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!

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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!

 

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.

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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!

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Chris teaching the Bible Lesson at Bronte-Welsh

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Holly teaching the Memory Verse at Tucker-Clarke Primary

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Helen teaching  about John Paton, the missionary story

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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.

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Students at Tucker-Clarke

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Listening attentively to Chris at Bronte-Welsh

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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.

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The kids always LOVE playing Zonk!

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

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Little Zackari was very popular with the kids

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Phil showing off his muscles

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

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Cute little Zackari. He is such a happy baby!

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Playing a review game… human basketball with crumbled paper

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

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The kids loved this game!

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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!)

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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!

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!

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Maddy praying

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Vicki teaching the memory verse

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Sunglasses are a must for 5 Day Club

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Mavis teaching the Bible lesson

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It’s so tiring!

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The girls LOVED Maddy

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Sean teaching the memory verse on Friday

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

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Aaliyah showing her Flipper-Flapper

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

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Playing Uno after Club… they smoked Sean!

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Saying bye to some of the girls

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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!

CEF Week

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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

Teacher Training Testimony

This is why we are here…

Sean and Mavis were able to teach a small training seminar for a local church (Beacon of Hope). We want the people here in St. Kitts and Nevis to have a burden to reach their nation’s children. We want them to become on fire to share the Gospel with every single child and we want them to be equipped to do so!

We were blown away when we received the following email (it is long but worth the read) from one of the seminar participants:

Dear Mavis

I want to thank you and Shawn for the very fruitful sessions which you conducted for the teachers/volunteers/mentors of Beacon of Hope. It was quite refreshing for me personally as I was reminded of methods of dealing with children which I had learnt long ago and had somehow forgotten and it also brought me into a new consciousness of how Jesus loves children and of His redemptive nature and that I should treat them with kindness and love no matter their background or attitude.

All of the reports from the participants were very positive.  The teaching has greatly impacted how they view children and their need to be saved at an early age. It has brought them into the awareness that there are different methods which they can use to get the attention of children without bullying or mistreating them.  It also has been helpful in revealing how children can be evangelized and how they too can carry the message to their peers.  This is very exciting when we look at the potential for the expansion of the kingdom of God and for the ability of children to walk in their God given purpose from a tender age.  One of the teachers said “what a joy, the command of God to evangelize can also be fulfilled by children if we prepare them!”

Many of the teachers used expressions such as “eye opener, innovative techniques, effective implementation, systematic progression, responsive, compassionate, change in mentality, patience is key, engaging God, passing the baton accurately, preparation is vital” in describing the sessions. They spoke about the material being simple but effective and marvelled at how much we were able to cover in three hours.  We just attribute all of this success to the Lord being with us in that training session and caused us to use time effectively so that three days work was done in three hours, for He truly was present.

It also brought out the importance of preparation, of how we need to give our best, for our God deserves the best and His children whom He has placed in our care deserve the best.  It showed us that good preparation would yield better results. How can we teach what we don’t know or tell children to do what we do not practise? Wouldn’t it be hypocrisy? These are some questions that we have been asking ourselves.  One of the things that stuck with me was how Shawn described the end result of just teaching children Bible stories without leading them to salvation.  He said that we would be raising Pharisees.  That was so powerful as an eye opener.  We do not want a set of Pharisees as our seed and so we will endeavour to ensure that the Gospel is included in every session.  I also remember your mention of the fact that we are co-labourers and as such we are not on our own and we are not working for ourselves we are accountable and this requires a certain level of responsibility knowing that we are partnering with God.

Many also found that the methods can be used with their own children as several are single mothers who are also in the process evangelizing their own children.

On behalf of Pastor Gaston Harris and the participants I wish to say thank you for sharing such powerful and transforming methods and not only that but also showing us what the Word of God says to susbstantiate the teachings.

May God continue to increase you more and more in His love and wisdom as you persevere to accomplish His purpose.

Janet Harris
For Beacon of Hope.


Just as with most things, we go through many ups and downs in ministry. There are times when we wonder about the effectiveness of what we are doing. Discouragement seems to veer it’s ugly head ever so often. But receiving emails like this just makes us praise God! He is doing something on this tiny island!

We are so grateful to witness His work!