This page has been added because sometimes items appear on our front page which pass their immediate sell-by date but are too good to discard. These are posted here and can be browsed at any time!

Our Annual Report for 2022

Annual-Report-for-Web

Here is a special Newsletter tracing the development of the Hen House and thanking everyone involved in this project:

Hen-House-newsletter

Welcome

This last weekend (2nd. and 3rd. September, 2023) we took part in Doors Open Days. The Church was staffed between 10 am and 4 pm on Saturday and between 12 noon and 4 pm on Sunday.

An exhibition had been prepared and teas and coffees were served. The story of Fogo Kirk is an exciting one and, unusually in these difficult days, is one which is thoroughly positive.

Here is the welcome leaflet we offered those who came to visit:

Fogo-Parish-Church-Open-Day-leaflet

Jenna and Harris performed in a concert at Fogo Parish Church last Sunday evening. It was superb and the church was packed

Jenna is an award-winning Scottish fiddler from Quarff in Shetland. She has toured the world and has recorded and released many albums as a soloist and band member. As a finalist in the prestigeous Paul Hamlyn Award, Jenna has always composed and her fifth solo album ‘Working Hands’ is a stunning collection of her writing. Following this release, she was awarded Composer of the Year at the 2019 Scots Trad Music Awards. Jenna is a member of the Scottish fiddle band ‘Blazin’ Fiddles’ and appeared on the Transatlantic Sessions alongside Aly Bain and Jerry Douglas.

Jenna has been described as “the finest fiddle player of her generation” — and she’s coming to play in Fogo Parish Church with our very own Harris as well! This really isn’t to be missed! (This performance was part of a larger tour — the night before, Jenna and Harris were performing at Loch Fyne.) However, they had kept the best until last — and we all lovedf every minute of their performances!

Last month was special as we welcomed the Reverends Bill and Peggy Ewart who stayed with us and conducted our worship on two Sundays. It was a very good experience for us.

It has always been our plan to develop a Church House and to invite ministers to come and stay with us in return for conducting worship on Sunday. This will be particularly important once our current minister retires and we are left to our own devices. We are happy about conducting our own worship, caring for our members and our parishioners, developing our own Christian Education programmes and leading our own mission programmes, but it will be good to have the input from wise ministers who will share their expertise and experience with us.

For this reason we asked the General Trustees of the Church of Scotland if we could use some of our funds lodged in Edinburgh to purchase a small cottage to be used for this purpose. The Church of Scotland said ‘no’. But we have done it ourselves with a great deal of local effort and this is our first week of using our new facility.

God is good and these are exciting times for our growing congregation. Please remember us in your prayers.

Beautiful Music in an Idyllic Rural Setting

Our 2023 season started with a Scottish Harp Concert by Neil Wood on Saturday 25th. March. It was superb!

Click here for a short burst from his wonderful performance.

Recently one of our members, Angus, drove a farm four by four to Ukraine. He shared his story with us after a recent church service. Click here to hear what he had to say.

From our front page last year:

Twelve snippets of how we share and serve

We share in Coffee and refreshments every Wednesday from 10.30 to 12 noon in our new coffee bar.

We have created a new pilgrimage trail telling the story of Saint Cuthbert and ending up at our Church.

We are creating a new chapel dedicated to Saint Cuthbert and including a Creation window which we have commissioned as a result of a recent presbytery conference.

The Church will be open and warm during this winter, even during power cuts; hot soup and coffee will be available, as will recharging of mobile phones, and films will be shown on cold winter afternoons.

We have made a significant donation of medical equipment to Ukraine.

We are providing a house for the benefit of a Ukrainian family.

We are sharing with Nael, our Holy Land guide, in visiting special places in the Holy Land — a wonderful extension to our trip two years ago.

We are supporting our Missionary Partner, Dr. Linus Malu, as he works with disadvantaged women and families in Malawi, and we raise funds to help him create a new future for many as they create small businesses to provide a future for themselves.

We are supporting the Jeel al Amal school in Bethany in Israel — a school which accepts all children, regardless of their race or religion. We donate from our regular giving to supply some of the extras (such as sports and games equipment) which the children would otherwise not enjoy. Members of our congregation visited the school in January, 2020.

Laura, one of our elders, has now offered herself as a candidate for the Ministry of the Church of Scotland.

Tom, one of our elders, is serving as Business Comittee Convener of our Presbytery. He is also an assessor elder and treasurer of one of our neighbouring congregations, Greenlaw.

Our minister, Dane, is serving as Presbytery Clerk.

Below is a slide show of some of the treasures shared with us by Nael last year. It is a wonderful souvenir!

A copy of the live-stream of the Memorial Service for Pete Gibbens can be accessed by clicking here

This is a copy of the tribute paid by our minister to Pete’s memory:

“You may remember that Pete was born at Kingston on Thames, a brother to Dem and Ann. Dad was a Company Director in the family firm of Hartley’s Jams, latterly returning to live in Cornwall, near the coastal path – Gill cared for him in his final year.

