It has been just under three months since we moved to St. Kitts and the last two weeks were the craziest yet.

Easter

Easter was the first big holiday we spent without our family and friends… and away from our church home. We really enjoy working in St. Kitts but holidays seem to make us homesick. Regardless, we still had a wonderful weekend celebrating the Death and Resurrection of our Lord with our new friends and church here. On Good Friday the church we attend hosted a service at the beach. We sang a few songs and two of our new friends were baptized! Maddy calls it “bathtized”. 🙂

On Easter we went to Caribbean Christian Fellowship and had our missionary friends, the Graysons and Joneses, over for lunch. Although we couldn’t find any ham, we were still able to have all the normal Easter lunch dishes!

We also took Maddy’s Easter pictures at the beach! We think they turned out amazing!

Sean was invited to give the Bible Lesson at an Easter rally in Sandy Point to over 300 kids! He was supposed to speak at 3:30 but didn’t even start until 5:30. Then, during his lesson a parade drove by and got the kids severely distracted. When he was finally done, he was barely out of Sandy Point before he got behind the same parade! There is only one main road around the island so it took him an hour and a half to get home! It’s an Easter we won’t soon forget!

On The Radio and Television

Last Saturday we had an informational meeting for all of St. Kitts. To get the word out, the Board set up Sean with a radio interview and an interview on their local news. Sean has been on television before but never in a formal interview! Maddy and I made sure we watched… I thought he did a great job but Maddy kept saying he was silly. I guess it was strange for her to see her Daddy on TV!

The event wasn’t as big as we had hoped but those who did turn out were all very serious about starting Good News Clubs. We were hoping to have four schools adopted from the meeting and it seems we will have five! So even though the attendance was low… the meeting was still a huge success!

Fig Tree Good News Club

Monday evening began the first Good News Club Sean and I are teaching in Fig Tree. We are partnering with two other TCE graduates for this club. Fig Tree is a small village outside of Sandy Point. The Graysons and Joneses have a Bible Study there on Monday nights and many people are attending regularly. While they are teaching the adults, we are now teaching the children!

This Club has brought some definite spiritual attacks. In the three weeks of planning, one of the teacher’s daughters became so ill she had to be hospitalized for a few days, the other teacher’s daughter randomly fell off the bus and had to be hopsitalized (both girls are doing fine by the way) and Sean, Maddy and I all got the flu… the worst flu I’ve ever had, and I usually catch it every year. (Plus, Maddy and I got head lice too). Mavis, one of the teachers, said ever since we decided to have the club it’s been one thing after another… big things… and she knows exactly why. In her words, “God is reviving Fig Tree and satan doesn’t like it”.

She’s right. The adult Bible Study is very popular and the Good News Club may prove to be the same. We were planning for 15 kids on Monday evening and ended up with 29!  We have never really been part of something like this and it’s exciting to see what God is doing!

It’s also Maddy’s first club to be part of on a regular basis… and she really seems to enjoy it!

Coming Up

This Saturday Sean will be going to Nevis for their informational meeting and to observe an Easter Party Club. We are praying for not only more Good News Clubs in Nevis but some additional board members as well.

On Sunday Sean is teaching at a church in Basseterre and next Friday we fly back to the States for the CEF Regional Conference! We will be gone nine days and unfortunately won’t have time to see any family. But we are excited just to be back in our own country! I think Maddy is most excited about Chick-Fil-A!

Prayer Requests

We are still recovering from the Flu… well, actually just me really. I went to the doctor and am on a few different prescriptions because I have a sinus infection from my flu. So please pray for us all to be healthy.

Please pray about our visas. We still don’t have them and we need them before we leave next Friday. Otherwise, getting back into the country may be a hairy issue.

Pray for everyone involved in the Fig Tree Good News Club.

Thank you so much for your partnership with us! We are so grateful for everyone who prays for us, supports us and encourages us!

