Our Favourite Island
It was a good weekend. 19 of us ended up spending time out on “our favourite island”. We left Friday afternoon in unexpected sunshine after scooping the two weeks accumulation of rain-water out of the boat. I gave the kids rides on the board and “tube” as the sun set. It was beautiful… and cold. Everyone who had a ride came out shaking, but laughing. For most of these kids, it was the first time they’d ever tried something like this. It gave me a lot of pleasure seeing their excited eyes!
A number of us skipped out on the tents and just lay around the fire all night. I felt both old and young at the same time.
I had planned to have a time around the camp-fire where we shared the gospel with the kids, but it didn’t really come together. Next morning, though, we read 1 John 3 and again got to share the good news about Jesus. Most of the group came to church the next day which was encouraging and they are slowly opening up and sharing their hearts with us.
God had mercy on us in spite of my lack of foresight. Twice on trips to and from the island ferrying people, I made it with less than a cup of petrol left in the tank. Had we ran out, we would have been rowing for possibly an hour or more. I hate the feeling of knowing that I’m low on petrol and can’t do anything about it.
Yesterday, we attended the 90th birthday of a neighbour, Nadia Tikhonovna. WWII was declared when she was 15. Her boyfriend arranged for them to get married before he went off to war. They spent a few days together before he left and then later, was killed. Her second husband she married after he had returned from fighting – a badly wounded man who died from his wounds in his 40’s. She had two children, one of whom still lives with her. He can often be heard allowing his emotions free reign amongst the neighbourhood. It was nice that we could go and share the celebration with them, even if it was stretching. Thankfully Elle managed to control herself. She nearly “let fly” as she smelt the food on the table.
All in all, it was a good weekend.