We are told this is the wettest dry season in Grenada for some years. Sweet, soft falling rain that
feels like a refreshing cool shower – warmer by a few degrees than the shower in the apartment we are living in until the Manse is ready! Stand in the rain, smell the roasting sweet corn, see the multi-coloured clothing of the people strolling by, touch the fruits and vegetables on display in the market, wonder how we will cook the chicken for supper that evening. Chicken that tastes like chicken fresh from the farm in the 1950’s.We live in an apartment in the bottom half of Dorothy’s house. She is an elderly lady, the widow of an Anglican priest from Airdrie in Scotland. She loves negotiating and will negotiate with anybody over anything. She has introduced us to people who will help us over the next few years – they come bearing her name-tag “reliable” and yes they are! The only couple that we have ever heard Dorothy raise her voice to are her dogs Sam and Suzy. She brings us wonderful grapefruits and oranges from the trees in her garden. She gives us the scoop on the local goings on. What a treasure!
My counterpart here, the Rev. Osbert James, has many gifts – musician, preacher, prophet, and shepherd – all contained in a body, mind and spirit that draws on some unseen silent generator that must surely be the Holy Spirit. These are much over used words but it is a real privilege to worship and work with him.
We are living in Levera and, when the manse is ready at MacDonald College, hopefully around the end of April, we will move there. MacDonald College is in Marli. We are presently within a dozen or so houses from the most northerly tip of the island. We are in the “country” where we may have 21st Century communication technology but unfortunately the infrastructure that supports it is poor. Cooking is by propane gas which is certainly effective enough but the propane supply is problematic. Grenada is
set in the full lushness of the southern Caribbean – where some people wear heavy woollen tukes everyday (the average temperature all year round is 28 c) – where God created a land of great beauty - where people become more animated and excited about politics than Canadians do – where people will stop their car if your car is stopped and ask if you are lost. Lost you might well ask? Most villages and towns in the “country” (the area north of the capital city St. George’s) do not have signs with their names nor is there much by way of identification within them. The yield and stop traffic signs between here and St. Georges can be counted on the fingers of one hand. There are many, many other drivers on the roads that we squeeze by each day. Roads that are winding, narrow and steeply hilled. The drivers are courteous, patient and horn tooting! There are a few exceptions of course.As in other Caribbean Islands unemployment is a serious problem. 98% of the items on grocery shelves are considerably more expensive than in Canada. Fruit, vegetables and chicken are plentiful and reasonable. How do a large portion of the people live? If they are not fed physically can they be fed spiritually? Grenada’s past history has been somewhat chequered. How will we be able to best serve the people here in a time of worldwide chaos? And will the issues around the historically recent revolution continue to be laid to rest during the present economic turmoil?
My induction service on the 8th of February was amazing. The Church had been freshly painted and decorated with balloons and streamers. The people of Belair Presbyterian Church poured themselves out to make the day memorable for everyone that attended. They have a chunk of my heart already. The Moderator and I wore our gowns and hoods in a temperature of around 27 c. One of the elders finally turned a cooling fan on us. What a blessing! The three Congregations came together for the service, the pews were full, people stood against the walls and a more fortunate crowd formed round the open church doors in the sunshine. The atmosphere was celebratory, the music flowed, and gifts of flowers, fruit and spices were presented to Ann and me together with a T.V. It was simply a wonderful, God filled, feel good day!The other work that I am to do here is to be Chaplain to MacDonald College. It’s a Secondary School, the children there between 11 and 16 years. There are around 600 children at the college; they start each school day at 8:00 a.m. with thirty minutes of devotions. The School is a church school, a Presbyterian Church in Grenada School, although it is now funded as the other schools are on the island by the Government. My first staff meeting at the College is tomorrow, Monday the 23rd of February. I am looking forward to that with both excitement and interest.
Grenada is a beautiful island that faces many, many issues. The issues are more serious away
from the tourist style environment that surrounds St. George’s. You will have heard of some of the issues before, poverty, lack of trained medical professionals, a growing aids problem, poor road conditions and some political instability. How can the people of the Presbyterian Church in Canada best walk with our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Presbyterian Church in Grenada? Pray for our new eyes as well as our hearts and minds as we attempt to discern God’s will for the focus of our work here. Pray also for our continued efforts to settle into a new culture. Help us thank God each day for the opportunity to serve the people of our new Island home.
