Facing The Mountain

Easter Greetings

2026-04-06T09:53:00.003+02:00

Exciting News

2026-02-10T14:21:00.000+02:00

We have some exciting news from The Gathering.

Today we have completed an offer to purchase (OTP) this property in Firgrove.

It's a 4 bedroom house with a converted garage and a decent size garden.

The OTP will be submitted to the vendor this evening (they live overseas) and we will know more hopefully by tomorrow morning.

We need you to stand with us in prayer for this, especially as there is another offer already in. However, we have offered slightly more than the asking price, and are ready to move on it within a few hours.

What really excites us about this is that the house is in a very visible location right at the heart of the community, and we believe it could serve The Gathering very well.

We would need to re-zone the property and make some substantial changes to it, but it would serve us and the community very well.

Please LORD.

Thumbs Up

2026-01-02T13:10:00.003+02:00

It was a joy to start the New Year with a visit to my dear friend Michael who has just got home from quite a stay in the local government hospital, where he had his left leg amputated.

It was great to see him again, to chat and pray together, but the real blessing was the life in him!

When I visited Michael in hospital last week he was in a bad way, he was strapped to the bed and was so drugged up that he was on another planet. At that point I really thought I was saying 'farewell dear friend", but thankfully there's life in the old goat yet. I was so distressed by his state in hospital that I didn't take a photo, it would have been wrong to. However today, Michael was excited to give a thumbs up for the camera.

It was also a joy to see two old friends of Michael's rallying to his side to support him and Joyce, and we were also able to bless Joyce with some adult nappies for him which will really help her.

Thank you LORD!

Happy Christmas

2025-12-25T11:28:00.015+02:00

Rosie Dog

2025-10-30T16:08:00.002+02:00

Yesterday was a tough day for us as we said goodbye to our beautiful Rosie Dog.

Rosie lived a good long life, but at sweet 16 she was struggling with the most basic of activities such as grooming, and walking was painful for her. So after consulting some dear friends with more experience of dog ownership than us, and a chat with the vet, we agreed it was time to do the right thing and let Rosie go.

It was a beautifully warm & sunny morning, and Rosie was out in her favourite patch of grass in the front garden.

I had always insisted that when the time came I would be the last person she saw, and so I cupped her lovely head in my hands and had my head on her snout so we were eye to eye. As the vet ministered the drugs I held Rosie until it was confirmed she had passed.

It was a joy & a privilege to call Rosie part of our family, and she will be missed for many years to come.

Big thanks to Melissa for the poem above.

St Andrew's, Oxshott

2025-09-24T17:52:00.001+02:00

Despite Paula's best attempt to scupper our UK trip by throwing herself down a hill, I did at least manage to keep one engagement.

On Sunday I had the joy & privilege of preaching at St Andrew's in Oxshott, one of our partner churches.

The whole service was given over to being a Mission Sunday, with five of their partners speaking in person during the service and two speaking live over video from Pakistan & Nepal. It was brilliantly done!

I was interviewed at the beginning of the service, just to give an overview of what The Gathering is up to, and then preached part of their series on the Nicene Creed, specifically the second part:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.

After the service I presented a shortened version of our Facing The Mountain Roadshow which was followed by a delicious jacket potato lunch in the church hall.

As an extra bonus, I also got to go home afterwards with dear friends Ron & Jackie for a cup of tea and a catch up. The whole day was a tremendous blessing, and I'm deeply thankful to God for allowing this event to go ahead in the aftermath of Paula's accident.

If you really want to watch/listen to the service, it is available on YouTube.

Anywhere Under The Sky

2025-09-15T11:32:00.001+02:00

Anywhere under the sky, or bridge, is my gym when I'm away from my Boxing gym.

My aim after almost seven years of Boxing is to never give up and never stop exercising, and Boxing is such a great way to exercise the whole body, especially as we do a lot of strength training at the gym.

Wedding Anniversary

2025-09-14T19:03:00.004+02:00

Of the thirty four wedding anniversaries we've celebrated, this is probably the most unusual.

We're still trying to process all that has happened in the last 24 hours and what it all means for our plans. Sadly we've had to cancel most of what we had planned, and our longed for family getaway has been canned for now. This is truly heartbreaking.

We are truly thankful for dear friends and family who have rallied to help us make a plan regarding accommodation so that we're not homeless on Saturday. That takes a lot of stress away from an already tough situation.

