Martín y Hazel Frost Nuestra Vida en Argentina

a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THtcdRaFthI/AAAAAAAABR0/dClnkXJ3jDc/s1600/IMG_3056.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title="Protea in the rain"img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THtcdRaFthI/AAAAAAAABR0/dClnkXJ3jDc/s320/IMG_3056.JPG" width="240" //aThe last two weeks have been pretty much a write-off as far as I'm concerned as two weeks ago I had a bout of flu which by last Monday was over and I was starting to feel much better but then on Tuesday I got hit by something else and was feverish and in pain for most of the week. Thankfully this weekend was much more back to normal! I was really annoyed by this having got through winter with no illness to suddenly get walloped just as the season is changing. Not good!br / br / The rest of the gang have been fine throughout, suffering only the vagaries of a very grumpy dad and husband but they seem to put up with me well.br / br / Winter has decided it wants one last hurrah so for the last week or so it's been raining a lot which also reduces the temp. We are so ready for summer!!! On Saturday we decided not to submit to the rain but rather to venture out to the a href="http://www.helderbergnaturereserve.co.za/" target="_blank" title="God's creation in all its splendour!"Nature Reserve/a and get soaked in it whilst having a bit of fun.br / div style="text-align: right;"Mission accomplished on both fronts there then./divbr/brbr / a name='more'/aSo we set off to the climbing tree but seemed to get a bit distracted by a discussion on tarantulas. Joel is really taken by them at the moment whilst we were simply horrified to learn that they live right here in our little corner of Africa! We did get very wet so decamped to the café which was a welcome delight with the log fire raging.br / br / Sunday was a great morning in church. We love being with our family at Grace and we had the added delight of Gareth Naude from a href="http://www.therockcc.org.za/" target="_blank" title="From all nations and for all nations"The Rock/a in Tableview preaching.br / br / The rest of the weekend was spent doing a bit of tidying bedrooms (less said about that the better) and chilling out which we seem to be pretty good at. At teatime we had a lekker family meal at a local restaurant where Joel had his customary 12 prince prawns and it was all topped off by watching Robin Hood on BBC Entertainment when we got home.br / br / div style="text-align: center;"Not a bad weekend!nbsp; /divbr / Eli's attempt at a family picbr / a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THtcYDy18PI/AAAAAAAABRs/CtWLQ1TwcQQ/s1600/IMG_3064.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THtcYDy18PI/AAAAAAAABRs/CtWLQ1TwcQQ/s320/IMG_3064.JPG" width="320" //abr / br / Enjoying a break from the rainbr / a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THtcabz9SOI/AAAAAAAABRw/lPk7WJZtlwY/s1600/IMG_3060.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THtcabz9SOI/AAAAAAAABRw/lPk7WJZtlwY/s320/IMG_3060.JPG" width="320" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-3514261256114775499?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/gG9oq9fJ9og" height="1" width="1"/

I first met this amazing woman almost 6 years ago and remember even then being so impressed by her. As her story began to emerge over the months in my Bible study group and home visits my respect and love for her began to grow. X grew up on a local farm where she lived humbly but happily and later married a man whom she loved dearly. Together they had four sons and, though things were very tight, lived happily as a family and enjoyed the many friends living together with them on the farm. Both X and her husband were committed Christians and taught their children Christian values and ethics as they grew.br /br /Sadly X’s husband was murdered over 20 years ago. Following that, all four of X’s sons were also murdered in separate incidents. X, together with most people on the farm, was then moved to Chris Nissen Park as the farm closed down and life was very different. Housing and living conditions were greatly reduced and the close knit community of farm life was in danger of being broken.br /br /div style="text-align: center; font-weight: bold;"What faith to sustain you through the loss of 4 sons!br //diva name='more'/abr /br /Most of us would probably be broken people having lived through X’s experiences. However, she is one of the people who has taught me the most during my time in South Africa. Spend ten minutes with X and you start to understand what it is like to have a relationship with God that cannot be shattered – no matter what. When she prays for you or for a situation you are literally transported into the throne room of God as she fervently asks her Father for help/intervention/healing with such total faith that can only come from a lifetime