We have had an insanely busy two weeks and are feeling so drained and tired – we are so ready to come home for Christmas! This passed weekend was kind of the climax of all my efforts at work over the passed two weeks and El has been an absolute angel in helping me through it.
Two weeks back we had a surprise visit from my dad – he literally popped in for an hour and had lunch with me. He phoned me as I was walking home from the office and said that he was on his way – I didn't even know that he was in JHB! So that was fantastic! Then the next week (last weekend) Mike Horne was in JHB and spent the Sunday and Monday with us. He was playing a corporate gig in the evening out in Town and we were going to fetch him the following morning after church but we found out (just in time) that there was a massive cycle race on Sunday and that pretty much all the roads around us were going to be closed between 4am-4pm… so we decided to fetch Mike straight after his gig. So at midnight we took a drive through to Rivonia/Sandton area and were back home around 1:30am, and we were leading worship 8 hours later… that was just the start of the busyness…
On Monday last week I started off knowing that I had a lot to do, from prepping for three services (two morning services and the evening carol service) for which I was solely responsible for all three, to printing certificates for our Sunday School, finishing the editing of the Church preschool video to practicing carols and printing notices and programmes. So, I went into work with a game plan and then at 09h30 the power went off for four hours!
We continued to have another 6 power failures throughout the week, our photocopier jammed, the church computer lost half the files for the school video that I was busy with and rushing to get finished! Coupled with all these frustrations were a couple of difficult people to test my resolve. Then, to cap the work week off, MTN, who've had my cellphone for almost a month, called to let me know that it was repaired and ready for collection. So El and I went through to Northgate that afternoon to fetch it, only to be told that it actually hasn't been repaired and that because there was liquid damage they would not fix it and that I would need to buy a new phone. This was an absolute nonsense story as it is the second time that they've tried to fix it in three months and the first time they said that the problems were due to software. Now, when they realize that they might need to replace it (as per their policy) they say its not repairable and it's not their responsiblility! So I had words with the manager and they have booked it in for a THIRD time… we'll keep you updated.
El's school is busy winding down and last week we had a prize giving on the Tuesday night and their grade 7 farewell on Thursday night. On the Tuesday evening we had a power failure in the middle of the ceremony which was followed by a massive storm – so it made for a rather interesting evening. The Grade 7 farewell included an honours awards ceremony for which the headgirl took most of the awards and received two standing ovations, so it was quite a stirring evening. All of El's reports and admin are finished so she's pretty much in holiday mode already and comes home early everyday which is really awesome.
This passed weekend was really action packed. El and I had a worship commission meeting in the morning, which was followed by the preschool concert. Due to the computer issues I was unable to finish their video but managed to put a three-minute teaser together, which was well received. Then when we got home I worked on my sermon and the slides, then we went up to church to practice carols and our solo item with Catherine.
Paul and Catherine had bought Pirates of the Caribbean III so we borrowed that from them to chill a bit in the evening. I woke early on Sunday morning to finish my sermon prep and then El joined me at the second service. We had been invited to lunch with the Krige's (the people that gave us the iPod and curtains) and we drove with Paul and Catherine. They live in Dainfern, which is a STUNNING private estate. We were sent an sms for our access code and they literally scanned the car and numberplate at the entrance. We had a lovely lunch and arrived back just in time to start setting up for the carol service. All went well and the service was a great success. Many people have contacted me to say how much they enjoyed it. El, Catherine and I sang a solo item and it was such a blessing to be up their together.
We are looking forward to the next three weeks as we'll be winding down and getting ready for our long drive home – Anthony will also be staying with us for a while and we're really looking forward to having our little brother up here. We miss you all stacks!!
Thursday, 29 November 2007
Monday, 12 November 2007
Immortalised in Clay
I now have the rare privilege of being immortalized in clay! One of the guys in our church, Solomon, left us a couple of months ago to look for work in Cape Town. He returned last week with this statue and said that he'd been praying about God's plan for his life and God showed him a picture of two men - Paul and I. He knew that God wanted him to come back here and get involved in church again - how awesome is that!So, he's given us the statue and presented it to us along with a poem in our service yesterday.
