Starbucks!

Well Don, I went to starbucks just for you!

I've found that my time has been pretty full since I've been here which has been great. Mum and I have spent a good amount of time just being together, it was nice to simply walk around the shops with her (prices here seem to have dropped on a lot of things).

I've spent time with both Steve and Jason. Steve and I met up and checked out a new display of Wimbledon Football Club memorabilia. It was a fun day (even getting on the wrong bus eh Steve!).

Jason was great and ended up being my driver for a day. We drove around my old stomping ground looking at the changes the biggest being my old home, looks like new things are happening there.

Today I'm hoping to spend a bit of time with Trev and then tonight I'm going out for a meal with a number of my mum's friends, some who I've known pretty much all my life, it should be another great day.

That's about it for now.

God bless you all.

Trip to Kew

Wow, its great to catch up with people eh?

Sunday I went to Mordern Baptist Church with Jason and his great kids. It felt like I hadn't seen him for a couple of days rather then a couple of years. Jason is doing well and the kids look great, big but great (they've grown so much). Our visit to MBC was very exciting, though I went to the wrong service really, most of my friends went to the earlier service but we will all get together soon.

Monday I went to Kew Gardens with mum. It was a bit cold and much of the trees haven't given their spring display yet but it was a great day. We went into some of the different houses to see some of the more exotic shrubs and things. It felt strange seeing various plants that we have in our garden at home on display. It was a great day with Kew giving us both much too enjoy.

I've also been able to spend a good amount of time with my brother and His wife. They've had me stay over in their beautiful new home, Trev's been showing me what a great cook he is (show off). Trev and I went out for a nice long drive on his day off through much of Surrey, Sussex and Kent. We stopped of in Dorking for coffee which was really nice. Seeing some of the areas where I would often have walked reminded me of days past (I have to say that I miss the English countryside a lot). Trev has also been the one who has made sure that I've had a good supply of curry (Trev, you are the best) Wow, it's so nice to have a proper "ruby" again!

Today I'm meeting up with Steve in Sutton, a day that should be filled with us doing a lot of catching up, I can't wait.

 

That's all for now folks.

Marching Army!

So, Saturday I got to see AFC Wimbledon play Hastings. We won the game 4-0 (Go Wombles). It was great to be back watching my team, it's sure been a long time considering how often I used to go. The ground has changed a bit with a new stand for the home fans, it sounds great when the fans are singing.

Not only was it the first day that I got to see AFC, I also met up with my old mate Steve. We've been going to footy together for years. Man it was good to see him; all seemed just like old times.

With a 4-0 win for the Don's we are now in second place and hoping for promotion. The team I saw should be able to do it. I have to say that I didn't really recognise to many of the players, the team seems to change often.

This is Haydon our team mascot!

DON'S GO MARCHING ON!

My travel to the UK!

I'm here, and loving it.

The journey was an experience. Everything started great with Louise's folks kindly taking me to the airport and seeing me off (thanks again guy's). I left Port Elizabeth and arrived in Jo'burg.

The walk to international departures takes you all over the place, including out into one of the many car parks. But all was well I made it to international departures and started my wait for my plane.

Things started to go a bit wrong from their. First the departure gate was changed then a delay was announced. One hour, not so bad I felt till one hour became four hours. There were a number of very angry travels I must say. For me, staying calm about it was the way to handle it, being frustrated wasn't getting anyone anywhere. My only real fear was that we would end up being put in a hotel for the night. SAA found us a plane and a great crew and finally we set off. I only managed a rather broken night’s sleep but even that is better then what is normal for me.

Arrival in the UK took a while due to their being no place for the plane to taxi too. I was concerned because I knew I had family waiting for me. We did depart from the plane and my luggage made it all the way from PE (thanks luggage guys).

How does the saying go? “We fly by faith, not by sight”!

All the problems were worth it for that moment when I saw my mum, Jack and Susan. We hugged and the joy was amazing.

So I'm here, safe and sound. I've much to look forward too of which I will try to record on my blog (not least, the arrival of my wife).

God bless you all.

Photo update

Hi guy's,

I just wanted to let you know that I've updated my photo blog with some new pictures.

Check it out by clicking the link below:

http://mlk30.blogspot.com/

February in J'bay!

Man, it’s been hot!

I've heard all about how hot February can be here in SA but this is my first real encounter (last year it was wet for half the month).

I still love the hot weather but now I can actually understand why the locals are always so thankful for cool wet days, when they come now even I feel the relief they bring. So with this in mind, my trip to the UK and cooler weather might actually be quite refreshing in more ways then one.

I can't believe that in a week I will be in there.

