Yesterday was Old Person’s Day on the island. I’ve never heard of this being celebrated before, but on the island everything can become cause for celebration. There were no parades as one might expect for such an occasion. Perhaps rolling people in wheelchairs down the main road wouldn’t be appropriate J We received an invitation to join in for tea at the Haven, one of the old age homes, for yesterday afternoon. This was generally aimed at our church, so all interested met at the Manse at 3 pm, then we walked the 200m to the Haven and squashed into the lounge. I don’t know how the 10 or so clients who hadn’t been taken out for the day felt about our presence, since we far outnumbered them, and we were a noisy bunch, taking over their quiet Sunday afternoon. Nick took his guitar along, so we had a sing-song which went down well, although the visitors sang more lustily than the clients! I think though that they enjoyed it, and it has certainly opened doors for future visits. Nick is very much burdened about the fact that there is no ministry to the seniors, and although he doesn’t want to run one himself, he is keen to get something started and hand it over. As for me, I’d like to go back in a less ministry-oriented capacity, to take the boys and visit one-on-one with some of the elderly. Of course the ultimate aim would be to preach the gospel, but also simply to show compassionate to the lonely. The staff are very good, and welcome visitors for their clients.
Yesterday was also the big event of another nephew being born - congratulations to Nick’s sister on the birth of Jack Nicholas Main!
On Saturday it was Good News Club, and then we didn’t have anything needing doing for the rest of the day, so I packed a picnic lunch and we took it to Ruperts. That was fun, but very windy (see photo). Caleb and Nick clambered over rocks, and Caleb saw a dead crab. Aaron enjoyed climbing up on a crane and sitting in the drivers’ seat. We had a DVD for the boys for the afternoon which we watched together.
Today was the first day of our holiday, so I had a present in the boys’ room waiting for them. It was a train set with a wind-up train that goes along the track. Quite nice, but Caleb broke one of the tracks within about 20 minutes. Oh well. Nick has taken the day off today so we can spend the day together. This morning then, we got an early start and headed off to Warrens’ at 9 am, stopping for petrol on the way. Warrens’ is having a big pre-Christmas sale on toys, clothing and gifts, starting today, so we thought it worthwhile having a look. Unfortunately it was mostly their horrible stuff that hasn’t sold for good reason, but we got a very nice bright yellow Adidas top for Nick for £2, and a few items of clothing for the boys, including pyjamas for £1 each. All I got was socks. Nothing else to do in town after that, so we came home for coffee and cake, and then Nick arranged to do a visitation out in Bluehill, which we all did together. After our visit we had a picnic lunch at Plantation House, but it was windy and cold so we didn’t stay long. Always nice to be out as a family though!
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