of experience of God’s faithfulness and mercy.br /br /X remains in close contact with each of her daughter-in-law’s, 3 of whom have re-married. One of them uses X to bring up two of her now teenage children. She has done this since they were little, never giving her their child grant, instead using this to feed her drug habit. No amount of Social Welfare intervention has brought about any change in X’s living situation and she bears the hardships and heartache of raising her grandchildren as though they were her own children. Despite often not having food or electricity etc, you will never hear X complain. Instead, she will be on her knees crying out to her Father for provision.br /br /X has lived with such a severe hip condition for years that every movement causes pain. She cannot afford medical aid in order to get a replacement and she is way down on the waiting list at the State hospital. Though only 63 years, she looks a lot older because of this, and it is further agonizing for her as she used to be an excellent sportswoman in her day! She is also severely visually impaired and we suspect cataracts. Again, despite these things, she is never prevented from getting up each morning to go and visit her patients and administer care and love as a member of the HOPE home based care team. To her, this is life – a gift from God – and something that she must cherish and use to the full.br /p/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-4776767859578005022?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/2FHm24Ho6Iw" height="1" width="1"/

We've just decided to give Twitter another go and have put a link to it down on the sidebar under "Also To Be Found At" so we hope you enjoy it.br /a name='more'/abr /br /script src="http://widgets.twimg.com/j/2/widget.js"/scriptbr /scriptnew TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: 'profile', rpp: 3, interval: 6000, width: 'auto', height: 300, theme: { shell: { background: '#333333', color: '#ffffff' }, tweets: { background: '#000000', color: '#ffffff', links: '#4aed05' } }, features: { scrollbar: false, loop: false, live: false, hashtags: true, timestamp: true, avatars: false, behavior: 'all' }}).render().setUser('Finnie_Family').start();/scriptdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-6520121771253533740?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/ox3DpjBA9AQ" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THfOtfdIKUI/AAAAAAAABRI/cGKDlUFmAZ4/s1600/IMG_2271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/THfOtfdIKUI/AAAAAAAABRI/cGKDlUFmAZ4/s320/IMG_2271.JPG" width="320" //aI had the Gods of Rock on VH1 on TV in the background for a while this afternoon and I could see Joel had one eye on it whilst doing some drawing at the table.br / br / His attention was then fully grabbed by AC/DC's Back in Black.br / br / When he'd finished he brought over his picture and proudly announced that he's going to get the red guitar when he's older and play like the man in his school uniform.br / br / div style="text-align: center;"bHe makes me so proud! /b/divbr / a name='more'/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-3684094939102853933?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/KpyrpWfeu-w" height="1" width="1"/

One of the ladies we've got to know recently would probably be dismissed by most as just being a quiet and even timid church mouse. If we were to judge by appearances she's unremarkable and would probably just get lost in a crowd.br / br / Thankfully, we don't judge people on appearances but rather by what we see in their actions in life. This lady is truly a hero to us!br / br / After church on Sunday most of us trotted off home for a decent dinner, maybe some roast vicar with acidic gravy followed by the obligatory kip on the couch.br / br / Not so this lady. We know for fact that she went home to a cold and dark wendy house (a 3m by 6m garden shed) because she had no money for electricity or food. She keeps her fridge switched off these days as she simply can't afford to run it when it's empty most of the time. Despite the pressing need for food, one of the older guys in church had given her kids a couple of rands each with which to buy some sweets which their mum let them do. As Paula chatted with her on Tuesday she described how when they got home they sang a few songs they know from church. In part because they had nothing else to do and in part because they were trusting that God would come through for them. br / br / div style="text-align: center;"Wow, that's living by faith!