Pete’s education started at the local Kingston on Thames School, then to boarding school at Sandroyd and finally as a boarder at Winchester. School was, in Pete’s own words, OK. He got through his exams but really enjoyed athletics, particularly gymnastics. I suppose that school was helped by the fact that his brother was also there and they were very close.

These were the days of National Service and Pete was called up into the Queen’s Regiment with whom, after his basic training he served for the remainder of his two years in Malaya.

National Service behind him, Pete went to Agriculture College for two years before starting work gaining experience as a farm labourer in Hereford.

It was here that he met Sybil and with her went to Australia by ship to take up a position with a sheep-farmer in Western Australia. Their daughter Deborah, always called Bean, was born and Pete entered into a farm share with Vanderpeer. This was an ill-fated venture as severe drought wiped them out and three years after they started they were back on a ship to the United Kingdom, penniless.

Back in England, and by this time Carol (or Bodge) was born. Pete, after a brief period selling veterinary products, decided to be a teacher, training at Hereford Technical College and then at the University of London, completing his training after a successful period of probation in Herefordshire before taking up his first post in Bromyard School and then, from 1973, his major work as Head of Physics and Computer Services manager at Exhall Grange in Coventry – a boarding school for partially sighted and disabled children.

Now on his own, Pete was a master based in Lancaster House, teaching physics and living on site. Exhall Grange was to be his home for fifteen years and it was here that he met Gill who was Matron at nearby Windsor House to which Pete transferred.

I asked Gill to tell me a bit about life in Windsor House. She told me that Windsor House was home to fifty children between the ages of six and nineteen years old. In his classroom Pete would normally be found teaching twelve children at a time. Pete was enormously proud of the fact that one of his children came second in the whole of the UK for A level Physics. Pete was not only a caring teacher but an excellent one as well and it is little wonder that his pupils loved him.

Of course, those of us who knew Pete will not be surprised to learn that Pete was much more than a physics teacher; he ran a photography group and even enabled children to get an O-level qualification in photography as well as developing a love of the craft. And he became a radio ham, a love of which he instilled in his children and which several of them continue to this day.

Pete and Gill were a good team, and it wasn’t long before they were taking children away on trips – local camping trips, spreading their wings further to Hertfordshire and then to Wales, and culminating in taking forty kids to France; to Brittany and Paris. Gill remembers how well-behaved the children were – because Pete and Gill expected it of them.

To leap ahead in my story, latterly a FaceBook page was set up for ‘Survivors of Exhall’ and this led to a happy, happy reunion in Durham earlier this year.

It was a wedding in Seahouses which led to Pete taking early retirement and coming to the Borders. He had always enjoyed holidays here and being so close just reminded him of what he was missing. Gill and Pete came to look at a house identified for them by an estate agent, but they noticed another in the window, a farm cottage at Cowrigg nearby, and they were sold on it at once.

And so started another ten years of happiness: ten years of pigs (Blot and Baldrick), chickens and fostering and which included two years’ teaching physics in Berwick at Longridge School, something which he enjoyed but which a heart-attack brought to an end.

Now he worked with children from Duns, Earlston and Eyemouth who had been excluded from school. And for all of the ten happy years at Cowriggs, Pete and Gill fostered children. In all they fostered twenty-five teenagers – three (Tom, Lucy and Scott) they fostered full time and twenty-two they fostered for emergency assessment for around three months each. Gill spoke warmly of these times and of the holidays, camping and caravanning ‘all over’ with their huge family. Times at the seaside, at Blackpool, and always happy times.

Gill remembered that their first foster child was Lucy who came from Papua New Guinea. She quickly learned English and liked nothing better to declaim Shakespeare in her new Scottish accent.

It was at this time that Gill started Yoga and, in time, took over from her teacher. Pete and Gill moved to Fogo. Gill continued to teach; Pete retired to spend his time looking after their garden, participating in the Community Council, acting as treasurer for the Abbey Row Community Centre in Kelso where Gill taught Yoga and it was the most natural thing in the world for her to volunteer his services when someone was required!

Yoga holidays took Pete on further holidays as well: to Spain, to the Lake District, to Hereford and Wales, to Cumbria and, of course, to Greece. As we all know, Pete and Gill had only just returned from Greece before he died. He wandered into Church here for the Wednesday get-together over coffee. “It was hot,” he told us, “thirty-four degrees” he told us. “But what a time I had – the highlight being a sailing trip on a catamaran!” And he explained how he had been strapped in and sat over the netting between the two hulls and gave himself up to the wind. It had brought back memories of a holiday with Alison and George, and in particular, a boat trip around the west coast of Scotland in a small fishing boat, two crew and eight passengers, among them Pete, George and William, and again the sun shone.

I asked Gill for some of her most precious memories and I sat entranced as Gill brought Pete to life, describing his love of cooking – I think that may be what first attracted her to him at school. She smelled his cooking and had to investigate. It wasn’t a natural skill: he learned to cook and then he loved to experiment; and most of all he loved to create a special curry.

