Archives for 2019

Sean Miller 12/13/2019

Christmas Outreach in Turks & Caicos (Guest Post!)

(Today y’all have a special treat! This is a guest post by one of the short-term ministry team members from Young Meadows Presbyterian Church in Montgomery, AL. Be encouraged as Nancy shares all about the trip! – Sean)

The Lord does things that make no ‘sense’ to us – but in his perfect will and in our obedience to Him – those things serve to bring honor and glory to HIM and to further his kingdom.

The Lord gathered together a ‘unique’ group of folks to travel to and serve in the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF) mission on Turks & Caicos.

Our leader for the trip was the CEF Area Director for the North Caribbean – Sean Miller. Sean lived on Turks & Caicos and in St. Kitts & Nevis with his wife and children. Sean has recruited and gathered together a national board for CEF Turks & Caicos and is walking with them as they do the “hoop-jumping” behaviors needed to become an incorporated non-profit organization on the island.

Senior Pastor Jay Joye of YMPCA was our spiritual leader for this trip

Lin & Sandra – Lin is a retired Insurance agent and Sandra is a retired teacher. Sandra was the Mama for our group – Sandra saw that everyone got a hot breakfast each day.

Sandra was the creative member of the group – always thinking ahead and going the extra mile to ensure our little group and our bigger groups of children we were serving were accommodated and blessed.

Lin & Sandra were led to bring two of their grandchildren with them on this trip, it is their intention to take each grandchild to serve on a foreign mission trip, just like they did with their children when they were teenagers. Lin was the game leader for the older group of children and Sandra was the Memory Verse leader for the older children.

Lin & Sandra’s grandchildren are Cole and Lani

Cole is a delightful senior in High School – who is doing dual enrollment in college at this time – he led the music for the younger group of children at our Bible Clubs, as well as, led the music for our opening assembly times in the mornings. Cole is sharp and funny and a joy to be around.

Lani is in high school. Lani is our ‘compassionate friend’ to everyone, she was the first to find a child friend in our Bible Club and she was the magnet that drew our ‘Younger Children’ group together each afternoon. Lani worked with Cole on the Music for the younger children and she worked on the craft projects for each session.

Bert & Grant are a father and son, dynamic duo. Bert was a true blessing to me, as he showed me and encouraged me to “OWN” the Bible story I was going to share with the younger children in our Bible Clubs.

Bert was the “Bible Story Teller” for the older group of children in the Bible Clubs and Grant was the song leader for the older group of children.

Bree left her 3-year-old daughter, with grandmother, and joined our band of Merry Bible club missionaries. Bree was a great asset to our Younger Children’s Bible Club as she shared the Memory Verse with the children

Our Youngest member was Lili – 11 years old chronologically – but 24 + in heart and spirit and servanthood. Lili is kind and loving and patient and delights in serving younger children. I know her heart and the love of the Lord she has and shares, and I was thrilled to be able to ask her parents if she could dip her toes into the world of “Foreign Missions” with me on this trip. I rejoiced when they said “YES”

Lili lead the games in the younger children’s Bible Club group.

And I rounded out our crew of missionaries, Nancy.

Eleven individuals – extremely diverse in age, place in life, and Christian walk – but the Lord gathered us together to serve His people on the island of Providenciales and through his Grace – we served.

Our theme for our Bible Club this week on the island is “JESUS brings JOY TO THE WORLD” ; a couple of weeks prior to our departure, the LORD (His ways are amazing) brought to my attention that a 25 – Day Advent Devotion by John Piper could be had in bulk quantities for only .99 cent each!

Look at the timing of this whole thing – we were going during Thanksgiving Week, to share Joy to the World with the Children – while God was leading us to share Joy to the World with the adults we met through an Advent Devotional study – and on top of that – when I called to get the booklets – they were on back order at the distribution center – and the back order was filled and arrived in the mail on Thursday – the day before we drove to Atlanta to catch our plane – God has a timetable – that is perfect.

