Finnie, Dean and Paula - South Africa
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Prayer Update July 2005
Hello again! If you've been keeping up with us on our blogspot internet diary you will have seen that we have just had a very eventful month! Winter is well and truly with us. The Cape winter really is a time for duvets and curling up by the fire with some hot soup. Unfortunately, we don't have a fire, so we are getting used to layers!! Daytimes can be really spectacular - blue skies and clear for miles and miles, whilst dropping down to 0 degrees at night.
As I type, Dean is away for a week in Pretoria for his MA studies. He has to go on average 5 times a year, so this is hectic for the family. The programme this week looks awesome though. He really will be learning and hearing from the big hitters in the HIV/AIDS world so he feels privileged and quite scared! Please continue to pray for him as he fits his studies in with work at Chris Nissen. This is no easy task and has been quite a struggle lately.
Paula and Joel have enjoyed 2 days away in the beautiful little town of Franschoek, in the heart of the Cape winelands. We went with a friend and her 2 little boys. The weather and scenery were stunning and the boys really enjoyed being outdoors, playing by the river, picnicking, trampolining etc. whilst Nikki and Paula enjoyed the extra time to chat, have coffee and have fun with the boys. They are now back home and going about life as normal, but without Daddy. Joel keeps wandering around looking for Dean, but is not upset, thank goodness!
Paula's Friday morning visiting into Chris Nissen has been excellent this month. It is extremely emotionally draining, but already, she is meeting many women and having the privilege of chatting and praying with them. Many are very sick, or simply trapped by poverty. It is a real challenge to know how to offer any help, but most seem very happy that she is just 'there' to listen. She has run several women to hospital. One has been diagnosed with cancer of the uterus and another has a collapsed lung due to TB. The good news is that as a result of our informal referral, Lorraine, who is HIV+ is in the process of being helped by the Hospice. This is a great answer to prayer and will really help her and the family.
Paula has also been invited to come down on Tuesday evenings to meet and have tea with more women who are not around in the day time. This has been a real privilege and she has already seen some history in the making as coloured women sit and have tea with a white woman socially for the first time in their lives. There has been much fun and many tears. Please pray that these evenings will really serve to break down barriers and to further the work in CNP.
Dean has also had a good month in CNP. His Bible studies are going well, though he asks for prayer for more men to come along. Sadly Patrick died last month and a lot of his time was taken with helping the family to make all the arrangements for the funeral and burial. Although very sad for us all, his death was most certainly a welcome release for Patrick. Please pray for the family and the community as they come to terms with life without such a good man and leader. There is still so much gossiping and bad feeling between factions in the community and this needs to come to an end before any good work can really take place. Please pray that this will happen.
As a family, we have enjoyed going to a new cell group and must now make up our minds whether to stay there or try another new one next term. Unfortunately, many of the groups are so transient in nature and we are looking for friendships, so we must make wise choices. We have also really enjoyed a visit from Mary Higginson, our Pastoral Director at Crosslinks. This was a real highlight for us and we enjoyed much time chatting, being tourists together and generally thrashing out questions and issues that arise as a matter of course when living overseas and away from home. We have quite a few things we now want to take time to seriously pray through and we are hoping to have a day and night away on Thursday 21 July without Joel to do just this. Please pray for an excellent time.
Joel is very well. He charges around and is in to everything. He recently had to have his head shaved (see our blog!) as a result of a big accident with some Sudocreme - ooops! He still loves his Nursery and is missing it (or at least Paula is!) now that it is our 4 week winter holidays.
Thank you so much for praying and supporting. Please do log on and read our blog spot and look at the pictures.
With lots of love from
Dean, Paula & Joel