/divbr / a name='more'/abr / Amazingly another church member did get in touch with her and gave her a packet of chicken and with a few rands she'd also been given she bought some veggies and made a chicken stew which fed the family for two days.br / br / No complaints, no moaning, just praise and thankfulness for how her needs were provided for. I wonder whether you or I would have responded in a similar vein?br / br / As we get to know this lady and hear her life story we're heartbroken and excited at the same time. She grew up knowing nothing but abuse. Was rejected by her family for marrying across cultures. Was abused by her husband but nursed him as he lay dying. And yet her hunger for more knowledge of God and the bible is staggering and Paula is really enjoying discipling her. br / br / We're also impressed by her quest for a decent job. Paula has helped her write a CV which hopefully will get her something good. She'd be happy working in a shop or as a cleaner, her desire is to just be able to provide for her family. She's made appropriate child-care arrangements and is raring to go. Tragically, she went for an interview with one of Southnbsp;Africa'snbsp;top shopping chains and was lead to believe she had been offered a job. After a week or so of hearing nothing further Paula rang on her behalf only to be given a pathetic run around which left her unemployed.br / br / As I said at the beginning, this lady really impresses us and as far as we're concerned she's a realnbsp;heronbsp;of the faith as she lives hand to mouth day by day faithfully hanging on to God's word.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-1505147083939571615?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/RvqEeZXXtUc" height="1" width="1"/

I'm starting a new mini series which will run sporadically over the coming months about some of the amazing folk who I/we consider to be the real heroes of our faith.br / br / It would be really easy to do just such a series on the likes of the amazing a href="http://www.wholesomewords.org/biography/bmuller4.html#MUL" target="_blank" title=""George Műller/a, a href="http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/biotaylor.html" target="_blank" title=""Hudson Taylor/a, a href="http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/biostudd.html" target="_blank" title=""C.T. Studd/a or a href="http://www.atanycost.org/DidTheyHaveToDie.htm" target="_blank" title=""Jim Elliot/a to name a few that come to mind. However just about all that can be said about these heroes has been said and I'm not pretending to have any new insight into their extraordinary lives. If you're interested in the lives of some of these heroes and church history generally pop over to the a href="http://lexloiz.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" title=""Church History Blog/a by Lex Loizedes, it's a great read!br / br / No, I'm interested in the regular folk who faithfully live their lives day by day in very trying circumstances without a word of complaint about the situations they find themselves in. Most of these people live in abject poverty in a way that would horrify the average Christian. We find ourselves horrified quite often and we're probably amongst the most desensitized to such poverty. In short this series is about the people who impress us with their extraordinary lives.br / a name='more'/abr / We've been working in Chris Nissen Park for 6 years now and Macassar for 2 and in that time we've been blessed by meeting some truly amazing people who get on with their lives and helping others despite having very trying circumstances of their own. What has triggered this series is the fact that whilst we've known some amazing folk in CNP, by and large the community is very close and very supportive so people tend not to suffer as acutely as they seem to in Macassar. This may be because it's such a small community whilst Macassar is far bigger with around 60,000 people in it so it's much harder for people to be as supportive as they would be in CNP. Also, our church community is much more spread out in Macassar so it's not always easy for folk to look out for one another. As we're getting to know more and more folk we're finding ourselves very moved by the stories we're hearing and as we share some of them here we hope they might inspire you too.br / br / Disclaimer: I guess a bit of housekeeping is in order so here goes... I'll be keeping this series as anonymous as possible as I don't want to rob anyone of their treasure in heaven but more importantly I don't want tonbsp;embarrassnbsp;anyone. If per-chance you do recognise anyone here, please handle the information sensitively, respect people's dignity and most importantly keep it to yourself.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-5242962793322052008?