Time in our van was GREAT – the folks in the back continued to sweat – constantly asking for more air – the person riding shotgun – had extremely high anxiety and stress– as Sean drove on the ‘wrong’ side of the road – there were no traffic lights on the island – the go around traffic circles were scary and it always seemed that we were a second or two away from an accident –

The only one in the van who had any sense of where we were or where we were going was Sean. Sean was a great narrator of everything T&CI – Provo Island.

SUNDAY MORNING

Early worship church service was delightful – the worship music led by Devon; the challenge by Caldon to get tickets to watch the movie “Overcomer” – the assistant Pastor; the sermon by Jay. This time of worship was so filling and so good – I’m blessed to have had this experience.

After lunch, Sean drives us to and through our ministry venues – we stop and pray at the schools we will serve.

MONDAY MORNING

Assembly time was fun with the BEST Institute – Sean welcomed everyone, Cole played his guitar, we used the children to hold up the words of the songs and to help us by shaking the Jingle Bells while we sang our signature song to the tune of Jingle Bells.

We were then off to our 1^st CEF Bible Club at Enid Capron Primary School!

This was our Mission – to present CEF’s “Jesus Brings Joy to the World” Bible Club to the children of Provo – and we were finally ready to start. We had planned, prepared, purchased trinket things to enhance the lessons, rehearsed, built props – practiced timing and transitions and prayed about this mission and now we were going to minister to the children.

Monday Night with the CEF National Board

We drove to Dr. Afolabi’s home where our social event with the CEF TCI National Board was being hosted. And it was a full-fledged feast with every good and delectable thing imaginable – including fried Conch from Mr. Groupers. It was a delightful evening of fun, fellowship and food, and in everyone’s opinion it ended too soon. Each member of our crew found interesting new friends and learned about life in the Islands. It was a sweet time with sweet friends.

TUESDAY MORNING

Sean picks us up to go to Oseta Jolly Primary School

The principal welcomes us and gives the microphone to Sean. The mutual respect and love between the school and Sean is extremely evident. They give him a certificate of Appreciation for his work with CEF in this school.

Jay was given opportunity to share Jesus with the group and to invite them back to Bible Club this afternoon.

Jay had the privilege of leading a child to the loving knowledge of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!

Wednesday Morning

We are off to the most beautifully named institution for nurturing children that I could possibly think of, “Precious Treasures” International School

If I lived on Provo I would want my children and my grandchildren in a school called Precious Treasures; the name of the school speaks volumes for the attitude of the staff and administration towards the students.

Morning assembly was wonderful, we shared our Christmas Bells songs with the school and they shared their upcoming Holiday concert selections with us. Jay spoke to the school and Sean reminded the older children, that his daughter had been one of their classmates just a few years ago.

Off then to Ianthe Pratt Primary School. A great way to start our last Bible club on the island.

Immediately after dinner we headed down the road to Jericho Baptist church for Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting.

THURSDAY MORNING

We then headed to the airport! Too many details to share, precious time together, precious Sean for sharing his love for these islands and more so, his love for the people of these islands. Is there any more difficult Mission to serve, than physically removed from your mission field – while serving your mission population with your heart and soul?

Until next time – God Bless and keep TCI.

Mandi 08/09/2019

Our Crazy But Fun Summer

Now that our family is tied to a school schedule it makes traveling during the year harder. Between school, having babies, moves and of course our normal work with the Caribbean, we haven’t been able to see many of our out-of-town partners and churches. So this summer we made up for it AND threw in extra ministry work too! It made for a very busy summer that we spent mostly away from home. I think the easiest way to recap the last few months is to start at the beginning and go from there…

Riley-Grace Turned 5!

