We’ve been fairly busy here… summer is in full swing! We will say goodbye to Nathan in a few days and hello to a mission trip team from Seattle right afterwards! In the meantime between Sean, Nathan and myself, we have taught several 5 Day Clubs and seen many children come to Christ!

Nevis Clubs

The week after Nathan arrived he and Sean rode the ferry to and from Nevis everyday to teach a 5 Day Club. After Monday the club became so large they had to split the children into two clubs! At least three children received Christ that week!

Saddlers and Sandy Point Clubs

The next week all three of us (plus Maddy) taught a 5 Day Club in Saddlers on the north side of the island. This club also became too large and we ended up splitting the group into two clubs! Maddy really enjoyed being part of the club and she made a lot friends.

In the afternoons Sean and Nathan taught a club in Sandy Point on the far west side of the island. This club was a little different in that the kids weren’t really “into it” at the beginning. However as the week went on the kids became more excited and a few of them received Christ and others were assured of the salvation they seemed to already have!

Mission Trip Week

The Graysons and Joneses had a mission trip team from their home church in for two weeks. So Sean and Nathan helped a lot with the transportation and also helped with some of the ministry they did in Fig Tree. (Where our Good News Club takes place on Monday evenings). The rest of the time we all enjoyed getting to know them and hanging out with each other. Nathan even climbed the volcano with them and went down into the crater! It was sad to see them go back home… their two weeks here went by so quickly.

Stapleton 5 Day Club

Monday and Tuesday of this week were both holidays (Emancipation Day and Culture-ama) so the 5 Day Club turned into a 3 Day Club. Sean and Nathan are teaching in a place we have never really been before. On the first day, they started singing one of the songs and some of the kids began singing along and doing the motions! Apparently they were part of a 5 Day Club from last summer when the CEF team from Wisconsin came! It’s so awesome how the Lord brings these kids back for more discipleship!

The club is on the small side so Sean really felt like the Lord wanted him to give the kids something all three days. We had tracts and booklets for the first two days but nothing to give them on the third. Sean was confident that the Lord would provide… and He did! This morning Sean picked up a huge box of booklets about the life of Christ!

Next Week

We have one club planned for next week. Nathan will help teach Monday morning but he leaves in the afternoon to go back home. We have certainly enjoyed having him here and we will really miss him when he is gone. He has been a tremendous help for the ministry and has been a great friend to us. So for the rest of the week Sean and I will be teaching the club.

On Friday we will welcome a mission trip team from Seattle! They will be here for 10 days, teach several 5 Day Clubs, have numerous work projects and of course enjoy parts of the island in their “spare time”. 🙂

Other Interesting Happenings

Hurricane season is in full force! We’ve had a few tropical waves dump a lot of rain on the island and Ernesto skirted just south of us. It seems every week here lately we are watching to see what the next set of storms are going to do.

It’s also time for centipedes. We were told by our neighbors we would start seeing them in the summer and in the last week we’ve gone from seeing none to four! We even found one in our house! Yuck! These little boogers will sting and supposedly it hurts really bad. They can get to be several inches long too.

Our Bible studies are over for now because the Ross students are studying for their finals and then have a two-week break. When classes start back up we will be attending a marriage study with other couples. We will be studying the book “When Sinners Say I Do”. The couple leading the study have been married for many years (they are grandparents) and the wife is a certified marriage counselor! Sean will be busy with two TCE’s in the Fall so this will be the only Bible study he can attend and we get to go together!

Please keep Nathan in your prayers as he travels back to Oregon on Monday and please pray for the team from Seattle coming in on Friday. Pray for safety and for them to have no issues with customs in St. Kitts. Ultimately, pray for many children to come to Christ through their ministry!

Thankfully, the last week or so has been fairly quiet and normal. After the Redland team left we were able to catch up on a bunch of office work and enjoy some time together as a family.