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/4gcO76iusUI" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG_p-MdZ9QI/AAAAAAAAEhY/erYRbKQlqQE/s1600/IMG_3021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG_p-MdZ9QI/AAAAAAAAEhY/erYRbKQlqQE/s320/IMG_3021.JPG" width="240" //aWe had a lot of fun today as we went into Cape Town and spent ages in the a href="http://www.iziko.org.za/sam/index.html" target="_blank" title=""South African Museum/a and a href="http://www.iziko.org.za/planetarium/index.html" target="_blank" title=""Planetarium/a. br / br / The guy on the door gave a knowing smile as the boys shouted "DINOSAURS!" and ran off to the dinosaur gallery. Guess where we spent most of our time.br / br / the boys were inspired to ask to go to the museum again after watching Night at the Museum 2, it's a really good fun film and certianly fired up their imaginations.br / br / Afterwards we strolled up to a href="http://www.southafrica-travel.net/westcape/capetown_longstreet.htm" target="_blank" title=""Long Street/a which is full of great cafés and pubs and we had a cracking lunch.br / a name='more'/abr / br / br / Perhaps the biggest joy of the day was that the museum only cost R32 (£2.80) for the whole family and included the planetarium, what a bargain! br / br / br / a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG_qbWen5kI/AAAAAAAAEhg/MqiNtQtSu18/s1600/IMG_3033.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG_qbWen5kI/AAAAAAAAEhg/MqiNtQtSu18/s320/IMG_3033.JPG" width="240" //abr / br / Strolling up to Long street for some lunch Dean was taken with thisbr / a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG_qYxElgHI/AAAAAAAAEhc/934v1E6ppuo/s1600/IMG_3031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG_qYxElgHI/AAAAAAAAEhc/934v1E6ppuo/s320/IMG_3031.JPG" width="320" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-5902492975277188398?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/MIjZo8pR3L8" height="1" width="1"/

Today was very special as the HOPE home based care team, prospective carers and spouses of some of our patients received customised home based care and HIV/AIDS training from Nicky Welsh. This is something that Paula has been wanting for over a year now and it has taken this long to 'pin down' Nicky and make the most of her excellent training skills!! We had loads of fun as well as refreshing (for some) our knowledge and skills base and having the ability to further customise the training for our final session next Friday.br / br / The ladies were thoroughly spoiled with lovely eats at coffee time too and were very pleased to be trained in a lovely warm room as it was only 7 degrees at the start of the day. br / a name='more'/abr / As we aim to do our bit in facing the HIV pandemic, with SA having the highest new infection rate in the world, it was just so encouraging to be sat in a room full of 'do'ers'- for me, truly Godly women who just want to do their bit by caring for those around them. It would be easy to get thoroughly disheartened by the stats and to throw in the towel, but that just isn't even in the thinking of these marvellous ladies. Please pray for them as they lead the way in their communities and as we now seek to model and replicate the HOPE team into Macassar and beyond (as a famous kids Disney film would say!).br / p/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-4766193139771286818?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/lNob3N4yrQA" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG6VA8S5sqI/AAAAAAAAEhI/IvviM6iJUH8/s1600/IMG_3014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TG6VA8S5sqI/AAAAAAAAEhI/IvviM6iJUH8/s320/IMG_3014.JPG" width="240" //aEli was whisked off to the Emergency Room for the first time this afternoon as he needed three stitches in his top lip.br / br / Initially we thought he'd fallen off his bike trying yet another daredevil stunt but it turns out Rosie (the dog) bit him. Daddy's first response was to get rid of the dog but the Dr that treated Eli reassured Mummy that this is quite a common injury and not to be too harsh on the dog.br / br / It turns out that Rosie had just been given a bone and Eli bent down next to her to pick up a ball but Rosie thought he was going for the bone. The rest as they say is history.br / a name='more'/abr / Eli needs a follow-up with the doctor on Monday to make sure the wound isn't infected and to check the stitches are OK. Apparently they don't normally stitch a lip but had to in this instance.br / br / Mummy said that Eli was a real trooper in the hospital and amazingly cooperative when he was having the stitches. He really is a treasure! br / p/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-4504157341669220924?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/Qijo1B1NXz4" height="1" width="1"/

