Well, our first mission trip team has come and gone. It was such a joy to have these girls work with us last week! They reached a lot of children, loved on Maddy and were a huge encouragement to us!

They were here from Saturday to Saturday.

On Sunday they attended one of our favorite churches in St. Kitts, Cayon Church of God. Our board chairman, Nigel, attends this church and the pastor helped us get our visas last year.

During the week the girls taught a 5 Day Club at Beach Allen Primary School. They were able to reach 127 children!

Every team seems to have “something” that goes wrong, or doesn’t turn out as planned. Their “thing” happened after eating dinner on Tuesday evening. Everyone who ate the Mahi Mahi at this restaurant got a mild case of food poisoning! Thankfully they seemed to recoup well the next day!

This team was a little different in that it was a mission trip/senior trip. So the girls had a lot of time to just enjoy the island. They were able to do the rainforest zip lines, go horseback riding, snorkel, relax by the pool and even took a sailboat on Friday! Because they were staying at the Marriott we were able to swim at the pool a few times too!

They even had Maddy stay the night with them on Thursday so Sean and I could have an evening alone! Maddy was so excited! She talked about it ALL DAY. She really thought she was one of the “big girls” for sure!

We just loved having them here and we were sad to see them go. Maddy kept saying she wanted to get on the “AA plane” and go back to Alabama. But we are looking forward to getting up with them when we come home next year!

Our next team arrives in July… from Ireland!

Last week we had the privilege of attending our first church partnership After School Good News Club! Antioch Baptist Church has adopted William Connor Primary and has already held club for three weeks!

We could not be MORE excited to see this take place in St. Kitts! We want to see clubs like this repeated with all of the primary schools here, and even into other countries as well!

There are definitely some kinks being worked out but the teachers are amazing! And the kids absolutely LOVE being there!

It is so amazing to see how God is working in St. Kitts and Nevis! There are already more churches wanting to adopt schools next Fall!

Birmingham Mission Trip

Our first team arrives this Saturday! A group of just graduated girls are taking a combination mission trip/senior trip and will be teaching 5 Day Clubs at a local school, preaching at a church (one of the Dads, not the girls) and have offered to babysit Maddy for a night. We are really looking forward to meeting them and having fellow Alabamians with us for a week!

Our van is almost completely repaired. We were able to fix the starter and the back suspension and shocks are now ready for the team. Which means we should be able to put people in the back of the van again. The front suspension still needs work but we are waiting for more parts to come in. Also, Sean got a check from the petroleum company and we now have a back bumper again.

It’s like we have a new van!

Please pray for the Birmingham team as they prepare to leave and serve in ministry here next week (they will be here from Saturday – Saturday).

Before I end…

We are able to have American cable TV here and were extremely saddened to watch the events in Oklahoma unfold Monday afternoon/evening. It was devastating to know many of the kids at Plaza Towers did not make it out alive. We are praying for their families, for CEF in Oklahoma and the other victims as well.

Last Monday we celebrated 1 year of having our Good News Club in Fig Tree! We had a birthday cake and watched a movie with popcorn! It was such a special treat for the kids and they all seemed to have a lot of fun.

I love this picture! She is studying for her memory verse before club began… complete with her bare feet propped up and tongue sticking out. She said her verse perfectly!

Of course, as soon as I brought out the camera the kids wanted their pictures taken. They all try to cram into the shot at the last minute.

And they LOVE to put Maddy in the center of their group pictures… but Maddy isn’t to sure about being surrounded!

Thanks to the money raised by the Alabama and Missouri CYIA (Christian Youth in Action) programs, we were able to get a projector for the chapter in St. Kitts and Nevis! So we brought it along with us and the kids watched The Jesus Film for Children.

What is a movie night without popcorn?

The kids were thrilled to have the popcorn… so was Maddy!

To be honest, we thought we would need to quiet the kids down at least once during the movie, but they were captivated! One of the adults told us the kids had never seen anything like it. They’ve been told about what Christ did for them all year, but they got to see a depiction of it. They were all completely silent during the crucifixion scene. The movie ends with an invitation to trust in Christ and a sample prayer… we could hear a few of the kids saying the prayer along with the movie.

