Archives for 2013

Mandi 09/03/2013

ECC Mission Trip Recap

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind! It was a joy having the group from Evangelical Chinese Church in Seattle (with Marshall, Kim and Jess from Florida) here for a week and a half. The team was small but everyone “stepped up to the plate” to serve and they got a lot done!

They hosted a children’s rally…

They taught a huge 5 Day Club all week… with almost 100 kids in attendance!

On Sunday Eckhart preached at Grace Gospel Hall and “Marshall the Magnificent” did a few magic tricks/object lessons during Sunday School. We were so proud of Eckhart, he just graduated high school and this was his first time preaching on a Sunday morning… he did a GREAT job! And the kids loved trying to figure out how Marshall did his tricks!

The team also cleaned an elderly gentleman’s yard and painted his house. He was very grateful for their help.

They shard their testimonies (all very powerful) on the Saturday radio show.

Mavis left for the Children’s Ministries Institute and they were able to attend a gathering the night before with the National Board to celebrate her training and send her off with prayer.

They honestly did the work of a team three sizes larger. They were all so humble, so willing to work and so full of joy to be serving. We are so grateful for their partnership!

Marshall, Allison, Olivia, Jess, Eckhart and Kim

Since Then…

Sean has spoken with Mavis and she loves being at CMI! But please pray for her as she is away from her family for the next three months and as she studies… the training is very intensive.

Sean’s family arrived just two days after ECC left! It’s been nice having them here and getting to relax a little after a busy summer. They will be here until September 10th… one more week!

Our next “big” thing coming up is an island-wide Good News Club training conference on the 14th! The director of the U.S. Virgin Islands will be flying in to help us teach. It’s the first ever here in St. Kitts and Nevis so we are excited and a little nervous.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Filed Under: St. Kitts 2 Comments

Mandi 08/13/2013

Saddlers, Preaching, Radio and Another Trip

Things have definitely been busy since we said goodbye to the Ireland team! The week after they left Sean, Mavis, Vicky and I taught a 5 Day Club at Saddlers Pentecostal Church of God. We taught the club last year with our Summer intern Nathan, so we were very excited to be invited back… and to see many of the same kids return as well!

Cute girls hanging out before club began

This guy was the only kid to say all 5 verses for the week, and he got a Bible for his reward

We ended up having 53 kids attend for the week! Notice Maddy in the aisle?

Sean going over the rules.

Vicky teaching the memory verse

Poor Mavis hurt her arm and almost broke it. Sean had to hold the flash cards for her Bible lesson.

A rare picture of me… I’m usually behind the camera!

This adorable girl was no more than 4 years old. I watched her walk to the church and cross the main road all by herself holding her doll!

Our little cutie “posing” for the camera after club

On Sunday we attended service at Saddlers and Sean “brought the message”. He preached about the difference between childish faith and childlike faith.

The following Tuesday we were asked to teach a few training classes for some of the adults in the church. Saddlers is planning to have their own Good News Club in a local primary school this Fall. Sean and I had actually never taught training classes together here… so it was exciting getting to tag team with him again!

Preaching and on The Radio

Our friends and fellow missionaries in St. Kitts, the Graysons, recently left to visit their home in the States for six weeks. Brandon is the pastor of our church here, Caribbean Christian Fellowship, so Sean has preached in his place the last two Sundays. Sean has also been filling in for Brandon on his and Mavis’ weekly radio show on Saturdays. If anyone would like to listen, you can do so online at Dominion Radio. The radio show airs at 2:30pm eastern time… 1:30 central.

Sean will actually be hosting the show by himself until Brandon returns because Mavis leaves next week for her three month long training at the Children’s Ministries Institute in Missouri! When she gets back in November she will be completely ready to take over the ministry! Please pray for her as she prepares to leave and please pray for her family as they will be without her for quite some time.

Meanwhile, Sean and Mavis have been getting ready for the Fall… working with pastors and other church leaders to start Good News Clubs in the primary schools. It looks like we may have several new school based clubs!

