With your help, this news sheet will be a source of information giving fuller publicity to activities in the parish. Please let us know of future programmes so that others may join in. Everyone should be aware of what we can achieve together.

April Helen Kennard & Henry Lacey

February: Marie Robinson

March: Joanna Elek

This year there are 8 First Communion children and they have already started their preparation classes. The children are: Beth Sharp, Bethany O’Brien, Molly Cook, Dominic Lovegrove-Saville, Lucia Keifer, Thomas Barrat, Sophie Watts and Charlotte Connolly.

First Communion will take place on Saturday 2^nd July at 11;00am. It is of course, preceded by the Sacrament of Reconciliation on Saturday 7^th May at 11.30am. There will be an opportunity for all the children’s families to take part in these very special days. The Parish are warmly invited to join in these celebrations. (Des O’Brien)

O dear! That means I haven’t done it yet. No sitting back, no retirement, although that is what I ‘d like. The next opportunity to back the poor countries will be at Gleneagles, Scotland on July 2^nd when the Prime Minister is host and Chairman at the G8 Summit of World Leaders. Great Britain has a very powerful influence on world affairs this year. So,-- SHALL WE GO AND DEMONSTRATE THERE? Shall we take a coach? Have we enough support for the venture? If anyone reading this feels they’d like to make their voice heard and would join the expedition just phone me, Mary 712417 and register your support.

This social highlight of the All Saints year proved to be a sell out occasion. It took place in an unlikely venue, the URC Church. A further step in ecumenism perhaps? Why nomadic? This event seems to move round the area and the calendar year by year. Do we upset and the locals causing the move from golf club to golf club, church hall to church hall, not forgetting May to April and now March. Where and when will it be in 2006? Anyone taking bets.
Approach was made to the URC with some trepidation; was it to be "light" drinking? All turned out well, the wine flowed freely and the flock duly relaxed to enjoy a delicious meal. Always interesting to dwell on how the table arrangements are made, certain folk from the east end of Old Oxted seem to have the pull to be very exclusive.
The evening raced on, tables were cleared and the dancing (where does the DJ get that suntan?) got going. Then time for the raffle and the 200 club draw. Good to see new joiners benefiting so early from their investment.  All too soon it was the last half hour of dancing and curfew arrived at 11.30pm to the strains of Frank Sinatra and "My Way"; which probably sums up the dancing styles.
All hands set to with the conversion of the venue back to a church. All completed at a cracking pace in about half an hour. What can we expect in 2006? A dress-down-bring-your-own affair perhaps? Whatever, we'll be there, and we hope you will too.

 First of all the weather is being particularly cold and wet for what I am reliably informed is meant to be the dry season.  The river has risen about 15 feet and temperatures have dipped below 20 deg C for the first time since my arrival.  This would be but a minor grumble were it not for the catastrophic effects it is having along the coast.  Georgetown is still apparently submerged and thousands have been forced to abandon their homes.  The effect that this has had is as follows: firstly there are no planes carrying supplies into Kamarange and so we have no fuel for electricity at night, secondly I haven't received any post for two weeks, thirdly we still haven't received any pay and have been informed that it may still be another one or two months. 

 On a more positive note, in last term's national essay competition two of my pupils won first and second prize.  The winning essay also got published in the papers so I feel quite proud of it all.

'It is now only Tuesday and already it is turning out to be quite an eventful week. The school was once again thrown into panic when it was reported that government inspectors were coming to look at the school. After the false alarm last term, I was a little dubious, and my scepticism turned out to be well founded. The dreaded day that the inspectors were due passed without event. It was later reported that the cancellation was due to a shortage of fuel in the education department, which meant that they couldn't  make the boat journey upriver from Kamarang. Strangely, this is not a problem that I imagine would preclude a visit from the inspectors back in England. Instead of government officials, we have had some other visitors. It's a bunch of Americans who run a Seventh Day Adventist Religious school in Paruima, the next village up from us. Even for a churchgoer such as myself, the strength of their religious favour is a little intimidating, but they are nice enough. We thrashed them at football today so I'm happy!