Last Wednesday Nathan Johnston, our summer intern, flew in from Oregon. He didn’t have any issues with customs and he was able to settle in quickly. (After some rest from his all night flight). He is already a big help to us. He and Sean are traveling to Nevis everyday this week teaching a large 5 Day Club! It’s only three days into it and three children have believed in Christ! One boy in particular was so aware of the battle between his flesh and the Spirit that he told Sean, “In my heart I want to believe in Jesus but something keeps telling me not to do it”. He eventually surrendered to Christ and Sean could literally see the rest and peace come over him!

Nathan teaching at a 5 Day Club in Nevis

Next week all three of us will be teaching two 5 Day Clubs and the Graysons and Joneses have a mission team coming in, so we will be helping with transportation. I have a feeling it will be a very busy week!

Lastly, as soon as we returned home from our Good News Club in Fig Tree Monday evening the van started pouring out water all over our driveway. There was clearly a significant hole in the radiator. Praise the Lord, our van was fixed this afternoon and only cost us about $90 E.C. (a little over $30 US)!!

A member on the Redland mission team made a wonderful video/slideshow of their time in St. Kitts! We would love for you to watch it. The team was such an encouragement to us in so many ways!

Just click right here to watch the video

Until next week!

It has been a very exciting couple of weeks here in St. Kitts. We welcomed the team from Redland Baptist Church in Wetumpka, Alabama on Thursday June 28th and their week of ministry was filled with awesome highs and one major unfortunate low.

They flew in without any problems and cleared customs with ease… which was a huge praise to the Lord considering the large amount of things they brought for us and another missionary family in St. Kitts (the Graysons). They quickly settled into their house which happened to be two doors down and across the street from us!

The weekend was filled with an island tour, visiting Port Zante, an afternoon at Cockelshell Beach and a delicious breakfast buffet.

Saturday evening they helped out at an Awana the Graysons and Joneses run.

On Sunday morning we all attended Salem Gospel Hall in St. Peters where Jeremy Shaw (one of the team members and pastors at Redland) preached the main sermon! Another team member (Diane Cox) was able to teach the Sunday School lesson!

On Monday morning we began teaching our 5 Day Clubs for the week. The team broke up into groups and taught three different clubs at Beach Allen Primary School (it was the last week of classes for these students). In the evening everyone taught together at the Salem Gospel Hall VBS/5 Day Club. On the first day of ministry we were able to reach over 300 kids!

Unfortunately, our enemy was not going down without a fight. Early Tuesday morning, around 2am, the team was robbed while they slept peacefully in their beds. Everyone slept through the robbery except for one lady who woke up when she heard the door open to the house. She was thankfully asleep by the time the robbers entered her room. They stole the team’s cash, cell phones, cameras and other electronic devices. And before leaving they ate their pizza, took all of their Sprites and a box of cereal.

The ladies woke up around 5:30am to the realization of what took place as they slept. Thankfully, none of them were harmed and all of their passports were left untouched. Physically, everything was fine but emotionally everyone was understandably shaken up. It is believed the robbers were part of the landscaping crew that was at the house Monday afternoon doing yard work. Unfortunately the police have not been able to find the men as of yet.

But God is good and the robbery did not take Him by surprise. He allowed it to happen for reasons we may never know. He is also our provider because Sean and Jeremy told the management at the Marriott about what happened and they gave the team a very large and luxurious suite for an extremely discounted rate. For the remainder of their trip the team was able to sleep with peace of mind and in comfort physically and emotionally.

The entire incident is a testimony to the the spiritual oppression in St. Kitts. In this “Christian” culture, children are targets of satan. Sixth graders are already in gangs, families are broken and physical abuse is a big problem here. Most of the kids know Bible stories but are clueless when it comes to the Gospel. The team wasn’t about to let what happened stop them from reaching these kids.

Despite what happened the team seemed to pick up and keep going. By the end of the week over 314 children heard the Gospel and 19 kids are now our brothers and sisters in Christ! