Say hello, St. Croix

We have large iguanas living in our front yard...

     Our first week here in St. Croix has been a busy one. From the first weekend that we arrived we dove right into ministry! When we got there it happened to be a weekend that the "Kings Kids"(a YWAM children's outreach and teaching group) sleepover was on. So from the beginning we were surrounded by kids from the ages of 9-17 who were very active, wise in the Lord, fun, laughing, loud, playing games, and asking questions. At first I don't think we were all quite ready for that as first...but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I got to start building relationships with a couple of the kids here. We also attended church on Sunday at a local church that Cherilyn (One of the YWAM base staff here) attends. We got to see several Christmas children programs, fellowship with other believers, shared who we are and why we are in St. Croix, and listen to a refreshing message. 

Our "Family" at church on Sunday..including Nina, a girl from "King's Kids"

Joo and Nina :)

Mindy and I riding in the van

This weekend we also had the privledge of eating dinner on a small beach and seeing a beautiful Caribbean sunset. :)

Melene and Solveig enjoying their CapriSun drinks :)

Most of the girls, in our shades, ready for the beach!

Leah and I :)

All the ladies...including  Cherilyn (1 out of the 3 staff at this YWAM base)

The Men..including T.J. and Bob (2 out of the 3 staff at this YWAM base)

Seashell on the beach :)

Hannah and I :)

Me with sunset

     This week, of course, had a lot to do with Christmas as well...from baking Christmas cookies, making Christmas cards, decorating our "family" tree to decorating Leah as a tree, drinking coco and wrapping up people in lights.  :) We've had a lot of fun getting ready for Christmas! This is my first Christmas away from home...and I am missing my family, boyfriend and friends a lot. This will not be an easy time for me, but also God has truly blessed me with giving me a family in my outreach team. I have several sisters (Hannah, Mindy, Solveig, Melene, and Leah...one little brother, Jared and one older brother, Joo....and mom and dad, Melissa and Josh. :) I'm not over exaggerating when I say we are like a family. God has truly, REALLY blessed me with a team family. We all have fun together, laugh a lot, love each other, tease each other, pray together, worship together, and eat together. We are so bonding

Melene with cookies and Christmas cards we made for the homeless shelter

Me with a Christmas card I made :)

Our beautifully decorated tree :)

Wrapping up Mindy and Hannah in lights...
with Jared adding a Christmas angel to the top :)

We all had funny hats that stood straight up!

Some of us decorating our Leah tree :)

Our Leah tree and Mindy as the present under the tree :)

Family Christmas photo!

A couple of days this past week we also took a little prayer tour around part of the island. During this time we not only got to see more of the beautiful island we're living on, but we spent time praying into several areas that seem to be corrupted and effecting the people in negative ways. As we observed and had the YWAM staff inform us, there is so much brokenness, disunity, oppression, anger, hate, violence and etc that invade this island. We stopped at a couple of different places to pray on subjects such as; family, churches, government, and education. During this time we no only got a better understanding of the people we're surrounded by, but got a better idea of God's heart for this island and the rest of the Caribbean. He is truly pouring into our entire team His thoughts, words and desires for these wonderful people. He has big plans for this little island...

One of the piers we stopped at to walk around

walking around...Mindy with her camera :)

A dock...and expensive boats, but if you walk about 3 streets in, PAST the touristy area, you will see homeless and poverty.

A house...similar to some that people live in. 

How often do you see this? One of the beaches had this posted
...there were a lot of iguanas there. 

One amazing thing that we also got to do during this pray tour was go to the EASTERN MOST POINT OF THE U.S.!!! Who knew I'd ever get to do this??? The drive was beautiful, and the view breath taking...I tried to take pictures, but they don't do justice for the beauty and majesty of God that is displayed. :)

A random thing of rock at the center of the look-out area...we never did find out what it means...

A view from the top...so beautiful!!! note you can also see the road we drove up on to get here...

Me!

THE EASTERN MOST POINT!!!!! I want to actually climb down there and stand on it...maybe soon I will... :)

The team!

Welcome to St. Croix :)

 Welcome to St. Croix...Let me show you around where I'm living, but first you must know some information concerning this particular YWAM base. It was built in the 1800s and was a sugar mill that was worked by slaves. Most of the old stone buildings you see are the actual remains of this plantation...

This is the main building where we meet for meetings, food, and the use of internet in one of the rooms. :)

The girls "cabin" that all 6 of us crammed into :)

Our small abode....

Mindy and Hannah

Our bathroom

Random stairs....I've named these the "stairs of death" because they lead to nothing

Pretty flowers..dead and alive

Part of the sugar mill that you can climb up to the top and look around...in our front yard

The view to the top of the sugar mill

Another part of the sugar mill that has bats in it...yes bats. :)

I call this the "secret garden" as this small door opening leads to a large area of plants, trees and flowers. :)

Part of a wall with a tree grown into it on the property

Another building used

This date A.D. 1864 was dated on the above building

Remains of the "stable" for the animals. Interesting note,
the slaves were housed down-wind of the animals
to show that they were "less valuable"...and also getting a nasty stench.

I'm really loving it here. God is continually confirming our calling to St. Croix and giving more of His heart for this island. I can't wait to see what He has planned next. :) Stay in touch! Miss you all!

Goodbye Kona, hello St. Croix

Greetings from St. Croix, Virgin Islands!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

Sunset in the Caribbean :)

Ok, lets just say wow, wow and wow. I have been in St. Croix for 2 days-ish now and LOVE it. But first...let me back up to the last week of DTS in Kona before I begin to inform you about this island I am now on.

The weekend before our outreach teams began to leave we had this fancy banquet dinner called "LoveFeast" in our classroom. It was a jumble of delicious food, fancy dresses, Christmas music, more delicious food, honoring our leaders and staff, lots of pictures and good fellowship. It was a ton of fun, and such a blessing to be able to have a nice dinner to relax, reflect and have fun. My team wrote a song about our outreach leaders, Melissa and Josh, to the song "Party in the USA" (lyrics changed of course) and sang it to them at the LoveFeast. Good times. :) Someday maybe we will record it and you will all get to hear it...or maybe not. :) Enjoy the pics!

Our classroom set up for the LoveFeast

The U.S. Virgin Islands family photo! :)

All Dressed for LoveFeast!

Our Delicious dinner! nam, nam, nam

Mindy and I

Kelli and I

Hannah and I

Rachael and I

     The last week before I left Kona was one of the most emotional weeks I've ever had. Ending classes, work duties, small groups, etc was alright and I was honestly ready to be done and move on to outreach. Then came saying goodbye to those whom I've lived with and learned with or 3 months. It's amazing how close you can become with strangers after just 3 months...3 months of living together, crying together, growing in our faith, laughing together, celebrating holidays and birthdays, going on adventures and discovering your purpose in Christ....3 months of becoming a family.

One of the last pictures of Rachael and I before we both left..we had a relaxing movie night with roommates

     My roommate Rachael was the first to leave and thats when the tears started...and continued to when I left 2 days later. My roommates and I found ourselves laughing and crying off and on during these hard days of saying goodbye...as Madisen also left the next morning after Rachael and then me. I hold on to the hope of seeing my compassion family in March, but sadly my roommates Staci, Amber, Amy and Kathryn will not be there when I return to Kona because they are in a different DTS. :( But I will for sure be planning a nice long road-trip to visit them all as I love them and will miss them all so much.

Goodbye Roommate picture!

Rachael and I

:)

:)

All of us roomies at the bus stop about to say goodbye :(

Oh yes...this is how we do it

Madisen and I before she left...

Getting ready for my trip! :D