showers of rain are also much gentler and remind me of the water temperature I am now comfortable with in the unheated apartment shower. Then there's the water itself soft, clear and soothing as it flows over me from the sky or the shower head. Most of the larger houses have an external water tank that holds around six hundred gallons of water filled from the Government run water utility. On several occasions we have had to use the emergency supply at the apartment as the rain storms were such that they forced the reservoirs to stop supplying water as it could not be properly filtered. The reservoir water is normally cleaned up in four to twenty-four hours and again pumped into the regular supply. Yes, we normally drink water from containers bought in one of the local supermarkets though we do use tap water, after it is boiled, for our coffee and tea.October took us back to Ontario. 
It was a lovely visit with our family and friends. What a pristine place Ontario is. The Muskoka's in their fall finery, the air clean, clear and cold! The occasional frost and sprinkling of snow a reality check that was long overdue! If I were pressed to use one word to describe the difference between Grenada and Canada (please remember my middle-class roots) it would be Canada's abundance. The supermarket in Gravenhurst had eight different kinds of onions (see the September blog). The road system eminently usable except for the 401 and a few other exceptions! The people there were comfortable as they had most of their next week's meals in the fridge/freezer. Next there was the milk. We have learned to use powdered milk in our cereal and coffee but cannot bring ourselves to drink a glass of it, even if it's cold. Not yet anyway! There was skimmed milk to die for! 1% and 2% milk that overwhelmed. Thank you, Lord, for Ontario's dairy industry. Thank you also for the fresh fruit and the fresh vegetables to name only a few commodities. N
ext time you are in the supermarket please do a simple task for me. Count how many different flavours of soup there are in the cans and bottles there as well as the different kinds of flour available! Abundance. The choice of groceries on the shelves endless; the products refined by the supermarkets after countless years of continual research. Then there was church. The church, more or less, of my childhood (that's a bit awkward!) where the music is well played, the choir rehearsed, Scripture read clearly and a trusted, comfortable order of worship followed. The sermon is both well and thoughtfully preached, the congregations appreciative of the preacher's gentle humour but otherwise silent. Jesus said it three times to Peter, feed my sheep. Lord, may we never stop learning how to feed the needs of your people. If you would like to hear this done well go and listen to the Rev. Dr. Jim Sitler in Gravenhurst. As a preacher who loves to be preached at, thank you, Jim.
We arrived back in Grenada 
on the 20th of October and left again on the 31st for Trinidad where we attended a Council Meeting of Canacom (The Caribbean and North American Council for Missions). The hospitality of the Presbyterian Church of Trinidad was overwhelming. The people and pastors we met eager to talk about the Church in the Caribbean. We were given the opportunity to learn much as we listened to the pain of those who were either dealing with congregations that were dying or on the other hand those whose churches were growing so quickly that their reso
urces were to the point of either being inconsequential or mostly over whelmed. Personal highlights? I preached at a Church of Scotland Trinidad after which we were invited to the home of Alfrose and Michael for coffee and goodies. Imagine our surprise to find a sign on their door saying "Welcome to Tim Horton's". The muffins as well as the coffee were well up to Tim's standards! The thought and loving care involved were full of grace.
And so this Presbyterian tradition of ours in the Caribbean is alive in many different countries and ways. Our Presbyterian traditions, I think, were never ever meant to focus us on the rear view, they are simply meant to enrich our vision of the future. Nonetheless, our tradition is at least exploring its options in the Caribbean; it is intent on not running out of them. Yet even as the Presbyterian name is disappearing on some of the Islands it is flourishing as part of a Reformed Church in others. Jesus Christ is alive and leading change in his c
hurch, even as he did in Jerusalem to the church there 2000 years ago. Why is it we experience difficulty when we see the body of Christ change? Do our own bodies change? Just why is it so difficult for the church to accept the changes that must inevitably come to it? Our bodies change each day of our lives, they die, and we are reborn. The concept is not new. It may involve a little suffering but we can still follow Jesus even if we pick up that cross we were told about. I heard Henri Nouwen say that you don't think your way into a new kind of living, but live your way into a new kind of thinking. Remarkable words even for Henri Nouwen! Tonight as we looked out, far, far out over the Caribbean Sea at as dramatic a sunset as we'll ever see, we began to realize that there is no place in this world or in our lives that God can't call us or his Church from. Just like Jonah and the saints we travel to our destiny deep in the belly of God's gift of hope, hope that inevitably leads us to at least a glimpse of his Kingdom.
