Covenant service

6.1.13

The beginning of January is traditionally the time when Methodists hold a Covenant Service – during this service people renew their commitment to God for the coming year.  I didn't know it but here all the women traditionally wear white for the Covenant Service - I turned up in my usual clothes and felt a bit silly but then some visitors came who clearly didn't know the tradition either so I was glad that I hopefully helped them not feel so excluded!

I always find this a poignant service because if you really mean the words you say it is quite scary!  This morning however, the words were even more meaningful to me than usual and I quote some of the words here for you to read:

The minister says (amongst other things!)

Christ has many services for his people to do.  Some are easy, others are difficult.  Some bring honour, others bring reproach.  Some are suitable to our tastes and compatible with our ambitions, others are contrary to both.  In some we may please Christ and ourselves at the same time.  In others we cannot please Christ except we deny ourselves.  Yet Christ will surely give us the strength and the grace to do all that he requires of us as we consecrate ourselves to him. 

We respond:

I am no longer my own, but yours.
Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for you or laid aside for you,
exalted for you or brought low for you.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
You are mine, and I am yours.
So be it.  And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.  Amen.

I don’t think it has previously meant so much as it has this year when I am really being put to the test.  I did say it and meant it and just have to trust that God will help me through this difficult time and that I’ll come out smiling at the end thinking I’ve done a good job and it’s been worthwhile! 

 

Slowly moving forwards...

Apparently the money for the car has now been received but as yet the documentation hasn’t been processed.  We went to Georgetown yesterday hoping to collect the car but were told there was more paperwork to be done and that it would be ready today.  Then this morning we got a call saying it won’t be ready today and to come in on Monday…so tomorrow we will go and rent the hire car for another week and hope that it is all sorted by next Saturday!  We are learning not to get our hopes high when documentation of any kind is involved! 

Our lovely circuit steward has been trying her hardest to sort our internet and landline and today we have been told that an engineer will come in the next 7 – 14 days so again we won’t hold our breath but will hope and pray it comes true! 

Today we learned where to go and get a replacement Calor gas bottle and managed to get some white spirits to help the rubbish burn more easily.  Step by step we’re moving forwards, little by little taking ground…!!

 Old age pensioners

 Yesterday when we called in to see if there was any post, there was a little crowd of elderly people outside and the girl in the post office said they were all waiting to collect their pensions.  We found out today that the pension money is brought in on the first Thursday of the month from Georgetown to be collected by the locals.  We also found out that the monthly pension for an elderly person is 10 000 Guyana dollars which is about £33.00 – that’s PER MONTH.   No wonder there is so much poverty here.  We were so sad to hear that – elderly people have to be looked after by their families, as they certainly can’t afford to live alone on that amount.  We have also been told that the average wage is about 6000 Guyana dollars a week which is only about £20 so it’s no wonder people live on rice as their staple diet.  A salutary thought and makes me count my blessings.  

 

 

Happy New Year!

3.1.13

 New Year’s Eve

 It was very strange at 8pm here on New Year’s Eve knowing that everyone in England would be singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and toasting the new year when we still had 4 hours of the old year left!

At 10pm we wandered over to the church for the ‘Old Year’s Night’ service – people gradually arrived and eventually there was a reasonable sized congregation.  We were told that a lot of people who don’t usually go to church come on ‘Old Year’s Night’ and it is traditional to at least be in church at the stroke of midnight even if you miss the rest of the service!   Everyone came dressed up in their best party gear as it was a special occasion for them all.  Me being scared of mozzie bites left my best frock and high heels at home and wore linen trousers and a long sleeved top! 

 At midnight a bell was rung to welcome in the New Year and everyone greeted each other before heading off home to bed!  Meanwhile, the party at the local bar and the loud fireworks in the street continued to keep us awake all night! 

 New Year’s Day

This is a national holiday in Guyana so we decided to drive into Georgetown and have a look around the ‘Pegasus’ hotel to see if it is somewhere we might be able to go when we have leisure time.  The guidebook says that it ‘remains the most popular full service hotel, but thanks to aging rooms and lack of upkeep, their basic rooms are now terribly overpriced.’ 

