Alinaife

"Ohhh so that is Uncle Jerome", coos Alinaife or Ali for short, as mommy Mildred and daddy Steven introduce Ali their youngest daughter to me.

Primitive Thanksgiving

There is something primitive about sitting around a fire in each one of us. I can only imagine this deep down warm fuzzy feeling stems from a time when our ancestors sat around a fire pit in a cave under an enormous starry sky for safety and warmth.

So on this cool summer’s evening, a group of friends gathered around a brazier for warmth and to give thanks to the Lord our God for a hard year that was full of ups and downs, but a year that God was in control.

This year has surely flown past, as we once again find ourselves at our year end dinner. For me this year was a hard one and I give thanks that deep down I can lean on the knowledge that God is in control even when my life seems out of control and heading for that crash test wall with dummy me strapped inside. My second thanks is for my son Matthew. It is his birthday today and I thank God that he has turned out to be a wonderful young man.

After our primitive yet very important giving thanks around the fire, we sat down at a well decorated table for our year end meal. Breaking bread with friends and family is a highlight in the year for me, knowing that I belong.

Let them eat Amakhekhe

Tonight was our home group's turn for manning the "Under the Bridge" feeding outreach. So I left work the earliest I could and rushed over to BBC to start preparing the food parcels. Normally the food parcels consists of a large piece of polony, half a loaf of bread and a packet of crisps.

This time was slightly different as our home circle decided to each bring two pockets of oranges which allowed us to give each person who came for food two oranges each. There was quite a few oranges left over so we decided to take these later to the Hillbrow shelter. Someone also donated quite a few packs of Amakhekhe so we added one each into each food parcel. Amakhekhe are small cakes which are in between scones and cup cakes without the cup. While we packed the amakhekhe into the food parcels the words "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" came to mind. Although misattributed to Queen Marie Antoinette, let them eat cake is exactly what we did. We gave them amakhekhe and oranges with their bread.

Mexicano Nachos

I belong to this amazing home group were we have become a family, supporting and building each other up. This year the Home Circle started off as usual with an incredible dinner, but this time we had this amazing nachos dish made by Sandy and then we finished the Mexican off with a wonderful homemade ice-cream and fruit salad. It was a great start to the evening and we finished it off with a discussion on the upcoming year. I think our home group is going to be high on BBC’s prayer list as we opted to stay dynamic family group. Anyway friends are the family you choose.

Lebogang, the daughter of Mildred and Steven who have been coming to our Home Circle for over a year now, will soon be the big ONE. Well only in March that is. Here is a photo of Mildred with baby Lebo. Steven who was working when we were enjoying a good dinner at Home Circle will be proud when he sees this photo.