I was actually talking the other day with Louise and thinking about how different I feel about life here in Jeffrey’s. If Louise and I had gone to the UK at Christmas, I'm not sure that I would have wanted to come back. Now things seem to be changing, theirs an expectation in Church which I'm buying into that has me very excited. Strange, but I almost feel like I'm going to miss something while I'm away. So now I'm set and ready to experience the UK in a way I've never done before. It’s not my home now, I love family and friends there but SA is home now. Will my trip confirm that fact or what?

The front of our home is having something of a face lift! We are putting up a wall. We decided to use a local company to do it, they have a team of guys who have been doing all the grafting (rather them then me in this heat!!) I’ll put some photos on my photo blog when it’s all done (http://mlk30.blogspot.com/).

God Bless Ya!

UK..... am I really going?

I've been booking travel tickets for my trip to the UK. Louise and I are going to my dads for a week; I managed to get a coach ticket for £1, that's pretty cool eh? The plan is for Louise to come back via Bath Spa where she is getting together with her good friend Desi. I’m well pleased that they will be able to touch base.

So what’s it going to be like going back to the UK after nearly two years?

Will there be loads of changes? Will I seem different to friends and family? Will they seem different to me?

I was saying to Louise the other day that I can’t actually believe that we are going to be walking around in London together. I know it sounds silly but doing so is going to blow my mind some what, I’ve kind of gotten use to life in the Bay and the streets of London are very very different. I’m going to feel like a tourist in my own country, that’s weird man!

Trev just sent me a picture of a curry and a nice cold pint of Caffreys, wow, I’m really looking forward to sharing both with you Trev, I hope your buying!!

God bless you all.

Away hey!

Thankfully I've been able to renew my visa. So I'm here in SA for at least another couple of years, what a relief to have all the application stuff behind me.

Things seem to just get better for Louise and I at the moment, her passport is here and within hours of picking it up we had booked our flight tickets for the UK. I'm looking at a month their with Louise joining me for the last two weeks. We're going to have something of a full program with a visit to my dad's among other things. Wow man, I can't wait to catch up with everyone.

Life here in the bay has been nice, the weather has been cooking, hitting February means hot hot hot, not something an Englishmen is really used too eh? Our Associate Pastor is here and settling in nicely in Church, its great to have someone who has a real passion to reach young adults, a group our Church is really short off. I'm very much looking forward to working with him.

Recently Louise and I had a nice proper date night, its been sometime since we've really done so; we went to a restaurant called "Three fat fish", a nice restaurant with an outside deck area where we enjoyed dinner together.

That's about it for now.

Visa, visa, !!

I haven't posted much for a week or so, so first let me just catch up with things. Louise and I have enjoyed our break over Christmas and New Year and have used the time to rest (sheer bliss). We had some great weather and spent part of the time at the beach swimming, however for us both, sitting reading filled most of the holiday.

We're both back at work now, that means back to studying for me. I've just submitted some assignments and work that I've done on my recently completed module (Christian spirituality), I look forward too hearing back from my tutor as to how I have done.

It's not all been work for us both, this last weekend saw us going for what has to be the best swim I've had since I've been here in Jeffrey's. While in the sea I enjoyed having loads of small fish swimming around me! It's been a time of first's for me lately; while walking my dog early one morning I saw my first ever meerkat in the wild(I've only seen them in zoo's before), and was also treated to a great spectacle while driving through to St Frances; a herd of ostriches being herded, like cows, down the road. Driving very slowly past them was fun as they all peered into the car!

We have also seen the arrival of our Churches new Associate Pastor and his family (Donovan, Caryn & Kylie) which is really great news. They seem to be settling in well and I look forward to seeing how God will use this family.

That's about the fill of what has been going on in my life in the past week or so. Now down to explaining the title to this post. I'm living here in South Africa on a "temporary residents visa", this has to be renewed every two years. You may remember an earlier post of mine talking about our previous wasted trip to PE to sort this out. Today we went on the right day and with the right paperwork together with everyone's prayers (many thanks). We did however go with some concerns about the submission of my police clearance certificate (something I did before leaving the UK), my current visa shows it still pending. This was done before leaving the UK as I've said, so we were asked to submit a letter stating this with my application. We now find ourselves having to wait another week for it to go through so that I can go, once again, to PE to collect it. The guy who served us was the same friendly guy we saw at our previous visit and he was great. I hope I picked up the right signals from him, that the police clearance won't be an issue, however, we still must wait. Please do continue to pray, until I have the visa in my hand, nothing is sorted. I know that God answered prayer for us in that I felt real peace while in the office and with us getting the friendliest looking staff member working there.

