You are here:Home 2012 Archives for May 2012

Archives for May 2012

05/23/2012

A Week of Preparations

This week and last week have been very slow for us ministry wise. The National Board meeting was cancelled and rescheduled for this week and other than our Good News Club at Fig Tree, not much has happened.

Not that we are complaining. It’s been nice to relax a little before summer comes. Two mission teams have already purchased their tickets, a third is in the planning stages, an intern will be helping us for six weeks and Sean’s family is staying for a month… we know things will be crazy.

Not only will the summer be busy with mission teams doing 5 Day Clubs, but Sean is already getting calls for us to do them by ourselves. I think we will be very thankful to have an intern helping! That would give us three workers (Sean, myself and Nathan our summer intern) to teach the 5 Day Clubs when the mission teams aren’t here.

So, this week Sean is continuing to prepare for the mission teams, scheduling our summer and preparing for a Board training next month. I am busy getting our house ready for Saturday. Sean’s mother, two of his brothers and his sister fly in to visit us for the next month! Maddy is SO EXCITED to see her “Mimi”, “Unkee Micah”, “Unkee Wuke” and “Aunt Heder”. 🙂 Sean and I are excited to see our family and have visitors!

Other than a trip to Nevis tomorrow to deliver curriculum and a (hopeful) board meeting tomorrow evening, not much is happening. Hopefully we will be able to enjoy a calm week before things take off. Next week is already shaping up to be busy.

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Are you on instagram? We regularly take pictures about our time here in St. Kitts! Find Sean by searching for his username: seanianmiller and me at: MrsMandiM

Here is a picture we took out of Maddy’s window a few days ago!

Monkeys in our Yard

 

 

Filed Under: St. Kitts Leave a Comment
05/17/2012

A Week of Ministry, Date Night, Bible Study and Holding Monkeys

We were a little worried about how we would adjust back to “normal” life in St. Kitts after our brief trip to Florida. We have been back for a little more than a week but it feels as if we never left! We basically came back and picked up right where we left off… Sean even says it felt like he was home. Obviously this is our home, but living here hasn’t always felt like “home” if you know what I mean. But I think it’s safe to say all three of us have adjusted nicely.

Fig Tree Good News Club

Last Monday Sean had to teach the entire club by himself but this Monday we were able to be more organized. The two locals we are teaching with not only came this Monday but did most of the teaching! It was the first time we had seen them in action and they were superb! They had energy, excitement and almost flawless lessons! It gives us GREAT confidence to see teachers here do such a wonderful job because it’s a glimpse at what could happen all over the island!

Fig Tree Collage

Preparing for Mission Teams

We have two confirmed teams coming this summer, one from Alabama and the other from Seattle! We have started the process to find the right housing for both teams… it’s so fun to look at different places on the island. Sometimes it feels like we are on House Hunters International! We are so excited these teams are coming. We have a lot of ministry planned for them including 5 Day Clubs and some service projects. Mission teams don’t typically come to St. Kitts and Nevis so their work here will make a huge impact.

Bible Studies

Outside of CEF ministry, Sean and I both started back in our Bible studies last week. (They were on break for a few weeks while the new semesters at Ross and the Medical School began). Sean is attending a mens study on Tuesday evenings as they learn about David. The ladies study is on Sunday nights and for the summer semester I will be leading it! We are doing 12 Extraordinary Women by John McArthur and I will be hosting the study at our house every other week. I haven’t led a Bible study in years so I’m nervous and excited all at the same time!

Mother’s Day

We had a fun and low-key Mother’s Day on Sunday. Sean and Maddy had a handmade card waiting for me when I woke up with lots of hugs and kisses and “You’re the best mom in the whole world” sayings from Maddy! In the afternoon the Graysons came over so the girls could play together. Maddy really missed Audri while we were gone! The best part of the day? I got to take a nap… which is probably the best present ever. 😉

Date Night

Sean and I realized we hadn’t been on a date since Valentine’s Day! Going on dates in St. Kitts is a lot more difficult because there really isn’t much to do and dinner is expensive even at the “normal” restaurants. However, the movie theater here is the nicest place on the island! And it’s really cheap too! We decided to go on Tuesday night, which is half price night, and got our tickets, two fountain cokes (haven’t seen fountain drinks ANYWHERE here), an extra large popcorn, a bag of Skittles and a bag of M&M’s for about $24 U.S. dollars! The theater was super clean and I even had to put a sweater on because it was so cold! Even the bathrooms were nice… they had automatic flush toilets and automatic hand dryers! For two hours we literally forgot we were in St. Kitts… it felt just like America! A trip to the movies will be our regular date night from now on!

