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| This sign is right outside of the base where we are staying....we literally laughed when we saw this...such a huge confirmation to God calling us here :) |
I cannot believe that it has been over 6 week already that we have been in St. Croix! I am over half-way done with outreach before heading back to Kona for debrief then home to Omaha!! Since we reached our half-way point our ministry opportunities and activities have been keeping us busier than ever...we've decided that sleep is no longer nessicary and will only drink water to stay hydrated. Just kidding... :) Although some days are so full we don't have much room to breath we would not change anything because this is what we've been praying for! Before even leaving Kona as a team since we got here to we have been asking God to give us opportunities and ministry...and He has answered that prayer! What better way to describe the last 3 weeks then with pictures, right? So here we go...
THE LIGHTHOUSE
A few times a week we go to the Lighthouse, which is a building and ministry dedicated to being Jesus to the homeless and children. In the mornings when we help serve we work with the homeless doing a vairity of things...serving breakfast, working in the clothing closet, helping with computer data work, cleaning and preaching. We all take turns doing these things including with the preaching...I preached this last week on the love of Christ and His utmost desire to have us no matter who we are or where we come from. I pray it made a difference.
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| The street outside of the lighthouse... |
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| A bunch of us early in the morning ready to serve :) |
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| Serving food with Joo, Solveig, Malene, Mindy and I |
BUCK ISLAND
A generous couple in the church we attend surprised us with letting us have their sailboat, a catamaran, for a day to sail to Buck Island (a smaller island off of St. Croix)! It was a much needed day to rest, relax and have fun as a team. I've can't remember having that much fun in a long time..not to mention I've never been sailing before because of the lack of ocean in Nebraska. :)
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| Us in the van on our way..."WE ARE GOING TO BUCK ISLAND!!!!" |
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| Me with the boat and my snorkling gear!! |
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We are SO excited... :)
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Me on the boat
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| I belong here :) |
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Buck Island
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TEACHING AT KENNEDY
These past couple of weeks we have taken a different approach to reach out to the kids at the projects we go to. Along with playing with them for hours, asking them about their families and loving on them we have started teaching them about God. Jared and I were the first to do a teaching in the Kennedy project...on the creation of God. We had them do a craft that told the story of creation while reading the Bible to them on the basketball court. It went over really well (despite their short attention spans and other distractions) and at the end we had all the kids use sidewalk chalk to draw their favorite creations of God on the basketball court. It was so amazing...as soon as they had the chalk in the their hands the kids went crazy with covering the court with pictures and sayings of God's love...that remained there for all to see in the projects :)
Once a month the King's Kids stay the weekend at the base and have small retreat...this time when here we all hopped into vans, drove trough some scary, bumpy roads to a beach at night. There we had a bonfire in a cave off of the beach, made s'mores, had fellowship and worshiped. It was an amazingly fun time. We could see the stars so clearly while standing on the beach having the waves crash at our feet and then sitting next to a fire singing praises to the Creator. :)
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| The fire inside of the cave |
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| Leah, Solveig, Mindy and TJ keeping real on the beach at night |
THE WEDDING
This is probably the most random story I have thus far about the last two weeks...we attending a wedding for a couple we just met a few days prior. Crazy right? There is a community that we are reaching out to near the base that is mostly Dominican populated and one day we walked around it to play with kids...we couldn't find any kids but we ran into this random white guy who invited us to his wedding that coming Saturday! His to-be bride was Dominican and they just liked us a lot so they invited us...and we went! It was so much fun. It was a large taste of the culture here...it started an hour and a half after it was supposed to, the ceremony was about 5 min long, all in spanish, and speakers larger than the tables were blasting loud music. I don't know if I will ever hear out of my right ear again.......This wedding was one-of-a-kind and I will always remember it to be sure!! :)
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Malene and I..we LOVE weddings! :)
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| The newlyweds dancing |
AFTER SCHOOL PROGAM
The Lighthouse ministry also has an after school program in which we are also involved in. We do a teaching of our own a couple of times a week, play with the kids, and help them do any homework they have. I have grown close to one of the girls who is in 2nd grade named Gracia. She does not have a very long (if any) attention span when in a class setting, but does excellent with one-on-one teaching. I have found that when at home or school she is told that she is stupid, can't do anythings, always doing things wrong and will never succeed...but when she is given attention and encouraged she succeeds greatly and is very smart. I pray that I may be a small influence in her life that is positive and encouraging to her so she may continue to succeed when I leave...
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| Gracia and I |
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Teaching Gracia grammar and spelling
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"LET THE LITTLE CHILDREN COME"
