Hello and welcome to the November blog! The hurricane season is now officially over though heavy rain and strong winds still persist. Last week, while we were in St. George’s, many of the roads flooded. The main street of Grenville was also blocked by quite a large mud slide. Even the rough road that leads to the manse from MacDonald turned, once more, into a wet muddy stream. Thank you, Lord, for four wheel drive and the lesson we have learned as well as we ever will: what needs to be done today can also be done tomorrow. I’d forgotten the Canadian snowstorms that kept me house bound for one or two days in a row. People do adapt to life as nature dictates! It seems, though, some have more difficulty doing this than others! Being without a clean source of water here is the biggest difficulty that faces us but we have learned too that this will “come back “as soon as possible!
Meanwhile, the local farmers are ecstatic over the way their crops are growing. Dannie remarked the other day that if people couldn’t grow things this year (the last two brought drought like conditions) it simply meant they had been too lazy to throw the seed onto the ground. Thanks to Dr. Ron Wallace of International Ministries we now have a weed eater which keeps the long grass and other vegetation under control around the manse. Weed eater you may well ask? The mass of volcanic rock around us surfaces in the most unlikely places and would quickly ruin a motorized lawn mower/cutter. However, grass when it becomes long and wet harbours the breeding grounds of our favourite beasty – the mosquito. Large lumps on the body show us where they have been. Even when we declare war on them in the morning and evening of each day both of us know who the final victors will be!
The first Sunday in Advent has come and gone and the ghost of Christmas to come has appeared to haunt us in all we do in Grenada.
MacDonald breaks for the holidays on the 10th of December. All of us will enjoy a three week holiday. MacDonald’s Principal Mr. Jim Alexander retires on the 10th after being principal here for the last twenty-three years. He leaves behind a school that can boast of its sporting prowess but struggles with academics. The “who will be in charge” issue is being addressed and we await the outcome with great interest.
Belair Presbyterian Church sails on. The Christmas play has been written by one of the congregation, Glenda Williams, and the rehearsals are under way. The plot of the play centres round a new widower and his two teenage daughters. The man is bitter, the girls full of hope because God is good. The man is played by one of the most natural “hams” we have ever met. He brings the sadness, love and humour to his part that only the local dialect and outlook on life can supply. The performance on Wednesday the 22nd of December will speak to God’s loving care of all of us. Samaritan P.C.’s Christmas Concert is on the 19th; our youth will supply an “item” for them of some Christmas Music. And so, the celebration of Jesus the Christ’s birth will come in these and other ways to Belair P.C. If you are able, join us on Bathway Beach on the 15th of December at 11:00 a.m. Our young people will be “Frolicin' in the Favour of Jesus” you would love our Jesus in much the same way we would love yours!
The Computer Assisted Literacy System (CALS) has resumed at Belair Government School. We are working with another eight children who will spend from the 2nd of November until sometime in June with us. They are from the Primary School’s third grade (around seven years old) and have been exhibiting learning difficulties for some time. (Children start pre-kindergarten in the year of their 3rd birthday). With our volunteers from Belair P.C. we have a God given opportunity to work one on one with them; not only to teach reading but also some mental discipline which can lead to a little fore thought and a realization of the need for perseverance. God willing, we will also bring some development to their imagination. None of the eight had used a computer before the 2nd of November. It took them all of a week to arrive at a level of skill necessary for the CALS. Wow! Ann suggested a different approach for this group to the Principal, Ms. Peters. We will try it this week. Belair School celebrates its 60th Anniversary in January. They have asked if they may join us in worship in January so that fitting thanks may be offered to God. Belair P.C. positively beamed. Heads are being held high and God is, even now, in possession of a myriad of thanks for his goodness.
So, as the Christmas Cards come and go, on a personal level the Young’s are preparing to spend the Christmas celebration apart from their family. Ann misses her children so much. Jim misses his children but also the familiar trappings of Christmases from across his many years! Why do we do work here? Please come and take my place behind the lectern as I lead worship of the Baby Jesus on Christmas day at 7:30 a.m. Join us later for Christmas dinner at a family home in Grenville. It’s a family we will always think of as family. All of this is part of the barrel of memories that Ann and I will have forever and ever. No small thing to us. God is to be thanked, now and always.
Romans gave us one of the lectionary readings for the Sunday of the first week of Advent. Paul was asking the Roman Christians to clothe themselves in God’s light. Even as we pick the deep red sorrel from our bushes to make sorrel juice, according to one or two of the local Christmas recipes, we see the wonder of God’s light. It illuminates the path he calls us to walk; the need for our hair to be cut short because of the humidity and heat we live in; the need for us to touch in a fresh, positive and continuing way the lives of those who live around us. There are very, very few people in Grenada or Canada that do not love children. At Christmas we all come together in the light of the Christ Child, Immanuel, God with us. In Grenada we continue with even more excitement and satisfaction than normal. We continue because God is coming and will soon be among us; the Holy Spirit leads us on with hope, peace, joy and love into 2011.
Deo Gratias