There is so much to post about, that Mandi and I have planned to split this post in half, first half today and then second half later this week. I don’t write posts often but wanted to fully document the weekend before last.

Fig Tree

As you may remember from the previous blog post, Mandi and I will be starting a Good News Club in Fig Tree April 16. I had the privilege of visiting Fig Tree on Saturday March 31 to meet people in that village. I also helped clear brush out of the back of the church area, as the goal is for that space to be used by everyone in the village as a common gathering place. This visit reinforced the burden to begin a Good News Club there, and I was able to meet children from the Fig Tree Village.

These are my new friends Terone and Steven! They both had a toy called a “zoom-zoom” which is a string and a flattened bottlecap. It turns into a yo yo of sorts!

Terone and I, he helped clear the back area!

This whole day was such a different St. Kitts experience. Fig Tree is near Sandy Point, which is about a 30 minute drive away from our house. Fig Tree is a small village, and I found out while we were cleaning the brush away that some of the locals are very scared of frogs! Everyone was backing away and pointing at the frog but I simply picked it up and threw it over the fence, to the surprise of the locals! As I talked with Mavis, the TCE graduate who helps coordinate the cleaning and ministry in Fig Tree, she said the locals are scared of “secretions that the frogs will spit on you, that will make you very sick”.

View from the church in Fig Tree, wherever you are in St. Kitts the Caribbean is beautiful!

They also served traditional “cook-up” for me, which is filled with a variety of different things (rice, beans, etc..), specifically pig snout and pig tail!

 Preaching in Nevis

That afternoon I called the pastor of a church I was to speak at the next morning. I found out then, at 4pm, I was actually speaking at a church in Nevis, and I was to preach the sermon! I quickly had to figure out ferry times that would work, and prepare a sermon!

All of Sunday was a testimony to God’s sovereignty and His sense of humor as well. I took the 9:30 ferry and decided at the last minute NOT to take the van across, but to simply ride the ferry by myself. The pastor said someone was to meet me at the port, so I assumed I would ride with them.

I was expecting at some point to pay the ferry fee but the man who was taking the manifest told me “you look like a preacher, are you preaching today?” Which was funny to me, I simply had a suit on and my Bible, but no tie. I said yes I was preaching today so he let me ride for free, but he told me “you pray for me this morning, will you pray for me?” I said I would be glad to, and he said “when you come back on the ferry, I want to talk to you”.

Hitchhiking!

I got off the ferry, and met the man who was to take me to the church. We began walking away, passed the cars and to the main road. I wondered what we were doing and he said his car was in the shop and we were going to “catch a ride” to the church. After about 5-10 minutes of attempting to flag down a car, a taxi bus came by, and he asked him to be a Good Samaritan to take us to the church, and the taxi man said “40EC”. The man said, “that is too much, we will wait on a nicer taximan”. So now we were “late” for service (which that word doesn’t seem to exist down here). Thankfully the Lord sent a church family in a tiny SUV, and we somehow squeezed all in there and drove to the church.

After church was over there were only two cars in the parking lot but everyone was still there! How were we all in the church going to get home? Easy, 30-40 people, including children, pile in the church bus! The church bus took us to a restaurant, and the pastor, the pastor’s daughter, and the man who hitchhiked with me ate a great local lunch. It was almost time for me to catch the ferry back to St. Kitts but we could not leave yet, because a church member brought me a papaya as a gift for preaching. When the church member arrived I only had 15 minutes to spare before the ferry would leave. However, we had to hitchhike back to the port! We walk about 1/2 mile down the road to get to the main road to try and “catch a ride” again! Now there were four of us trying to get a ride so no one wanted to stop. After about 5-10 minutes, a car picked up the pastor and the pastor’s daughter, but me and Mr. Browne were still trying to hitch a ride the 3-4 miles back to the ferry terminal. We start walking down the road (which imagine with me two dressed up guys walking down the road and I am carrying my suit jacket, Bible, Coca-Cola, and a papaya), and a kind Indian family picked us up and took us to the ferry terminal. It was well past the time the ferry was supposed to leave at this point, but thankfully the ferry was VERY late too, and I was able to get on.