More Repairs

We made pizza one night this week and heard strange noises coming from the oven while the pizza baked. Luckily we got to it in time, but the oven was trying to catch on fire! The wires were fried and a repairman came to fix it. Apparently, the wires somehow started touching each other and… well… boom. Unfortunately, something is wrong with the gas so now we have to wait for someone else to fix that problem before the repairman can fix the oven.

Coming Up

Sean has been working like crazy to finalize mission team plans, catch up on work from when we were gone, start on summer ministry and get ready for the National Board meeting. Next weekend (the 26th) Sean’s family will be coming to stay with us for a few weeks! We have already scheduled two speaking events at churches for June and then the team from Alabama will be here soon after! It feels like the summer is about to take off and it will be September before we know it!

And just for fun… we went to the port last week to buy gifts for my mother and Maddy found a guy with pet monkeys trying to make a few bucks. She insisted on holding the monkeys for nearly an hour. So we tracked the guy down but of course, when he put the monkeys on her she started screaming. So guess who ended up holding them instead?

Holding Monkeys in St. Kitts

So glad they had diapers on!

That about sums up our week! Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Also, we got word this week that a dear friend and supporter from Montgomery had a heart attack and passed away today. We are very torn up about this and sad that we cannot be there during this time. Please keep this family (the Kemps) in your prayers. Thank you.

Click Here to view our recent prayer requests.

Filed Under: Family Life, St. Kitts 1 Comment
05/09/2012

Our First Trip Back to America… and More Ministry

Well… in the last two weeks we have spent time in St. Kitts, Florida and The Bahamas! We are all experiencing “travel whiplash”. It’s hard to believe last week at this time we were only on day two of the CEF Regional Conference cruise… somewhere between Florida and the Bahamas. And yet, it feels like we’ve been “home” (in St. Kitts) for a while… it’s been two days.

The week before we left St. Kitts was one of the fullest and most stressful weeks yet. I don’t know if we really had more going on than usual or if knowing we would be in America at the end of the week made things feel crazier.

Nevis Informational Meeting

Sean was up early that Saturday morning to catch the ferry to Nevis. They held a very productive informational meeting. Lots of people attended… pastors, teachers, TCE trained workers, volunteers and others who wanted to know more about CEF. From the meeting there will be three schools adopted, Good News Clubs in two different community centers and another in a church! It is so exciting to see people “get it” and feel a burden to reach the children in their community!

On the ferry ride back Sean sat next to a Hindu doctor, in fact they were the only ones on the ferry! She was very interested in what Sean was doing in St. Kitts as a missionary and she had a lot of questions about Christianity. Sean was able to share his faith with her and she seemed very open. Pray for the Lord to continue revealing Himself to her!

Fig Tree Good News Club

So far we’ve had four weeks of Good News Club at Fig Tree! The second week went great! We had about 25 kids show up and we were able to share the teaching with two local TCE graduates! We had to miss the third week because we were in America but Sean was able to teach this week. We flew in on the same day of Good News Club so Maddy and I stayed home (our day started at 5am) thinking there would be two other teachers to help Sean. There are two things in St. Kitts that will cancel events, rain and holidays. If either one is happening you can guarantee nobody will show up to an event. Monday was rainy AND a holiday. However, 19 kids showed up! Unfortunately, the teachers didn’t… Sean had to teach by himself. We will need to get a little more organized in leading this club. 🙂

We Got our Visas!

