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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

June 5-10 we had the opportunity to be the guest missionaries at Camp Victory in Samson, Alabama! We have known Nate and Laura Smith for quite a long time (Nate is the Program Director) through an annual missions conference at a local church in Montgomery. I (Sean) have also known many who have gone to Camp Victory over the years. Mandi and I have had the chance to be guest missionaries there before a couple years before we originally left for St. Kitts & Nevis.

But first, we celebrated Riley-Grace’s birthday on June 4th! She is obsessed with the beach and with planes (that first year of life in Turks and Caicos must have made an impact on her). So we went to Gulf Shores and celebrated her birthday with my side of the family.

 

Mandi wrote on Riley-Grace’s birthday: “Happy 3rd Birthday to my sweet Riley-Grace! In 3 years this kid has lived in 2 countries and visited a third, been to 15 states and flown more than I can remember. She LOVES the beach, Peppa Pig, Dory, Nemo and Little Einsteins. RG is our daredevil and is VERY resourceful. I love how much she loves her family… she is always giving me hugs and saying “I wub you mommy!” She is extroverted like her Daddy and is his “go places buddy”. She copies everything her big sister does and absolutely adores her baby sister!”

Maddy also always loves the beach!

Maddy was a part of Cabin 4 at Camp Victory (4th from the right), with a fantastic Counselor and Counselor in Training. This was her first time at a camp and she loved it!

Riley-Grace loved the camp activities as well! She loved running around in the wide open spaces and loved picking blueberries to eat off the blueberry bush.

RG was a big fan of snack time also, and loved having her face painted.

She loved meal time as well!

Maddy absolutely loved being at Camp and wants to go back next year!

So what did you do all week you might ask? We were the guest missionaries, so our role was to share with the kids about overseas missions. Every morning we had a 30-minute session with the kids to share pictures, videos, curios, etc… and the kids were really engaged. We also met with individual cabins in the afternoons, led in devotions for the staff and challenged the Counselors in Training to possibly serve with Child Evangelism Fellowship in their local area (or overseas) one day. At the end of the week we gave each of the kids the “Things You Need To Know” booklet by CEF!

One of the challenges for the children that week was to write encouragement cards that I could take on my June 23-26 Nassau trip to Dr. Willamae Miller, the national director for CEF Bahamas. The kids of Camp Victory wrote very sweet cards to her!

Lastly, we were blown away by the generosity of the children, they raised a large offering (over $600!) to help with the costs of the August 14-17 trip to Antigua! Praise the Lord for His provision and the unique ways that God provides for the needs of the ministry.

We were grateful for the opportunity to come and share with the children about what we do as Child Evangelism Fellowship international missionaries! Our family had a great time!

We SO enjoyed our time in Spanish Fort. Although we did work, it was a really good transition opportunity for us… our month there allowed us to rest, adjust to this huge change a little bit and be around family. We even got to be there for the birth of our first niece, Ellie Rose!! We missed so many births, weddings, graduations and funerals while living overseas… we are extremely thankful we didn’t miss meeting Ellie Rose.

On September 7th (Labor Day) with the help of Sean’s family, we drove a U-Haul up to Montgomery… what possessions we have left went from one storage unit to another. We are staying in a missionary house, the same house we were in LAST year when I had Riley-Grace! We will be here until November-ish while we save money to furnish a house. We sold all of our furniture last year because “the plan” was to live in Turks and Caicos for about 4 years… I guess God had different plans! Maddy started 1st grade the next day at Montgomery Christian School and so far, she LOVES it. She loves her teacher, she is making friends and she seems to be flourishing… learning so much so quickly.

We were only in the house for a couple of days when Sean left on his first trip in his new role as Area Director of the North Caribbean… to Nassau, Bahamas. He had a very exciting and very fruitful trip. I couldn’t possibly relay it all from him so he wrote about it himself:

On September 10 I (Sean) traveled to Nassau, Bahamas to serve the CEF national board and staff through board training and ministry development. We saw God do amazing things! I traveled with Myron Tschetter (CEF Regional Director) and his wife Nita. The CEF national chapter has been established there over a 20+ year period, and they are blessed with numerous credentialed instructors and a great history of ministry led by CEF national director Dr. Willamae Miller. We spent some time with her at the CEF national office (pictured below).

 

This national board training was the first official CEF board training held there and we taught Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday morning. We trained 15 people (current and new board members). There are over 30,000 elementary-aged children in the Bahamas with over 200 elementary schools! With the open doors there in the Bahamas, this is a huge opportunity for Gospel-believing churches in those islands to invest in the lives of children and see an entire generation changed for eternity. As this vision was shared with the existing and new board members, you could see people get excited about seeing their nation changed!

 

We also taught morning assembly to over 250 children in two primary schools!

 

We also met with key pastors and governmental officials, and they want to do their part to see the children changed. The people we came in contact with WANT to do something about the kids! This was also seen greatly as I had the privilege of preaching at the Temple Baptist Church on Sunday. I give God praise and glory that three older kids were counseled as they made a profession of faith!! In addition, many people came forward and also up to me afterward saying that certain parts of the message really spoke to them about reaching their kids…parts that I did not “plan” on saying!

Myron Tschetter preached Sunday night at the Abundant Life Bible Church, who graciously allowed us to stay in their missionary house next door.

All in all it was a complete success of a trip. We were able to train and equip the local leadership in the ministry to the children of their nation. On a personal note, Saturday afternoon I was able to spend time with Tim and Mindy Seeley, missionaries with the Adventure Learning Centre and Camp. They are being used of God to make a huge difference in the Bahamas! You can find their ministry page on facebook here and this is a link to their missions blog here. As you may remember, I have recently graduated from the Moody Bible Institute and I took many classes with Tim Seeley online. Isn’t it awesome how God connects people! One idea that we had was potentially for CEF Bahamas to have CYIA training there or a CEF national board retreat there at the camp!

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The night Sean was on his way back I had a scare at the missionary house. I forgot to lock the door after getting back from picking Maddy up from school. Later that night when I tried to lock the door I discovered my keys were missing. The cops came and a couple from our church came to sit with me until Sean came home. We barricaded the doors, made sure all of the windows were locked (only one was unlocked, in the girls’ room of all places!) and the police patrolled every 30 minutes throughout the night. At 2:30am someone tried to break into our bedroom window so the cops came to look around. Not 10 minutes after they left we could hear the window trying to be forced open again! The next day our locks were changed and all was quiet for about a week. At 9:30pm last Tuesday, I was getting Riley-Grace to sleep and could hear something going on outside… and the neighbor’s dog was barking. After a few moments someone tried to break through our window AGAIN. We have beefed up the security in the house since then and feel a lot safer but the whole experience has been unnerving to say the least. We are used to the threat of burglary in the Caribbean but we got a little too relaxed here. We are praying whoever it is has finally given up!

Other than that, we are enjoying our time in Montgomery, although we still feel like we are just visiting. It still doesn’t yet feel like this is our permanent home. Adjusting to life here hasn’t been a cinch either. We have changed, our friends have changed, our church has changed… everything is the same and yet different. We know it is a process and that it takes time. We are taking steps to settle in though… I started going to Bible Study Fellowship again and we enrolled Maddy in an Awana program. We may have found a house (we want to rent for now) and we are slowly getting our furnishings together. It’s exciting to see what the remainder of the year holds for our family!