Finally Going Back

Part of me was thinking “man I really should have taken the van!”, but when I saw that the ferry was 100% full, I saw God’s grace that it was good it was just me! I met up with the man on the ferry, Denzil* (name changed), and had a great conversation with him, he opened up to me, sharing what was on his heart, and I prayed for him right then and there on the boat. He was so appreciative, and I hope the Lord continues to work in his heart.

God is good! All the time! Thank you for your prayers and support as we serve Him!

Wow! So much has happened since our last update three weeks ago! We are pretty certain our “settling in and adjusting” period is long gone!

Nevis Trips

Sean was able to visit Nevis on a Saturday afternoon to distribute teaching materials to all of the Good News Club leaders. The following Saturday we all got to visit a club in Nevis! Maddy loved riding the ferry (about 45 minutes one way) and she was thrilled when we arrived at the club. As we walked up to the community center the girls ran out to Maddy holding her hands, touching her hair and rubbing her arms. They were so excited to play with Maddy… and she certainly didn’t mind all of the attention! The club was awesome and what impacted us the most was their “quiet time”. Usually, Good News Clubs have an opportunity to go over the CEF Wonder Book (devotional for kids) in their club hour but this club didn’t have any books. So instead of canning everything, they made the kids go outside with their Bible and read. Then they came back together to talk about what they learned! (They did ask us to order the books and we of course did).

Sean and Maddy on the ferry to Nevis

Maddy with the girls at the GNC in Nevis

Maddy was so tired after getting back home that she fell asleep sitting up on the couch! I even put her pajamas and a diaper on her without waking her up!

Visiting Churches

Three weeks ago we visited the Olivet Gospel Hall in Bassaterre on Sunday morning. We had a great time and even Maddy seemed to enjoy the service. Sean spoke about CEF for a few minutes and we were asked to stay for Sunday school (which takes place after the worship service). What they “meant” was for Sean to teach a CEF lesson! Thankfully we had some extra lessons in our van… specifically ones that Sean has previously taught… be ready in season and out of season! Sean ended up teaching 15 kids and they asked us to teach at their Easter rally which will have around 300 kids in attendance!!

Sean also attended another church on a Sunday morning recently… Maddy wasn’t feeling too well so we stayed home. Turns out the service lasted three and a half hours! The sermon itself was two and half hours! Sean said he will always keep this day in mind whenever he hears people complaining about church being too long!

Vehicle Problems

Two weeks ago we headed to the grocery store and heard water spewing out of the bottom of the van when we got there. It didn’t take long before all of our coolant had poured out into the parking lot. This entire situation could be a blog post itself but basically we had to take our van to two different mechanics. The problem was either going to be something simple and cheap or the van would be completely messed up. Praise the Lord the problem was a hose and cost us very little to fix! Our van is definitely “temperamental” and will heat up if going up hill or sitting in traffic too long but it works! It was a huge answer to prayer! (We also find it humorous that the day our van was fixed, the internet went out for five days).

Other Ministry Happenings

We have confirmed two church mission teams for this Summer! It’s exciting to know we will be able to continue the 5 Day Club ministry that took place here last year!

We may have a potential Summer intern too!

Two Christian Youth in Action groups are adopting Saint Kitts and Nevis as their mission focus for the summer!

Sean is continuing to work on the big April meetings. We are inviting all volunteers and anyone who wants to get connected with CEF. This is supposed to be a decent sized event and Sean is putting a lot of work into it. The St. Kitts meeting is set for April 14th and Nevis will be on April 21st.