In the evening you would find Pete reading, usually a historical book. He was fascinated by the stories of a Saint Nicholas’ chapel, or possibly priory, at Fogo and devoted lots of time to find out more, reaching his own conclusions of where this might have been situated, and producing powerful evidence to support his thesis.

If there was music playing it would be jazz, probably Count Basie or Duke Ellington. If he was watching television it was probably an antique programme or a Western – he did enjoy a good western; beats a detective story hands-down any day.

And there were his cats and dogs of which Luna is just the latest of his canine family, the latest in a line which went back to the Alsatian he had as a child, through Musky, a collie he rescued on a railway line, Sam a little rescue dog from Gala, Pluto another collie given to him in part exchange for electricity and two cats: Phoebe and Ruby.

But leaving the dog of the time at home, where shall we go this evening? It was a question that didn’t need to be asked, for the answer was always ‘For a curry.’ Although there was always the trip to the Pantomime with the foster kids who even today will remember their embarrassment when Pete decided to sing!

Today I have been privileged to share a very special life with you but I can’t bring this tribute to an end without sharing something of my own personal memories with you.

The first time I spoke to Pete was on the telephone. He called me. “Would it be alright if my wife and I came along to your church?” What better phone call could a minister receive? “Of course. I’ll be standing at the gate to welcome you on Sunday and I’ll take you into church.” “No”, said Pete, “We don’t want to come this week but we’ll come along on Palm Sunday and see you then.” Palm Sunday was about three weeks away so, I said, I would look out for them then and thought nothing more about it.

Sure enough, Palm Sunday arrived and so did Pete and Gill and a good congregation for such a special service.

And from that time onwards, unless they were away on holiday, or under the weather, they have been with us in Fogo Church, now usually accompanied by Luna, the collie, who always seems to feel perfectly at home here.

Long afterwards, I asked him why he had decided to wait until Palm Sunday. “Well, you see, we knew there would be people in church on that Sunday and we didn’t want to be the only ones.” Due to him and other people like him, the congregation grew and became the wonderful family of which he was a leading member. We celebrated Gill and Pete’s fortieth wedding anniversary as a church family and it was extremely special.

Pete, of course, was asked to become an elder and, having found out all about what it involved, he accepted, took part in training, was Ordained and took his responsibilities seriously. As I said, he was always in church. If there were new people coming to church he was there to welcome them. If it was a funeral he would stand half-way down the path and guide them into the church.

Pete played his part in leading worship and I learned of his profound Christian faith which motivated everything that he did. He was also a real encourager. “That was a good sermon” he would say to me he would talk about it with me and made me feel good and valued.

Pete took part in everything, discussion groups, film nights, planning meetings and he was an absolute stalwart of our Wednesday coffee and chat mornings.

He and Gill decided to join us for our pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I got to know them so well as we spent a year preparing for our trip, meeting every month to look at all of the places we would visit and to learn about them so that we would get the best from our time there.

And then we set off. I have a lovely picture of Pete and Gill sharing a table with Tom and Jane at 2 in the morning when we arrived at our hotel in Jerusalem, excitement and anticipation on everyone’s faces. I have a lovely picture and an even better memory of Pete and Gill leading our worship at Bethany where Lazarus was raised to life – and it is such an appropriate picture because at Bethany we also went to the Jeel al Amal School, a wonderful Arab school which provides education for children from any religious background or none. Through Pete’s insistence, our congregation has a link with that school and we provide funds regularly to support their work, Pete being our link person with the school.

We all came back from the Holy Land as firm friends and, once Covid was over, we started to rebuild. On the last day I saw Pete – just two days before he died, he told me that we should be planning another trip to one of the countries special to our faith. He was certainly, he told me, ‘up for it.’ And I’m sure that he was.

I will remember his optimism and his kindness, his willingness to take part in everything, his determination to be the best elder ever, and his support for everyone in this church family. I will also remember his love, support, admiration and devotion to Gill his wife. She was everything to him and he would have done anything for her. I count myself so very, very fortunate to have known Pete, to have shared a curry with him, to have learned of all that was important to him, to have prayed together and to count him as my friend.

Now he is with his heavenly Father, but his memory will live on as long as any of us live on here.

As I said earlier today, in the hours which are to come help us to share in heaven’s rejoicing that one who served God with all his heart and soul is now for ever in God’s care.”

Earlier in the year our congregation was visited by Presbytery as part of the preparation of a Presbytery Plan for the future. We prepared a short power-point about our story and how it is online for you to enjoy! Click to move the pictures forward.

Fogo-presentation-to-Duns-Presbytery

Our presbytery Conference had as its guest speaker the Reverend Doctor Liam Fraser who spoke about his book “Mission in Contemporary Scotland.” It was an exceptionally interesting morning.

