Castries, St Lucia. Local market with fruit sellers.

After a two-year gap because of COVID-19, we visited St. Lucia from January 23 to February 20.

The requirements for this visit were governed by rules, rules, and more rules from the Canadian and St. Lucia governments! Full COVID tests were required to enter St. Lucia and on landing, after a good journey, there was inspection of everything we had submitted in the designated documents. We were thankful that everything was in good order.

We were in touch with all the members of the ecclesia within a couple days, including our new Sis. Rosie Fregis.

The first visit we made was to 89-year old Bro George Rock. He is doing very well although he is not able to leave home. The day of our visit was the 20^th anniversary of Bro George’s baptism. This baptism was the result of much work by brothers and sisters from Canada and the Caribbean in the 1990s. Bro Russ Dawes had had a lot to do with Bro George’s baptism and arranged for Bro George to come to Canada to get a prosthesis for his right leg. On this occasion, we did the readings and Sis Rosie Fregis came over after school.

On most days we did the Psalms reading with our 95-year old landlady, Doris Bailey and her principal carer, Debbie Couchman and part-time care, Celia. We also offered a series of classes on the Promises of God. In the series of about twelve classes, we started in Genesis and went through to Revelation. On a previous visit, Bro Mike LeDuke had given to them a copy of Minute Meditations. On the days we did not have a class, Debbie would read to Doris one of the meditations. They really enjoyed them.

Bro Gabriel Fontenelle is very grateful for the support he has received to rebuild the family home where his 92-year mother, unfortunately, caused a fire last year. We went to see the house (which is not far from the international airport, at the other end of the island from the CBMC apartment) and were impressed with the work that had been done. The front half has been completed and is being lived in and the back half has walls. The roof has to be built.

One of the ‘benefits’ of COVID has been the use of Zoom for ecclesial functions. This has greatly helped the ecclesia in St. Lucia because it enables them to join the Kitchener-Waterloo memorial service. They come to the CBMC apartment and using a laptop computer participate in the service, with the local brethren take part in readings and prayers.

We telephoned contacts and had discussions with as many as possible, mostly in the apartment but also in the lovely Serenity Gardens which is less than 100 metres from the apartment.

Our final week in a hotel overlapped with the visit of Bro Mike LeDuke. Although the week was a ‘vacation’, we did several things together, including visiting a couple of radio stations to explore the possibility of broadcasting the gospel message to listeners or advertising the “thisisyourbible.com” program. Bro Mike will continue to explore this possibility.