First kill

Clawd follows me everywhere, and has found a way of getting into the school hall where we have Sunday school, by going through the alley between the manse and the chapel, and jumping through a broken chapel window. So when I unlocked the school room door, there he was, waiting for me...
As I was setting things up, one of the little girls that arrives early, pointed and shrieked ‘Cat has got a bird!’ He had caught his first little bird, and brought it in to show it off to me... I tried to get the bird away from him, but he just hid under some piled up pews in the chapel, then ran and triumphantly jumped through the broken window, carrying his prey in his mouth. (Not a pleasant way to start Sunday school).
As the lesson ended, he came back again and tried to tidy up his mess by eating most of the feathers that were lying in the front of the hall.
The regular children came again – 7 of them – and asked that we do NOT go into recess during the holidays. After the lesson, they came over to the manse for their usual ‘play with the pets’. This time, we sat in the back yard – they could run around and get rid of energy, and it was less stressful for me.

2nd anniversary of the rockfall

Well, the coffee morning has come and gone. Praise the Lord! Praise Him that all the tension is over, and praise Him for the wonderful success of the day. It just happened to be held on the 2nd anniversary of the rockfall.

Friday was spent collecting tables on loan and rearranging the hall to accommodate 90 seated for tea, as well as having 3 sale tables set up. Then there was the pricing and displaying of the sale items. This all finished around 8 pm. With aching feet, I hobbled home, and still had to tidy the kitchen and bake my donation towards the following morning’s eats. I settled on chocolate squares – the no bake kind that just set in the fridge.

Saturday morning, bright and early (around 7.30 am) the food started trickling in, and the ladies started arriving to help with the day’s activities. The ladies (and the odd man or two) just mugged in, and filled the gap wherever there was a job to be done. The community was also very generous with contributions towards the sale items, and some sent donations where they were unable to attend. There was a lovely spirit.
Most of the pot plants were donated by a non-baptist lady that attends lace classes with me – Sylvia Legg. Prudy brought the veggies from somebody's private garden.An example of lace work by Beatie Peters (a Baptist) from Sandy Bay. To give you an idea of their size, I fitted them onto the top of my lap top computer. After the tea drinking and snack eating was almost over, we announced that the last items on the tables were now half price. The ladies descended on the tables like locusts. One table had magazines and 2nd hand books for sale at 20p each (now 10p each). There was a pile of ‘You’ magazines, and one lonely ‘Huisgenoot’ (very familiar S African magazines). Michelle Yon – an ex S African – bought them all.
Then they wanted some entertainment... (I never knew that this was part of a traditional coffee morning. Apparently, they usually play bingo or something). Well, the Saints love to sing, so we twisted Graeme’s arm to get his cornet out, and with Vincent as the leader, and me rattling out the rythmn on my yellow tambourine, we had a sing-along out of our hymn books. Even professing non-Christians sang along.

Then came the clearing up, and rearranging of the hall back to a church-like look, with rows of chairs and a pulpit in the front etc. Some of us that arrived all spritely in the morning, limped out of the hall at about 1 pm that afternoon. But although our feet were aching, we all had smiles on our faces.

The final takings towards the rockfall relief fund was 600 pounds!

BWA coffee morning

Yesterday morning I came down the stairs to start my day, and was greeted by the delicious smell of hot bread. Graeme had ordered a bread making machine, and had set it so that a new loaf would be ready in time for breakfast. It was an aromatic breakfast - filtered coffee and freshly baked, HOT bread - complements of Graeme.

Later in the morning, Graeme answered the door bell, and I heard the voices of our friends, the Terrys, in the lounge. It was great to see them again, and catch up on news after 4 months while they were overseas.

I am gearing up for the BWA coffee morning and craft sale that is to be held on Saturday morning. The profits will go towards the restoration of the Jamestown chapel. All sorts of items have been trickling in to the manse to be added to the sale tables. (Beautiful lace work, crochet, book bags, toys, jam, clothes, toiletries, books and magazines, pot plants, manure, etc). Even non-Baptist folk who have heard about our venture, have contributed things towards the sale. At one stage I was nervous that we would not have enough to sell, but now I am receiving unexpected boxes of all sorts of odds and ends. There is still a lot of organising to do to get everyone coordinated on the day, tables to be borrowed and collected, the hall to be set up, prices to be put on all the sale items, etc. etc.

It is going to be interesting to see how the day turns out - a group of ladies (all with different opinions and tastes and ideas) trying to work together to hold a money raising event...

Arthur is getting stuck into English literature homework and assignments. He got 'B's for his first 2 assignments :) Scary maths only starts next month.

No Show

The lady that "drives" the Half Tree Hollow Bible study, Wendy Henry, left for a 3 month study course in Ireland. It seems that her absence affected the rest of the group. Arthur and I arrived at the hall a few minutes early. The hall was locked, so we waited outside in the cold and damp... 12 minutes after the meeting was due to start, we were still the only ones there. As the Saints tend to arrive early for their meetings, we took this as a sign that no one was going to come.
When we got home, instead of just putting our Bibles away, and licking our wounds, I asked Arthur to do the study that he had prepared, with me. It ended up being a most profitable time for me. Arthur has a different style of teaching - he prefers to get the person with him to be an active participant - to read the passage and discover the Bible truths together with him - rather than just being a passive listener. It is not easy to get islanders to participate in this way, but Arthur seems to have a way of drawing them out. Perhaps I can pick up a few tips from him.

