Sierra Leone Days 3 and 4 

Following the excitment of the wedding on Friday, Saturday was a much quieter day.We had nothing planned in our itinerary so we just relaxed around the hotel. That meant some swimming in the pool and chilling out which was lovely. For me it also meant some sermon preparation ahead of the Sunday service.

The only real excitment occured when Paul got into bed and the entire thing collapsed! I must emphasise that this was nothing to do with Paul and much more about the quality of the bed!

Sunday was a very full day. Sadly Paul was laid low with the first tummy upset of the trip (a quite common occurance on these visits). He had to spend the day in our room. For the rest of us we set off early for Regent Road Baptist Church. We arrived there about 9am and joined in with the pre service Bible study. Then at 10.00am the service got started and was the usual mix of hymns, african music, talks, prayers, choir presentations and offerings. It also contained the dedication of Abs and Mabels baby Isaac who is very cute! We loved it all! I preached and we all tried to dance during the African singspiration slot, much to the amusement of the Sierra Leoneans! All of which made for a pretty sweaty experience given that it was over 30 degrees and I was wearing my suit!

I always love seeing the congregation at the church. Having come now five times, we know many of the people in the church and it was great to see familiar faces and old friends. We get such a warm welcome it is lovely. The service lasted about two and a half hours and then we stayed behind to say hello to everyone.

Then we headed back to the hotel for a late lunch followed by a visit to Abs' house and the chance to spend lots more time with Isaac which was great. Then we were off to Pastor Tannie's house as he and his wife Yamade had invited us over to dinner. It was a great evening with some wonderful local food, great conversation and plenty of laughter. We were able to present Pastor Tannie with a book of devotions by Oswald Chambers and speak fond words to one another about the partnership between our two churches.

We got back to find that Paul was feeling better although still not quite right. And would you believe it his bed had been fixed during the day. Sadly just as we were about to turn in for the night it collapsed again!

Tomorrow we are off for lots of meetings in the city followed by a Revival meeting at the church in the evening.

God bless
Chris