We are starting a Good News Club! Sean and I recently decided to start a Good News Club by ourselves on a Monday night. Then Sean met with two women who want to start a club as well but are having a difficult time getting volunteers. So we are all going to partner together to run a Good News Club in Fig Tree. What makes this partnership even more awesome is that these two women are connected with the Grayson’s and Jones’ Awana program in Middle Island and new adult Bible Study in Fig Tree. The Bible Study takes place on Monday nights so now our Good News Club will be reaching the children on Monday nights as well! By us all partnering together we are reaching an entire community! The Lord is definitely moving in Fig Tree!

The Never-Ending Visa Situation

We thought our visas would be coming in a few weeks ago. Sean goes up to the office every week to check on them. Supposedly, all that was needed was one of the head employees to return from “off island” to sign our visas… they had already been approved, they just needed his signature. This week we found out our visa process has to start over from the beginning. Apparently it would be better if we came under a church umbrella rather than CEF because it isn’t an official entity yet. So now we are back to square one. The good news is that we have several churches who would be more than willing to sign off on us.

It’s Getting Hot

For the last two months the weather has been fairly nice. The heat isn’t too bad when you have a nice breeze. However, we are starting to get a taste for what summer is like here. One day this week it was eerily still outside… even the palm trees near the beach weren’t moving and it was so hot and sticky we could see the humidity. Then we realized the temperature we were feeling at that moment would be the “low” during the summer. The warmer weather is also causing the bugs to come out! We’ve seen an increase in flies and ants in our home and a few days ago hundreds of moths swarmed our porch lights (and a few made it inside to swarm our kitchen light) for a couple of hours!

Despite the weather, the power outages, the internet outages, the bugs and other hassles of living here we are excited to see ministry increasing. Mavis, one of the women we are partnering with for our Good News Club in Fig Tree, told Sean, “I think the Lord is going to bring revival to St. Kitts and Nevis and it’s going to start with the children”.

We think so too.

We are getting our visas!!!

Visa Progress

When we came to St. Kitts in January we were given a temporary tourist visa which recently expired. Other missionaries living here have spent an entire year trying to get their visas so we weren’t too sure how long it would take us. Thankfully, we got a call last week from our Board Chairman to drop off our passports and letters from CEF! We should have our visas in the next couple of weeks! Praise the Lord!!

We will be going back to the States for the CEF Regional Conference in late April/early May so now we won’t need to worry about re-entering St. Kitts!

No Electricity, No Water

The power here goes out at least once a week… sometimes more. We are all getting sensitized to it… so much so that we hardly even blink when the power goes out.

But the water?

We weren’t prepared for it going out! St. Kitts has clean, running water just like back home. It’s just understood that when we turn on the faucet, take a shower and wash clothes the water will work. We are learning not to take anything for granted here! Apparently, a water main broke in our neighborhood and we were without water all day Monday (except in the evening) and half of the day on Tuesday! Our dishes were piling up, the laundry started over flowing and frankly… we didn’t smell very good! 😉

We appreciate running water so much more after the start of our week!

Upcoming Events

This Saturday we will be taking the ferry to Nevis! We plan to attend a Good News Club and meet with a few key leaders. It will be Maddy’s first visit to Nevis… she always makes sure no one forgets about Nevis when we talk about St. Kitts. She says we don’t live in St. Kitts… “we live in St. Kitts and Nevis”.

We are also planning to attend three other Good News Clubs in the next two weeks! It’s so exciting to see children being reached with the Gospel!

On Thursday the National Board will be holding their monthly meeting. Sean is very excited to update the board with everything that has happened and all that we have planned!

We are already planning for the summer ministry! We have one mission team pretty much confirmed and two more in the works! Sean is already scheduling 5 Day Clubs so we are hoping this summer will be a busy season full of ministry!

Pirates of the Caribbean

They are real! Haha! We ate dinner out on Monday evening (hard to cook and wash dishes without water) and saw the Black Pearl!

Ok… so it wasn’t the Black Pearl but it did look awesome. The ship was much closer than it seems in the picture… Sean was especially excited to see it. And Maddy kept saying over and over and over and over (you get the picture) “Arrrrrgh Maties!!”