Bittersweet

Nick had an upsetting phonecall during the morning from one of our ladies, to say that her brother-in-law, who is well known to us, was in hospital with two days to live. He had internal bleeding and a swollen aorta, and had only been hospitalized last night. We dropped everything and left straight away for the hospital to see him. He was in much pain but was on morphine – there was nothing that could be done for him except to make him comfortable. It was heart-wrenching to see him like that and very emotional. Although his wife has been a regular at our services when she has been able to come, he was never interested – but God in his mercy granted Tony a deathbed salvation experience. He gave his life to the Lord last night.

After our hospital visit we had lunch from Sally’s at Castle Gardens, and although our hearts were heavy, we still enjoyed the beautiful day – it was a notably sunny and cloudless afternoon. Nick collected his ticket from shipping, so it’s really official now that he leaves on Tuesday and there’s absolutely no turning back! We went home first via Ed where we swapped lenses back – as much as I enjoyed his wide-angle, I was missing my little 50mm, and then via Steve and Maureen, as Nick needed to see Steve about a sermon. Nick has had all the lay-preachers prepare a sermon on justification which they will preach while Nick is away. Nick has read through all the sermons now and given feedback. We had a cup of tea and spent some time with them before coming home around 3.30, after which we still needed to finish school!

Aaron’s two front teeth are VERY loose now. He can get his bottom lip behind them so he looks much like a rabbit. They’ll be out any day.