Hello and welcome to the March blog! The weather in March continued to be wet and stormy. It was also quite cool in the evenings when the sun went down. While that may have pleased us the locals were looking for something to wrap up in. Dannie's tomato plants are in full production and are providing us and many others with tomatoes by the dozen. Have you ever eaten a sun-warmed tomato just off the plant with a little "fake" salt? Wonderful! Dannie has cultivated some more of the ground that surrounds the manse and has planted corn there. It should be ready in July we are told. Because of the drought over the last two years this will be our first chance to try the plums on a tree behind the manse. When Dannie catches me looking at them he grins and says, "not yet, Chief." He's usually right; I'll listen to his advice and let them ripen for a while longer!
Our washing machine broke down at the start of the month. We looked at each other while thinking of an alternative way to wash our dirty laundry. The prospect we were presented with was grim. We phoned the people we bought it from next day and a technician was with us the day after. The day after that the machine was picked up, taken to St. George's and fixed! (Thank you, Lord, for service contracts.) It was returned to us on the fifth day. We are still impressed with the people involved. In the midst of this we had some company the Rev and Mrs Prinselaar from Thunder Bay, ON. They are a missionary couple who were here in the early 1980's from the United Church of Canada. The changes from "the things their eyes had seen"compared to "how we see things" thirty years later can be seen as either remarkable or remarkably troubling. They lived in St. George's when they were here and visited "the country". We live in "the country" and visit St. George's. Thank you, Lord, for no small mercy in where we live!
I went back to teaching at MacDonald at the end of March. I took over a few classes of the school councillor, Sally Palmer, a rather remarkable lady. She had suffered a painful accident and will be off for a few weeks. On the other hand this complicates the problems I am having with my left knee. Hopefully, the doctor here will be able to come to a decision as to how to proceed very soon. Next month the children who are members of MacDonald Drum Corp will take part in the band competition for senior schools in St. George's. The school athletes will perform in the Inter-collegiate Sports Days on the 6th and 7th of April. I'm afraid academics have practically disappeared. Let the games begin!
Belair primary School continues along the final stages of the test literacy programme (CALS) there. The children continue to challenge and please us. The reports that the CALS programme generates leave no doubt that the children involved are being taught at their own speed and to the extent of their ability. They are all on the right road. Ann, most days, has her life full of excited, smiling children. Thank you, kids.
Belair P.C. continues its journey through Lent to Easter. Our two youth who were in Trinidad as guests of the Presbyterian Church in Trinidad and Tobago returned home with much food for thought. They were challenged to look at themselves and their future differently. One of their greatest needs is to find satisfying employment. Could that be available in Trinidad? Trinidad is known locally as the "New York" of the Caribbean. I know the people there to be warm, generous and friendly just like most of the New Yorker's I have met. I hope both girls make the right decision. They have God and many people to lean on!
Emmanuel Kant wrote, "Everything that has a price does not have a value." We have set some time aside in the next three months for deciding on the future of our ministry here with God's leading and encouraging wisdom. Where do we start to attach value to what we do? Do we have the sole right to have the say in this? What is leadership? Leadership in Grenada is mostly dictatorship from what we have experienced. People still fight physically to uphold the right of the workers in a trade union. What is the value placed on life here? The many geckoes that scurry around our deck do their utmost to eat the many species of ants which they find there. Then there are the birds in the trees around us that praise God so beautifully with their songs. They feed on the geckoes. Who can decide on what has value and what does not? What does any church any where do to support all the people who it needs to support? What would happen to any church if the financial support of its wealthier congregations were withdrawn? Yet the Christian church is blooming. Where? Africa, Asia and South America are one answer. What value is it giving to its people there?
In Luke 18 we can read Jesus' story about the Pharisee and the tax collector. If we place ourselves with the tax collector asking humbly for God's mercy we can realize that we are sinners. We can then ask God to help us know our need without becoming disheartened. Then there is the Pharisee. Not only did he think the world of himself but he did it at the expense of other people. Do we not look down on others from any height we have exalted ourselves to? Who is to blame? Where did "blame" come from and how did it become part of my vocabulary? Jesus will tell you no one is to blame; that even the most difficult situations present us with an opportunity to be drawn into God's kingdom.
Deo Gratias.
holidays in granada I was reading your article and found very useful & helpful for those guys who wanna know about the same, I would like to read more in future!
ReplyDelete