We're also thankful that although we won't be able to travel north to see Joel, he will be coming down to see us for a week in a couple of weeks time. We can't wait to see him again!

We're thankful too for Eli and his girlfriend, she's been an absolute treasure, especially as she spent the day with Paula in the hospital yesterday as Dean & Eli sloped off to watch the Palace game at Selhurst Park.

Please continue to pray with and for us. There is so much to sort out, but the priority is getting Paula under the surgeon's knife so she can properly begin to recover and heal.

SAFReC Outreach

2025-07-04T09:46:00.005+02:00

On Wednesday a few of the local SAFReC Chaplains visited Heartlands Baby Sanctuary in Somerset West to drop off a donation of nappies and to pray with any staff members who wanted prayer.

It was a truly blessed time ministering the word and the presence of God in such a beautiful place.

The work Heartlands do in providing temporary residential safe care to infants is amazing, they have 25 children at any one time, and their focus is to give each child a sense of belonging in family, and always with a view to repatriation to their birth family whenever possible.

It was a joy to pray with some of the staff members, and to receive feedback from some about how 'spot on' the prayer had been was very encouraging.

Having said goodbye to baby Jack the day before, it was a little heartsore to be somewhere like Heartlands, but it was also a joy to be able to donate a pack of nappies and wet wipes along with the larger SAFReC donation.

It was also good to get together with some of the Western Cape SAFReC Chaplains, and hopefully we'll start meeting up and being a blessing to other services and ministries in the coming months.

Loss & Grief

2025-07-01T12:16:00.004+02:00

Entering into a life of full-time overseas mission has to be the toughest challenge in life. One can do all the training at specialised colleges, read all the books and listen to those who have served in overseas mission, but until you've done it, you simply cannot understand just how tough the life is! That's not to say normal life isn't tough, we know it can be.

One aspect of life in mission which we were totally unprepared for was the continual sense of loss and grief, as people come into our lives for a time, and then depart again. Sometimes it's us coming in to the lives of others and then departing again. Sometimes it's about being ripped out of a situation or even a nation unexpectedly. Sometimes it's one's own kids doing the departing to start their lives thousands of miles away, knowing you'll only see them sporadically and you're highly unlikely to ever live together as a family again. That's really hard!

Sometimes we've chosen the difficult route of being in a life for a time knowing that there was a cut off point after which we would have no further input or contact. This is also very hard.

But this is what we chose when we became Temporary Safe Care Parents, and opened our life and hearts to Jack and others in the future...

Today, we said farewell to Jack, and it's been really hard. We had fallen in love with him, his smile, his personality and just his general gorgeousness. Jack is a beautiful human being born out of awful circumstances, and yet he's royally blessed. As he moves on into a long term foster placement (hopefully with a view to adoption), we feel blessed to have met and spent time with his new family, and knowing he is going to be deeply loved and cared for helps ease our pain.

Before we went in to overseas mission in 1998, no one warned us about the ongoing sense of loss & grief that we would carry and have to face, but as hard as it is, it's a privilege to do it in the name of God, knowing that through it all, we're just two youngsters at heart who chose to serve Jesus with all the passion we could muster.

Mammoth Event

2025-06-20T15:29:00.002+02:00

We've noticed that The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen has been getting a bit busier week on week in the last few months, and last night's Soup Kitchen was quite a mammoth event.

For the last year, numbers had been dropping, though there remained a significant core of regulars and we were still regularly feeding well over 100 people, but the quantity of soup we were making each week had dropped down from 200 litres to somewhere between 70 to 100 litres a week, with the occasional Soup Kitchen dragging on for a while until the last of the soup had gone.

Then a few months ago we noticed this trend beginning to turn, with more people coming for soup and the soup going in a much shorter time.

Last night we served 100lts and it was gone in twenty minutes, having served about 250 people and a total of 400 cups. We haven't seen a queue of regulars that size for quite a long time, and it was so busy we had to say no to filling pots, something we haven't had to do for several years.

There are a few tangible reasons for the resurgence in attendance for our Soup Kitchen, winter is a big reason, especially as the cold weather has set in early this year. Also, with inflationary pressures seemingly on a relentless upward trek, the small social welfare grant of R390 (£16.25) a month is so pitiful it's barely worth the hassle it is to sign up and claim for.

