Choir Tour Updates:

Students Enjoy Private Tour of Coal Mine

(The President's Page Blog is pleased Clement Morton and Rachel Slaunwhite have agreed to submit regular updates as CUC's choir tours and performs through eastern Canada.) 

Utter fatigue helped many of us finally fall asleep early this morning on the ferry.  However we were awakened far too soon, shivering cold, to an announcement by the captain, “We will be arriving at the dock in about an hour.  Groggily we pulled ourselves into a semi-upright position nursing the sore rumps and propping our eyelids open with jokes and anything else handy.

 

The mostly calm seas and gentle rocking of the boat kept anyone from getting major sea sickness during the voyage. Thank the Lord for answered prayers!

As we left the ship, the Nova Scotia weather greeted us with a light but constant drizzle as we made our way to Smitty’s for a breakfast of a choice between golden brown potatoes and eggs, or fruit waffles. What a blessing such good and delicious food was for us starving, drenched souls.

 

Due to the rain we decided that instead of visiting Fortress Louisbourg we would tour the Cape Breton Miners' Museum. The museum was actually closed for the season but had opened that day especially for us. We received a wonderful private guided tour of the Sydney Mines and Museum. The part of the tour that really struck a chord in many of us was the great solidarity with and reliance upon each other the coal miners in those times developed with their families. This bond was what kept them going in during the terrible poverty they experienced in the 1920s.

 

After the tour we made our way into the city and headed to what is for Cape Breton a large mall.  There we had lunch and afterwards some of us delighted in sampling select pieces from the chocolate factory. After time well spent relaxing and enjoying the mall we made our way to St. Matthew Wesley United Church, where we enjoyed a wonderful supper of haystacks.

 

The concert that followed was absolutely stunning. Surrounded by the beautiful architecture, standing in the choir loft as we sang, each note reverberated filling us and the congregation with a sense of awe, giving us just the slightest glimpse of what heaven will be like.

 

As we bed down for the night, a sense of peace and comfort surrounds us, knowing that God loves us, and we are among friends.