 

We went into the café where a lunchtime buffet was being served and decided to stay and eat as it was lovely and cool in the air conditioning!  The buffet consisted of some roast pork with some rather overcooked vegetables, rice and noodles with some cake for dessert.  With soft drinks our bill came to about £40, which we thought was highly overpriced!  We sat in the cool lobby watching BBC World News for a while so that made the journey worthwhile!  

Next time we get a day off we are going to try visiting another hotel.  We had asked about using the swimming pool at one hotel but were told it is only for guests staying over so we may have to book an occasional night away as we are sadly lacking in leisure facilities! 

 Calor gas

 Yesterday Mark had to go to a staff meeting (just for the ministers!) in Georgetown and I decided to try and cook a chicken to make him a nice lunch for when he got back.  We had been given the chicken by a couple from the church which would have been a real sacrifice for them.  However, after about 45 mins I noticed the Calor gas had run out and I didn’t know how to change the bottle and couldn’t lift the new one upstairs anyway so sadly the chicken had to be wasted and thrown to the dogs.  I felt so upset about that as I hate wasting food anyway, but particularly as it would have cost a lot for the couple who gave it to us and it seemed so sad.  Also, we haven’t had much meat to eat so I was looking forward to a nice bit of chicken and had plans for three day’s meals out of it!  Now I’ve learned not to cook while in the house on my own! 

Today…

We went into the post office in Georgetown again to collect another parcel.  Some of you know the hassle we had last time so we were expecting a full day trip…thankfully collecting the package only took about 40 minutes this time so we were very thankful! 

We are still hoping and praying that we might get our car soon so that we don’t have to keep hiring one and also REALLY praying we can get a landline and internet at the house so we can upload photos and video clips to show you a bit more of life here. 

I have been feeling pretty low – lonely and isolated - the last few days and hope that once term starts next week and I get busy that I will start to settle down and feel more at home.  We appreciate all the ongoing prayer, thoughts and lovely messages we keep receiving which help to boost our spirits.

 

Party time!

30.12.12

We have had two social events this weekend, both of which have been interesting! 

On Friday night we had a district staff dinner at a resort in West Bank Demerara so it took us an hour and a half to drive there!  It was a very formal event with a running order resembling a service rather than a social evening, including a hymn, prayers and a sermon.  It was difficult to talk to people around the table as the music was soooo loud so not a very sociable time really!  Then an hour and a half drive back again but this time in the dark so we had to be even more careful of the potholes in the road and animals coming at us from all directions! 

Yesterday we went to a church social at Mark’s Airy Hall chapel which was meant to start at 6pm.  When we got there about 6.10 hardly anyone was there but by 7pm several people of all ages had arrived and they were ready to start.  Again it took the form of a service really with hymns, songs and prayers.  They asked me to teach a song so I tried to teach them the action song ‘Great big God’!  The adults joined in merrily but the children just stared at me as though I was crazy!  I think they are not used to seeing adults doing silly things!  I wonder what they’ll make of Nettie when she ventures out! 

Mark was asked to give a short word and then we sang some more songs before handing out polystyrene containers of food (rice with chicken!) to everyone gathered.   The children were each given a little present and that was a poignant moment.  Earlier I had asked each of the children what they had received for Christmas and several of them said ‘nothing’.  When given the little cheap plastic toys from the church they looked so happy and held onto them as though they were precious gifts.  I found that very moving when I thought about how much is given and received by way of gifts in the UK. 

This morning, Mark didn’t have a service so we attended Mahaica chapel which is outside our front door.  We got there at 8am and it was just us and the local preacher taking the service.  By 8.20 no-one had arrived so she started the service just with us and gradually more people arrived and by the end there were about 12 people there.  We had started off singing unaccompanied until the drummer arrived at about 8.50 and the steward arrived to give the notices just as the sermon ended at about 9.45. 

I find it really hard to get my head around people arriving so late for services and not preparing for their part in worship until they get there.  Maybe I am yet to understand how this culture works but in my mind it is insulting to the person who has spent time preparing the service and not honouring to God to be so blasé about coming to worship.  People have told us that they have tried started services later but then people still come an hour later than that.  This is an area I need to find out more about because at the moment it is just making me mad! 