So as a church, once again it's a joy and a blessing to be able to serve some of the neediest and most vulnerable people in our community and beyond, and we will be increasing the quantity of our weekly Soup Kitchens again, beginning with 140 litres of delicious homemade soup next Thursday.

Thank you LORD!

FA Cup Winners 2025

2025-05-27T12:00:00.001+02:00

I'm just going to leave a few pics from the FA Cup Final here.

I'm still trying to process the emotions, the elation, the unbelief and the sense of history having been written...

Palace will forever be a part of the FA Cup story!

To see the FA Cup with the Red & Blue of Palace is a dream one almost never dared to dream.

To see Joel Ward, our faithful club captain lift The Cup was an unbelievable moment.

Ward joined Palace 13 years ago on a £400,000 transfer, which arguably makes him the best value for money signing in history.

Also, we can never forget that Joel is the sole remaining squad member from that Play-Off Final at Wembley in 2013 when Palace gained promotion back to the Premier League.

What a team!

On their day they can beat anyone.

Eze, the goalscorer.

A proper baller, a menace to any defence, scores for fun and is a solidly born again Christian who is unafraid to publicly speak of his faith, he can always be seen giving glory to God for each goal he scores.

Whether he stays at Palace next season or not, we the fans will always wish him well.

The Gaffer.

Oliver Glasner has transformed Palace into a team to be immensely proud of and a joy to watch.

Next season he'll be leading Palace into the Europe League, a competition he has previously won.

Onwards and upwards...

What Steve Parish and his consortium of Palace fans CPFC2010 have done for Palace is off the scale and they will never be forgotten.

SP as Chair of Palace is the sole remaining member of the 2010 consortium that saved Palace from extinction. They also finally reunited the team with our beloved home; Selhurst Park.

As the old adage goes, the rest is history.

The Holmesdale Fanatics have been superb in leading the Palace faithful in being the 12th man at every game.

The Cup Final was just exceptional!

Written into FA Cup lore for the rest of time...

Soup Kitchen 10th Birthday

2025-05-16T11:47:00.000+02:00

Last night we celebrated the 10th birthday of The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen which began on 14 May 2015.

What is truly remarkable over the ten years is how the Soup Kitchen has grown and how in all that time we have only missed seven or eight, and only three of which were during Covid lockdowns.

Our Soup Kitchen is always a chilled occasion, but last night was something special as we played a slideshow of random photos from the last ten years. Many of our regulars really enjoyed seeing themselves over the years, and some of our former Homework Club kids really enjoyed seeing how young they were back in the day.

Last night's Soup Kitchen was one of our busier in recent months, so it was joyous to see folk so happy to chill and spend time drink soup whilst squashed in together.

Everyone also enjoyed the special chocolates we had bought in as a small celebration treat.

I still smile at the advice we were given at the outset from certain local church leaders, most of whom seemed to think opening a Soup Kitchen would be pretty disastrous. LOL.

Over the last ten years we've built some great friendships, relationships and a lot of trust & respect in the community, and those things are priceless as far as we are concerned. This also means that over those ten years the impact we've had on the community is far greater than the size of the church, and for that we'll be forever grateful.

Enjoy the slideshow...

Happy Mother's Day

2025-05-11T09:32:00.006+02:00

Happy Mother's Day to all you lovely mums out there.

What a joy it was to enter our Gathering building this morning and see this Mother's Day greeting put up by out Homework Club kids on Friday.

Thank you LORD!

Ten Historical Facts About Jesus

2025-04-17T16:40:00.002+02:00

Easter is almost upon us, which means it's time once again to consider the person of Jesus...

Now, whether you believe in the New Testament person of Jesus is immaterial, there is more than enough evidence outside of the Bible to confirm his physical existence, his death and his resurrection.

The fact is that Jesus is not only documented in the eye-witness testimony of the gospels and Acts but He is mentioned as a historical person by over 50 non-Christian sources within 150 years of His life.

So here are ten historical facts about Jesus, from non-Christian, non-Biblical sources, which I have borrowed from the websites of far more learned fellows than I...

1. He was known to be wise and virtuous.

This fact was reported by Jewish Historian Josephus (a Romano-Jewish scholar & historian), who was born around AD 37. In his Antiquities of the Jews, he reports:

“At this time there was a wise man named Jesus. His conduct was good, and [he] was known to be virtuous.” ¹

2. He had a brother named James.

We know from Mt 13:55 that Jesus had some brothers and one of them was James.