Memorial Day weekend we packed up and drove to Sean’s parents’ home in Spanish Fort, AL (near Mobile). Riley-Grace wanted to celebrate her birthday by going to the beach… which is her happy place. So we had a small family birthday party and then went to the beach! Her birthday is actually on June 4th but we wouldn’t be in Alabama then (more on that later) so we celebrated a week early.

CYIA of Florida Training

We spent the first two weeks of June in Orlando… nope, not at Disney, but at Florida’s CYIA training. CYIA stands for Christian Youth in Action and is a program with CEF where teenagers teach 5 Day Clubs throughout the summer in their local areas. It’s how Sean got started with CEF! We were honored to be picked as Florida’s focus missionaries for this summer and were asked to attend their training camp so we could really get to know the teens. Whenever those teens taught the missionary portion of the clubs they would share about us and our ministry to Turks & Caicos! Our girls had a BLAST hanging with the teenagers for two weeks! It was fun for us too!

This class was specifically for the teens who would be teaching the missionary stories.

How we tried to keep them quiet while Daddy was teaching! (It didn’t always work).

After the first week we actually drove ALL THE WAY back to Alabama to drop Maddy off at Camp Victory. We stayed the night in Enterprise and then drove ALL THE WAY back to Orlando. We couldn’t really go to Disney World while we were in Orlando so we did the next best thing. On Riley-Grace’s birthday we went to Disney Springs (Downtown Disney = free), met up with some of my family (from Texas!) who happened to be on vacation at Disney World and ate at the T-Rex Cafe! Riley-Grace said it was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER.

Riley-Grace LOVED this tiny Aladdin cake!

This was her birthday present that she picked out from the “Giant Princess Store”.

It was so fun getting to hangout with cousins from Texas!

Maddy all set for a week at Camp Victory… she had a blast!

Seattle

After Florida’s CYIA tranining was over we drove back home, picked up Maddy and then a few days later Sean went to Turks & Caicos to train the new National Board. He will fill you in about how awesome his trip went on the next blog post! He was only back for one day and then we left again, this time for Seattle! The ticket prices for flying were ridiculously expensive… the cheapest by far was out of New Orleans. Thankfully Sean’s parents only live a couple hours away so we stayed the night there and then drove to New Orleans. Thankfully, our flight was non-stop because we arrived in Seattle at 10pm (our time)… our girls go to bed at 7pm. I’m sure you can easily guess how things were going at that point haha. But it was so exciting to be back in Seattle again! The last time we were there was in 2014 when I was still pregnant with Riley-Grace… we hadn’t even moved to Turks & Caicos yet!

In case you are wondering why on earth we went to Seattle, we have had a partnership with Evangelical Chinese Church (ECC) for several years. They sent two mission teams to work with us in St. Kitts and still pray for us, support us and even send us the coolest notes and origami! They are one of our strongest church partnerships, we really do love them! We were able to hangout with several people who were on those mission trips to St. Kitts six and seven years ago, Sean had the opportunity to preach on Sunday morning at ECC’s Seattle campus, we shared in Sunday School and we were able to meet with the missions committee over dinner.

For some fun while there we wanted to go downtown, checkout Pike’s Place market, visit the first Starbucks, eat some Russian and Turkish goodies and checkout the zoo. Charlotte however, was exhausted and wanted none of it haha. Sean bought some Turkish Delight and we rode the ferris wheel downtown then had to leave. We made it through about 1/3 of the zoo and had to leave that too. Let’s just say a busy schedule + not enough sleep + a new place + a two year old… it doesn’t equal anything happy. And on our flight back to New Orleans we were definitely THOSE parents with THAT kid on the plane. Once we were back and she had a few days of good sleep, she was back to normal… still very much two years old, but much happier!

Meeting with the St. Kitt’s crew (you can see our kids were done haha!)

They were all very excited to ride the ferris wheel!

On the ferris wheel and Charlotte is happy!

Our flight back to New Orleans gave us a close up of Mt. Rainier!

July

After Seattle was our vacation time. A very generous friend allowed us to stay at their beach house for a few days. We are incredibly grateful because we would absolutely not be able to do this on our own! And after such a busy June we were all needing a break (especially Charlotte). We spent our time doing a whole bunch of nothing… just resting and enjoying our time together… and letting Charlotte catch up on sleep.

The respite was much needed because we were only home for less than a week before leaving again. This time we drove to South Dakota and back but stopped all along the way up and down to meet with partners, friends and co-workers. We spent a few days at CEF Headquarters in Missouri… Sean was in meetings most of the time. It didn’t occur to me to actually take pictures for some reason so I don’t have that many to share. But I do have this picture of Sean and Maddy getting to be part of the flag raising ceremony. Each week they raise different flags in front of headquarters and pray for those countries. While we were there Bermuda was one of those countries!

Sean and Maddy got to be part of raising Bermuda’s flag and praying for them!

My (Mandi’s) mother and aunt moved to South Dakota last year… which actually worked out great because CEF of South Dakota is also a strong partner with us in the Caribbean! Their teens raise money for the Caribbean each summer and they have sent several mission trip teams to help us in Turks & Caicos over the years.

We hadn’t been to South Dakota since 2016 when I was still very early pregnant with Charlotte (we hadn’t even announced it yet). We were able to meet with people who were on some of the mission trip teams to Turks & Caicos and we got to speak at Camp Good News! It was so fun to hang out with the kids! Many of them had heard about our family and Turks & Caicos for several years so it was awesome to actually get to meet them in person.

Camp Good News in Aberdeen, South Dakota!

Sean sharing with the kids about our life in St. Kitts and Turks & Caicos. They loved hearing about the monkeys and bugs the most!

Before we left South Dakota we were able to do something we weren’t able to do when we visited in 2016… we went to Mt. Rushmore! Even though it was partially closed for construction we were still able to see it well. We also drove through the Badlands on the way there and we all decided it was the coolest thing we have ever seen. Out of all the places we visited this summer Maddy said the hour we spent in the Badlands was her favorite!

We all loved getting to see Mt. Rushmore!

The pictures don’t show how high up we really were in the Badlands!

God is such a creative God, this place was so beautiful!
(Also, we didn’t see any rattlesnakes but we could definitely HEAR them!

On our way back down to Alabama we stopped again at CEF Headquarters. Sean had several meetings, Riley-Grace got to be filmed in the studio, we had dinner with friends who partner with us, and we were introduced at CEF’s chapel service.

Instead of driving straight to Montgomery we made our way over to Indianapolis. We stayed the night with friends and fellow missionaries who lived in St. Kitts, The McGaugheys. Although we have known each other for several years now, our kids hadn’t actually met. They moved to St. Kitts just a few days after we moved away… they even bought our van from us! We were also able to have dinner with our dear friends The Graysons. After living in St. Kitts for eight years they recently moved back to Indianapolis. Our daughters were best friends and we have missed their family so much. We ate dinner and let the kids play at the church playground. We even got to see other friends at the church we have made over the years because of our friendship with the Graysons!

Riley-Grace being filmed in the studio at CEF. She was so excited! If you have spent any time with her then you know exactly why they wanted to get her on camera!

Audri and Maddy catching up on life in America (and Riley-Grace trying to tag along).

Wendi and me… we were so glad to see the Graysons again!

Back Home

We were only back four days before Maddy’s open house and as I type this she is at her second day of school! The summer was a whirlwind. We had a lot of fun seeing so many friends, supporters, churches and co-workers. We loved the opportunities to speak in Florida, Seattle and South Dakota. We are so grateful to the Lord for getting to serve the way we do. And we are grateful to all of the people He has brought to partner with us over the years. Some may think we were on vacation all summer and I can assure you that is NOT the way we’d like to spend a vacation haha! For all of the fun family stories we made, we have an equal amount of “not so fun” stories about what it’s really like to travel all summer as a family. I can assure you, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows! But as a whole, the work, the ministry, the friends and family and even the stress made for an amazing summer… one that at least 2 out of our 3 girls will always remember.