b"We have two ears and one mouth, which ought to remind us to listen more than we speak."/bbr / br / One of my favourite quotes from Wiersbe which I feel is particularly pertinent to those of us in church leadership. I'm convinced more leaders would at least look wise, even if they're not, if they exercised Wiersbe's advice.br / br / br / a name='more'/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-740938801559313222?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/JedyEOyqKBI" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://website.sablogawards.com/2010/nominate?blog=www.dpfinnie.comamp;category=1,23" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title="Nominate FTM for the 2010 SA Blog Awards" img alt="nominate this blog" border="0" src="http://website.sablogawards.com/2010/files/images/nominate_orange_small.gif" //aOur blog has been nominated in the Best Personal Blog category of the a href="http://www.sablogawards.com/Home.aspx"2010 South African Blog Awards/a.br / br / This is pretty neat after 6 years of blogging, thanks to Jo for the initial nomination.br / br / Please click on the image and cast your vote for Facing The Mountainbr / br / bPS. Voting opens on 1st September closing on the 17th./b br / br / br / a name='more'/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-6186632489722834376?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/g5aTUcAtmsQ" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX27WvawI/AAAAAAAAEg0/g5OtVt_uitE/s1600/IMG_1660.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title="Daddy's potjie on the go"img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX27WvawI/AAAAAAAAEg0/g5OtVt_uitE/s320/IMG_1660.JPG" width="212" //aa href="http://www.montagu.org.za/" target="_blank" title=""Montagu/a is a little taste of heaven on earth and that is exactly what we enjoyed as a family last weekend! We have loved staying at a href="http://rietvlei.co.za/" target="_blank" title="Rietvlei Farm"'Farmer Koos's' farm/a over the years and the boys definitely treat it like a second home.br / br / The weather was perfect - 29 degrees in the winter! - beautiful sunny days. Joel and Eli spent the whole time outside making up adventures on the rocks which they could now climb, playing with the animals that roam freely around the farm and enjoying braai'ing and eating Dad's beef potjie!br / br / We also enjoyed a great meal out together on Sunday night at a href="http://www.overberg.co.za/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,4054/Itemid,34/" target="_blank" title=""Jam Tarts/a, a restaurant we have got to know. They cannot do enough to make us welcome and Joel, in particular, enjoyed his garlic prawns - which the lady knows to make, despite them not being on the menu!!!br / a name='more'/abr / br / We also managed to enjoy relax time because the boys were so chilled and even got some book time, which was great! You cannot help but be rejuvenated when surrounded by mountains and peaceful farm land and we have returned home ready to 'face the action' and get stuck in again to the often difficult and draining work that we are involved in. Thank you Lord for breaks like this!br / br / Eli br / a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQXwTW-JKI/AAAAAAAAEgs/c2KMH_PFsz4/s1600/IMG_1597.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="212" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQXwTW-JKI/AAAAAAAAEgs/c2KMH_PFsz4/s320/IMG_1597.JPG" width="320" //abr / br / Joel in his now customary pose, engrossed in a bookbr / a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX0PqkHmI/AAAAAAAAEgw/U90VXne4rMA/s1600/IMG_1610.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX0PqkHmI/AAAAAAAAEgw/U90VXne4rMA/s320/IMG_1610.JPG" width="320" //abr / br / Just another day in paradisebr / a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX5QyKGiI/AAAAAAAAEg4/x6GMhI37MI4/s1600/IMG_1673.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX5QyKGiI/AAAAAAAAEg4/x6GMhI37MI4/s320/IMG_1673.JPG" width="320" //abr / br / Playing with the farm dogsbr / a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX8sGk8EI/AAAAAAAAEg8/pZZgPQ20R9s/s1600/IMG_1870.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="212" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX8sGk8EI/AAAAAAAAEg8/pZZgPQ20R9s/s320/IMG_1870.JPG" width="320" //abr / br / And molesting the catbr / a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX-xt3QgI/AAAAAAAAEhA/Ul7U8q0wsZI/s1600/IMG_1985.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQX-xt3QgI/AAAAAAAAEhA/Ul7U8q0wsZI/s320/IMG_1985.JPG" width="212" //abr / br / Joelbr / a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQYB7nL6mI/AAAAAAAAEhE/cQDeykAhm-U/s1600/IMG_2004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TGQYB7nL6mI/AAAAAAAAEhE/cQDeykAhm-U/s320/IMG_2004.JPG" width="320" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-9091937586056345425?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/4zLmoJazqW4" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TGFb1sGH_jI/AAAAAAAABPk/vL2DcHeSX_4/s1600/IMG_3011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TGFb1sGH_jI/AAAAAAAABPk/vL2DcHeSX_4/s320/IMG_3011.JPG" width="320" //aAs we were driving home yesterday morning we were amazed by how much snow there was on the Grabouw side of the Hottentots Holland mountains. Sadly I completely forgot to take a picture of the snow until this afternoon when I was on my way into Chris Nissen to deliver the maize meal and sugar to Tiny Bubbles Créche from the boys school.br / br / The snow is more like a coating of icing sugar than proper ski resort stuff but it looks good.br / br / a name='more'/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-7524363180111530548?