Inauguration: We are open!

Who would have thought our dark orange painted building would have scrubbed up so well - we were so happy to throw it open for the official inauguration and welcome about 68 people for a buffet and church service to officially mark the start of the mnistry here. I slighly photo-bombed the photo with my sunglasses as Marin our first member to get baptised and our oldest local woman cut the tape. Happy Days! (To be fair I may be second oldest...)

Burns Night

Burns night came late... "Would some power the giftie gie us tae see wursaels as otherssee us.." Even a torch would have been a help as in January we had no power in the new building! However by March we had enough to boil both tatties and calabaza (in the absence of neeps) It was good but in true Burns style we burned the mince. The cook blamed all the posing for photos "wearing something tartan" i.e. a napkin! There is a video of the ceilidh but it won´t be shown anytime soon!

Read me that again?

Pruning time..

So pruning time is here as "The Cooncil" send men oot on the first dry day in weeks to lop the branches off the trees on the road to the cemetry.  When they grow back they will form a green canopy meeting in the middle to give shade in the summer, even though they look odd and ugly at the moment. Reminds me of John 15 and the good news is the bits that get cut off are carted away and dealt with!

Me faither is the gaerd'ner

His son´s the rightfast vine.

He cares aboot the hairst tae come, 

He's luckan fur new wine.

So if he taks his gully

Tae hack aboot thee sheuts..

Cheust nivver heed

Thoo´ll no be deid

If in Him thoo haes thee reuts.

Aqui estamos para Ti.. (We are here for You)

So here is our first evening in the new place, lots of things to learn but we had a good time. Thanks to everyone who prayed we would get the power on. It isn´t enough to boil 2 kettles at the same time but as they say here poco a poco (bit by bit). Here is a wee soundbite for you all, be glad I wasn´t singing into the camera as is my wont!

YMPA!

OK, so we are not the Village People really but there are similarities and we all live in the village! We though the young men´s painting association about covered it. It certainly covered the walls of our new church premises, at least twice! Honestly not sure why Les was in a pair of flip flops but there you go - at least he wasn´t in an indian headress!

Contract.

At last we are contracted workers! It has been 10 years since I worked to a contract and even longer for Les (15 years at least!) At the weekend we signed up with Buenas Noticias Chuch in Lugo over 100km away but to work with them at planting a church here in Ribadeo. Those sharp eyed of you will notice the books about CT Studd and Operation World on the bookshelves. Nice! (Should point out that the contract doesn´t have a bottom line, there is no salary involved!)