Our Weekly Update
El and I had a fantastic week that was really really blessed and busy. We’re amped for the next couple of weeks as it’s always such an exciting time of year as we prepare to celebrate the birth of The King and get to share with others AND see you guys again! Well, on with last week.
El worked late at school almost everyday as she was busy with the décor for their fashionshow/pageant which was held on Friday night. I made good use of my afternoons and found myself with almost no work to do on Friday, which was perfect because, being the soundguy for El’s schools pageant, I needed to get there early to setup and test stuff whilst the kids were still there. I went through the day before to test the system and found that their tweeters were blown… so that was typical of a school system, and of course, no-one understood what I was talking about but they knew that the sound was terrible. I helped El and her colleagues hang drapes and pin the lettering of “A night with the stars” – which left us all covered in glitter. On Friday I left work early and took my speakers through to use alongside the school's, and the sound was a million times better (apporximately)... Up until Thursday we still hadn’t been told what music they wanted to use so I just had a whole lot of tracks in a playlist on our Mac ready to play and by Friday evening, 5 minutes AFTER the show was scheduled to begin, I was still being given music by some of the performers!! Despite the organizational hinderances the show went off extremely well. The MC, Luan de Beer, was an excellent showman and he had a whole lot of swing backing tracks (songs like Mack the Knife and Sway)… which I quickly ripped to the Mac for future use… that were very very good and he put on a great performance.
My music lessons went pretty well – they all happened on Tuesday so I killed three birds with one stone. The piano student, Tristan, is needing some serious motivation from his parents, I hope they keep at him and encourage him to stick to it – otherwise I might be one student less next year. But that may not be a bad thing as God will have something new in store me! I played at a memorial service on Wednesday, some family who live in the area and just wanted to use our church, minister and organist.
My evening commitments of home group and worship unfolded with nary a hitch. El spent most evenings marking assessments for her kids and working on reports. Home group was just a chilled evening as all the guys are busy with exams so we played Dwala and laughed a lot – one of the girls said it was just what they needed to break the stress of exams. Worship also went well and they managed to retain what I taught them as Sunday’s service was extremely encouraging. I have felt like the work we put in on a Thursday evening never pays off but I have seen a break in the clouds and they are definitely improving. It is also encouraging to hear the increased volume of our church’s response to the worship, more and more people are singing and they are not holding anything back – ROCK ON!
On Saturday El and I had a royal lie in which was followed by a lovely breakfast at Mugg&Bean whilst we waited for our car to be cleaned. It took them almost 2 hours to finish the car because it was so filthy – it was well overdue. We browsed the shops and then joined the Smits for an afternoon braai and swim in the new pool. We capped the evening off by playing poker and after losing the first round hopelessly, I managed to call in on Lady Luck and won the second round! I tried Gunther’s famous shuffling trick but they caught me out… I need a little more practice!
Anthony and Nadia invited us to coffee and a movie last night so we joined them at Clearwaters in the evening and watched Mr Woodcock, which lived up to it’s good reviews.
This week we have two functions on at El’s school and I need to get started on rehearsals for our carol service, so we have another really busy week planned. We wish all of you a blessed week!
El worked late at school almost everyday as she was busy with the décor for their fashionshow/pageant which was held on Friday night. I made good use of my afternoons and found myself with almost no work to do on Friday, which was perfect because, being the soundguy for El’s schools pageant, I needed to get there early to setup and test stuff whilst the kids were still there. I went through the day before to test the system and found that their tweeters were blown… so that was typical of a school system, and of course, no-one understood what I was talking about but they knew that the sound was terrible. I helped El and her colleagues hang drapes and pin the lettering of “A night with the stars” – which left us all covered in glitter. On Friday I left work early and took my speakers through to use alongside the school's, and the sound was a million times better (apporximately)... Up until Thursday we still hadn’t been told what music they wanted to use so I just had a whole lot of tracks in a playlist on our Mac ready to play and by Friday evening, 5 minutes AFTER the show was scheduled to begin, I was still being given music by some of the performers!! Despite the organizational hinderances the show went off extremely well. The MC, Luan de Beer, was an excellent showman and he had a whole lot of swing backing tracks (songs like Mack the Knife and Sway)… which I quickly ripped to the Mac for future use… that were very very good and he put on a great performance.