GOD IS GREAT

PS. Louise put together a newsletter about our past year which can be read by clicking on the link below:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=ddp84qn2_0gp9kt669

Left to Tell

I've just finished reading one of my Christmas presents. It’s a book called 'Left to Tell' and is the story of a young Rwandan lady by the name of Immaculée Ilibagiza.

 

(Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust by Immaculee Ilibagiza and Steve Erwin)

This book is an autobiography which portrays Immaculée's life and experiences during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

I'm not going to give a history lesson here partly because Rwanda's history and the events leading up to the genocide go back years. I will say for those not familiar with this shameful period of human history that the conflict was mainly between two tribes, the Hutus and the Tutsis. Over come by evil, the Hutus tried to kill all Tutsis.

Immaculée's story is about so much more then these killings. Her story is about an incredible relationship that she has with our Almighty God. This relationship is tested in ways that seem totally unimaginable for me. Some of the things described in this book that Immaculée and her family went through made me sick to my stomach but some how Immaculée is able to hold on to God through it all.

Can a person forgive as God calls each of us too? This story describes the struggles Immaculée had in forgiving but also the amazing truth of how God can make it possible for a person to forgive the worst of human atrocities.

As I read this book I went through all kinds of emotions and thoughts, I found myself questioning myself.

In 1994 I was a train driver on London Underground and it’s likely that while Immaculée was going through such terrible things I would have been simply getting on with my life complaining about my job and paying little attention to what was going on in the world.

• Why are we so numb to such horrors today?
• Why are such things happening in this civilized world of ours?
• Weren’t the terrible killings of thousands of Jews in the Second World War meant to have taught us to never allow such things to happen again?
• Are we aware at this very moment what maybe happening right now in parts of the world, maybe in Kenya with all its political unrest or in Pakistan for example?

Immaculée turned to God in prayer seeking for Him too intervene, I think we all need to follow her example.

This book, if read by you, will shock, upset and anger you. It will also challenge, inspire and remind you that God is real and can be found by anyone who seeks Him.

A braai with friends

Last night Louise and I went to a braai around Alfred and Michelle's house, there were a number of us there and we had a great time. I off cause didn't really fancy going when it actually came to getting ready to go there. I tend to always feel like that when it comes to social events, why? I had a great time with everyone, which is normal, so why do I never really fancy going to such things? I think it may be due to a lack of confidence in my self in social settings. I sometimes don't know what to say or do and then feel un-comfortable!

Social skills are like most skills, they are learnt, and this year I want to get better at such things. It’s going to take me stepping out of my comfort zone, at least to some point, but the truth is, doing so is often very rewarding. My friends at the braai were all Christians and our conversations actually encouraged my faith and my desire to live for God. I hope that I too may have been able to encourage others in the same way.

Fulfilling...

Happy New Year too all.

I'm not sure about the New Year thing, you know, all the resolutions and that!
But having said that, I do still have desires for the coming year, they focus mainly on my relationship with God, I want to get to know Him better, I want to live with a constant awareness of Him, I want to live for His glory.

Last year I felt that I didn't achieve all that I wanted too. I made plans but the year just didn't go as I thought. Having faced up to this I go into the New Year not filled with disappointments but with excitement coupled with renewed desires to fulfill all those wishes that have filled my thoughts over the past days.

My ramblings in this blog have been pretty guarded because I know that a number of people read it, but this is one thing I hope to change. Being more transparent with those who care will I'm sure bring good advice and conversation that if acted upon will lead me to fulfill my biggest wish, 'to live for God's glory'.
So stick it out with me please, transparency may not come over night, let me also ask you to please make contact with me and respond to my postings if God leads you to help me with advice or stories of shared experiences etc.

God bless you and keep you.

CHRISTmas Time!

Christmas is here yay!

I want to wish all who read my blog a very Happy Christmas.

May your New Year also be filled with much happiness.

So eat well, enjoy famliy and friends, and I hope many great gifts. But don't forget that Jesus is the reason for the season.

The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.

(Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7 NLT)

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it. He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

(John 1:1-5, 10-12 NLT)

God Bless You

Yay I'm on holiday!!

I'm as happy as a bear just out of hibernation!!

The cloud of unknowing!

This morning I've been working through an interesting unit in my studies on spirituality. Its been on the subject of hard times, they word it as 'dessert times'.

You can see from my last post that Louise and I have been through something of a hard time in that we aren't able to go to the UK for Christmas, so such a subject hit home with me easily.

I'm aware that many others face much harder times then mine. I want to ask such people to join me in viewing them in a way that will bring glory to God.

Dessert times or hard times, whatever you want to call them have been experienced and come through by many Christians and characters from the bible or from the history of the Church, we can learn much from them if we take the time to hear their stories.

