What a start to the New Year!

I woke up late on New Year's morning to discover that a very good Catholic journalist friend of 35 years standing had suddenly died of a heart attack during the night. Liz broke the news to me gently, as only she can, over breakfast. It was a terrible shock. That evening we were at the wake which was held in the Town Hall as he had been a Town Councillor many years back. The following morning (Saturday, 2nd) we were back at the Town Hall for the funeral where the family had asked me to speak. It was very moving and a tremendous opportunity. José Augusto's death left me reeling a bit. It takes a bit of coming to terms with.

The rest of Saturday I spent preparing my sermon for the Sunday night service. I made it, but it wasn't easy with a somewhat fuzzy head. However praise God He blessed mightily in the service last night. We received another 3 into fellowship.

Early on Sunday morning I had a walk alone at Green Pastures which is where I always go to cool my mind down when things are tough. My camera had a bit of a glitch so I sat under a tree to sort it and whilst there heard an unual bird call. It was the White Woodpecker (Melanerpes candidus) which I had never seen there before, having only picked it up once on the automatic camera. So an unusual species for Green Pastures. Great stuff.

Today I have done a lot of work on the Carnival Camp preparations. I have also done some more work on our environmental campaign to save Jabre Peak. If you haven't signed our petition and care about God's creation then please do so at http://chn.ge/1Hto8n4 All you have to do is put your name and email address. Every signature helps!