My music lessons went pretty well – they all happened on Tuesday so I killed three birds with one stone. The piano student, Tristan, is needing some serious motivation from his parents, I hope they keep at him and encourage him to stick to it – otherwise I might be one student less next year. But that may not be a bad thing as God will have something new in store me! I played at a memorial service on Wednesday, some family who live in the area and just wanted to use our church, minister and organist.
My evening commitments of home group and worship unfolded with nary a hitch. El spent most evenings marking assessments for her kids and working on reports. Home group was just a chilled evening as all the guys are busy with exams so we played Dwala and laughed a lot – one of the girls said it was just what they needed to break the stress of exams. Worship also went well and they managed to retain what I taught them as Sunday’s service was extremely encouraging. I have felt like the work we put in on a Thursday evening never pays off but I have seen a break in the clouds and they are definitely improving. It is also encouraging to hear the increased volume of our church’s response to the worship, more and more people are singing and they are not holding anything back – ROCK ON!
On Saturday El and I had a royal lie in which was followed by a lovely breakfast at Mugg&Bean whilst we waited for our car to be cleaned. It took them almost 2 hours to finish the car because it was so filthy – it was well overdue. We browsed the shops and then joined the Smits for an afternoon braai and swim in the new pool. We capped the evening off by playing poker and after losing the first round hopelessly, I managed to call in on Lady Luck and won the second round! I tried Gunther’s famous shuffling trick but they caught me out… I need a little more practice!
Anthony and Nadia invited us to coffee and a movie last night so we joined them at Clearwaters in the evening and watched Mr Woodcock, which lived up to it’s good reviews.
This week we have two functions on at El’s school and I need to get started on rehearsals for our carol service, so we have another really busy week planned. We wish all of you a blessed week!
Our Weekly Update (5 Nov)
El and I seem to have fully recovered from our gastric flu last weekend and are feeling much better, but now El seems to have developed a sore throat and nasal drip. She’s a fighter though, so I’m sure she’ll make it through… We have her school’s fashion show at the end of this week so we’re gonna be pretty busy with that this week. We had a very busy weekend and it was thoroughly enjoyable!
Paul was out of the office the whole week on study leave so I had the days to myself and as I was preaching yesterday I spent most of my time preparing the message and an extra little message on Halloween – which was really fun to do. I’ll be sending the powerpoint to you all for your own edification – there was a lot of info that I didn’t actually know. I presented it to the Sunday school during the service as they joined us for worship – they seemed to stay focused which was awesome.
At our worship practice on Thursday evening I got our one guitarist to play electric and she really enjoyed it – which is very kiff. I’m hoping that she’ll grow in this instrument and then we’ll be able to expand our capabilities as a band. She also brought her friend along who used to play in the evening services and she was not bad at all on acoustic. Still plays some oudoos chords but she strums well – and that’s quite something for our current standards. So, next year I’ll be looking to seriously up the standard of worship – still just need two capable drummers… (hint hint mr Hopkins…)
I think the highlight of our week was our whole weekend… On Friday our grass for our back section of the house arrived so I was keen to get it laid so that it could start to take and green up a bit. El and I spent our whole afternoon at Clearwaters doing the weekly shopping vibe. On Saturday morning I got Themba to help me lay the grass and I’m glad I did that because it was actually a huge graft. In the afternoon El went to a scrap-book workshop on Saturday and I went to play PS2 with Anthony as Nadia was at the workshop with El. So we had a rocking guy’s afternoon playing racing and combat games and the ladies had fun doing chick stuff. We had supper with Nadia and Anthony that evening and by the time we got home we were absolutely FINISHED. I had an early wakeup call as I was preaching at both services and needed to be prepped and up at the church by 07h15. Both services went really well and were well attended. Several people have asked me for the notes on my sermon and for the notes of the Halloween presentation – which was very encouraging.
