Children's Service in Placencia

My morning started early this morning. 6:00am......okay that's when my alarm went off and I stayed in bed until 6:30 :) I made my way over to Placencia this morning back to St. John's Anglican Church. Caught the 7:30 boat over ther and was there by 7:45. I got to lead the Anglican School in a Morning Prayer service. It was awesome. They have a service every Wednesday morning and the church was packed. The children had to bring in extra chairs and benches to sit on. I think I counted 120 children in the church!!! And boy can they sing....there was clapping and tamborines! They sang 'This is the Day.' Half way through they took me by surprise when they started singing in Creole (broken English), they laughed at me, and I laughed too!! It was so wonderful. I'm hoping that over the next few weeks to have the children a lot more involved in the service. Hopefully they will act out the reading, read the prayers and pick the songs for the service. I'll be sure to take a picture of the church in the next couple of weeks, which will probably prove to be more packed as some of the children were away on a field trip!!

After the service I took a walk over to Omar's Resturaunt to have a little fresh Orange Juice and Breakfast. If you are ever in Placencia stop by Omar's and tell him that the Deacon from Independence sent you :) I sat and listened to the waves of the ocean and took some time to pray and reflect on my last couple of days. Very refreshing. However my reflecting and prayer time took a little longer than I had anticipated and I ended up missing the 10am boat back to Mango Creek....and the next one didn't leave until 12:30. It was getting hot so I decided to sit at the gas station in the shade and wait the 2 hours for the next boat. I was delightfully surprised when a guy in his own boat pulled up and said to me, "You going to Independence?" (That's the other name for Mango Creek) I said yeah, and he told me to wait, he had to go pick someone up and he would come back and take me across the peninsula. I wasn't sure what to do.....I thought about leaving, but I was tired from the heat....... so I waited. He came back, and told me to hop in. Turns out he's a taxi driver in Independence and he was in Placencia picking something. So there you go, I hitch-hiked my way across the penisula this morning :)

Came back to Mango Creek, and went over to IPS where the children were to perform their poems and songs for the Festival of the Arts coming up. I had no idea it had to pass the teachers judgement. I was so nervous for them. Both of the classes that I have been working with both did extremely well. I was so proud of them. I then sat in with the teachers and watched all of the other children perform their acts. Lots of dancing....people here love to dance. And it turns out that the Festival is a competition between schools in the Stann Creek District. So the next week and a bit will be spent working on our performances that will be adjudicated at the Festival at the end of the month.

This evening I'm getting together with some of the membrs of the congregation to have a bible study. Last week was our first one and it was really great!! I have a feeling tonight is going to be just as wonderful!!!

love,
Chelsy