Carols Service

The weather today was different from the usual hot. We had some cloud and wind, and then it even drizzled in the afternoon, and this evening it cleared up for the Carols Service outdoors, but was still a little windy. Pleasant to be outside in a jersey though. This morning we mucked around at home, I did a bit of weeding, Nick rested and played with the boys and went over his sermon. Church was at 14h30, and it was a communion service. Very good, although there were less people than we were expecting. The boys weren’t too good in church and had to have a smack straight after the service before tea. Then tea and cakes and fellowship, then the cleanup afterwards took us to about 17h00 or so. Mucked about a bit more, practiced our item, got everyone and everything ready and headed off to the courtroom steps. A lot of people turned up for the service, and it was recorded by Radio St Helena and broadcast live. The Salvation Army Band was very good with all their brass and other instruments, there were items by various choirs, and a few carols for all to sing, and then Nick and my item which was a duet with both guitars. It went well, no mistakes. Nick preached his five-minute gospel message, very clearly, then the Bishop gave some concluding remarks, more carols, prayers and blessings and so forth. Not a bad evening, but it was sad that so many people turned up and sang and appeared to be participating, even in the choir items and band, who probably don’t have any idea what the gospel is all about. It was an excellent opportunity for Nick to share though, but people think that they are religious if they sing carols once a year and that’s that, no need for anything else. Well, other than that it was a lovely evening.

Last night we went to town as planned, and that was most enjoyable. The shops were very busy, and there seemed to be some sort of party going on somewhere because most of the Saints were very smartly dressed. Got all our Christmas shopping done in record time, wandered about a bit, then headed home at 20h30. S&M stayed on for a little while chatting, then left about an hour later.

This morning early when we were still all in bed, but the boys were awake, we overhead Caleb teaching Aaron in this manner: “Do you remember the Ten Commandments? You must not covet.” I don’t know what of Caleb’s Aaron was wanting, but he certainly had a good biblical teaching as to why he shouldn’t want it. We were impressed that Caleb remembered it though because we covered the 10 C’s in family devotions shortly after arriving here.