Festival de Páscoa

Easter was well worth the wait. It seems to be the pinnacle in the church's calendar here (and would be worthy of such a title). As such the technical folks (who are also the musical folks, directors, writers of songs........) went all out. We even had microphones for the drum kit, although only used three of them as we ran out of cables!

By the night before Easter, the church had been transformed for the young people's drama. By transformed I mean that all the rails were unscrewed, new curtains and drapes put up, heavy staging brought in from the rain, etc., etc... The church was overflowing, many people became Christians and it was a wonderful evening for which I was operating the sound desk.

I stayed behind after the drama to help turn the church back to normal for Easter morning, which involved all the re-ordering plus re-laying lots of cables. Then it was up early for the women's choir rehearsal at 7:30 (I was playing the piano for their rendition of 'Luz do Mundo'/'Light of the World'). I found somewhere to sit on the stage near the drumkit for the 8 o'clock service, which saw the church (as for most of the weekend) packed to overflowing.

The day progressed with much hard graft. Almost the whole day was spent at the church as it was transformed yet again into a choral stage worthy of any Sister Act movie.

Many colleagues and friends have said how much they were blessed by the evening, and they weren't even as privileged as I to be playing in the band. I'm not sure that words can adequately describe our evening. Thankfully, they won't have to, as I set up my recording equipment and the results were very good. Quite a relief to the guys on the sound desk, as they came to me at the end to say that their minidisc recorder hadn't worked. Tom was also very good with his camera: I kept seeing him creeping down the very narrow aisle to get more shots (very narrow because extra chairs had been put out ... I've heard an estimate that at least 1500 people were there). In addition, there was a guy with a fairly professional looking video/film camera who was roaming around the stage, so I'll see if we can get hands on a copy of that to bring home. I think it'll be in fair demand.

There was a slightly sourer note to part of the day, not that I let it affect the evening's proceedings. Heading home at about 1645 in order to get changed, I was full of the joys of the rainy season. Approaching the gate to our wee compound, I noticed one of the local dogs (something like an Alsation) padding over placidly so he would reach the gate at the same time as me. Aha, I thought to myself, he wants to get in. Dogs sometimes slip in when we open the gate - not really a huge issue, though it wasn't my plan to let him in. However, I didn't need to get far enough to think about that. As I approached the gate and prepared to push it open, some yappy little ball of fluff started, well, yapping excitedly at me. This in turn got the Alsation angry, and what better way to deal with stress than to growl and sink your teeth into the white man's leg? After getting my limb free from his jaws, I made my way into the flat. Needless to say, he didn't follow me through the gate, though I can't say that I stayed to make sure it was shut.

My clothes for the festival were traditional African dress, made of nice cream floaty material. The label said XXL and to be honest when I received it was more like a dress than anything else. So on Sexta-Feira Santa (Good Friday), I popped over to Janet's house (a Canadian family) and she made it Dave-size for me, with impressive speed.

As for the leg, my biggest worry was not rabies, but that blood would seep through onto my nice outfit. Praise the Lord, it's still cream. No real damage done, apart from some bruising and a dog's mouth-shaped cut. It wasn't deep, though, and no signs of rabies have manifested themselves. The medical opinion (although I didn't bother Steve with it) was that it's not deep enough to be a puncture wound, and as we've seen the dog around before and it's not showing any real signs of rabies, all is wonderful in the world.

No rest either on Monday morning as I had to be up early-ish as one of the congregation who hosts a local radio program wanted my recording so she could play some of it on the province's radio station. I had already planned to take the day off as rest after Easter, and the someone came round on Tuesday morning to say there was something going on at the hospital so I didn't have to teach then either. With the sun shining brightly, it was a nice restful start to the week, which I needed.

We head to Namibia on Saturday. Please pray that God would make his will clear, whatever that may be. Most people worry about the visa process; I'm just looking forward to having another tale to tell ...

It's Tom's birthday next week while we are in Namibia. As it happens, his sister Hannah also has a birthday next week, her 21st as well. She starts radiotherapy on Saturday and she'll be in isolation for that, so do pray for her, and for Tom.

I'm not sure whether I will have the opportunity to send anything from Namibia, but be assured that you will be in my thoughts and prayers.

I wish you a joyous Easter !!