Trevor’s Service

We received several tributes after Trevor’s death and two of these, along with the tributes paid in church by the minister and by Trevor’s daughter, Colleen, are printed below.

Hello from Douglas Adams in Canada. Son of Ronald and Ellen Adams. Cousin to David and Anthony. Brother to Derek Adams.

I heard from Derek that Uncle Trevor had passed away. On behalf of the Adams family in Canada and USA, I’d like to send my condolences to my cousins and family in Duns and around the world.
Unfortunately, my mother, Ellen Adams, is not well and is in a nursing home in Lockerbie. On her behalf I send best wishes from Trevor’s sister-in-law. 
I remember the family get togethers at granny’s house in Edinburgh, during New Year, and how the Campbell sisters used to argue and the men sat back and enjoyed the spectacle with a beer in hand.
I also remember Trevor visiting our home in Stepps, Glasgow and the wonderful stories he told about his experiences in South Africa and his ‘secret missions’. 
The last time I met Trevor was at my Dad’s funeral in 2015. After the funeral we flew back to our home in Victoria, BC.
I hope that you all have a well attended and reflective service and reception.

Best wishes,
Douglas and Karen Adams and sons Alexander and Mark

From Trevor’s step-son, Dave:

It’s a sad day for us today as we say goodbye to Trevor, but, for him, his passing is something for which he was waiting for the last two an a half years, since mom died. Almost every time I spoke to him, he told me how much he missed her, choking up whenever he told me. He truly loved her and I’m convinced that he couldn’t wait to be with her again.

I talked with Trevor often in the latter part of his life and we spent hours solving the world’s problems, discussing the best path for Scotland, aeroplanes, ships, wars, covid and so much other good stuff. His knowledge of useless facts was boundless and he was well enough versed in most subjects to hold his own in an argument, sorry, a robust discussion. I really miss our chats.

As crusty as he could be, (Trevor didn’t suffer fools kindly) he was a kind person, always appreciative for  the help others gave him, especially after he had to stop driving. Now that he’s not here, I can tell you that he was a dreadful driver, although he thought he was not bad, blissfully unaware of the mayhem he was causing behind him. Long distant journeys were a thing to be savoured with many, many, many stops.

He struggled with his eyesight in the last few years but never complained about his difficulties carrying out tasks that we take for granted. Colleen, Alan and Kym always kept his larder full and helped in the house and he was immensely grateful for that. He was so proud of his family and always spoke of them in glowing terms, sharing news about them with me.

I said that Trevor didn’t suffer fools kindly. Every year, he would take mom to a place in Zimbabwe called Ngezi dam for about a week. It was one of their favourite spots to visit and an excellent dam for fishing, a pastime Trevor loved. One year we joined them and every day Trevor and I would fish off the jetty, using a matching pair of rods and reels that his dad had given him which he seemed to love more than life itself. The fish weren’t playing their part in the game and the first three days were fish free. On the forth day we were having the same luck and I left my rod unattended for about ten seconds. In that time, the Ngezi equivalent of Nessie took it and I saw it disappearing underwater trailing a plume of bubbles. Trevor was devastated to the point of long term therapy and he stumped up to the cabin, fishing over………for ever. After a suitable interval I followed to find him slumped in a chair, considering his future without his rod. What could I say to the man from whom I had just taken his right arm? I climbed into my boat, tried to estimate the angle I saw the rod doing its underwater flying trick and judged the best place to throw the anchor over in a vain attempt to hook it. As I pulled it up I could see line glinting in the sun. At the end of the line was the rod, intact. I got the heroes welcome when I brought it back, and we resumed fishing. As I recall, the only thing we caught was the rod. The monster got away. 

Hamba gashle my friend, we are all sad to see you go but we know that you are in the place you’ve wanted to be for a long time.   

Dave

This was the tribute paid to her Dad by Colleen:

Tell me Dad

Tell me – How did you get to see behind the eyes of a child, to imagine what they see and actively participate in their games?

Like the times when we would play trains. I would stack the wheelbarrow with cushions for comfort, you were the train and would have to make endless “choo choo” noises while wheeling me down the road.

Tell me Dad– How were you so quick?

The time when I was a toddler and jumped into the swimming pool thinking I could swim. I remember that moment vividly. I can still see the bubbles swirling about me and your big strong arm reaching in and pulling me out.

Tell me Dad  –  how did you endure reading endless times, my most favourite story of Cinderella with such enthusiasm?

Tell me Dad…. Tell me how did you manage to become a walking encyclopaedia , recalling every fact you’ve read?

Tell me Dad – did you honestly enjoy the first meal I “cooked” for you which was cheese and jelly beans?

Tell me Dad – when will the pain of losing you go away?

Dad if you can hear me – I want to tell you , that if I ever had to live my life over and could choose my father it would be you.

I love you

This was the tribute to Trevor paid by the minister during Trevor’s service:

You will remember that Trevor was born in South Africa at Kimberley. He was the oldest of three brothers and three sisters and went to school in Durban where he excelled at wrestling and at rugby – a sport he continued to play until he was well into his forties.

