Aneityum Service
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sun 25 Oct 2015 23:37
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Aneityum Church
Service
  We had been given a variety of
times for Service this morning, so we were ashore just before nine. We would go
in at half past so we had time to look at the ruins of the original church and read the plaque.
 John Geddie
Memorial Church. A few people arrived and sat outside on the benches as
we approached they all stood to shake our hands in ‘welcome’. It was wonderful
to sit in the warm sun, looking across to the beach, Beez gently bobbing in the
bay, what could be better.
[John Geddie born in 1815, was a Scots-Canadian missionary who was known as "the father of Presbyterian missions in the South Seas." He pioneered missionary work in Vanuatu. He died on the island of Aneityum on the 14th of December 1872.]  J.J. [seen
with his hand behind his head] turned up in tears, looking really fed up, I told
him he shouldn’t have danced so hard last night and soon had him listening to a
fairground story. Bear did the noises of the horse, ghost, teddy bear and dragon
which soon had a gang around him in peals of laughter.
 Inside, men
sit on the right, ladies on the left.
   We were told that most of the village
had left early this morning by boat to go to the ‘other side’ – wherever that
may be. There was to be an ecumenical service and that meant the Pastor went
too. We would have an Elder lead us in prayer. The everlasting flower display. a memorial plaque in what looks like olde-world Bislama and todays words on the blackboard at the front.
The first half an hour was taken up
with singing, accompanied by two ladies on their guitars. One verse of
everything they knew in their repertoire and I enjoyed every minute of it. Then
the Elder stood and as he spoke no English we had to follow what we could. We
did understand that we were heartily welcomed, that we “had come on big ocean”
and he “prayed we have no big storms on ocean.” He then announced a
hymn.
 The lady in front of me left her seat
and joined me, we stood together and I hoped to make a good show in my singing.
Fortunately the tune was fairly simple and if you just sing the words without thinking of what they are, what they mean
or how to pronounce them – it goes really well. A man leaned back to share his
hymnbook with Bear and he did a sterling job in a tenor-cum-bass voice. I sat
down at the end of the hymn and a little girl came and gave me my own
hymnbook.
 The next
hymn, the lady in front of me found my place and off I went again. An
hour of prayers from the altar and sermon from the lectern was broken when the
Elder gathered all the children in front of him. No idea what he said but they
all sat rapt in his words. A lady stood to do a Bible reading Afterward
Bear wanted to know what does Yumi mean. No
clue we went to ask. You and Me, meaning all of us. Ooooooooohhhhhhh, now we got
it.
  Afterwards, I had to go back in to take a picture of
the Hymnbook I had used. I had to
suppress a giggle when I read the flysheet – note,
children and babies Tabu !!.
 The Lord’s My
Shepherd.
  The ‘bell’ that had given us our half
hour warning, fifteen minutes, ten and five were gustily belted out by a lady.
We have seen gas cylinders before but the first peels made everyone jump –
including us. Bear models said ‘bringer of the
faithful’. We also hear a few clangs at five in the morning, a thoughtful alarm
clock........... There is an actual bell, just to the right of the church,
clearly not loud enough,
methinks.
  The bell
was made for the people of Aneityum in Glasgow, 1910.
 On the wall of the church we had seen
a picture of the original Missionary House. We took
the dozen steps to see what is left of it today.
 After looking at the ruins we jumped into Baby Beez, set for an early lunch,
we had sought permission to visit Mystery Island and planned to spend the
afternoon there.
ALL IN ALL SO VERY PLEASED WE
ATTENDED CHURCH
LOVELY WELCOME AND WONDERFUL
SINGING |