Family Search Fair and Sunderland

This week we helped out at a Family Search Fair at our building. The exhibit was from London and included eight computer terminals, two printers and two large TV monitors for viewing from behind the participants. The graphics were wonderful. A Senior Missionary couple takes the exhibit to each Stake. The Stake provides hosts and experts. The public is invited to come and work on their family histories. We had several hundred people come through during the three days that they were there. Larry helped as an expert (which he is not) whenever they were short handed and Barbara was a hostess. Our feeling was that it was a marvelous tool for introducing the public to our church.


We also took another trip with madman driver Bro. Holden to Sambo's grave. It lies in Sunderland, a small village near the mouth of the River Lune. Sambo was a slave boy who died shortly after arriving in England. His grave is a tribute to the fifty or so other slaves buried in the area in unmarked graves. There is a wonderful tribute written that lies upon the grave. Many school children visit and leave toys and mementos at the site, which is otherwise just a barren field near Morecambe Bay. To get to Sunderland, you travel on a road that is under water during high tides. If you are not careful, you could find yourself floating down the Lune River into the sea. On either side of the road are areas of quicksand and other dangers. It was not a trip for the faint of heart. Houses in the village have large slots on either side of their doors where wooden boards can slip in to hold back the high tides during the winter. The place is very isolated during high tides. During the time when it was a port, many men were hijacked from the local pubs to serve as sailors on the cargo ships. Some of the pubs are still active today. Thank goodness the sailing ships are gone. We made it out alive!
We will move this week to Barrow in Furness, which is across the Bay from Heysham about fourteen miles away. Since you must travel all the way around the bay, it takes one and a half hours to get there. We will dearly miss Lancaster Ward. They have been wonderful to us.