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Sean Miller 07/16/2019

New Board Trained!

On June 20, 2019 I (Sean) went to the Turks and Caicos Islands to serve, train and equip the brand new national board for Child Evangelism Fellowship TCI! As usual, I took the early morning flight out of Montgomery, AL’s regional airport (MGM). Since the city of Montgomery is relatively small and many people seem to feel in their minds that BHM and ATL are worth the time, effort, city traffic, potential road work, potential accident slowdowns, mileage on their vehicles, extra gas, parking fees, extra meals, and hotel stays (cough cough I have strong feelings about this 🙂 cough cough), I at times will see people that I know flying in out of MGM! There are only so many planes per day in and out of MGM after all. And this trip was no different, on my exact morning flight was one of our long-time friends from Heritage Baptist Church – Prattville!

Sean Miller and Carol Parks (HBC-Prattville)

This was a short trip (three nights/four days total, inclusive of travel time) but by God’s grace and for His glory it was by far one of the most fruitful and productive times of ministry in Turks and Caicos ever. Praise the Lord!

First, we had a great surprise a few weeks before the training to be given the gift of free access to use the Ocean Club Resort Conference Room for the CEF TCI national board training! This gave us a very professional environment to conduct the training that was also in a neutral location (vs doing the training in a specific church). The first night fifteen people came out to be a part of re-launching CEF in the TCI!

The new board during their first board meeting

A major first task for the newly trained board is that CEF in TCI needs to be registered with the government of Turks and Caicos, so please pray that this will happen quickly. There is a large amount of paperwork that has to be done to ensure all of the non-profit organizational laws are followed for the country. This of course is no issue for CEF, but this process simply takes time. But until CEF is officially registered, the ministry will be limited.

Aside from the board training, it was a blessing to be back in Turks and Caicos where we have lived as a family, have friends and where we know the island so well.

If you ever travel to Turks and Caicos, you MUST eat at Chinson’s Grill Shack.

Construction of a major new resort in Grace Bay (The Ritz-Carlton) is well underway.

As seen from one of the grocery store parking lots, we were used to just seeing the tree line when we went to the store.

However, on a personal note, my main takeaway from the trip (separate from the board training of course!) was quite contemplative. A dear brother & friend always tells me: “Welcome home” whenever I see him in Turks & Caicos. He told me that again when I saw him in church on that Sunday of the trip.

This multi-island country has been a part of our lives for six years if you count from when we stepped out in faith with the calling to go help set up CEF there. We may have only actually lived there on island a year, but TCI is fully intertwined with the story of our lives. We have a strong church home, lifelong friends, a great community and we know nearly every square inch, back road and local spots of each of the main inhabited islands. We have positive relationships with each of the primary schools in TCI and some of the children first reached through CEF TCI are in high school now.

We are grateful for God’s perfect plan and timing. Some of the results and fruit we are now beginning to see with the national board re-established we wish we could have seen when we lived there but His ways are higher than our ways. There were lessons we needed to learn so that we would fully depend on Him. Thankful for the fact that we have these multiple ‘homes,’ and so grateful for all the wonderful people and friends in TCI that we wish we could see more often and spend more time with. It is hard to only see these folks for a few moments for these short trips. I am so grateful for this local friend who always tells me this, as it is more life-giving to my heart and soul than he probably realizes.

Praise the Lord with us for this new national board, pray for them as they register CEF with the TCI government, and pray for these local leaders as they help reach every child on every island of the great nation of Turks & Caicos!

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Mandi 06/15/2019

Back To St. Kitts

In April the whole family got to go back to St. Kitts for a few days! Sean and I were helping with a CEF training conference in both St. Kitts and Nevis. Many of our dear friends and co-workers hadn’t even met Charlotte yet so it was exciting to see everyone!