In these hard times one may wonder where God is. A fare question I feel! But what I've been looking at in my studies may help shed light on what you may be going through.

When we are saved we often experience God in pretty amazing ways which is great, I myself was saved from drugs and really couldn't get enough of God. But God doesn't want to hold us or keep us at that point in life, He wants us to grow.

So it maybe that God has to take away that feeling of closeness experienced when we're first saved, even to the point where we may ask whether God has completely left us.

He doesn't do this because He wants to hurt us but because He doesn't want us to rely only on past experiences.

Experiences of God are great but when they don't come we often feel quite desperate. God does want us to rely on them but for us to rely on Him.

Times of darkness or uncertainty in our faith in God are often the times when He's taking us from experiences of Him, to a lasting faith in Him. They are seldom easy, but would they be of any real worth if they were.

I can't say that having worked through my studies today that I've found the answer to all our pain but I can now ask questions like:

'Lord are you trying to lead me into deeper degrees of maturity in this'?

'How can I get to know You better through this'?

Are you in a place where you can ask such questions?

In the past I would have done anything I could think of to escape that desert but now I am discovering some of the exquisite flowers that bloom nowhere else ... I am discovering God when God apparently was not there to be discovered.

(quote from Anne Townsend)

I want this to be my testimony in hard times, I pray that it will be yours also.

Are you seeking God for answers, or are you seeking the God of answers?

Sad news.

This is a hard one for me.

I know friends read this and I need to call for your prayers at this time. Louise and I won't be able to travel to the UK over Christmas due to passport problems. We are both very upset about it and so gutted that we won't get to catch up with family and friends.

We do hope that some time next year when the issues have been dealt with that we can try again.

So, we are very sorry to all who where expecting to see us both and hope you can be patient with us and as I've asked, keep us in your prayers.

Thanks guy's.

Heavenly Illuminations!

 

I've just been watching the most amazing thing from my sun room. The sky over the bay is peppered with evening clouds and theirs a storm that's causing the clouds to fill with illuminations. Its really cool to watch these massive puffy clouds glow. I can't hear thunder but the light display is great!

I hope it lasts up, it's getting darker and it's then that the real show will start!

 

Yeah okay, some strange things interest me!

Sunday in Port Alfred

Well not entirely!
We started our day with a beautiful early morning swim. Rather painfully we started of at the wrong part of the beach (it was very rocky under foot) but as we made our way further down the beach it became sandy and was absolutely great. I can't think of a better way to start the day.
After breakfast and a trip into town to visit the tourism center we decided to head out of Port Alfred for a drive to Bathurst. On the way we stopped of to visit a giant pineapple, how could we not?
The pineapple is huge and has a little gift shop at its base (no that's Louise!).

From hear we drove of to Grahamstown for a look around. Grahamstown has loads of history and a lot of Churches. I've been here once before very early in the morning and everything was shut, sadly, being a Sunday, most things were shut again! We did have a nice lunch together though. The drive to and from Grahamstown was very nice with great views of the countryside.
The countryside in this part of the country is very dry and harsh with lots of aloe vera trees and plants. The temperatures were very hot which kind of set the scene well.
Grahamstown has a yearly arts festival which I hope Louise and I can one day visit (if it's open!!).
We've been blessed with a lovely weekend; add to that great weather and that leaves Louise and myself very happy.

I will be putting more pictures on my photo blog so check them out:

http://mlk30.blogspot.com/

God bless ya

The Kowie river

Today we started with a nice stroll down the beach catching the early morning sun, wow man, even at such an early hour the sea was warm.
We headed back to the cabin for breakfast on the deck and yes, a dip in the jacuzzi!















Some nasty person directed the jets upwards! So things got a bit wet!
Jets pointing the right way and I was in bath heaven.

After breakfast Louise and I went into town to have a look around. Later we met with Louise's mom and dad, and the four of us went on a boating trip down the river Kowie.















Our guide took us all around the very posh canals and the canalside mansions, we actually saw a three story house that had its own elevator!
The boat ride then took us further down the river Kowie and further inland. It was lovely to be on the open water and to our surprise we sailed past our soon to be Associate Pastor, Donovan!

The rest of the day was spent chilling out, Louise and I went to the beach and enjoyed the sun and sea, cool man!

Port Alfred Sands

Louise and I were blessed with a very pleasant drive through to Port Alfred. We arrived early evening and shared a nice meal with Louise's folks. The wooden cabin that we are staying in is really nice, we've been given the double room with a jacuzzi in the en-suit which I'll have to try out!
The cabin is very close to the beach, the sound of the sea is just so nice.
We're looking forward to our first full day tomorrow.
I'll tell you more about it later.