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.

In April we had the amazing opportunity to be in St. Kitts for a week! None of us had been back to our home since we left in January 2014. It was also Riley-Grace’s first time in St. Kitts, at least on the outside of my belly. We wondered how we would feel… would it feel different? Would it feel the same? Would we feel out of place? Or would we feel home? Maddy was really the most excited out of all of us… she couldn’t wait to see her best friend, Audri, again!

Audri and Maddy reunited!

Maddy really struggled when we moved from St. Kitts. While we were in the States having Riley-Grace she would tell people that she wasn’t from Alabama, she was from St. Kitts. She had nights when she would cry because she missed her home so much. Even when we moved to Turks & Caicos she would tell use she wanted to go back “home” (St. Kitts). After a few months in Turks & Caicos she adjusted, and she definitely feels like Montgomery is her home now but she still really misses her life, her house and her friends in St. Kitts. Really, we all do.

Brandon and I back on radio!

Passion fruit juice at the Graysons!

So when Mavis asked Sean if we could help with her Good News Club training conference we started praying it would work out! Maddy would have to miss school and most importantly, we would need the finances to get all of us there. To be honest, we’ve had quite a bit of supporters stop giving since we came to Montgomery and we weren’t sure we would have the money to travel but the Lord provided the EXACT amount we needed!

Ready to get on the plane in MGM!

From the moment we saw St. Kitts from the airplane window we felt “home”. It’s so hard to describe. But as we walked off the plane and went to customs, it was the most “at home” feeling we’ve had in over two years. We were greeted at the airport by our friends, The Graysons and Mavis. Maddy and Audri were VERY excited to see each other. We introduced Riley-Grace to everyone and she immediately reached for Brandon! We stayed with the Graysons for the week and it felt as if we had never left. The girls played constantly… we were in the house with them but hardly ever saw them! Riley-Grace lived on an island for a year in Turks & Caicos so she took to life in St. Kitts like she had always been there. The entire week was such a sweet time of reunions with so many people!

(L-R) Got to drive our old van—Mavis and me—view from the CEF national office!

St. Kitts humidity caused Riley-Grace’s hair to curl!

Still having to do homework!

There were so many exciting things that happened during the week that I could write a small book… from the spiritual warfare we experienced to the great ways the Lord provided for the training conference… it’s hard to recall everything that happened. But that’s what it’s like in St. Kitts. The craziness (good and bad) is part of daily life… it’s normal to have highs and lows all in one days, every single day. We don’t miss the stress of it all but we do miss our life there, and we miss the community we had there. Everyone is always available, always… in a way we have never experienced anywhere else.

Training local Bible teachers in Nevis!

CEF National Director Mavis Huggins teaching in St. Kitts!

Olivet Gospel Hall—a wonderful church in St. Kitts that many of our friends attend! They were gracious to host the CEF training conference!

Mavis and Mandi teaching!

The Lord provided for us to stay at the Marriott one night! What a huge and fun surprise that was!

Riley-Grace loved her first time at the St. Kitts Marriott pool!

When it was time to leave it was like moving all over again… like we were saying goodbye to our home all over again. It was hard and we were sad. We would go back in a heartbeat!

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It happened. We left St. Kitts Monday morning… our plane took off at 9:30am. Our first two days in Turks and Caicos have been overwhelming and we plan on updating everyone in the next week or so.

Our last week in St. Kitts was emotional for all of us. It was extremely hard to say goodbye to our home for the last two years and to all of the wonderful friends we have made. We are excited to be in Turks and Caicos and are really looking forward to spending the next few months with our family and friends in America but we already deeply miss St. Kitts. Maddy wants to go back. It’s the first time she really understands what it means to “move” and that she won’t be able to see her best friend Audri for a long time. FaceTime and Skype are wonderful but just aren’t the same.

And saying goodbye to the people we’ve worked with? Very hard. When we first moved to St. Kitts we thought we might need to stay beyond our two-year commitment. But we’ve seen the Lord work in mighty ways. We knew after just one year we would make our goal. As difficult as it was to leave, it’s what we came to do. We came to leave so to speak. We truly were no longer needed and we know the future CEF Ministry in St. Kitts will do big things.

National Board Goodbye Part 1 – The Fire

Last Tuesday the National Board had a dinner in our honor at a restaurant/guest house/conference room downtown. It was a small gathering with a few pastors, board members, volunteers and other friends of CEF. It was a sweet time. As the dessert was being served we started to smell something burning… like when you turn the heater on for the first time of the season. It got stronger and stronger but most of us weren’t worried… and everyone really wanted to finish their dessert! A couple of people did go check on the smell and one person calmly told us the staff wanted us to evacuate the building. No big deal! We all assumed they were just taking the proper precautions. As we left the conference room and turned the corner, the hallway was filled with thick black smoke! We couldn’t really see where we were going but we just followed instructions that thankfully did lead us outside! Once we got outside we could see the smoke billowing out of the building! The place was truly on fire! I tried to snap a few pictures but it was hard to see the black smoke at night.

Everyone was fine but the kitchen was gone. One of the board member’s parents owns the building. She showed us pictures of the pipes with huge melted holes in them, a melted cash register and soot over everything. The entire kitchen will need to be replaced. Needless to say, we had to call it a night at that point!

National Board Goodbye Part 2

On Friday evening the Board got together again… and this time without any fires breaking out! After a few sweet words from several people the Board gave us a few gifts from shell works… a beautiful picture frame, a really awesome napkin holder and a huge shadow box with three beautiful shells displayed in it! These are gifts we will absolutely treasure for years to come! Even more special was simply getting to spend time with them one last time.

We Are Having A Girl!!!

The next morning Sean and I went to my last doctor’s appointment in St. Kitts and I had an ultrasound. We saw our little one flexing her arms and legs and rolling over. We found out she is a girl, our little Riley-Grace, and that she looks healthy and right on track!

CCF Send Off

On Sunday we had to say goodbye to our church, Caribbean Christian Fellowship. This church has meant so much to us for the last two years. We were very involved… Sean preached a few times and led the Men’s Bible Study. I ran the children’s program for the last year and helped out with Ladies’ Bible Study too. Our time in St. Kitts just would not have been the same without this church family. After service we all went to a restaurant at one of the beaches to eat and hang out. It was extremely bittersweet.

That evening we swam at the Marriott and ate dinner with the Graysons. Saying goodbye to them was the absolute hardest. They have been family to us for the last two years and are some of the best friends we’ve ever had. We cannot even express how much we will miss their family.

Monday morning we loaded up, went to the airport, flew to Miami and then made it to Turks and Caicos around 8pm.

It’s all still very surreal. It will take a long time for us to process the change. We are having a good time in Turks and Caicos but our hearts hurt. So please pray for us during this time of transition. We have so much to look forward to and we are trying to stay focused on all of that… being back home, seeing family and friends, having a sweet new little girl and eventually creating a new home here in Turks and Caicos. We know we are making the right decision and that this is where God wants us, but saying goodbye is difficult and we will need some time to heal.

Thank you so much for keeping us in your prayers and staying up to date with our time in St. Kitts. We truly appreciate the support from everyone. This experience has permanently changed our family (for the better) and we are grateful to God for giving us the opportunity to serve overseas.