Celebrating Life

On the Eve of my 49th Birthday

A lot has happened since my last birthday!. Last year I wrote down 48 things that I was grateful for. I am still grateful for a lot of those things I wrote down. As I reflect on my year it just seems to have sped by so fast. I look back and think about all I have been through, and all I can say is but for the grace of God go I! As I enter my last year of my forties I look back and smile, what a ride it has been. The roaring forties the fabulous forties call it what you will it, has been amazing incredible and I look back and think, how did I get old so quickly I remember it like yesterday that I just left high school.

I am so looking forward to having all my favourite people come and celebrate with me Gatsby style on Friday Evening. I love doing life, I love having my best friend and lover beside me everyday when I wake up. I love the beautiful children God has chosen me to raise. I love my dog, Sam. God has a new adventure waiting for me around the corner, I look forward to all that He has in store. I will walk humbly and trust that He has my best interests at heart. I trust that each day I feel His heartbeat a little closer and strive each day to reflect His face more and more to a broken world desperately in need for the love of a Saviour.

25 WONDERFUL YEARS

I have been married to the love of my life for 25 years. We have had an incredible ride together. He has become my absolute best friend and confident. We have raised together 3 incredible children that are in so many ways an extension of both of us but also very much persons in their own right. We are more in love now than we have ever been. It has not been an easy journey to get to this point we find ourselves at now, but it has been filled with incredible grace from God a lot of support from a special couple - Nicky and Avril Edwards.

We have lived in 15 different homes. When we first got married the law of the group areas act still existed and initially we had difficulty in finding a place to stay. Our first little place was a flat we rented in Berea Johannesburg which belonged to a friend of Andre's. We then managed a year later to purchase a flat in Yeoville Johannesburg, whilst I was working for Standard bank. 3 years later I was pregnant with my daughter Ashleigh and the group areas act was on the way to being scrapped and we manged to purchase a beautiful home in Illiondale. We would only be there 14 months when we made a decision to move to Cape Town. Another child was born in that home 15 months after Ashleigh, Jason Michael. We were the perfect little family moving to a dream destination. We sold up and rented for a year in Johannesburg and after my father had passed away we made the move to Cape Town. I still remember that day packing up with a sense of excitement but also a deep sense of sadness leaving my family in Joburg. Life was about to get very different, I was really close to my sister and we now going to be miles apart. Our children would not grow up together we would have to rely on holidays to see one another. Needless to say it was an emotional time! We arrived in Cape Town with Andre having secured a place for us to rent and when we arrived literally on the day the place was no longer available to us. Here we were Two kids all our furniture on the way down and no place to stay! Our lifelong friends Avril and Nicky were at the time living in Muizenberg and they offered us a place to stay with them and so our journey began. Our stuff was stored in their garage for a month while we looked for a place to stay. it was a difficult month, they also had a small child,Anton,and Jason had just started walking and well I remember the stress of having 2 toddlers in someone else home. My car was stolen within the first month of us moving to Cape Town. A month later we rented a duplex in Heathfield. A year later we would make the move to Fishhoek and there we stayed for 10 years and my third child Jesse was born in 1998. I remember Fishhoek days with fondness it is a beautiful place to raise children. We joined The Bay community church and so became involved in doing life with other like minded folk. Raising 3 children without any family support was no easy task, when I think back on those years sometimes its like a blur of goodness and madness all in one, Andre lost his job 10 months after arriving in Cape Town an he would face another 2 retrenchments. They were crazy difficult times. We were married 12 years when we would face the biggest challenge, life had been rough we literally sold the clothes off our backs to make ends me and well our love was almost non existent. We eventually went to a Christian marriage councillour who told us divorce was the best option! So glad we did not take her stupid advice. No we came to a cross roads loved our children too much to put them through that and decided that we would stick it out even though at the time it was hard to even look at each other. I AM SO GLAD WE DID. I LOVE THIS MAN. He has been such a hard worker in our 25 years together, such a strong and solid person. He has loved me when I have been unloveable. He has stood by me through all my ups and downs. Today he is a partner in a business, he has blessed our family with good things. He is a strong man of God who quietly gets on with life. He only wants the best for us. God has been so kind and so gracious to our little family, I look back on 25 years in awe of where we are today. Grate ful for our amazing children who have achieved against all odds and made us so proud each in their own unique way.

SO GRATEFUL EVERYDAY FOR BEING ABLE TO DO LIFE WITH YOU MY LOVE I LOOK FORWARD TO THE NEXT PART OF THIS JOURNEY MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BE GRACIOUS TO US FOR THE NEXT 25!

Evil persists if good men & women do nothing

Never before in my life have I ever been lost for words. But I find myself in this place. I am not at liberty to blog the details but this picture really describes my situation. I feel sad and disillusioned at how environments can be so toxic and yet go unnoticed by the powers that be. But I feel very strongly that evil will persist if good men & women do nothing. So it was very encouraging when I read Tony Johnson blog One day at a time Posted on August 10, 2015 by livetones Jesus Your offering was enough To perfect me For all time Now the race is on Faltering Falling Injuries One member compensating For the other I am a perfected work In progress Your finished work Is being finished I am being made holy Even as I stand Holy before You My eyes are on You Turned toward Your throne My ears are open To hear Your eternal word To behold You To become like You Transformed From one degree of glory To the next According to Your good pleasing and perfect will You are at work in me That I may work out The salvation You put in me I come to Your throne of grace To receive mercy and find grace To finish the race You marked out for me One day at a time With You Thank you Tony for sharing so eloquently. You have encouraged me to walk this journey ONE DAY AT A TIME

Perseverance - and feeling strangely lonely in a crowded room

So it has been a rough start to Term 3. I guess it can only mean that things can only get better and not worse. Tuesday was a staff day where we had an inspirational speaker, Dr Helgo Schomer Dr Helgo Schomer Ph.D Behavioural Health Consultant,Radio Shrink Energetic and engaging, Dr Schomer has been described as South Africa’s answer to Dr Frasier Crane. A frequent guest on radio shows, his areas of interest include effective stress inoculation, crisis intervention and self destructive behaviour modification. Having personally experienced trauma, Dr Schomer is able to better empathise with victims of tragedy and crime and provides them with effective coping skills such as incorporating the healing power of the natural world into their daily lives as a means to recovery.