In recounting the stoning of James, Josephus records:

“So he assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought before them the brother of Jesus, who

was called Christ, whose name was James, and some others; and when he had formed an accusation against them as breakers of the law, he delivered them to be stoned.” ²

3. He was known to perform miracles.

Celsus was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and a fierce opponent of Christianity. In what is known to be the first comprehensive intellectual attack on Christianity, he tried to resolve why Jesus was able to perform miracles. His story is completely over the top, but the main point is that by trying to explain away the miracles of Jesus, he is actually affirming that they happened:

“Jesus, on account of his poverty, was hired out to go to Egypt. While there he acquired certain powers which Egyptians pride themselves on possessing. He returned home highly elated at possessing these powers, and on the strength of them gave himself out to be a god.” ³

Just like the Chief Priests & Elders in Mt 28:12 he was a hostile witness but still a witness to the truth.

4. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate.

This fact comes to us from one of the most trusted historians of the ancient world. Cornelius Tacitus was born in AD56 and served as a respected senator and proconsul of Asia under Emperor Vespasian. He wrote a history of the first century Roman Empire, which many historians consider to be the "pinnacle of Roman historical writing." ⁴ He notes:

Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus. ⁵

Josephus confirmed: "Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die." ⁶

Again, we know this to be true from the four gospels & Acts

5. His crucifixion was accompanied by darkness and an earthquake.

This fact was originally recorded by a Samaritan historian named Thallus, who was alive at the same time Jesus was (AD 5-60). He wrote a 3-volume history of the 1st-century Mediterranean world, which unfortunately no longer exists. But before his writings were lost, he was cited by another ancient historian, Julius Africanus (a Christian traveller and historian of the late second and early third centuries)., in AD 221. Africanus described Thallus' account of what happened during Jesus' crucifixion:

On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. ⁷

Mt 27:51b “The earth shook, the rocks split..”

Mt 27:45, Mk 15:33, Lk 23:44-45 “At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon”

6. He had many Jewish and Gentile disciples.

Josephus wrote:

“And many people from among the Jews and the other nations became his disciples. Pilate condemned him to be crucified and to die. And those who had become his disciples did not abandon discipleship.” ⁸

7. He lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar.

Julius Africanus also reported that another ancient historian, Phlegon (a Greek writer and freedman of the emperor Hadrian, who lived in the 2^nd century AD), confirmed the darkness at the time of Jesus' death and that Jesus was alive "in the time of" Tiberius Caesar:

Phlegon records that, “..in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth”. ⁹

8. His disciples believed that He rose from the dead.

In his commentary regarding the disciples' reaction to Jesus' death, Josephus recorded:

[Jesus' disciples] reported that He had appeared to them three days after his crucifixion, and that he was alive.... ¹⁰

Who wouldn’t believe after seeing him in the flesh.
John 20:26-28 tells us that Jesus appeared to “all the disciples”

1 Cor 15:6 tells us he appeared to over 500 people

9. His disciples believed He was God, and they met regularly to worship Him.

Pliny the Younger lived from AD 61-113 and was an influential lawyer and magistrate of ancient Rome. In a letter to Emperor Trajan he wrote:

“They [Christians] were in the habit of meeting on a certain fixed day before it was light, when they sang in alternate verses a hymn to Christ, as to a god, and bound themselves by a solemn oath, not to any wicked deeds, but never to commit any fraud, theft or adultery, never to falsify their word, nor deny a trust when they should be called upon to deliver it up.” ¹¹

Lucian of Samosata was a 2nd-century Greek satirist known for his wit and sarcasm. Even though Christians were the object of his sarcasm, he affirmed certain details about them:

“The Christians, you know worship a man to this day—the distinguished personage who introduced their novel rights, and was crucified on that account....it was impressed on them by their original lawgiver that they are all brothers, from the moment that they are converted, and deny the gods of Greece, and worship the crucified sage, and live after his laws.” ¹²

10. His disciples were willing to suffer and die for their beliefs.

The persecution and suffering of early Christians was recorded by Suetonius, the official secretary of the Roman Emperor Hadrian around AD 121. He documented that they were expelled from Rome in AD 49 by Claudius:

“Because the Jews at Rome caused constant disturbances at the instigation of Chrestus (Christ), he expelled them from Rome.” ¹³

and:

“Nero inflicted punishment on the Christians, a sect given to a new and mischievous religious belief.” ¹⁴

Tacitus also confirmed Nero's persecution of early Christians:

“Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace.” ¹⁵

Conclusion

Many of these non-biblical references to Jesus are also mentioned in the scriptures and as such we can know they are true.

