We've got a car!

On Saturday Mark took the hire car back, full of intrepidation, and thankfully our car really WAS ready for collection so he drove it home again!  We could hardly believe it!  So now we don’t have to go into Georgetown every week to find enough cash and renew the hire!  Hooray and praise God!  And it also means I can drive now so I had a little practice run and managed not to kill any animals or drive down any potholes!!

The engineer drove by to look at the box to install the landline but said the trees around it were too overgrown so he drove off again! Now we are not sure who has to trim the trees so we are waiting again!  Ho hum! 

Sunday’s ups and downs!

On Sunday morning we went to two more Covenant services.  I have mentioned before that they usually have no musical accompaniment to the hymns other than a drum but at the second service of the morning we were encouraged to see a man appear with a guitar.  What then ensued was hilarious!  They still started the hymns off in their own way with their own version of the tune and then the guitar man joined in after the song had started, playing in a different key to the singing!  However, everyone seemed to enjoy being ‘accompanied’ even if it bore no resemblance to the song being sung!

In the afternoon (I asked for 3pm prompt) I had called for a meeting of the local Sunday school leaders, church stewards and anyone interested in children’s work and was very disappointed and discouraged that by 3pm only one lady had arrived.  She said she was the cradle roll secretary but hasn’t seen the cradle roll for a couple of years so it hasn’t been updated.  At 3.15 I called one of the stewards and she said she wasn’t coming and didn’t know who was.  At 3.30 the young girl who leads the Sunday school appeared but by then it was too late to have a proper meeting – I had been hoping to find out what people’s views were and what they wanted me to help with but I am really none the wiser – apart from realising that there seems to be no heart for children’s work here.  Very sad.  L

I went over to the Sunday school at 4pm and taught the kids a couple of my action songs, which they absolutely LOVED!  It was so uplifting to see their great big grins and to catch a glimpse of their vitality when they were enjoying something.  That gave me hope that we can change some things here and make life more enjoyable for all ages!!

Wildlife

 Mark, meanwhile had been to meet the youth and leaders at another church where the young people seemed keen to change the way services are run to make them more interesting and lively so Mark was able to discuss that with the leaders who made the right noises.  On the way back he passed an enormous snake coiled up in the road and wasn’t sure if it was dead or in the road consuming road kill!  Ew!! 

Last night at bedtime when letting down the mozzie net we spotted an enormous spider which Mark had to kill because it was too fast to catch.  It seems that life at All Nations was good preparation in more ways than one!

We have seen all manner of creatures in and around the manse – here is the definitive list!!  

Outside - cows, donkeys, goats, dogs (lots!), cats, horses, deer, chickens, bats, crabs (in the gulleys out on the road), frogs, lizards and many many lovely birds including some pretty impressive birds of prey. I really want to find out what they all are but there doesn’t seem to be a book anywhere and no-one knows when I ask them! 

Inside – spiders, cockroaches, ants, lizards, frogs and one stray bat!!  We are taking them all in our stride!  Amazingly, they are far less stressful than the bureaucracy, paperwork and rigidity of some of the people here!