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/pU33RCZSEdM" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TGGGymUEC1I/AAAAAAAABPo/w1xx24zkFig/s1600/IMG_3561.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TGGGymUEC1I/AAAAAAAABPo/w1xx24zkFig/s320/IMG_3561.JPG" width="320" //aOur photoblog a href="http://finniesfotos.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" title="Family photoblog"Finnie's In Focus/a has been updated at long last.br / br / We're not going to make any promises about keeping it regularly updated as we wouldn't want to lie to you but we'll see what we can do in the coming weeks and months.br / br / Here's a taster to be going on with.br / br / a name='more'/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-6124532401887298511?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/PxTDQB6X0Pk" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TFqQL-Md0GI/AAAAAAAABPU/ebBNsorqV8o/s1600/IMG_1572.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="212" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TFqQL-Md0GI/AAAAAAAABPU/ebBNsorqV8o/s320/IMG_1572.JPG" width="320" //aZante..what?br / br / Zantedeschia is the proper name for this beautiful South African flower more commonly (but wrongly) known as the Calla Lily. They say you learn something new every day and that's what I learnt today. Anyway, the point is that this beautiful flower is growing in our garden which I'm delighted about, though it seems the dog is too as she ate one of them!br / br / a name='more'/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-8574022812984327414?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/58momAlRZUc" height="1" width="1"/

From what I know of most other folk serving in a foreign culture far from home, from time to time they get asked something along the lines ofnbsp; "What does a typical day look like?" That's a tricky one to answer but here's a great post by Hazel on the subject: a href="http://www.frostmartinhazel.org/en/content/two-days-one-life" target="_blank"Two Days, One Life/a. What I also know from reading the various blogs and websites of other folk serving in a foreign culture far from home is that this is a bit of a dreaded question. In part because trying to explain running around in ever decreasing circles isn't really very edifying and telling folk that you drink tea or coffee all day whilst talking to locals isn't really deemed to be work by the good folk back at base. Added in to the mix is the need to justify to supporters why they should carry on supporting and it all becomes a bit sensitive.br / br / I would like to pretend that I am above such things but in reality I sometimes feel the need to justify my existence just like anyone else...br / a name='more'/abr / br / a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TFlpSm95HQI/AAAAAAAABPA/gryyDe5p-fk/s1600/IMG_2940.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TFlpSm95HQI/AAAAAAAABPA/gryyDe5p-fk/s320/IMG_2940.JPG" width="320" //aToday was probably a good example of an average day in so far as I had a few things planned, none of which came to fruition due to various circumstances. However, through the course of the day other possibilities opened up which made for an interesting day.br / br / I set off for Macassar this morning to see a church member in a bit of strife but sadly he wasn't at home (again!). Initially I was a bit fed up but as I took a different route back through Macassar I was inspired to do a bit of research in preparation for our UK trip in November, so maybe not a wasted trip after all.br / br / Later in the morning I ended up taking Rosie (our dog) into Eli's class for Show and Tell. Eli was thrilled and afterwards Rosie and I called in on Joel's class which also went down well. On returning home with Rosie I received a call from a friend which resulted in me being at Pick N Pay (local version of Tesco) after lunch picking up a big donation of goodies for the church in Macassar and the creche in Chris Nissen Park.br / br / Before that however, I had to go back to school to pick up the boys and got to watch them in their a href="http://www.monkeynastixonline.co.za/" target="_blank"Monkeynastix/a class. This was great, but the trip to school has become a bit of a pain due to some major roadworks resulting in a lengthy detour. Great!br / br / The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting the donation into various piles for various people and places. Then into the chaos of teatime, bathtime and bedtime for the boys and cooking dinner for us prior to an excellent home group this evening in Firgrove.br / br / Now it's time to settle down with a cup of hot chocolate and the concluding part of The Children in BBC Entertainment's Crime and Justice Season. Praise the Lord for the PVR decoder!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-5423190840278029321?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/j5TTkXKBoOs" height="1" width="1"/