8, 9 & 10 are crucial here.

If Jesus didn’t rise from the dead we’re wasting our time!

But Jesus did rise from the dead, that’s a historical certainty and is clearly referenced outside of the Bible, though even within the Bible there are hostile witnesses who confirm the resurrection. Mt 28:12-15.

So as Easter comes let’s celebrate the fact that Jesus was a real man, he died a real death and he really was resurrected from the dead!

Jesus is alive!

References:

1. Schlomo Pines, An Arabic Version of the Testimonium Flavianum and it’s Implications. (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1971), 9-10.

2. Josephus, Antiquities, 20.9.1. Online: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0146%3Abook%3D20%3Awhiston+chapter%3D9%3Awhiston+section%3D1

3. Origen, Against Celsus, 1:28. Online: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/origen161.html

4. https://slife.org/tacitus-on-christ/

5. Hugh A. McDonald, “Tacitus.” Encyclopedia Britannica, January 1, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian.

6. Josephus, Antiquities, 18.3.63. Online: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0146%3Abook%3D18%3Awhiston%20chapter%3D3%3Awhiston%20section%3D3

7. As quoted by William Lane Craig, “#160 Thallus on the Darkness at Noon.” ReasonableFaith.org. May 10, 2010. Online: https://www.reasonablefaith.org/writings/question-answer/thallus-on-the-darkness-at-noon

8. Schlomo Pines, An Arabic Version of the Testimonium Flavianum and it’s Implications. (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1971), 9-10.

9. Origen, Against Celsus, 2.33. Online: http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/origen162.html (Accessed Nov. 16, 2022).

10. Schlomo Pines, An Arabic Version of the Testimonium Flavianum and it’s Implications. (Jerusalem: Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 1971), 9-10.

11. Pliny, Letters, Book 10, Letter 96. Online: http://www.attalus.org/old/pliny10b.html#96 (Accessed Nov. 10, 2022).

12. Lucian, The Death of Peregrine, 11-13. Online: http://lucianofsamosata.info/wiki/doku.php?id=home:texts_and_library:essays:peregrine

13. Suetonius, Life of Claudius, 25:4. Online: https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Suetonius/12Caesars/Claudius*.html

14. Hugh A. McDonald, “Tacitus.” Encyclopedia Britannica, January 1, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian.

15. Hugh A. McDonald, “Tacitus.” Encyclopedia Britannica, January 1, 2022. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tacitus-Roman-historian.

72 Boxes Of Blessings

2025-04-11T12:12:00.003+02:00

What a joy and a blessing it was to get a call from my dear friend Shaddie asking if we would like a pallet load of peanut pastes.

It's been a long time since The Gathering was able to bless our Soup Kitchen regulars and others with these amazing & delicious packets of goodness, so Soup Kitchen this coming week will be excellent! And I'm sure that it will be busier than normal as word spreads that we have these pastes.

It was a blessing too to have a few of our regulars, and two former Homework Club members, to do the unloading and stacking for me. My back is beyond grateful for not having to unload that lot!

Once again it appears that UNICEF had decided that the nutritional values of the sachets was out, and so they couldn't use them. All I know is that their rejects are very welcome at The Gathering!

So there we are, The Gathering has 72 boxes of peanut pastes just waiting to be a blessing to our Homework Clubs, our Soup Kitchen and the two Soup Kitchens we work with in Macassar.

Happy Place

2025-03-27T14:02:00.000+02:00

It's Thursday, so I'm in my happy place as I make the soup for The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen this evening.

I also got to test out the new barber's chair we bought so that Remi no longer needs to bend down to do his haircutting. The poor lad is serving his heart out giving amazing haircuts to our Soup Kitchen regulars, but all the while doing his back in because we didn't have a proper chair.

Hopefully, tonight will be as much a blessing to Remi's back as it is to our regulars as they are royally blessed with homemade soup and a decent haircut.

Today we will be serving a delicious curried cream of potato, cauliflower & pea soup, and it is tasting yummy!

Roll on six o'clock...

How Big Is Your Church?

