Well, the team from CEF of Ireland has come and gone. We were able to spend 10 days with the team and they were truly a blast! Things are a little down without them here now.

They taught 3 5 Day Clubs at two primary schools and a church VBS reaching 167 children! They also visited a local church where Chris preached the sermon and Helen taught the Sunday School lesson.

The team at Bronte-Welsh Primary School

This was our first true CEF mission team to host. We really didn’t have to do any training… in fact, we were the ones learning different techniques from them! They are all gifted teachers!

Chris teaching the Bible Lesson at Bronte-Welsh

Holly teaching the Memory Verse at Tucker-Clarke Primary

Helen teaching  about John Paton, the missionary story

Phil teaching the Bible Lesson

We loved their accents and it truly was interesting to have Irish, Southern and Caribbean accents altogether in one room!

The kids loved the team and paid close attention during all three clubs.

Students at Tucker-Clarke

Listening attentively to Chris at Bronte-Welsh

Singing along at Salem Gospel Hall 5 Day Club/VBS

To be honest, as far as ministry goes along, this was the the smoothest week of clubs we have ever had!

The team members were real troopers too. It was very hot and humid for most of the time and they stayed in the office which does not have air conditioning. When it rained, the office roof leaked in several places and they would need to clean it up. They were very packed into our van and never complained. Plus, apparently they do not have many bugs in Ireland so between spiders, no-see-ums, and a swarm of flying ants… they were awesome!

Other than clubs we were able to do some touristy things like see parts of the island, visit Downtown Basseterre and Port Zante… and of course go to the beach!

Sean and I have noticed that each mission team has a “Thing” that goes wrong or not according to plan. Chris and Helen brought their sweet 7 month old boy along and toward the end of the trip he became sick. We ended up taking him to the doctor the day before they left and the poor thing had tonsillitis. Thankfully after just one day on an antibiotic he seemed to be doing much better.

Here are some more pictures just for fun.

The kids always LOVE playing Zonk!

This girl really wanted to answer the question… and I love Sean and Maddy in the background!

Little Zackari was very popular with the kids

Phil showing off his muscles

Holly with the girls… and that is how Maddy says “Cheese”.

Cute little Zackari. He is such a happy baby!

Playing a review game… human basketball with crumbled paper

The look on his face is priceless! And you can see the paper ball mid-air.

The kids loved this game!

Maddy really attached herself to Holly. She is already saying how much she misses her and that we need to get on the British Airways plane and go stay at her house in Ireland! (Sorry Holly! Haha!)

Saying goodbye at the airport.

We truly enjoyed this team and they are definitely missed! To Holly, Phil, Helen, Chris and Zackari… you are more than welcome to come back anytime you wish!

Last week Sean, myself, Mavis and Vicki (a volunteer we teach with at our Fig Tree Good News Club) taught two separate 5 Day Clubs at Beach Allen Primary School.

All of the schools take what they call the “Test of Standard” at the end of the school year. The test is intense and only those who pass are allowed to go onto the next grade level. Once the tests have been completed, the children stay in school for another month awaiting their scores. This portion of the school year (after the tests) is optional and all of the teachers are busy grading tests. So we have an opportunity to teach 5 Day Clubs in the public schools!

We taught the 5th and 6th graders in one club, and the 3rd-4th graders in the other.

The week started off a little crazy. Mavis came on Monday very sick and although she pushed through that day, she was out until Friday. Vicki’s knee became swollen and painful on Tuesday and she ended up missing the last two days of club. The 2nd and 3rd graders had NO school teachers on Monday at all… it was complete anarchy! But as the week went on the kids in both clubs listened more and more. On Thursday Sean was able to counsel a 5th grader, Aaliyah, who made a profession of faith in Christ!

Maddy praying

Vicki teaching the memory verse

Sunglasses are a must for 5 Day Club

Mavis teaching the Bible lesson

It’s so tiring!

The girls LOVED Maddy

Sean teaching the memory verse on Friday

They don’t look like it but the boys really wanted their picture taken!