After trying for two months we finally received our visas the day before we left! Talk about waiting until the last minute! We were not allowed to be here with CEF but were told we need a church to cover us. Thankfully, getting a church to endorse was not an issue. Our visas say we are here with Cayon Church of God but what’s important is that we are here legally for the next two years! When we came back into the country on Monday we went through the “Residents” line, our passports were stamped, no questions were asked and we went through without any issues. It was the smoothest entry we’ve had yet!

Our Trip to America

We left on a Friday afternoon and had a smooth flight into Miami. By the time we made it through passport control, customs and got our rental we were wiped. However, that didn’t stop us from going to the first Chick-Fil-A we could find! It tastes even better when you haven’t had it for so long… trust me.

We spent the weekend in Ft. Pierce, Florida… we ate a lot of food we can’t get in St. Kitts… in fact we ate Mexican food three times! (You can’t even find tacos in St. Kitts!) And of course McDonald’s, Taco Bell, Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks. We went to Target, the Mall and Publix! It was amazing! And so clean! The Pennell’s made us dinner one night and we got to stay in their sister’s condo! Maddy enjoyed watching Nick Jr (we don’t have it here) and we enjoyed the central air conditioning! It was such a blessing to stay there!

CEF Regional Conference

The next Monday we drove to Cape Canaveral, Florida and boarded the Monarch of the Seas (Royal Caribbean) to attend the CEF Regional Conference. A cruise may seem a little extravagant but it’s was actually cheaper than having the conference at a center in the States somewhere. We were able to meet and spend time with missionaries all over the Caribbean… national workers AND people like us! It was refreshing! Being on an island can make us feel isolated sometimes, so it was encouraging to spend time with others who are working in the region, hearing about their ministries and just relating to each other’s hardships.

Monarch of the Seas Royal Caribbean

It was a four night cruise with only two stops, one in Nassau, Bahamas and the other in Cocoa Cay, Bahamas. In Nassau we split up into groups and went to different primary schools to teach mini Good News Clubs! Nassau reminded us of St. Kitts just on a much bigger scale. (They have over 250,000 people). Because we were doing ministry in Nassau we didn’t get a chance to see much of the city but CEF of the Bahamas did make us a fabulous lunch full of local food including conch fritters! One thing Nassau has that St. Kitts doesn’t is a Starbucks which we of course, stopped at before getting back on the ship. 🙂

Classrom in Nassau

Sean Teaching in Nassau

Cocoa Cay was our beach day… it is Royal Caribbean’s private island. It was gorgeous… white sand, crystal clear water, cool breezes. But to be honest, Sean and I left thinking St. Kitts was way better. To us, the sand was too “rocky” and hurt our feet, there were so many people in the water that the sand was all churned up so you couldn’t see anything and the water was C-O-L-D! It was nice, but I think we are a little spoiled when it comes to nice beaches!

In Cocoa Cay with our Sunglasses

Maddy Just Relaxing

The conference and cruise was wonderful… the food was great too! Sean ate steak every night because we don’t really have beef in St. Kitts! Maddy enjoyed eating ice cream every night! But our favorite part was being with our CEF Caribbean family.

Back to St. Kitts

We returned from the conference on Friday and headed back to the condo. We rested and went for ice cream with Marshall and Kim Pennell. We spent the weekend stocking up on things for St. Kitts, eating more of the food we have missed and hanging out with our friends. We were up at 5am Monday morning and driving off by 6am for Miami.

Sean was ready to get back, Maddy was excited to ride on an “AA” plane (that’s what she calls American Airlines… she gets a lot of giggles from people) and I wanted to stay! I mean, I was ready to get back because I know this is what the Lord has for us, and I like being here, but I had forgotten how much I love life in America. I think our trip, as good as it was, made me a little more homesick. But it was worth it.

What We Are Doing Now

Sean is doing a lot of work on the computer, expense reports, support raising, emailing… “glamorous” missionary work… but it has to be done. We are starting the process of finding a place for mission teams to stay… our first team will be here in just two months! And Sunday our Ladies Bible Study starts again. We will be doing 12 Extraordinary Women by John McArthur and I’m leading it! Most of the time we will be getting ready for the summer and the 5 Day Club ministry!

So that about sums up the last two weeks for us!

Filed Under: Family Life, In America, St. Kitts Leave a Comment