2025-03-20T15:59:00.001+02:00

Well, there is a question that frustrates and annoys me in equal measure, and yet it remains the most persistent question we get asked by Christians when they learn that we are pastors leading a local church.

The question frustrates me because it misses the heart of what church is about, and it annoys me because at its simplest level it reduces church to a numbers game, and church should never be about numbers, or as one pastor we once knew used to say 'bums on seats'.

The question also annoys me because it assumes that church is all about numerical growth. Whilst growth is great, it's not the most effective and glorifying metric we can use to measure the effectiveness or success of a church.

My preferred question is How much of an impact does your church have on your community?

If we're going to approach churches from this perspective, things change dramatically! The Gathering for example, may be a few people gathering on a Sunday morning or Wednesday evening, but the impact of the church on the community is huge.

As a church we directly impact over 10% of the populating in the community. That puts The Gathering in the mega-church bracket, but we most certainly are not of that ilk!

What The Gathering is, is a church that loves to give.

This week alone we have given ten sets of bedding to the local homeless shelter, we have given food to two other local soup kitchens, and we will be serving over 100 litres of fresh homemade soup tonight. On top of that we are serving a dozen or so local primary school kids through our Homework Clubs, and from next month these will begin to grow back to their pre-Covid levels, which we're very excited about.

The Gathering is a church that believes that the blessings God pours into the church and into our lives are meant to flow through us to bless others.

His blessings are not trophies to keep and boast about. This is why we dedicate Thursdays as being Thankful Thursdays, in which we put aside our prayer requests and focus on thanking God for all He has done and is doing in us and through us.

That's how big our church is.

NPO Certificate

2025-03-18T15:07:00.003+02:00

Today is an excellent day, as we received a hard copy of The Gathering International's NPO registration.

This means that we can now open a bank account, register as a tax payer with the relevant tax people and apply for S18a tax exemption as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO).

What this all means in simple terms is that we are now a big step closer to actually getting our S18a, which means we're a another big step closer to being able to buy the building we currently gather in.

We are so thankful for having a Deputy Director of the Dept of Social Development consulting for us in this process.

Thank you LORD!

The Gathering International

2025-03-04T12:16:00.000+02:00

Today is a day of good news!

The Gathering International is now registered as a Non Profit Organisation (NPO) with the Department of Social Development (DSD), as a Community Development project.

The good news about this is that The Gathering International now qualifies for tax exemption, though we still have some processes to complete with the South African revenue Service (SARS).

We plan to meet with our man from the DSD sometime in the next week or two, to outline a plan of action with SARS and registering The Gathering International as a taxpayer, and then ensuring that The Gathering Community Church is finally deregistered as an NPO. All the relevant paperwork has been completed for the de-registration, so we're not sure why the registration is still lingering. Hopefully our man from DSD will shed some light on this.

On top of this, The Gathering's landlord has recently started talking to Dean again about selling the building to us. This is a very positive step forward!

What all of this means in real terms is that The Gathering is now well placed to actually buy the building, and hopefully the saga will draw to a close very soon as we get our long awaited section 18a certificate from SARS.

So what's the difference between The Gathering Community Church and The Gathering International? Quite simply, there isn't any difference. All it means in reality is that our NPO registration is no longer as a Faith Based Organisation (FBO), but rather we're now registered as an NPO as a Civil Society Organisation (CSO). We needed to make the change because The Gathering Community Church as an FBO cannot be tax exempt, so in purchasing the building, The Gathering would be fully liable for the sales tax payable on the purchase price. However, as a CSO, The Gathering International qualifies for tax exemption and therefore would not be liable for sales tax on the building purchase.

As far as church life and our outreach are concerned, nothing has changed.

Greatest Joy

2025-02-23T13:14:00.003+02:00

A few years ago I had the joy of chatting about our ministry with a dear friend, who asked me the best question anyone has ever asked of my/our ministry. He simply asked "What is your greatest joy in ministry?"

My reply was almost instantaneous, and remains the same today.

Quite simply, my greatest joy in ministry is raising others up and releasing them to minister in the Kingdom.

It's not complicated, and it's a key part of what any leader in any ministry should be doing, and is totally in line with God's word. And at The Gathering we fully believe in the priesthood of all believers.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
1 Peter 2:9

This morning it was great to have Delena back among us, and she opened our time of worship magnificently, focussing on Matthew 11:30 when Jesus said "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light". This then tied in superbly with Mongezi's Spirit led word on not complicating the Gospel, using the example of the Samaritan woman in John 4, who went to her people and said ""Come, see a man who told me all that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?" John 4:29.