Children and visitors

After Sunday School, the children insisted on visiting with our pets. Renee loves the fact that Abi is scared of strangers, and only wants to sit on my lap when they visit. (Renee is scared of dogs) So she stands next to me, stroking Abi, and telling her not to be "sceeared". When the children come over, they each just "do their own thing". Regan read to Renee for a bit, while Sunna was the only one that could get Clawd to play without biting her. The others enjoyed Cho. Here is a photo taken by one of the children.

In the afternnon, Graeme and I went to Tammy and Gavin Williams for lunch, while Arthur stayed behind to start a "one on one" study time with one of the Saints. Tammy kindly sent a plate of food home for Arthur.

Craft day

Very few children pitched up for Good News. There was a craft day exhibition, and it seems that any "event" causes normal attendance to drop.

I was asked to support the craft day by.... sitting next to the lace wonderwomen with my cushion, and showing that "even beginners" can produce something. Visitors "oohed" and "aahed" when they saw the speed that Violet and Wanda's mom worked at, and the work that they produced.

I got sympathetic nods and smiles.

Some of the work produced on the island that was on display.

Catching up

The past week has had its “challenges” – one of which was a problem with my computer. Thankfully, it is up and running again. Below is a “catch up” of news over the past week.

Thurs 29/07/2010

Had to hand wind 58 bobbins for my lace class this evening! My fingers went into cramp before I finished the task. I have been given a pattern for a circular piece of lace that will be attached to a small round cloth.

Fri 30/07/2010
I am beginning to feel like a Jamestown Saint! I recognised that 2 ladies entering a shop were not locals. (Not difficult, as they both had long blonde hair – blondes are a dime a dozen in SA, and go unnoticed in a crowd, but here they are the exception). It turned out that they were part of the crew of a VERY large yacht that had called in for the day.

Arthur went out for his usual Friday evening with a group of friends, and Graeme and I took ourselves off to Anne’s Place for some gruyper and chips. It used to be a sort of open air restaurant, with flags sown together as a canopy. Later on, a roof was erected over the eating area, but the flags were retained as a ceiling. They cater especially for the “yachties” that call on the island. We saw the 2 blondes eating with friends at a nearby table. Graeme got chatting with one of the men, and found out that they belonged to the huge yacht, and were leaving straight after their meal.
After our good meal, Graeme and I went to see whether we could spot the sails being hoisted as the big yacht sailed away in the dark. To our disappointment, it sailed away on engine power.

However, by cupping my eyes to shut out the street lights, I did see the most beautiful view of the milky way. The planet venus shone so big and bright that it left a reflection (like miniature moonlight) on the sea. The stars were so big and clear that it felt as if I could touch them. The last time I saw stars like that was when we lived in Kokstad, SA, about 25 years ago. Kokstad has a very high altitude, (making it closer to the stars than most other towns) and we lived in a farm cottage far away from pollution or city lights. The sky used to look like navy blue velvet onto which someone had thrown a handful of diamonds and diamond dust.

Sat 31/07/2010
Good News Club was disheartening today. One of the regular girls no longer attends because of a squabble with another girl. It just so happened that the lesson that I had prepared was on forgiveness. The children all agreed that they were happy to avail themselves of Christ’s forgiveness of their own wrong doings, but that there was no way that they were going to be “easy forgivers” when others wronged them... They simply could not understand that there was a condition in the words “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those that trespass against us”.

Although Tammy Williams put a lovely ad in the paper about the 2pm teens Bible study with Arthur, only 2 teens attended. They did, however, appear to be warming to Arthur, and were more relaxed with him than they were last week.

Where, on this planet, is a cabbage more expensive than a big, fat bacon steak? Only on St Helena. There was no price to be seen near the cabbages, so , thinking that they could not be that expensive, I took one to the till – only to see the cashier ringing up 2.74 pounds! The bacon steak that would be our protein for the evening came to about 2.10 pounds. Winter is drawing to an end, and I am definitely going to make an attempt at growing my own vegetables.

Tues 02/08/2010
We decided that we would give the Sandy Bay BWA ladies a break from my teaching, and that Arthur should address them instead. I am going through the gospel of Mark with them, and we have reached chapter 8 from where the story shows Christ as “setting his face towards Jerusalem” where he would be crucified. Arthur took us through Revelation chpt 4 & 5 that deal with John’s vision of Christ as “the Lamb upon the Throne”. It will good to keep the end glory in mind, while continuing with the story of the crucifixion next week.
Our evening Bible study was badly attended as folk went to a “requiem mass” for one of their friends that died recently. He was an Anglican. So, instead of our regular Bible study, we watched the DVD “The Passion of the Christ”. A movie that cannot leave one unmoved. Not entirely true to Scripture, but very thought provoking.

Thurs 05/08/2010
Had coffee with Elza and Bev for the last time before Elza goes away for 8 weeks – 6 of which will be in South Africa. Elza was all excited with anticipation, and I was jealous.
Asthma playing up a bit, and I was feeling homesick. I even longed to be on that l-o-n-g straight road between Warden and Villiers in the Free State... For those who do not know this stretch of road - it is straight as an arrow, with only flat farmland on either side for scenery, and is about 130 km long. Usually, a mind numbingly boring stretch to travel. But all I could think of was wide open spaces where one can see for miles and miles.

Then Arthur put a screen saver on his new computer of an elephant running on a wide open plain, with trees and mountains in the distance. Oh, how I longed for Africa!
Just before I got all weepy and sorry for myself, I managed to remember to “fix my eyes on Jesus” who willingly left the wide open spaces of heaven to come to live on earth for us. I wonder whether He ever felt “homesick” ?