UPDATE LATE 2009-EARLY 2010

START ON GRAZETTES BUILDING
In July 2009 work started in earnest on the building project at Grazettes. Since then we have had two teams from the United States that came and helped us. The first was from the Bright Christian Church in Bright, Indiana who came in the end of July. They helped to lay out the batter boards and did a lot of steel bending.
In October a team also came from the Brazil Christian Church in Brazil, Indiana. They helped with the pouring of the floor in the Sunday School area and the building of the walls in that area.

Since that time we have poured the first floor for half of the building. Our aim is to complete the Sunday school area which will also have bathrooms and a kitchenette so that we can use that area for worship. We have to dismantle the old building which we will sell to help with funds. This will allow the excavating contractors to complete their work in the foundation area.

GOOD CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEARS..
We had two lovely and well attended Christmas programs at Six Roads and Grazettes. The combined adult choirs did a musical entitled “Christmas Mosaic” while the children had separate choirs and they did signs of Christmas. Along with our Christmas morning services at 5.00 and 6.30 a.m. it made for a busy but enjoyable Christmas.
GRAZETTES RETREAT
The Grazettes church had their annual Church Retreat at the Six Roads Fellowship Hall on January 21 which is a holiday here in Barbados. The theme of the retreat was “I am Available-Use Me!” and we had over 30 out for the occasion.
We had three main workshops which were conducted by the Sunday School, the Youth Group and the Women’s Fellowship. The Topics were “This is my Church”, “These are my People” and “I’ll do what it Takes”.
We also had another short workshop called “How Does it Look?” addressing some of the annoying distractions that impact negatively on the visitors who come to church.
It was a good day and everyone had a good time.
UNITED SERVICE
Our first United Service for the year came off on February 7 at Six Roads. We had a good crowd (near 140) out for morning service. The afternoon activies took the form of a Bible Bowl competition on Acts chapters 1-20. It was keenly contested but the Six Roads team emerged winners.
FRACTURED SHOULDER
The afternoon before the United service I was coming up an incline from the new church construction area to the old church building at Grazettes when I fell and went down quite hard on my shoulder and immediately I realized that I had done some damage. After coming home and going to a medical clinic my worst fears were realized. The X-ray revealed that I had a fractured shoulder. It was shattered in 4 places but it was still in place. So after I visited the orthopedist on the Tuesday they said that it would not be beneficial to put on a cast but just to keep it in a sling for a few weeks and hope it heals properly. I am to go back to the orthopedist next week(early March) and get another X-ray to see if it is healing properly.

It has really changed my lifestyle. Now Wendy has to drive me around and I now realize how difficult it is to have only one hand functional. It was very painful at first but the pain is decreasing as the healing progresses.