Scilla Brown is a member of St Andrew’s whose work as an optometrist takes her to the islands of the South Atlantic for many weeks each year. Scilla writes:
“It is a great privilege to work on the islands of the South Atlantic but it is also a huge challenge. The provision of specialist healthcare services in such isolated and small communities often takes one far outside one’s professional comfort zone and on a personal level there are also circumstances that remind me time and again that God alone is my strength and shield, however it is a great joy to be able to share in the life of the church during my visits to the various islands.
It is hard to think of somewhere so different from our building in Goldsworth Park as the tiny chapels scattered around the island of St Helena where the congregation may number only a handful of people and the style of worship may be hymns from Sankey’s Hymnbook that I remember from childhood or Country and Western Blue Grass music. This year there will be a material reminder that we are all members of the same church as I share in worship on St Helena; St Andrew’s has sent the two hymn number boards that once hung at the front of our worship area to the island and these now hang in the chapels at Head’ O’ Wain in the west and at Sandy Bay in the south of the island.
On behalf of my Saint friends, a big thank you for your generosity.
Please continue to pray for the future development of the island, that one day it may be possible resolve the issues around “wind shear” on the runway and to use the newly built airport for general access to the island. Please also pray for rain, that the water supply might be maintained throughout the island for general consumption and for the agriculture and horticulture activities. There has been very little rainfall for more than a year now, may be due to the changing El Nino and La Nina weather cycles that have adversely affected mainland southern Africa too.
Scilla”
The photograph shows Vilma March and Stedson Peters in the chapel at Head ’O ’Wain