Thank you LORD for such faithful servants in The Gathering.

Delena's opening & Mongezi's word can be heard here.

Firewood

2025-02-15T10:00:00.013+02:00

It's always an oddly exciting and satisfying event when our firewood is delivered each year.

We only get our wood once a year, and it supplies our wood burner in winter, which is our only source of heating in our house.

It's hard to believe in mid-summer that we will ever need to get the fire going, but summer is drawing to a close as the nights get shorter and the mornings are just a little darker as I cycle to my boxing gym.

This year we decided to try black wattle rather than the usual bluegum, and it certainly appears to be a better wood. It is supposed to be a longer burning wood, so it should work out a bit more economical, here's hoping...

Fuad

2025-02-13T18:55:00.034+02:00

Last night's Soup Kitchen was as chilled as ever, especially as Remi was once again with us offering free haircuts to those that wanted one.

The evening was also brightened up by the visit of Fuad!

We've not seen Fuad for quite a while, so it was great to catch up with him again, and it was a joy to be able to bless him with a haircut as well as soup.

We've known Fuad for about fifteen years, and he pops up into our lives every so often, and when he does it is a real joy, because no matter how tough his life is (and his life is very tough!), he is always smiley and happy to see us.

Fuad always brings an air of humour with him, and it's never long before folk are laughing along with him.

We have posted about Fuad before.

Six Years Later

2025-01-11T09:32:00.002+02:00

In December 2018 I was struggling with a few health issues, and like most of us, I was faced with the dilemma of our age... do I seek medical attention to address the symptoms, or do I go for it and address the problems.

I decided to go for the problems, and so with a bit of advice and ~~gentle~~ persuasion from some great people, in January 2019 I stepped into what was then CEY Boxing Gym and began a journey that would transform not just me and my health, but would transform our family life for the better.

You can see all my Boxing posts here.

To cut a long story short, six years later I'm enjoying every minute of it and I cherish my health and fitness. I'm also really enjoying all the strength training I'm doing at my new Boxing gym, this is a whole new area for me, and I'm enjoying the results. Seeing myself in the mirror is a whole lot less embarrassing than it once was.

Enjoy the video of me doing some pad work with Coach Lunga.

Dogs Of The Gathering

2025-01-04T12:55:00.004+02:00

Whilst we were away over Christmas we got to spend a very happy hour with some good friends, chatting about life and having a laugh. I was struck by their new dog, a rescue from the local animal shelter. She's called Rosie and apparently has bitten everyone who has attempted to stroke her, including the local policeman.

I decided to use my dog whispering skills from feeding dogs at The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen, and amazingly, Rosie responded and allowed me to spend some time stroking her and tickling her tummy, much to her owners' amazement.

Needless to say I felt quite honoured by Rosie, and it got me thinking about the many dogs that come to our Soup Kitchen and how we treat them.

This coming May, The Gathering's weekly Soup Kitchen will have been running for 10 years, and in that time we've met a lot of the local dogs, as they come with their owners, or some, like Bruno (more on him in a moment...) just seem to know there is a free meal on offer and a bit of sanctuary from the rough & tough of life on the streets.

Each week we (and by we, I mean me) try to be kind to the dogs that come, we give them a cup of soup out on the pavement, and try to create a safe space for them. I also try and get them to allow me to pet or stroke them, and over the years some of the dogs have become quite friendly with me/us.

Our Soup Kitchen has been quite a hit with many of the local dogs, and we even have one dog named Angel (in pic above) who attends our Sunday Gatherings more faithfully than her owner who is an actual church member.

It costs nothing to show a little kindness, and the rewards can be a great blessing, and I love the fact that many of the local hounds know the The Gathering is a safe space from them where they are never beaten, chased away or have stones thrown at them, which is par for the course in the community.

A quick word about Bruno; I used to laugh with some of our regulars that Bruno was my dog (that's him in the last pic). Not only was he a regular at our Soup Kitchen, but he would keep an eye out for me, and he would come and spend time with me when I was in the building.

Sadly, he disappeared one day, and a few months later I learnt that he had fallen down a drain and the locals had just left him down there to die. I miss Bruno.