As a child he was a prankster – something which he continued to be throughout his life. I’m told that he used to take bites out of a bar of soap, hide the bitten out bits and leave the remainder of the bar for his mother to find. His mother would line all of her children up and explain that she wasn’t going to get cross but please could the child who had eaten the soap own up!

And then there was the time Trevor’s mother had entered his sister who was two years younger than he was into a baby competition. Trevor thought that he was being very helpful by cutting her hair the day before ‘to make her pretty’.

School days behind him, Trevor both studied and worked at the South African Broadcasting Corporation. He was in the Corporation’s technical department and he completed a degree from Witwaters Rand University.

Later he completed an engineering degree in electronics, coming to England to study and to write his exams and being very proud of this particular achievement.

Trevor met Rhona in Durban – Trevor’s oldest sister, Lillian, and Rhona were best friends and so it was inevitable that Trevor and Rhona would meet. Rhona always described Trevor as being full of fun and, when I asked about their courting days, I was told of how they loved to go fishing together.

They were married in Durban and set up home in Pietermaritzburg before moving to Salisbury in Rhodesia. It was here that Colleen was born. By now Trevor was working for the Post and Telecommunications Corporation moving to work for the government of Rhodesia in a senior position within the Central Intelligence Organisation, working very closely with Ian Smith, and in total control of communications which involved, among many responsibilities, electronically tracking down the activities of terrorists.

Rhodesia became Zimbabwe; Salisbury became Harare, but Trevor stayed in post now working closely with President Mugabe, in fact being in the next door office and living close by.

But life was becoming increasingly more difficult, and eventually Trevor and Margo, his wife and the mother of David, Alan and Anthony, left Zimbabwe on holiday and never went back. They settled in their cottage at Abbey St. Bathan’s and made their plans.

Trevor had significant skills and he applied for an important position in Hong Kong. Life was almost put on hold as he waiting for a response from there. But the months dragged on and he heard nothing. So instead, he bought the little property in Duns and set up his electrical shop.

And, of course, no sooner had he done that than a job offer arrived from Hong Kong! But it was too late – Trevor was now totally taken over by the shop which was to be his home and his work for around thirty years.

It is no exaggeration to say that he loved his shop. He loved meeting the people who came into his shop. He loved tracking down what people asked for and he made so many friends.

He never lost his love of rugby and supported the Duns Rugby Club. He never lost his love of reading. It was always non-fiction and often about wild-life. He loved facts and wanted to know everything.

If the television was on, it would the News or a documentary – never, under any circumstance, a Soap. He loved history.

He also loved food. He would rave about Chris’s bri; he enjoyed oysters, artichokes and mussels and, if you set him lose in the kitchen, he would reach for the hot curry chilli oil, in his own words, ‘to sort the men out from the boys.’

No story of Trevor’s life would be complete without a major mention of his Christian faith. It ran through everything he did. It guided his every action and it was ever present in his conversation. The Bible was his guide and Jesus was his Saviour.

He enjoyed worshipping with the congregation at Bonkyl. It was especially convenient for him as he was able to drive his car with Margo, who was by now an invalid, right to the door – and Sunday was never complete unless he had shared in worship with friends there.

I admired the way that Trevor did everything for Margo. He made her meals and looked after her at home. If she was in hospital then he was there every day no matter how difficult it might be for him to get there. He lived and breathed care for her.

And then she died.

I had got to know Trevor over the period before that. We were doing up our Church and Trevor always had the bits we needed and was free with his advice on how Tom and I ought to proceed. I spent many an hour just talking, no, just listening to Trevor – learning of his adventures in Zimbabwe, being shown a very special medal with which he had been presented for completing dangerous missions for the security of the country, learning the secrets of his shop with its judge’s seat in the basement and its prison cell.

Tom and I went to Margo’s funeral and when, a few weeks later, we were next in his shop it was as though we had given him a million dollars. “Can I visit your church at Fogo?” He came the next Sunday and never missed a Sunday until his fall and his removal to hospital.

I made a giant Order of Service for him each Sunday so that he could see to sing and he became a favourite and a real friend of all in our church family.

We continued to visit his shop – our church building was constantly being upgraded. Trevor would collect together a pile of everything we needed. I would draw out my wallet and Trevor would say, “That’s a pound.” We would try to explain to him how running a shop worked, “You’ve got the goods, we want them so we pay for them, and then everyone is happy.” He responded, “Why should I take your money and then have to bring it to the church to put it in the offering?”

There really was no arguing with him.

During his time in hospital I had a number of very special times with Trevor. His memory was a little confused and so I journeyed with him to South Africa and to Zimbabwe. He took me to the National Parks, he took me to his office in Harare, he took me to Abbey St. Bathan’s and he took me to his shop.

He paid our little church the biggest complement we have ever had: “I come because here the Gospel is preached.” I hope that it is, but through all his words and his actions, his loving and his generosity there is no-one who preached it more than he did.