I find it difficult to believe that the weekend of Easter is almost upon us - Easter Sunday marks the exact half-way point of the time which Tom and I will spend in Angola, and our debrief at Wetheringsett starts in less than 3 months. Scary.

At church there are evening services every night this week, plus the festival itself. I am hoping that the folks I have told you about before whom I met in the street will come. Please pray for Avelino especially, he's in a wheelchair and seems really interested in coming along to some of the services.

I had a few days off last week after my symptoms worsened to include mild fever, headaches, coughs, runny nose, etc., etc. Before you wonder, I don't think it's malaria! The symptoms aren't consistent enough. I've been well looked after. Jerry had his stethescope out on the first Saturday morning, and I've been constantly surrounded by doctors and medical students ever since. All that's left now is a lingering cough.

Last Sunday afternoon we were invited to the house of Marinho, who's the national director of SOS. SOS works in over 100 countries running childrens' villages for abandoned kids as well as those without parents (see http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/cgi-bin/sos/jsp/wherewehelp.do?ct=13211&lang=en&nav=2.3&site=ZZ). After Easter I MAY have a little free time in my week, and Marinho has said that if I have the opportunity to do any work with the children, that'd be cool.

You may be pleased to know that my diet has improved - from just bread and water for breakfast to crunchy granola with yoghurt! Very nice! We (Jerry) made it on Saturday. Only thing is that it ran out this morning. Hmmm ... back to the rolls, but Tom and I will be buying the ingredients during our forthcoming trip to Namibia.

I feel spoiled - I've had emails from almost every other member of the GAP team to read, which has left me with little time to write this time. I feel bad about that since I will be away for a week or so. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to send something from Namibia, perhaps not.

Thank you for all your prayers - for Tom and me, for the other GAP folks, for our familes and friends at home, and for those people we have met since we arrived in Angola. Please pray for Tom and me that we may use our time in Namibia not only for refreshment, but for reflection too so that God may clearly show us his plan for our remaining time in Angola.

For health and strength and daily food

After living in Edison's glorious electric light for two weeks, I thought yesterday that we had been plunged back into perpetual darkness. No power all day, and someone smelt burning, so Brent (MAF) came round and said the wire connecting us to the main was burnt. I thought we would disappear into a bureaucratic maze to get it fixed, but we all got up this morning to working switches and things. It turned out someone had come really early this morning to fix it - very impressive!

Also impressive - I received a letter from the UK just over a week after it had been written. Sadly, I know from your EMAILs that one or two letters posted three or four weeks ago and which I am looking forward to receiving are still in transit.

Some points for prayer.

First, health - I've been feeling under the weather the past couple of days: tiredness, cough, sore throat - how I always feel as I'm burning out, which seems a little strange as I do get time to relax here. I was very thirsty walking down to send this, so I bought a Coke in the street. I discovered it had something floating in it. It doesn't any more, so no prizes for guessing where the floaty bit went ...

Second, strength - Becky got her documents back on Wednesday, and now I will quite often chat to the policemen as I walk past them. I always get a salute - nice. Perhaps an open door? Perhaps. A string of EMAILs from GAP team members around the world reminds me that we are almost half way through our time here. Tom and I have built relationships with others. Pray with me that these relationships will be or become strong enough that God can use them as He wants in the second half of our stay.

Third, daily food - the rains have arrived and the reservoirs are filling. Dad tells me that the weather forecast for Lubango makes interesting reading - one night had 80mm (over three inches) of rainfall predicted three days ahead, although the prediction had fallen to a mere (!) 60mm by the time the day arrived. But the rains have arrived too late for much of this harvest. Already I have the impression that food prices are starting to move upwards in the city, and not very far from the city there are signs of hunger.

Snippets from that string of EMAILs from around the world:

• Hannah and Connie seem to have established particularly strong relationships with teaching colleagues and pupils alike - although how they have found the energy to maintain the latter astounds me; seems to be open house even after school is officially over for the day, colouring, playing "ring-a-roses" or marching around the place
  
• news from Helen and Zara - they have just finished helping with a children's club which went extremely well and they too are growing relationships both with younger children and people their own age
• Avril and Philippa are hoping to borrow an apartment for a month and are making plans to invite lots of people round for meals - always easier to chat over food
  

so much to give thanks for!