Tomorrow night Mark has a ‘Watchnight’ service here in Mahaica starting at 10pm so it will be interesting to see who is there on time!  Here they call ‘New Year’s Eve’ - ‘Old Year’s Night’ – I’ll let you know how it goes! 

I will upload photos once I can get some decent internet – please keep praying for the following;

• The money to come through from the UK to get our own car as we are having to hire a car which is costing a lot of money and they don't accept cards so we have to go to the city each week to draw out the cash to pay for it.
• Landline and internet at home – this is causing us hassle as we can’t use the internet except to very slowly send text emails and we need it for resources, research, information, sending photos and hopefully skype.
• For us to get our visas to stay here and our Guyana driving licenses – we are expecting hassle for these but please pray God will make a way for us! 

Rubbish and Water

28.12.12

 

I thought that today I would write about two domestic issues so that you get an idea of how things work over here!

Rubbish

The country of Guyana has no public rubbish collection and there are no recycling facilities so people have three choices:

• Pay a private contractor to take it away (who knows where it goes?!!)
• Burn the rubbish
• Dump it anywhere!

Many people seem to have a go at burning their rubbish but a lot don’t!  Alongside every road, in every gully, river and canal, by the sea wall, in the gutters, you see huge piles of rubbish – cans, bottles, paper, food remains, household items, polystyrene food containers…the stray dogs rummage in the rubbish for scraps of food but the rest just sits there and much of it will never really decompose.  L

There seems to be a culture of throwing rubbish on the ground…we saw a man finish a bottle of beer and then just throw the bottle down where he stood – of course it smashed and you also see piles of broken glass everywhere, which is hazardous for people, animals and car tyres!  The Government have put up signs everywhere saying ‘do not dump your rubbish’ but what are people supposed to do if there are no bins or skips and no rubbish collections?

 We asked what we should do with our rubbish and were told we must burn it.  So Mark tried to make a fire with our assorted rubbish but it is so damp and humid it didn’t really take off and then we ended up with loads of dogs in the garden trying to get the food scraps.  One of the stewards arranged for an old oil drum to be delivered to us so now Mark is burning the rubbish in that and it is much more effective. 

It feels strange thinking about what will burn and what will happen to the stuff that doesn’t burn and it has made me very conscious about what and how much we dispose of – in England I never really thought about that as it just all got collected but suddenly we are aware of what we waste and it is making us think of ways to re-use as much as possible.

 One of the things we have noticed is that at every church event involving food, it is served in polystyrene containers with plastic forks and spoons instead of on plates that can be washed.  I questioned this and asked why they don’t use plates and they said it is because there is not enough water to wash them up with…which leads me onto the next issue…

 Water

Another thing we took for granted back in the UK! 

Here we can’t drink the water from the taps so we buy 5 gallon containers of bottled water and use that for drinking, cooking and cleaning our teeth.  Before we had the hire car we had to call someone to deliver a container of water to us but now we can collect our own and are trying to keep one large bottle in reserve so we don’t run out.

The fact that we have it in measured containers makes me very aware of how much we use so we make sure that we only boil what we need for drinks, and when I cook vegetables I am reusing the water to make stock for soup rather than just tipping it down the sink. 

As for the mains water, we just have cold running water and the pressure is not very strong so each day we have a kind of cold wash under a dribbly shower head!  It’s amazing how little water you actually need to stay clean though I do miss having a nice relaxing bubble bath and standing under a hot power shower!  

 

Christmas in Guyana

25.12.12

 

It is late afternoon on Christmas day as I write this and it has been a very different Christmas day to our usual ones and quite difficult in many ways.

 The day started at 4am when we got up ready to go to Mark’s first service at 5am!  Aaghh!!  We never even got up that early when the children were little!  We arrived in the dark at the chapel and only two people were there.  The couple who were there had kindly brought some breakfast for us so we had a flask of coffee and some cheese and crackers before the service.  Gradually people started to filter in and we started the service at about 5.45am accompanied by a bat swooping around as it was just about dawn by then.  A bit scary singing carols with a bat around my head! 