He was enormously proud of his family, of Colleen and Chris, and he wasn’t with us long before he brought Alan and Kym with him each Sunday. I know that you know how special you were to him but I need to tell you again today. It was your love and your care that enabled him to live out his later years as he did – and now he will be with those whom he loved who went before him: and you can be sure that he will still be telling stories!

Molly’s Service

A Tribute to the life of Molly Hodges, for thirty years Night Sister at the Knoll Hospital in Duns and someone that everyone knew. Molly is survived by her husband David, her son Sandy and his wife Wendy.

The following tribute was paid to Molly’s life by the Parish Minister at Molly’s funeral in Fogo Parish Church last week.

“Molly was born in the Knoll in Duns while the family was living at Elmford. She was one of twins, twin Sandy died at birth; and she was born into a great farming family and with two elder brothers, Wilbert and Ian. Molly’s mum was so happy that now she had a daughter, but there were many who thought that she was more like third son as Molly was always determined to match her brothers and, if they got new dungarees, then there had to be a pair for her as well.

Molly went to school at Morebattle – the family had by now moved to Gateshaw. She walked to school each day, slowly there and quickly back. Occasionally she was driven to school by her Mum – well, it was the only way of ensuring that she actually got there. Her schooling was completed at Ochtertyre where she continued to show her adventurous spirit, nearly getting expelled for taking a rowing boat out onto a lake in the moonlight.

Molly’s father died when she was just fifteen. Molly spent two years working on the farm doing everything and then enrolled at Peel Hospital for nursing training during which time she made many life-long friends.

When she came from Peel she would drive the tractor and ride horses. It has to be said that Molly was extremely competitive, up for trying anything and giving everything 100%. She skied down the steep fields on the farm and later shared her brother Wilbert’s flair for driving by beating local rally legend Andrew Cowan in an autocross event!

Graduating as a staff nurse, and qualifying in midwifery at Simpson’s in Edinburgh, Molly went on to complete five years at Simpson’s before on the 26^th. June (the date is significant), 1969 Molly emigrated as a £10 Pom, landing in Perth to take up a position at the Royal Perth Hospital. Here her magnetic personality full of humour, charm and song – the Molly we grew to know and love – attracted a friendship circle made up of fellow Scots and Australians.

To step sideways in my story for a moment, I should remind you that by this time Molly had already met David, or at least David had already seen Molly. It was when she was nineteen, and then at William and Jane Cowan’s wedding, David spotted a pretty girl in a pink dress and asked Andrew, William’s brother, “Who’s the bird in pink?” He was told to ask Wilbert, “That’s my sister,” was the reply. A couple of years later they met in Gateshaw and they started to become friends.

But back to Perth where Molly, surrounded by her new friends Jane, Maggie, Jude, Polly, Trish and Nellie, is enjoying nursing but is still filled with wander-lust.

And so it was that Molly, accompanied by Mary Campbell from Skye took passage on a cargo ship and sailed to Darwin where together they went nursing. As one might imagine, nursing in Darwin was a special experience, and Molly loved looking after the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. They showed her equal respect, and a valued souvenir of her time here is a didgeridoo personally made for her by an Aboriginal patient. It’s just inside the front door if you go to visit!

It’s time to move on and the next stage in Molly’s adventure involves a drive from the far north, all the way to Melbourne and Sydney. Four girls in a VW Combi van, named Jock. Molly and Mary and two other Scottish girls, Brenda and Barbara – but only Molly knew how to drive!

On the way they camped in Kakadu National Park, a place described by David as ‘wild country.’ They drove to Alice Springs, camping under the stars before completing the journey with Jock on the Ghan railway. What an adventure!

Molly returned to Scotland on a six-week voyage in 1972 with her friends Mary and Jane. And, of course, Molly met up with David who had travelled from Ayton to Gateshaw to visit Wilbert in connection with both of their loves of motor-sport. Molly’s friend , Jane, observed Molly and David together at Gateshaw and later admitted that it was clear to her then that ‘Moll was going to marry that bloke.’

But not just yet. Molly returned to Australia for a couple of years. Meanwhile David went on an exchange visit to New Zealand. Friends arranged for Molly to visit New Zealand and invited David for a meal. From the doorway behind where David was sitting a well-known voice, growled “Does yer dog bite?’ David, I’m told, went as white as a sheet, but a few days later, on a trip to see David’s sister in Taupo, David popped the question, “Why don’t we get married?”

On receiving an answer in the affirmative, David telephoned Molly’s mother who just laughed, “It will be the talk of the Duns Show.”

Molly and David returned to Scotland in the Autumn of 1974, were married in Morebattle Church on 14^th. January, 1975 and came to their present home to begin their married life. In time, their son Sandy was born and Molly began the working career for which she is remembered by many – in fact, by many, many! First, nursing at Kelso Hospital and then when Sandy was a little older, as Night Sister in the Knoll Hospital in Duns where she was responsible for forty-four patients and a vocation with which she continued until her retirement in the late nineties – broken up by the occasional trip to Australia and New Zealand with David, enjoying the hospitality of nursing friends in Australia and with David’s sister Iona’s family in New Zealand.