Here's a few of Eli's earliest attempts at learning to ride his skateboard. He's desperate to go to the local skatepark and judging by his progress so far it won't be long before he's there. One senses a trip to the ER might be in the offing.br / object height="344" width="425"param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dxHI3ha86gUhl=enfs=1"/paramparam name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/paramparam name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"/paramembed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dxHI3ha86gUhl=enfs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"/embed/objectbr / See our a href="http://www.youtube.com/dpfinnie" target="_blank" title="Finnie Family on YouTube"YouTube channel/a.br / br / a name='more'/adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-8526174470545394534?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/01E_PitbsVM" height="1" width="1"/

Tuesday mornings are always busy visiting mornings for Paula in Macassar. Today was no exception and a good example of why we love our work so much. No two days are ever the same and quite often we do not know what we will find when we get to people's houses. Most cannot afford to run a cellphone, so quite often we will arrive and find no-one at home because something has come up and we can't be informed - frustrating but that's life!br / br / This morning Paula spent some time with one of our struggling church members. She has been battling to cope with life and has rather stayed away from church, fearing the reaction of others. It was good to take some food on behalf of the church and spend a bit of time reassuring her that no matter what, we love her and are there for her and are actually missing her. She seemed chuffed to hear this and very grateful for the food. She then opened up a bit more about what is actually going on at home at the moment and Paula reassured her of our love and prayers and invited her again back to mid-week cell group. br / a name='more'/abr / Paula then moved on to the home of another member who is struggling with recent devastating news about her youngest child being diagnosed HIV+ It was amazing to see what a difference a few days make - literally! After being so worried for about her emotional and physical state last week, this week she is like a new woman. The visit with her son to the ARV clinic at the hospital has really worked wonders. She now feels informed, valued and a little bit surer about the future for both her and her family. She also has appointments for her and the children to see a psychologist to talk through her issues and generally feels 100% more positive. This was great to see and Paula was able to spend quite a bit of time talking things through, talking about the future and then, more practically, about managing day to day on her grants and the potential of getting some work. They are going to spend time once a week also doing a discipleship course which we know to be very helpful. Hopefully, our other friend (above) will also join in with this.br / br / After this, just before running back to pick the boys up from school, Paula popped in on one of our leaders who just so happened to have phoned her at home to see if she could come over for a chat as she was concerned about something - guess who then knocked on her door! God is very good!! Had a great time with her and then went on home to resume life as a mum/wife. Tomorrow Paula is going to take a new young mum and baby out of the house for a coffee and chat! We love our lives!!br / p/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-1818247256177961864?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/Z7nH1BGWD7Y" height="1" width="1"/

If like me you like spending a bit of time watching stuff on Youtube you may well enjoy the stuff where people get hurt. I'm particularly fond of the faceplant clips of cyclists going over the handlebars, but to be fair, I'm happy to watch just about anything that involves someone else getting hurt through their own foolishness. As the old (or perhaps more modern) adage goes; life's only funny until someone gets hurt, then it's hilarious.br / br / Whilst this may well be true on Youtube, it's actually far from the case in real life and especially with one's friends. Right now I feel a bit like I'm watching a faceplant video in slow motion as my good mate Michael's life seems to be unraveling right in front of me. It's particularly upsetting after five years of friendship and discipleship to see the