Farewell to Regan

Regan Backhouse left on the RMS this morning, bound for Ascension Island.  She will spend a few weeks there with family and friends before going to the UK to start life in a boarding school.  She will be missed - especially by Pat and Prudie (her grandparents) with whom she has lived for the past 6 or so years.

                                                         Regan and Prudie at the wharf

Regan and her school firends

Williamsons and Breeds

The Williamsons are due to return to the USA on the 6th of next month.  How time flies.  We wanted to spend a bit more time with them, so had them over for lunch and an afternoon visit.
The Breeds (the Afrikaans friends that attend our Jamestown Bible studies)

 asked us to join them in the evening for a take away at one of the Saturday night outlets.  Graeme then introduced them to the only place that makes proper milk shakes (by SA standards) much to Dawid and Ira's delight. We were impressed at how many people stopped to greet "Oom Dawid" and "Tannie".  They are well loved in the community.

Cake sale

The ladies held a cake sale at the market this morning.  We are raising money to install a water borne toilet at Sandy Bay chapel.  The original toilet was a double seater long drop. (work that out for yourself).  At the moment they have a wood and iron little shed with a chemical toilet - not ideal.  We raised 240 pounds to add to our kitty.
In the evening we had the Drabbles over for supper, and to watch a sermon by Mark Driscol that Gareth had downloaded.  Edyta brought the dessert, which she had bought at the cake sale - one of the milk tarts that I had made!
An evening of good fellowship, and a good sermon.

Early morning visit to the yacht

Graeme and I caught the ferry to the Shining Star at 7 am this morning.

Graeme at the landing where we get on to the ferry.  The ropes give you something to hold on to while jumping aboard.

Jamestown as seen from the ferry.

The clouds still had a pink hue from the sun rise.

   We wanted to see the yacht and spend an hour or 2 on it before returning to land to start our day.

The boys are obviously very comfortable on the yacht, and although it is small inside (by my living standards) it looked well organised.

 Unfortunately there was a good swell, and I started feeling squeamish and had to go on deck.  We had breakfast of coffee and freshly made scones.  Suddenly, while chatting on deck, Graeme decided to feed the fish.  Dale radioed the ferry, and they very kindly came and fetched us ahead of the scheduled time.
The Smyths sailed away the following day, heading for Ascension Island.

Grief

If I feel such terrible grief, how are my brother and sister-in-law coping?  Graeme skyped my brother, George, while I was with the Sandy Bay ladies this morning.  They spoke for about an hour.  I took over when I arrived home, and was able to chat for another 20 mins or so.  The awfulness of it all threatens to overwhelm. Only God can bring them any comfort.

My nephew Mark

Today Graeme phoned me at work to tell me the terrible news that my brother's youngest son, Mark, (early 30 yrs) had just committed suicide.  20 years ago their oldest son (22 yrs old) committed suicide, and now they have to go through the agony AGAIN!!  The only comfort we have is that we know that he loved God and belonged to Him.

Smyths for the day

The Smyths spent the day with us.  First they went to the 2 morning services with Graeme.

The congregation with the Smyths outside Sandy Bay chapel

The Williamsons, and the Smyths with the congregation outside Head O'Wain chapel

The Williamsons together with Charles Thomas and Enid Bowers

 Then we had lunch (I was so excited to have fresh spinach on the menu for lunch, but dear little Jack was not) and chatted until it was time for them to leave for the ferry to take them back to the Shining Star.

Smyths sight seeing

We took the Smyths sight seeing around the island this afternoon. Even though it was chilly and drizzling and the visibility was not that good, they enjoyed getting out of Jamestown and seeing a bit of the island's interior.

The Smyths and their Shining Star

A young family with 2 small boys left Cape Town 17 days ago on their yacht, the Shining Star, on their way to the Greek Islands where they plan to do missionary work.  They arrived at St Helena last night, and came ashore this morning.  They are Dale and Natalie Smyth and their 3 yr old Jack, and 18 mnth old Jamie.

We were prepared to have them stay with us for the week that they will be on island, but they felt that the boys would settle better at night if they slept in their own beds.  So the plan was to spend the day on the island, and then go back to sleep on the yacht at night.  They did bath the boys, though, and Natalie enjoyed washing her hair.

My new Blessing

One of the problems I face is keeping a huge manse clean and tidy.  I work a full day job during the day, and lead or attend Bible studies 4 times a week.  Then, when I try to do house work, I am sooo slow, because of my fitfully functioning legs and feet and lungs.  Getting home help is difficult.  But God finally answered my prayers and today Joyce from Frabies Cleaning Services started working for me.  She is going to spend 5 hours, once a week, and she does a marvelous job cleaning the ground floor and the stairs and bathroom.  Graeme usually tidies the kitchen every morning.  So now I am smiling.
Today, while Joyce (my Blessing) worked downstairs, Graeme assembled some shelves and I converted the untidy rooms upstairs into 2 guest rooms for the yachty family from Cape Town that we are expecting tomorrow.  By the evening, my feet were refusing to cooperate with the messages that my brain was sending them, but I had a big smile on my face.  The whole manse was clean and tidy!!

Supper with the Williamsons

We spent the afternoon and evening with the Williamsons and enjoyed getting to know them a bit better.  Graeme and Kyle both enjoy photography and history.  Genevieve and I chatted about our families and their  (the Williamsons) involvement on St Helena, and their lives back in the USA.  The boys joined in the conversations every so often.  An enjoyable evening.

Hannah and family

One of my main joys is little Hannah.  She is becoming quite a character.  Whenever she visits us, there are several games that we HAVE to play with her.  e.g. grandpa has to play "bump" where they softly bump their heads together in a form of greeting.  I have to climb the stairs, counting each step as we go, then play "peek a boo" on the landing.  She insists that I shake the tambourine when we sing "Jesus loves me", and we have to "dance" whenever there is music.  Such fun.

Here are a few photos

I bought Hannah some hair slides, and she insisted on wearing all the "pretties" in her hair at once.

Saying "How are you" to Clawd

Pretty curls

Pig tails

Pretty in pink

Unhappy girl

Warning Abi about taking her biscuit

Smiling for the camera

Arthur and daughter in front of Beckett family portrait

Arthur and Danny watching a DVD

"The girls" warming themselves in the winter sun