As I sat in the staff room at lunch break it was the lowest moment of my time at St Joseph's. I realised I was in a room full of colleages, people I had gotten to know over the last 6 months but I felt so alone. I left and went to my office to get on with work and then my computer was hit with a network virus. I think I hit an all time low. I left work having called the IT specialists in the hope that they could resolve the problem. My body was aching, I have been battling with lower back ache the last few months but I think the tension of the day just got to me. I arrived home and then my knee was aching, I popped a couple of myprodol pulled myself together and headed off to home group. I was so glad I did, I felt encouraged being with like minded people. I felt refreshed we chatted about prayer and shared our thoughts on the last few weeks of teaching that we had had on Prayer. I felt challenged to push through the trials I am facing at school and trust God in the midst of it. I feel like I cant see the wood for the trees some days, and then God breaks through with little mercies. Tomorrow marks 21 years that my wonderful Dad passed from this side of eternity into the presence of God. The rain outside is fitting of the tears my heart feels as I remember my dad. 21 years is a lifetime, but I still remember his face like it was yesterday. I remember the things he taught me. I remember his kind and generous heart, I also remember how stubborn he could be a trait that I think he passed on to me! I am proud of my Portuguese heritage, my early days, although quite religious I learned about God how to love and fear Him. Later in life I learned how to walk in relationship with my God, and today I know that no matter where I am how awkward or lonely I feel my God is closer to me than ever. HE is just a prayer away.

June 16th - Youth day

I love my country so much. I love the people the colourfulness of South Africa. I even love this awful winter weather we are experiencing, because I get to sit around cozy fireplaces with my family and have tea and chats with friends.

But winter for some means harsh conditions, leaking shacks not enough warm winter clothes. No space to get washing dry. School clothes for the next day won't dry if a child only owns one shirt or trousers. I love the Common Good initiative of Warm up Winter. The scary thing was I had so much good stuff I could give away that I just haven't worn. My daughter also gave generously and we were shocked at how much excess we had. June the 16th has been an awesome time with my family and friends lots of cooking lots of good fellowship. But for some the history of today will forever be the day when a mother lost a child a brother lost a sister a sister lost a brother.

Hector Pieterson being carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo after being shot by South African police. His sister, Antoinette Sithole, runs beside them. Pieterson was rushed to a local clinic and declared dead on arrival Tomorrow I will attend the Memorial Service of Monezi Monziwa a young man whose life was ended by gang violence. A boy who had a future because education is so much better than it was in 1976. People has life really changed for the poor and marginalized? Everyday since Monezi's death I have not stopped thinking about the other precious children of the community in Hout Bay, everyday children go to school fearing for their lives. yes they have a good school great teachers but the environment in which they live is harsh. One hopes that this young man did not die in vain. Was his death senseless? yes I believe it was, perhaps out of this sadness the community will work harder at trying to be rid of gangs, perhaps government in the Western Cape will take more seriously the issue of gangs among the youth perhaps the police will come down harder on vigilanty gangs Perhaps, perhaps... maybe the lioness will take up her place and lead the young cubs with greater vision and purpose. maybe the church will arise and young men and women will no longer be silent but will stand against violence and gangsterism! God help me to stand for social justice no matter what the cost. REMIND ME THAT IN PRAYER many battles are fought and won.

Monezi - Another senseless murder of a promising life

I first met Monezi In March of 2014. He was a quiet unassuming young man. We had been quietly sitting at break the children enjoying the sunshine. Suddenly the chaos emerged out of nowhere, screams and children running to try an find a place of safety. A boy came into my office blood everywhere, I was so grateful Gus Duffet had been there to help me, he took care of Monezi he quickly got the bleeding under control. Immediately I called the ambulance service and then we waited. I did the motherly thing I made him drink sugar water and I rubbed his back and tried to console him. He sat quietly in my office without complaining whilst I continually tried to find out why the ambulance was taking so long to get there. On Saturday this young man's life was cut short by the same gang violence that has ravaged this community for years. That day Monezi had been a marked man and they had failed, but on Saturday this promising life came to an end. He was stabbed to death. A life of promise cut short extinguished forever. I still remember chatting to him about how amazing the doctors had stitched him up and saved his eye, we chatted about how fortunate he had been that day and that he must take care and walk away from the gang life. We chatted about how he had a bright future because he was at Silikamva and he could get a good Matric and that the world could then be his oyster. Today my heart aches for a mother who has lost a son. A friend who has been lost to many of his peers at Silikamva. He was a promising soccer player. A team player. The many lives he could have touched if he had gone on to achieve what he had desired, to be a social worker. He loved children and wanted to give back to this community where he had grown up and come to love. The very community that struck him down. I don't know the circumstances of his death except that it was a stabbing. I am sure in the days to come I will hear the many stories as they emerge. Part of me wishes I could still be working at Silikamva now to be there to comfort those who mourn. To put my arms around his friends and hold them while they cry. But I am not there so I can only do what I am able to and that is pray for these children, these families and the community. Monezi may you rest in peace, May the God comfort, comfort your mother. And as you play soccer now on the streets of heaven may you find the peace that you so eagerly desired. Till we meet again...... be sure to be waiting for me ...Miss Debbie