Enforced Rest

Thursday on the VHW course saw the students working on posters or pamphlets to convey information on some common ailments: worms, scabies and impetigo. There are some talented artists among the group.

Friday was not a great day - Martyn came down with diarrhoea during the night so we didn't get much sleep. Also we got a message from our daughters in NZ that our ancient cat Truffle had taken a bad turn during the night and had to be put down. Neither of us went to work that day, we just hung out at the house, low in energy and in spirit. We were very sad for our daughters having to deal with burying Truffle and not being able to be there with them.

Saturday brought some inprovement but we still didn't go out anywhere, just played games and rested. There was a bit more breeze, but we still enjoyed a swim to reduce body temperature for a while.

Sometime during the night, Martyn felt he was really well again - praise God. Earlier in the week, Pastor Dave had commented that they had no worship leader for the Sunday service this week, so I (Annette) foolishly volunteered to stand in. I was praying hard that I would not catch the bug from Martyn and be unable to do this. I am very grateful I haven't caught it so far. 

The back (or front?) of the tent church is formed by a shipping container with a large flap cut in the side, which has to be lowered down to form part of the chancel or stage platform each time there is a service. There is a lot of work to do to set up the the speakers and all their cables, music stands, instruments

and two large projector screens.

From L - R: Julie Wood on keyboard, Anna Harris, Annette, Andy Chapman on drums. I've only just met Andy, but it was a delight to play and sing again with Julie and Anna who I had joined with on our previous times in Port Vila.

Because the tent has no sides, there is usually quite a strong breeze to contend with, hence the clothespegs to prevent the music from flapping about or flying away. 😅

During the service, Martyn gave a short talk on the community aspect of ICC and what it means to him.

Afterwards, all the gear has to be packed back into the container, and the side/stage platform manually pulled back up and locked. Thank the Lord for faithful workers to do these tasks every week so that many people can worship in the tent.