Sean explained to them what it meant to trust in Christ and how coming to Good News Club will help them grow in their Christian walk.

We are so grateful to be part of this Good News Club! It was definitely bittersweet for us though… knowing that we probably won’t be there to celebrate next year’s birthday (we leave in January 2014). But we are excited to continue teaching until then!

Other News

The TCE class in Nevis is going very well!

We had an earthquake last week… a 5.3! Most everyone on the island woke up around 3am because their beds were violently shaking. Us? We slept through it all. We had no idea there was an earthquake until we got on Facebook the next morning!

Our wall still has a hole in it but we should be getting the estimate this week.

The petroleum company finally settled with Sean! We will be getting a new bumper for our van soon. The accident happened last September so we are grateful for the resolution. We also ordered the parts to fix our suspension and shocks and they are in transit to St. Kitts from several different places. We haven’t been able to put anyone in the back of our van since last year… plus our van is very “squeaky” and I can hear Sean driving down the road, downstairs and inside the house, before he even gets to our driveway! People know when the Millers have arrived! So hopefully getting the bumper and suspension fixed will help. Unfortunately, our starter went out this week and a friend in the States will be bringing one with him when he comes back next week because we cannot find one here at all. For now, Sean has to bang on the starter with a hammer to get the van running! Haha! But we are just happy it will start, whatever it takes! This poor van has been put through the wringer!

In about two weeks our first mission trip team will be here!

Just another week in the Caribbean!

First, before we get to the good news… there is some bad news. Mavis Huggins, the new National Director had to travel to the States because her brother-in-law and his wife were in a terrible bus accident in North Carolina. Her brother-in-law was killed and his wife was in serious condition but is now doing better. Will you please pray for Mavis and her family during this terrible time?

Milestone Number One

Last night we celebrated one year of our Good News Club in Fig Tree! I can’t believe how quickly the time has flown. We asked the kids who were at the very first club day last year to raise their hands… it was nearly half the club! We are definitely praising God for bringing these kids back week after week for the last year. This Good News Club truly is the highlight of our week. Next Monday we will formerly celebrate our birthday with a cake and a candle!

Milestone Number Two

On Sunday evening Sean conducted the very first St. Kitts & Nevis church partnership After-School Good News Club training! Antioch Baptist Church is adopting William Connor Primary. The relationship is so interesting! Dr. William Connor was the founding pastor of Antioch Baptist Church some 60 years ago and the school, which is down the street basically, was built and named after him 25 years ago. So Antioch Baptist has a special interest in ministering to William Connor Primary. They are even more eager to get a club started because the Mormon Church has also been reaching out to the school lately by teaching in the assemblies and donating expensive equipment to the school.

Typically, it can be hard sometimes to get the necessary 5-7 volunteers needed to run an effective club (even in the States) but Antioch Baptist has 11 committed volunteers! That completely blew us away!

Antioch Baptist Volunteers, Sean took this picture on his phone

The team will begin their Good News Club in May and only go for four weeks to “get their feet wet” and work out any kinks. Then in the Fall they will begin normally. We are so excited to see this partnership take place! We strongly feel the BEST ministry is done working with the schools by neighborhood churches and we want to see partnerships like this repeated all over St. Kitts and Nevis until every primary school is adopted.

Other Happenings

Sean ended up having 5 people register and show up for the TCE class (Teaching Children Effectively) in Nevis! The first official class went very well so Sean will be riding the ferry to Nevis every Saturday for the next five weeks.

We are finally out of the dry spell! We have received a ton of needed rain in the last couple of weeks. The fires have subsided and it seems the water problem isn’t as much of a concern now.

Maddy began her dance class and so far seems to be enjoying it! Although when asked what she learned in class she responds with “I don’t know”. 🙂

We are continuing to plug away with life in St. Kitts and are getting ready for our first mission trip team next month!

Please be in prayer for Antioch Baptist Church, the TCE class in Nevis and for Mavis and her family.

I also updated our Recent Prayer Requests page for more ways to be in prayer for our family and ministry.

Thank you!