FIRST WEEK IN MAY 2009.

First Week in May 2009.

ALPHA COURSE AT WALMER METHODIST
INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE CRICKET IN PORT ELIZABETH

Monday evening the church had a man from Willow Creek Church in America come to talk about Cell Groups. It was an interesting talk but not dynamic and I did not really enjoy it that much. Tuesday there was an hour DVD of Nicky Gumble talking about how to minister to people in Alpha. A good talk.

Wednesday evening was our first Alpha of this season. I am a leader of a group together with Gail Smith. I have seen Gail in church for many years but never known who she was. Her husband is Sean and is a pilot for Airlink. The guests are: Theresa Gerber, Sipho Lucas, Rodney who was also on the MMC bus with us; Regg Kee who is the boyfriend of one of the organisers (Charmaine); Bev Cox who reminded me that we last did Alpha about 15 years ago; Cari McLean; Moira who has a husband on the course as well. The start of the evening went quite well.

We had our supper and went through for singing, the Gumble DVD and then coffee. Then we had our short group session. I did the name game ice breaker and the "what would you take on an island?" game. The idea is to relax the group and get them talking. The next question that I posed was: what brings your to Alpha? everyone had an opportunity to talk and then we were at the end of our time.

Later we discussed the evening and almost everyone said that the group session was short. Yet the Gumble DVD was to be extended to the full length (an extra 10 minutes). We will have to see how things progress.

I did two mornings of running this week. Not too good; short and slow. But better than staying in bed. I also put a challenge to the Alpha group to do a minimum of ten minutes a day (60 minutes for the week) of bible reading. Fortunately I was able to meet my own challenge and have done my one hour for the week. Saturday morning I had arranged a run with Adrienne but she pulled out. I collected Elmarie who lives in Cuyler Crescent and met Ben and Andrew for a run from Hobie at 06.00am.

We ran the Walmer Boulevard circuit which is about 10kays. I was particularly slow and heavy. I hope that I start to come right again with my running soon. After the run I dropped Elmarie off and collected Ally for her Hockey. Then back home I drove Barbara's bakkie to the tip, went to watch Ian playing rugby (he scored a try) as Charles was in JHB.

Collected Ally and friends from Hockey, bought cricket tickets for Sunday, drove another load to the tip, drove Ally & Friends to the Movies and then went off to watch Grey play Queens for the rest of the afternoon. Barbara went off horse riding. Ended up on a huge horse 17 hands but enjoyed the outing. Ron, Hannes and Barbara joined me at Rugby. The senior games were quite exciting and closely contested.

Sunday morning (Mothers Day) after church, Mom dropped me at St Georges park. There was a IPL cricket match. The Mumbai Indians playing the Royal Challengers. I had packed our stuff including chairs and food for a day at Cricket. The Challengers were handing out Tshirts and we decided to back them. We sat in the shade of the Duckpond pavillion and it was quite chilly through out the match. This side does not receive any sunshine during the day. In some ways this is an advantage as I had spent the whole of Saturday in the sun. But it can become quite chilly if you have not brought extra clothing.

Michael, Lene and their children joined us as well as Lynn and Lara O. Lynn did not last too long as this was not exactly her "Scene". We had a couple of Draught Beers and munched away ot out snacks. The IPL is a professional league event with huge sponsorships and salaries paid to the top players of the world. There were a number of South African players contracted to play in the series. Mark Boucher, Jacques Kallis and Roelof vd Merwe play for the Challengers while JP Dumminy plays for the Mumbai team.

Ally met up with a group of her friends there. It was quite a festive and action packed match. The Mumbai Indians won the game but not without a good fight from the Royal Challengers.

This is the kind of weekend that I love: mix of active sport, home activity / work and watching schoolboy rugby and then the Cricket on Sunday as a bonus.

Peter Giddy
5.05.2009.