Aaliyah showing her Flipper-Flapper

We thought Maddy was using the Flipper-Flapper to share the Gospel with this teacher… they were actually talking about princesses!

Playing Uno after Club… they smoked Sean!

Saying bye to some of the girls

Posing by the van before we left on Friday

We just love the kids at Beach Allen Primary! The mission/senior trip from Alabama a few weeks ago taught the 1st and 2nd graders so we were able to have 5 Day Clubs with the entire school in the month of June!

Mission Trip Team from Ireland!

The team arrives on Saturday! They will be here from July 6th-16th and will be teaching three clubs a day next week. We are so looking forward to working with them. Please pray for the team as they make their final preparations before leaving, pray for them to have smooth travels, for their safety while in St. Kitts and for their fruitfulness in ministry!

We can’t wait to have Irish, Southern and Caribbean accents all in one room… it should be fun!

The National Board decided to have a CEF week to celebrate our one year anniversary (of having an established office). They wanted to flood the island with CEF promotion and we believe they definitely accomplished their goal!

Monday: Mavis was on ZIZ (the St. Kitts TV station) and both Sean and Mavis had a 30 minute interview on Dominion Radio, one of the Christian radio stations.

Tuesday: Sean and Mavis had an hour long interview on the main secular radio station Winn FM! They spoke about Good News Clubs and that our goal is to have churches teach these clubs inside the public schools. Winn FM is one of the most popular radio stations here and we had a lot of great feedback!

Sean and Mavis at Winn FM

We were supposed to have a booth set up at Independence Square in downtown showcasing our curriculum. Unfortunately, the event was rained out.

Wednesday: “Open House Day” for the office. ZIZ, the local TV station, came out to do an on-camera interview. You can watch Sean and Mavis on “national” television below!

Thursday: Sean and Mavis traveled to the other side of the island, St. Paul’s and Dieppe Bay, and taught a Bible lesson in the morning assemblies to 190 kids. All the kids also got a “Gospel Turn Around” tract to have or hand out to someone else!

Students at Dieppe Bay Primary School

Friday: Concert night! In the evening the National Board hosted a CEF concert at a Girl’s Guides (English equivalent to Girl Scouts) building complete with a full spread of BBQ and sides! A group of kids performed a dance, another did a drama skit and we had a few singers. About 150 people came out to show their support for CEF!

Before the concert began… it was dark so this is the best shot we could get.

I think one of the biggest things about the CEF Week was how little work we actually put into it! Not that we are lazy! But Mavis and the National Board took care of the majority of the details. Although we are still busy with much work, it’s awesome to watch ourselves become less and less needed!

Well, our first mission trip team has come and gone. It was such a joy to have these girls work with us last week! They reached a lot of children, loved on Maddy and were a huge encouragement to us!

They were here from Saturday to Saturday.

On Sunday they attended one of our favorite churches in St. Kitts, Cayon Church of God. Our board chairman, Nigel, attends this church and the pastor helped us get our visas last year.

During the week the girls taught a 5 Day Club at Beach Allen Primary School. They were able to reach 127 children!

Every team seems to have “something” that goes wrong, or doesn’t turn out as planned. Their “thing” happened after eating dinner on Tuesday evening. Everyone who ate the Mahi Mahi at this restaurant got a mild case of food poisoning! Thankfully they seemed to recoup well the next day!

This team was a little different in that it was a mission trip/senior trip. So the girls had a lot of time to just enjoy the island. They were able to do the rainforest zip lines, go horseback riding, snorkel, relax by the pool and even took a sailboat on Friday! Because they were staying at the Marriott we were able to swim at the pool a few times too!

They even had Maddy stay the night with them on Thursday so Sean and I could have an evening alone! Maddy was so excited! She talked about it ALL DAY. She really thought she was one of the “big girls” for sure!

We just loved having them here and we were sad to see them go. Maddy kept saying she wanted to get on the “AA plane” and go back to Alabama. But we are looking forward to getting up with them when we come home next year!

Our next team arrives in July… from Ireland!