Funeral Service

The combined and united service yesterday was very nice; the church was full – all except about one pew were occupied, with both our people and a lot of Salvation Army members. They had their brass band set up in the front, and they did all the music for the worship. The SAs enjoy clapping along, and they did a 1-2-3 rhythm on some songs with clapping and feet tapping…stomp clap clap, stomp clap clap. I enjoyed it. Nick preached a non-series message on “Bracing yourself for Change”. He used Deuteronomy 8 as his text, preaching on the dependence on God’s word, God’s Fatherly Hand, and the blessings that He bestows. The main thing I guess was that God uses trials in our lives to test and humble us.

It was Ida’s funeral today, a 90-year-old Christian lady who was a Baptist when she could attend church. Apparently it’s more or less Saint tradition to start the proceedings at the morgue, where close family and friends can view the body for the last time. A prayer is said and a scripture read, and then the coffin is driven to the chapel, in this case the Jamestown Baptist Chapel. In the meantime, everyone else has started seating themselves in the chapel, so that when the coffin and other mourners arrive, everyone is already in and seated (to stand when the coffin is carried in). It was quite emotional seeing it coming in, with Nick slowly leading the procession, and Vincent and Vilma behind the coffin and many more following. The church was absolutely packed. Nick’s message was short, and completely gospel. He used a text from Ecclesiastes:
Eccles. 7:2 (ESV)
It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of all mankind,
and the living will lay it to heart.
From this he preached the gospel, because a funeral is a time to consider one’s end. After the chapel service, the mourners proceeded to the graveyard (Knollcombes Baptist Cemetery), for the committal. I took the boys home straight after the chapel, as we didn’t think it would be too appropriate for them to run around over old tombs as they are wont to do.

Caleb washed the dishes for me again this morning (he begged me to let him wash them; how can I dampen such enthusiasm?). Part of the school activity was to make music with kitchen utensils. So I set out four pots on the floor and gave them four utensils and left them banging away while I went upstairs to do the hymn sheet for the funeral. Next thing we know they’ve taken out ALL the utensils as well as the pot lids and had a joyful clatter going. They got tired of the noise after a while, so Caleb constructed a machine from the pots, carefully interlacing the utensils and pot handles. A very intricate arrangement of metal, plastic and wood was the result.

A strange thing happened on my walk today. I went the usual route, up the mountain and then onto Jacob’s Ladder, and I was probably just past halfway going up, when a fist-sized rock came hurtling down the steps. I didn’t see where the trajectory started, but I think a bird must have dislodged it from the mountain on the right side, and it came down and bounced onto the steps, bouncing its way towards me and then on down to the bottom. All I could do was stare at it as it came closer, vaguely wondering how I could get out of the way and wondering if it would be quite sore if it hit me. Well, it didn’t hit me, but missed fairly closely. I was a bit unnerved, and the thought even occurred to me that someone was hiding behind a rock and had thrown this one down for some reason. I don’t think that’s the case though, more likely that you can take the girl out of South Africa but not South Africa out of the girl!