Molly and David also travelled often to visit Sandy in London, Ireland and for several years The Netherlands, Sandy having met Wendy while living there. And then, in 2013, Sandy and Wendy emigrated to Perth, Australia on 26^th. June – exactly the same date that Molly had left for Australia all those years before. Molly and David spent many long and enjoyable holidays in Australia and Molly always visited her old friends in Melbourne.

This then is the framework of Molly’s wonderful life. But what was she really like? Many of you know the answer to that as well as I do. She was bubbly and kind. She had time for everyone and she loved to laugh. She made friends, many friends, none more than Ray Turnbull who was always such a good friend to her.

Molly was passionate about her hobbies. She became Ladies Captain at the Duns Golf Club. She won many competitions and she loved to compete. She also loved to have the opportunity of playing new courses and not so long ago she sent me a picture of the Kalgoorlie Golf Course with kangaroos on the fairways! She took her golf seriously and how she practiced, telling me off, more than once, for my lack of application.

She was a wonderful photographer, starting in the days before digital and then embracing technology, often showing me a picture (which I thought was wonderful) but then adding, “but wait until I’ve got it photo-shopped”!

Just a few weeks ago she gave me a stick with photos of flowers on it. ‘My idea’, she told me, ‘is to have a coffee event in the Church and have the big TV with lots and lots of pictures of flowers – a kind of virtual flower show.’ We’ll do that, I’m sure. She was good and I remember seeing her pictures displayed in the Photographic Club exhibition in Duns.

And she was so energetic. She loved to walk, she loved to garden, she spent her seventy-fifth birthday in a canoe, and then she got her electric bicycle and she stretched it to the limit, often popping in at my house on the way home to tell me the unbelievable number of miles she had already travelled that day.

She took up genealogy, working online and visiting Register House, and discovering all kinds of fascinating details about her forebears, many of which gave David and she a great deal to laugh about, of which more at a later stage of our service.

I got to know Molly through this church. If Molly was in the country she was always here. It is no exaggeration to say that she became a large part of the backbone of this church family. Initially reserved, she didn’t want to share in leading services, but all of that soon changed and for a long time you would normally find Molly leading our first prayer. She spoke from her heart and I learned so much about her faith and her commitment to her Lord.

Of course, we have been without her before. You’ll remember that she set off for a six week holiday to Australia and then became a prisoner of Covid with Sandy for almost six months. Sandy told me of his frustration that the Sunday evening meal had to be delayed because Molly wanted to join the Church Zoom after our Sunday service. Even from so far away, she added so much to us all.

At the third time of asking, Molly accepted an invitation to become one of our Elders, participating in a programme of preparation and enriching everyone who took part with her. Her ordination was a great day, both for her and for all of us and she continued to enrich all of our lives. On the Wednesday before her death, she was with us all at the house we are creating for a Ukrainian family. As you would expect, she was taking photos. On the Friday she popped in to see how I liked her pictures and left saying, “I haven’t joined the golf club this year, but if you like, I’ll take you out and give you a few pointers.”

Instead Molly died. It was devastating for the family, and it was devastating for all of us, her friends – and it was particularly hard for the family who had to sit beside her bed in hospital because Molly had donated her body to help others. In her death she donated two kidneys and her liver to enable others to live.

I couldn’t believe it when I learned that she had died.

We will all miss Molly. But Molly will be most missed by David, by Sandy and by Wendy.

I hope that they know how much Molly loved them. I hope they know that they appeared in almost her every sentence. The excitement she shared with us all when Sandy was to be coming come. The pleasure of a meal prepared by David. The love for them which poured out of her and which she shared with us all because that was Molly’s way. She was open and loving and caring and kind. And now she is with her heavenly Father. Have no doubt about that.

In preparation for Saturday (5th. February, 2022), four of us had a practice with Nael. During that trial Nael took us to Sepphoris and showed us around this ancient city four miles from Nael’s home in Nazareth. It was a good experience for us but there were identified problems which we had to solve. One of these was the way that Zoom constantly showed us rather than Sepphoris! We hope we will have fixed this for our visit to Megiddo! Here is our trial:

I was invited to share in the Gordon Primary School end of session assembly on Wednesday 23rd. June. I kept my contribution so that the folk of Gordon could see what I said!

The World Day of Prayer Service held on the first Friday evening in March (2021) was enjoyed by everyone. There were sixteen congregations joining together from all over Berwickshire and three of those leading the service were from our little group of congregations: Dorothy from Fogo, Janice from Gordon and Carol from Greenlaw. As always, they did us proud — and wasn’t it good to be sharing with women from the South Pacific Republic of Vanuatu? It was an excellent occasion.

