A roller coaster week

More ups and downs this past week! 

Vacation Bible Schools

Each of Mark’s churches have run a ‘Vacation Bible School’ or VBS (what we would call a holiday club) so we have made sure that we have paid a visit to each one – we have taken along Nettie and taught them some action songs.  The local people do their best to give the children a fun time and they are given some colouring sheets and simple crafts – when I think about how we used to decorate the church for our holiday clubs and all the amazing crafts, activities and refreshments the children enjoyed, it is sad to see the few meagre resources available here.  We also noticed that the adult helpers didn’t speak to the children very much or encourage them in any way so we were trying to model that by chatting to the kids and having a bit of fun with them. 

Children colouring their sheets
 

Listening to Nettie's message!
 

 Another wedding!

Mark took another wedding last Saturday and it was about as farcical as the last one!  This time there were meant to be 55 bridesmaids who all arrived at various times up to and during the service.  The wedding was meant to start at 4pm but by 3.55 no-one had arrived – the groom came at 4.20pm (after Mark called him to find out where he was!) and the bride finally arrived about 5pm (so she forfeited her late fee!). 

 

The whole service made me really angry as the bridesmaids and groomsmen were just chatting, playing games on their phones, messing around in the church and the few family members who came along were outside the chapel shouting to each other, screeching with laughter etc throughout the service.  The bride and groom didn’t seem that bothered either: chatting during the service and even while Mark was praying for THEM.  The groom was making silly faces at people and just generally messing around and it felt that it wasn’t important to them at all.  There was no dignity or sense of occasion and it made me feel depressed. 

A small bridesmaid and groomsboy who didn't seem very happy!

Some of the 55 bridesmaids!

The bride arrives with the person who gave her away

Bored bridesmaids not participating in the service at all

Many people sat outside during the service chatting

Mark's colleague taking the legal part of the service

One of the bridesmaids with attitude - I just had to get a photo of that necklace!

 

Things that have made me feel down L

• I had a nasty bang on the head when a pole from our spare bed fell down on me and it really upset me.  I think the tears that had been building up for some time all came out and I thought I would never stop crying.
• We got stopped by the police again this week – we think he was showing off to his friends but he thought Mark was going too fast (he wasn’t – he was within the speed limit) and just wanted to show his authority.  Since the incident in the previous week I have been very nervous of the police checks – when you live somewhere with a corrupt Government and justice system you can never be sure that justice will be done even if you are innocent so have to constantly pray for God’s protection.  Also, the roads are so dangerous and we have so many near misses that it is very stressful every time we have to go anywhere, particularly into Georgetown.
• Although I keep trying to remain positive and hopeful, we constantly battle with disappointment – in fact disappointment is probably the word we would use to sum up most of our time here so far.  A friend sent me a lovely reading and it included these words which I found very encouraging:

‘You will see the fruit of your labours and you will not be disappointed forever, for your toils and struggles are not in vain.  Take refuge in the heart of my Father for he loves you and watches over you.’

I’m particularly holding onto that line, ‘You will not be disappointed forever’ because some days it feels like there will be nothing else but!   We are determined to hold on to God despite the circumstances.

Things to be thankful for! J

• For some months now I have been encouraging the church at Virginia to start some kind of lunch club to feed some of the very poor people in their village but didn’t want it to be us that did it – I wanted them to take ownership and run it.  Someone from the UK kindly sent us a donation for the work here so I offered it to them to use if they started a feeding programme.  Then last week we heard that they had started a lunch programme – they are going to do it once a month to start with and deliver meals to people’s homes – they went to 13 homes last week and I was SO excited that they had done it!  Next month we hope to go with them so I can get some photos to show you.  Bless their hearts. 
• We had several nights with no music last week and Saturday night was not as loud as it usually is so we are thankful for small mercies. 
• I led the Circuit Women’s Fellowship yesterday afternoon and had really encouraged as many as possible, young and old to come along to talk about how we can support each other and reach out to others – I was encouraged to have 27 women there (which believe me is a lot for this circuit!) and most amazingly of all, 22 of them were there before the start time!  Miracles can happen!  No-one said anything to me about how they felt it went (it doesn’t seem to be the done thing to encourage anyone or thank anyone here!) but the fact that they all came still encouraged me – it doesn’t take a lot!