June, and it’s now Winter in Cape Town! No big deal, you may think, you’re in Africa, but for those of you used to cool or freezing nights in Scotland, give thanks for your heated houses. We have been saying to each other that it’s high time we issued another update and looking back on the last one we realise that it has been 3 months since it was sent. But time is flying past with lots happening and both…
It’s been a quite a while since our last blog, which followed the end of Lorna’s cancer treatment in Glasgow. We left Scotland in January, arrived in Cape Town in Summer, and it’s now Autumn. In South Africa, ‘Winter is coming’. We had a very enjoyable festive period celebrating with family and friends, but it was a very special Christmas day as we were able to spend it together with all our children, their partners and grandchildren. It was the…
Lorna ‘Rang the Bell’ at about 10.20am on Tuesday, 11th December, 2018, and was met with applause from hospital staff and other waiting patients. This marks the end for all cancer patients of the gruelling, chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment phase of their journey of recovery and Lorna has been discharged from oncology care. Follow up is an annual mammogram for 5 to 10 years. We now go forward into life trusting and living in the hope that the recovery will…
Many of you who have been following our blog will know that as of our last communication from Cape Town, ‘No Longer Slaves to Fear’, Lorna had been through surgery for breast cancer and we were awaiting the results of a genetic test. Unfortunately, the test eventually indicated that Lorna is ‘high risk’ for return of the cancer and this resulted in chemotherapy being recommended by the oncologists. We decided that return to Scotland to be with family for Lorna…
Life has not been easy since we returned to Cape Town from Glasgow in early May! We had a fantastic 3 weeks in Glasgow spending time with our family and friends. We met Sam, our new grandson, who is an absolutely adorable and contented baby. We were able to look after Freya while Ruth and Justin were working so got to see her personality developing (she may look like Justin, but she is definitely her mother’s daughter with the gift…
Please share this widely www.givey.com/communityhallsweethomefarm As you will know from by now, one of the specific areas where we have been invited to work is Sweet Home Farm, Phillipi, an informal settlement of 17,000 people living in shacks. Don is involved with an organisation seeking to improve housing provision, and Lorna, through NewDay United, in introducing community services such as health promotion, education, and supporting the development of social enterprise. Together with the leaders of the community a recent focus…
Unbeknown to us, January starts very slowly here, partly due to the heat but also it being the main school summer holidays with many people travelling long distances to see friends and family. We did feel a bit sorry for ourselves at times, but we had a couple of highlights. Don had his first ever birthday in the sun, spending it on a nearby beach which has a penguin colony. We enjoyed a day of swimming in the South Atlantic…
Here we are at the beginning of 2018 and we wish a Happy New year to all our followers and supporters. It must be our age, but the years do seem to be passing more quickly, and this last year has been no exception, spending virtually all of it in Cape Town pursuing a radically new calling on our lives. We have come to Cape Town in simple obedience and the result is that our hearts have been broken for…
We would like to wish you all a joy filled Christmas and a happy and healthy 2018. Thank you for your continued love, support and encouragement which has helped us to know that we are in the place God has called us to be. The photo is of some of the children who attend the after school homework group in Khanyisa. Don & Lorna
Many people are familiar with the concept of children moving out of familial homes and embarking on their journeys into the new wide world. There’s a bittersweet feeling as parents acknowledge that their little boy or girl has grown up and must forge their own path; must make their own decisions, separate from those their parents would choose to make for them; and create their own ideas of the world, not through the lens of their family, context or culture….