We have recently received the latest letter from our Missionary Partner, Dr. Linus Malu:

Dear Friends,

Greetings from Mzuzu, Malawi.  I hope you are doing well during the pandemic. In Malawi we are still battling the pandemic, but are hopeful that the situation will improve soon because the country is recording more recoveries than infections. The government has put in new preventive measures, but generally life is running relatively well. We have a new government after the successful court-ordered presidential election held on 23rd June. Thank you very much for your prayers.

Malawi recorded its first case of COVID 19 on 3rd April, with the new preventive measures in place this has slightly changed the way we work at the Legal Department. We have been able to keep our offices open and have continued to run the offices as normal as possible. We have ensured that each day, an officer is available to attend to clients. However, we have put in place measures to protect ourselves and our clients, such as compulsory wearing of masks and maintaining of social distance.  The number of clients we see has remained stable.  We have stopped all projects and activities outside of the office, such as visiting the “One Stop Centre”, schools and communities. We have postponed our proposed radio programme on gender-based violence (GBV) which would have started in June this year.  On a positive note, the courts in Mzuzu are open and we still attend court sessions during important hearings.

Our women empowerment programme for victims of GBV is doing very well. We have continued to provide assistance to our clients by monitoring what they are doing and providing financial help to some of them. In this period of paucity of funds, we have stood with our clients. In June, we disbursed the sum of £1,500 to four women at a reduced interest rate because of the difficulties of doing business at this time. It is extremely difficulty for most people here who depend on a daily income to feed themselves and their families. Business activities have drastically slowed down and incomes have also substantially reduced. The project is supported by the Church of Scotland.

The pandemic has not affected our legal and mediation services drastically and people still visit our offices for these services. We have not witnessed an increase in the number of cases reported for mediation, but we have mediated some COVID-19 related cases. The core areas we are working with are employment disputes, GBV, contract and tort.  In my last report in March 2020 I noted that we had fifty- six cases in court and that twenty-eight cases were filed in court in 2019. The number of cases we have in court in 2020 has now risen to sixty- two. Forty are in progress, twenty are concluded while four were referred to lawyers in Mzuzu who are providing pro bono assistance to our clients. 

We are currently writing the second edition of our booklet on GBV in northern Malawi. The first edition was published in December, 2018. This edition will focus on three districts of northern Malawi we did not cover in the first edition, and will also discuss other GBV problems we did not cover in our first edition. In late 2019 we visited Chitipa, Rumbi and Likoma and held awareness programmes on GBV and also conducted surveys on GBV. The reports of these awareness programmes and surveys are included in this new edition of the booklet, which we expect to publish in December, 2020.

The courts are open in Mzuzu, and we have helped our clients to access the courts for remedies. We have continued to pay for some of the court related fees for some clients who cannot pay for these fees, and who have an urgent need to access the court. During the period March -August this year we filed eight cases in court on behalf of our clients. The cases are on GBV and employment disputes.

A part of our GBV programme is suspended because of the pandemic. We have temporary stopped attending to clients at the “One Stop Centre” at the Mzuzu Central Hospital because of the pandemic. The facility previously used by the “One Stop Centre” is currently being used as a COVID 19 centre at the hospital. The “One Stop centre” serves as an important facility for us to get information on GBV. We normally assist some of the victims at the “One Stop Centre” and “follow-up” on some of the cases at the court, the police or the social welfare office. Nonetheless, we have continued to provide other GBV assistance such as:  providing mediation services for victims of GBV, assisting victims of GBV to access the courts, paying court fees for some of them, supporting and mentoring victims of GBV and providing loans to some of them.

Thank you very much for your prayers. In the following weeks, please pray for us on the following points:

1. For the government and people of Malawi for courage and God’s grace in the fight against COVID 19 in the country.
2. For those on the frontlines in the fight against COVID 19 in the world.
3. For humanity and all victims of COVID 19, and those experiencing difficult times because of the pandemic.
4. For all victims of gender-based violence in Malawi.
5. For all our clients at the Church and Society Programme who have limited access to justice, that the government will provide more mechanisms for them to access justice.

Sincerely,

Linus.

July, 2020: Having been sent this picture by Molly who is still in Perth, Western Australia, I decided to write to the Melville City authorities.

“I was delighted to see a photograph of one of your refuse disposal lorries with the word Fogo emblazoned on it. It has encouraged me to send you the warmest good wishes from Fogo, a tiny village in Scotland. www.fogokirk.org We are, of course, claiming on our Church website that this is all part of our international advertising campaign! With warmest good wishes, Dane Sherrard”

I was delighted to get a response from Melville City this morning.

“Hi Dane, greetings from Western Australia! What a lovely email. I have shared it with our waste/refuse manager and director and we have, in turn, claimed that OUR advertising campaign for our FOGO bin system has gone international and reached Scotland! It may interest you to know we have a suburb in our City called Mount Pleasant which has the FOGO bin system – so many similarities! Best wishes and take care, Tara (Tara Hardmeier, Senior Communications Officer (Digital)“