We had to slip out before the end of that service so that we could go to Mark’s next service at 7am in a different village.  By now it was starting to get hot so was glad to be wearing a summery dress and flip flops!  I’ve never done that before at Christmas! 

We got home about 8.30 and had a coffee and some Guyana ‘black cake’ given to us by someone in the congregation.  It is a traditional moist, dark cake eaten in Guyana and the Caribbean at weddings and at Christmas. 

It was an emotional morning as we spoke to the girls and other family members and we were reminded how far away from home and family we are…all the more poignant at this family time of Christmas.

We had been invited out for lunch by a couple from one of Mark’s churches and we were scared we would have to eat ‘pepperpot’ which is a traditional Guyanese dish apparently made of cows’ feet and tripe in a spicy sauce but thankfully we were given chicken and rice so were very grateful!  Tomorrow we have a day off and I am going to attempt to cook chicken with roast potatoes, a tin of veg and some bread sauce and gravy I brought from the UK to try to replicate a traditional British Christmas dinner as best I can!  

Some people here do decorate the outsides of their homes with lights and an assorted array of Santas, Christmas trees and wreaths but not so much the insides of them.  They do give and receive gifts but nothing like the scale of present giving back home.  It is a wholly more simple occasion here which is quite refreshing and releasing as the pressure is off! 

 It has not really felt like Christmas to us as everything is so different to our usual traditions and of course we are away from our loved ones.  We have had no decorations, haven’t given or received gifts, have had no alcohol or luxury food, there is nothing on TV, no parties to go to and it has seemed in lots of ways just like an ordinary day.    The things I am missing are not the material things but our loved ones and the traditions we usually share together.

I guess that for most people around the world living in poverty, in conditions of war, under occupation, oppression or persecution it really is just another day and all we are left with is Jesus – he is meant to be the focus of this day anyway so I think maybe it has all been put into perspective for me this year.  I usually spend so much time and effort preparing for Christmas and get stressed in the process so the positive side of all this is that it has been quite liberating to be set free from all that and I wonder if it will change the way I view Christmas when we come home again.  Time will tell! 

 

 

Church services

23.12.12

Church services

Mark has now taken services at 5 of his 8 chapels.  Four have been Sunday services and one was a funeral taken yesterday and I have accompanied him to them all.  Sunday services start at 8am and 11am to give the minister chance to get to two churches each Sunday on a 4 weeks rota.  However, these are not necessarily the times the services actually start!   This morning we got started at about 8.25am and people were still arriving up to 9.30!  This is something we are going to have to get our heads around as we are used to starting promptly but no-one here is in any rush to get going!  It has made me laugh as in the opening prayer in most services the person prays for God to ‘hasten the feet’ of those who might be on their way! 

 The services are led by a local preacher or lay worker and then Mark just has to preach and lead the communion part of the service.  They have hymns from the old Methodist hymn book ­and a section in the service where they sing a medley of choruses and a time for testimonies.   Most chapels have no musical instruments so singing is accompanied by clapping, and maybe a tambourine or drum.  The vast majority of the congregations are women; men seem to be sadly lacking. 

 Yesterday Mark took a funeral for a lady from the church and it was very interesting.  As I mentioned in January when we visited, the coffin starts off open at the entrance to the chapel so everyone can look at the body and take photos, video etc.  Once the service starts the coffin is closed and brought to the front of the church by the family members.  Although the people here seem generally very reserved in showing their feelings, there was a lot of loud wailing and crying at the funeral service, which we don’t usually experience at UK funerals.  Also, someone was going round with a video camera videoing people in the congregation and the whole service and people were on their I-phones and chatting to each other during the service, which seemed disrespectful to me but didn’t seem to bother anyone there! 

 After the church service we all went to the cemetery for the ‘burial’.  The graves here are above ground and are like a cuboid box made of concrete.  The coffin is slid into the box and then the end concreted up while the family are still there.  Apparently if this is not done straight away, people come and steal things from the body.  During the ‘burial’ people were playing loud music on their car stereos, taking photos of each other and generally milling around and chatting – all of it seemed very alien to us and very noisy!

 Mark’s next services are on Christmas day at 5.00am and 7.00am!  Eek!  We never got up that early even when the children were little!!  I’ll write about Christmas later in the week!