Gisborne 2016

This is our first trip to Gisborne this year and possible our last. We arrived about 8pm and went straight to Elder and Sister Belliston’s home. We had a nice little chat but I enjoyed watching an Australian cooking show. This is a good way to de-stress after a stressful day. Not that I found this day stressful, I’m just saying.

Friday morning we were up nice and early and at the Elder flat by 9. The elders have now moved into a more suitable area. They were meant to be there at 9 with their key but they didn’t turn up until about 9.30 and they had forgotten the key! Never mind but I did make them work hard after that. I must admit that most of the contents of the house had been taken out and it was not too bad. Just a little bad, for missionaries that is. They did a very good job of following instructions and cleaning up. Just to clarify not all of these Elders lived in this flat they were just good enough to come along and help out.

We went to the Warehouse shop to buy a dustbin for the Elders and then dropped it off at their flat. They wanted to show us how smart the new duvet looked on their bed. We were also offered some of their delicious American biscuits, obviously I said yes otherwise how would I know that they were delicious. Because they worked so hard we treated them to lunch not that they were expecting it. In fact one of the missionaries wanted to treat us so he bought us a real ice cream milkshake from Carl’s Jr. Need I say more.

After this big meal we decided that we would fast until tomorrow lunch time. That was from Friday to Saturday instead of Saturday until Sunday. One of the reasons was that we would be travelling home on Sunday and you can get a little heady travelling such a long way with nothing to eat. Ours was another special fast. I will just to explain why we fast for some of you who do not know. The first Sunday in every month we call Fast Sunday. We either do not eat for 2 meals or fast for 24 hours. There may be reasons sometimes why you cannot fast, medical or something but generally the whole church fast on this day. The money that you save from not eating we put into a fast offering fund. This money is used to feed the poor and needy throughout the world as well as members in our church. We are encouraged to donate a generous fast offering. Meanwhile while we are fasting we can pray for a specific purpose. In fact it is said that “fasting without prayer is just going without food.”

Our special fast this month was for a little girl and her family, she is going for a serious operation tomorrow. Also a friend is battling cancer and we are joining our church members in England who fasted last week for him. We always hope for a miraculous result even if we don’t get the answers we are hoping for we are given the strength to cope with whatever.