog was called Adventures With God but we rebranded the blog a while back, see our About tab for more on this.

One of the best bits about blogging is meeting other bloggers through such things as the Blogging From A To Z Challenge and other networks like Missionary-Blogs.com where we're listed amongst the Veteran Bloggers.

Why not pop over there and see what hundred's of other bloggers are getting up to as they seek to serve and extend the kingdom of God.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U VWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - U

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

U is for Unicycling

Just because this is one of my passions doesn't mean I'm very good at it and trust me, I'm not! I do enjoy it though.

It all began many moons ago when I asked Paula for a unicycle for my 30th birthday. I was really into juggling and wanted to try something different. I was blessed with a DM Ringmaster and despite several attempts to ride it it got neglected and largely forgotten. Then in 1999 we went to All Nations for a year and one of the students had his giraffe uni there and with a few tips I decided to invest in learning to ride my Ringmaster.

It took me 2 hours a day for three weeks just to ride a metre or so unaided but from there I never looked back. My tutor at the time commented that if I put as much effort into my assignments as I did into my uni I'd be top of the class. My reply was that I had to have something to show for my year at All Nations.

Since those days my uni has been on many travels with me and has been used by many different people. Somewhere along the line I also picked up a Pashley 20" which is awaiting a new tyre and tube from Blighty and recently acquired a Nimbus 36" which is a huge amount of fun to ride. Once my Pashley has been restored I'll be using it to teach Eli to unicycle, he's desperate to learn.

One of my biggest joys in unicycling has to be teaching some of the kids in Zimbabwe to ride it. To see former street kids whizzing up and down the road on a uni was so much fun and confounded a lot of locals!

See more pics of me unicycling here there's also one or two of some of the kids in Zim.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T UVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

My unicycle collection left to right, DM Ringmaster, Pashley (cut down for Eli), and Nimbus Nightrider 36"

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - T

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

T is for Tree Of Life

It is a complete privilege to be leading Tree Of Life and especially to be leading it with such a great bunch of guys!

After a torrid year in 2011 in which I thought I would never get to serve the local church again here in the Western Cape I find myself once again blown away by the goodness of God as he had a whole different plan to those of others.

What I'm particularly enjoying is the fact that we have to rely totally on God for everything in our meetings. This is church unplugged. We have no music group, no PA equipment in fact we have very little. The blessing in all of this is that we cannot put on a performance even if we wanted to which is great because it means we have to invite the Holy Spirit and give him space in the meetings. Personally I don't ever want this to stop!

As I said in L is for local church, I'm passionate about local church and believe it is the hope of the nations. The nations are not some subjective concept out there somewhere, rather the nations begin at home and spread out from there. This has never been truer than now when the world has come to our doorstep. It must be a rare thing these days to find a community that has no international influence residing within it.

This excites me because when we first had the word about the tree of life in Revelation spoken over us as a group of folk praying together it was particularly about the leaves being for the healing of the nations and how we are the leaves of the tree in Macassar and beyond. Awesome stuff from our Lord!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S TUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - S

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

S is for Spiloxene Capensis

I've blogged about this flower a couple of times before here and here and still maintain that it's my all time favourite flower.

The Spiloxene Capensis is also known as the Painted Peacock Flower and is actually classed as a weed. I have to say it's a particularly stunning weed!

Sadly it's incredibly difficult to cultivate in the garden so I'll have to settle for the delight of seeing it between Feb and April in the Nature Reserve.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R STUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

Spiloxene Capensis growing wild in the Helderberg Nature Reserve

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - R

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

R is for Rosie

Our ever faithful guard dog and friend, she's half Rhodesian Ridgeback, half Border Collie, the latter part making her a very busy dog but she is beautiful!

She was named by Joel though he has no idea why he chose the name or where it came from.

We were warned before getting a dog that it wasn't possible to have a dog operate as a guard dog and a pet. Now I've never had a dog before and thought this advice was a bit suspect. Happily I can now confirm that the advice was complete bunkum!

Rosie is most definitely my dog. She cries when I go out but ignores the departure of other family members and Paula tells me that when I am out and especially if I'm away overnight then Rosie steps up her guarding duties and even sleeps outside our bedroom.

Rosie is a very good guard dog, so much so that most friends who come to the house are very scared of her, at least until they've met her properly and trades people tend to be very scared of her!. Rosie is however, a very good pet and is very good with the boys and their friends. It always fascinates me watching how she behaves so differently with Joel and Eli. Rosie is very respectful of Joel and never jumps at him or does anything silly with him whilst she views Eli as a fellow dog/puppy and plays very roughly with him which resulted in a trip to the emergency room once. He'll learn!

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q RSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.

Blogging From A To Z Challenge - Q

noreply@blogger.com (Dino) — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 06:00:00 +0000

Q is for Quarrelsome

Before I get myself into trouble let me state that my amazing wife is NOT a quarrelsome wife!

I've chosen Q for quarrelsome today to highlight some of my favourite verses in the bible, or perhaps I should be clearer and say that I'm highlighting some of the verses that I think are funny.

Proverbs 21 verse 19 is a great place to start: "Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." I love the humour of this one and so too did the psalmist as he put it in there twice, see 25:24!

Proverbs 27 verse 15 is also in there twice and is also quite amusing. "A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm;"

I really like the verses about the sluggard too, especially the one about him turning on his bed in Proverbs 26 verse 14 "As a door turns on its hinges, so a sluggard turns on his bed." - The imagery of the door hinge turning only partly as the door opens so the sluggard is too lazy to turn over fully. Brilliant!

Song of Songs is another great source of amusing verses, the best (in my opinion) being chapter 7, verses 7 and 8: "Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, "I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit."" - Many years ago on a CYFA Venture we got some of the youngsters to act out a few scriptures and this was one of them. How mean was that!

There's even a verse about going to toilet in Deuteronomy 23 verse 13 which amuses me but I'll let you look that one up for yourself. The bible is a far from being a dull book, it's actually full of amazing stuff and some pretty funny stuff too.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P QRSTUVWXYZ
This post is part of a series in the Blogging From A To Z Challenge, April 2012.