Our friends from Springs – Terry, her son Gavin and his fiancé Di – joined us for the service and then stayed on for a braai for lunch and we had a great afternoon with them. Gav and Di have a little daughter (we went to her 1st birthday earlier in the year) and she is growing up incredibly fast! And what a handful, when we have kids I think we’ll press the chapter skip button and go from 12 months to four years old… that’ll be a winner I think.
Shelly, our tortoise, is doing well – she’s survived the kitten playing ‘paw hockey’ with her and Honey’s attempt to eat her… She mostly stays in a box in the spare room which is where we plan to keep her until we can get a safe outside pen of sorts for her. Roo’s stitches have pretty much fallen out all by themselves and she’s become a real little terror, hiding under the bed and attacking our feet in the mornings – she’s really cute. The dogs are well, barking far too much, but not as much as Paul’s Zeke, so I guess that’s not too bad.
We wish you all a blessed week, think of us lots!
Paul was out of the office the whole week on study leave so I had the days to myself and as I was preaching yesterday I spent most of my time preparing the message and an extra little message on Halloween – which was really fun to do. I’ll be sending the powerpoint to you all for your own edification – there was a lot of info that I didn’t actually know. I presented it to the Sunday school during the service as they joined us for worship – they seemed to stay focused which was awesome.
At our worship practice on Thursday evening I got our one guitarist to play electric and she really enjoyed it – which is very kiff. I’m hoping that she’ll grow in this instrument and then we’ll be able to expand our capabilities as a band. She also brought her friend along who used to play in the evening services and she was not bad at all on acoustic. Still plays some oudoos chords but she strums well – and that’s quite something for our current standards. So, next year I’ll be looking to seriously up the standard of worship – still just need two capable drummers… (hint hint mr Hopkins…)
I think the highlight of our week was our whole weekend… On Friday our grass for our back section of the house arrived so I was keen to get it laid so that it could start to take and green up a bit. El and I spent our whole afternoon at Clearwaters doing the weekly shopping vibe. On Saturday morning I got Themba to help me lay the grass and I’m glad I did that because it was actually a huge graft. In the afternoon El went to a scrap-book workshop on Saturday and I went to play PS2 with Anthony as Nadia was at the workshop with El. So we had a rocking guy’s afternoon playing racing and combat games and the ladies had fun doing chick stuff. We had supper with Nadia and Anthony that evening and by the time we got home we were absolutely FINISHED. I had an early wakeup call as I was preaching at both services and needed to be prepped and up at the church by 07h15. Both services went really well and were well attended. Several people have asked me for the notes on my sermon and for the notes of the Halloween presentation – which was very encouraging.
Our friends from Springs – Terry, her son Gavin and his fiancé Di – joined us for the service and then stayed on for a braai for lunch and we had a great afternoon with them. Gav and Di have a little daughter (we went to her 1st birthday earlier in the year) and she is growing up incredibly fast! And what a handful, when we have kids I think we’ll press the chapter skip button and go from 12 months to four years old… that’ll be a winner I think.
Shelly, our tortoise, is doing well – she’s survived the kitten playing ‘paw hockey’ with her and Honey’s attempt to eat her… She mostly stays in a box in the spare room which is where we plan to keep her until we can get a safe outside pen of sorts for her. Roo’s stitches have pretty much fallen out all by themselves and she’s become a real little terror, hiding under the bed and attacking our feet in the mornings – she’s really cute. The dogs are well, barking far too much, but not as much as Paul’s Zeke, so I guess that’s not too bad.
We wish you all a blessed week, think of us lots!
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