The conferences were wonderful. Almost ALL of those attending were new to CEF. In St. Kitts the Lord brought 107 people from 37 different churches to learn more about reaching children. We taught with Mavis and Jewel, fellow workers from St. Kitts. Here are a few pictures of the training!

Sean, Mavis and Jewel also went to Nevis to do a training conference there too. There were 32 people from 18 different churches. Here are a few pictures from Nevis!

On Sunday Sean preached at Mavis’ church, Grace Gospel Hall. There was a terrible rain storm that morning and the roads were flooded. We weren’t sure he would even be able to make it until the last minute. He arrived at the church just in time to preach!

We were able to catch up with our friends the Graysons! We served with them when we lived in St. Kitts, our daughters were best friends. We missed them very much and we pretty much picked up right were we left off. After living in St. Kitts for eight years, they recently moved back to America. Hopefully we will get to see them more often now! Another family we are friends with are the Comers and we were able to see them too! Our daughters are ALSO great friends and the same age. They are Celebrate Recovery missionaries and are doing amazing work in St. Kitts!

The island has changed so much since we last visited in 2016. The grocery stores are so NICE now and there is more for kids to do. There are more hotels being built and some of the roads have been repaired. Our girls really enjoyed our time there! Maddy was happy to be back in a place that is home for her. She wishes she could somehow mix her life in St. Kitts, Turks and Caicos and Alabama all into one. Riley-Grace loved the different fruits and kept asking everyday when we were going to the beach! (We did finally take her for about 2 hours the day we left). This was Charlotte’s first Caribbean trip and she was excited about EVERYTHING the entire time. We worried she wouldn’t adjust well to new people and the heat but she had zero problems!

Our family dearly loves St. Kitts and Nevis. We are so grateful that we get to work with the people there even after moving five years ago. Even now, it still feels like home.

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Mandi 05/06/2019

Back To Turks & Caicos!

In early April Sean and I made a trip back to Turks and Caicos, the girls stayed at home with their Mimi. Our objective was to re-establish the national board. Since 2011 every English speaking country in the Caribbean now has ongoing CEF ministry… at least every country except Turks and Caicos. And yet, we have poured so much effort into Turks and Caicos… we even lived there for a year. We now know a few things we didn’t know several years ago, the biggest being that Turks and Caicos is extremely transient.

The original board had about six members… one passed away, one had to resign for personal reasons and three moved off island. The lack of a national board is really holding back the ministry from moving forward. We have relationships established with most all of the schools, we have volunteers ready to teach and may even have a few potential staff members who could serve in the near future. But none of this can really happen if Turks and Caicos does not have a national board leading the ministry.

For five days we met with 18 people asking them to prayerfully consider joining the national board. Most of them said yes! There is a sense of urgency to reach the children of Turks and Caicos that we didn’t see when we lived there. The people we with met with were telling US how the church is losing the next generation, how they have to do something or the crime, violence, materialism and negative family situations will only get worse.

We are very encouraged and hopeful that Turks and Caicos will finally have a strong, fruitful CEF ministry and that the Lord will use His church there to make a true and long-lasting difference! In June Sean will go back to conduct a training for all of these potential board members. Knowing how transient the population is, we are praying for at least 14 people to commit to serving on the board. That way, even if people move or life requires them to resign, the board will NOT collapse and the ministry will continue!

Harvest Bible Chapel, our church while we lived in Turks and Caicos!

The B.E.S.T Institute, Sean met with the Principal and was asked on the spur of the moment to teach a memory verse. Be ready in season and out of season!

We sent this box of materials to Grand Turk, it went to a new church partnership!

Please be in prayer for at least 14 new board members! And please pray for Sean as he prepares to head back to Turks and Caicos to lead the board training. We want to see strong, nationally led ministry taking place in Turks and Caicos by the end of the year!