wheels coming off a friend's life before your very eyes.br / a name='more'/abr / The other aspect of what is happening to Michael that really gets me is the fact that those who should be there to support him and walk with him are nowhere to be seen. I'm spending as much time as I can with him but would love to see his church step up and reach out to him. Sadly it didn't happen at the time of him losing Hayden so I can't really see it happening now, so on Sunday we're going to try and get him along to Grace where he's not really known and so won't be judged. br / br / a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TE8BDlp9D5I/AAAAAAAABOY/FLxsYRsaK0U/s640/IMG_2776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank" title="Beauty in the desperation of townsihp life"img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_f8710G7h3Ro/TE8BDlp9D5I/AAAAAAAABOY/FLxsYRsaK0U/s320/IMG_2776.JPG" width="240" //aI've been fermenting a post about church and why it can be such a hurtful place to be when it should be just the opposite but that's for a later date. One thing I will pick up for now on this theme though is how so many churches are eager to demand time and commitment from their members and how some are dogmatic bordering on legalistic in this and yet, when the shoe is on the other foot and the church member needs the church and particularly the leadership to step up and be committed to walking with them suddenly the church goes very quiet and slinks off into the background. This is Michael's experience, he's been a very faithful member and served well over the years I've known him, but now he's walking a very lonely path. I have no answers to this other than to say it makes me very angry and I can only imagine how Jesus feels when he looks at his bride.br / br / All I can do is stand with Michael and try as hard as possible to be there for him and the members of our church that I know are experiencing hard times and to exercise the grace that has so freely been given us. I know I fail in my care of church members but hopefully it's not for lack of trying.br / p/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-1697690797263111752?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/NonI37vPEmY" height="1" width="1"/

a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ42VYn-yI/AAAAAAAAEgo/SDPq6oAD6qs/s1600/IMG_2844.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title="The gorgeous couple!"img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ42VYn-yI/AAAAAAAAEgo/SDPq6oAD6qs/s320/IMG_2844.JPG" width="240" //aWe were privileged to attend another very special day in the life of the church as we celebrated the wedding of the daughter of two of our cell group members.nbsp; Taswald and Chrischande have been coming along to Grace for many months, and we have enjoyed getting to know them a little bit.nbsp; Chrischande's parents, Chris and Veronica are very special to us and we enjoy them and their input - albeit Chris is a Chelski supporter!!br / br / The wedding was beautiful... perhaps the simplest we have ever attended.nbsp; The pastor was 'spot on' and the bride and groom's love for one another was so evident, they adore each other!nbsp; Perhaps the loveliest part of the service was the prayer at the end for all marrieds - we all had to hold hands with our spouses - aaahhh!br / br / Well done Taswald and Chrischande for being such positive young role models!nbsp; It was a pleasure to share in your special day.br / br / a name='more'/abr / br / As Chris walked Chrischande down the aisle he was met by Taswald to whom he handed over his daughter so they could walk arm in arm to get married.This was really nicely done.br / a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ4sK_7OOI/AAAAAAAAEgY/uAXqY3rXPN0/s1600/IMG_2813.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ4sK_7OOI/AAAAAAAAEgY/uAXqY3rXPN0/s320/IMG_2813.JPG" width="320" //abr / br / a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ4u0J2cSI/AAAAAAAAEgc/Zf_XVPKY_eM/s1600/IMG_2816.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ4u0J2cSI/AAAAAAAAEgc/Zf_XVPKY_eM/s320/IMG_2816.JPG" width="240" //abr / br / a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ4x8SdaCI/AAAAAAAAEgg/LWs2Uz5swes/s1600/IMG_2822.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ4x8SdaCI/AAAAAAAAEgg/LWs2Uz5swes/s320/IMG_2822.JPG" width="320" //abr / br / a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ40iaqQJI/AAAAAAAAEgk/FGbI7kDGnmM/s1600/IMG_2841.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank" title=""img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_JNn8FJky54s/TFQ40iaqQJI/AAAAAAAAEgk/FGbI7kDGnmM/s320/IMG_2841.JPG" width="320" //abr / p/pdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7590439-872673972324690233?l=www.dpfinnie.com' alt='' //divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AdventuresWithGod/~4/zgWEcW0bF80" height="1" width="1"/