Falling trees, broken branches and blown transformers conspired to deprive us of electricity at the church from Sunday, 22nd to Thursday, 26th December. Those were cold, long days and dark nights. Service was cancelled for Sunday, 22nd December. That was the day our Sunday Church School planned to put on their pageant. So the pageant could not have been held as planned. However, it takes more than power outage and its attendant consequences of a cold and dark church to stop Bethesda and the Sunday Church School’s pageant. The show went on.

On Christmas Eve night the Sunday Church School put on their pageant during the Candlelight Carol Service. Yet we were not entirely without electricity. Thanks to Lorne Smith we had some lighting in the church. Lorne brought a portable generator which provided some power. The Christmas tree, alight and decorated, provided a festive backdrop for the pageant. The pageant was the vehicle through which the Christmas message was presented at the Carol Service. Our Sunday Church School did us proud, again. A big thank-you go out to the teachers for their hard work with the children and to the children for their dedication.

The Carol Service was spiced up, along with the pageant, by the liturgical dance to the hymn, “Go Tell It On the Mountain”. The song was choreograph by Alice Thakurdyal and performed by Avery Schellenberg, Katarina Matthiessen and Janet Marandola. The service was well attended despite the power outage. It was a beautiful service and night.