Our Last Summer Ministry Trip

ECC (Evangelical Chinese Church) from Seattle came last year with a large group… they are returning this week with a much smaller group and we are so excited to see them again! They will be coming with Marshall and Kim Pennell and Jessica Ching. They may have a smaller group but we have a lot of ministry planned for them! They will be teaching a 5 Day Club, helping an elderly man with some basic repairs to his house, hosting a large children’s rally and doing some open air evangelism in downtown Basseterre… not to mention attending a local church where one of the guys will be preaching! The Pennells and Jessica come in today and the rest of the team arrives on Thursday (after a very LONG day of travel). Everyone leaves on Friday the 23rd.

Pray for their travel and for their ministry to be fruitful!

Only three days after they leave Sean’s family will be here for two weeks… from August 26th – September 10th!

August is flying by!

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Mandi 07/24/2013

Where We are Going Next…

After much prayer and conversation we are ready to announce where we are going after our time in St. Kitts is over!

From the start, our plan was to work ourselves out of a job in St. Kitts and our goal was to serve for two years with the intention of staying longer if necessary. Well we are super pleased to say that we have full confidence to step out of our position in St. Kitts by January… exactly two years since moving!

We had four goals when coming to St. Kitts… to have a local office, ministry taking place in all parts of the island, a National Board trained and raising funds for the ministry and to have a National Director hired and trained to take over the work.

All four of these goals have been met! Well… almost.

Mavis Huggins was hired as the National Coordinator at the beginning of this year and has been working with Sean extensively. In a little under one month, she will travel to Warrenton, Missouri for the three month Children’s Ministries Institute training with CEF. When she returns in November she will officially have completed every benchmark needed and will be ready to take over the ministry completely. We, of course, will remain here until mid-January to help with the transition.

So…

When we first felt led to move to St. Kitts, around 20 countries in the Caribbean were considered unreached by CEF. That number has gone down to just five!

Turks and Caicos is one of the countries left and we are so excited to let everyone know we will be moving there next year!

Lord willing, we will leave St. Kitts mid-January 2014 and will travel to Turks and Caicos for about a week and half to meet some pastors, make connections, look at housing and get a brief glimpse of life on the islands. Afterwards we will return to the States for a five month furlough and plan on moving to Turks and Caicos in July.

There are many similarities between St. Kitts & Nevis and Turks & Caicos… the population, number of children and way of life are around the same.

But there are differences, the biggest is our time commitment. Instead of serving two years like we have in St. Kitts and Nevis, we are committing to four years in Turks and Caicos. We inherited a year’s worth of initial work in St. Kitts but we will basically be starting from scratch in Turks and Caicos… which requires a longer time commitment. However our goal is the same… to work ourselves out of a job… so if all of the benchmarks are reached early then we will be ready to step out of our position if necessary.

As of now, we definitely are not experts about Turks and Caicos, our knowledge is fairly limited. But we do know a few things…

– Turks and Caicos is about 600 miles southeast from Miami and 130 miles north of Haiti.

– Turks and Caicos is made up of MANY islands but only eight are inhabited.

– It is a British Overseas Territory.

– The capital is Cockburn Town and the most populous town is Providenciales.

– They speak English but 15% of the population is Haitian which speak mainly Creole.

– There is little children’s ministry.

– According to a local pastor Sean spoke with, the Gospel is simply assumed.

– Their currency is the U.S. Dollar.

– Tourism and off-shore banking make up most of the economy.

– I’m not going to lie… it’s beautiful!

– The country is in a direct path for many tropical storms and hurricanes.

– They still have large bugs and centipedes.

– No monkeys… but they do have iguanas.

– The islands are mostly arid and flat… it only rains 30 days out of the year.

– There is no fresh water. Their water comes from rain and a salt-filtration system… basically water is a precious commodity and expensive.

There is still work to be done in St. Kitts for the remainder of our time. Mavis will be gone for three months, we have another mission team coming soon and we are starting After-school Good News Clubs this Fall with church partnerships… plus training classes, ministry to kids and everything else that comes along.

But we are excited about Turks and Caicos and wanted to let everyone know where the Lord is leading us!

Filed Under: Turks and Caicos 4 Comments

Mandi 07/18/2013

Ireland Trip Recap!

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!

Filed Under: St. Kitts 1 Comment

Mandi 07/02/2013

Beach Allen 5 Day Clubs

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!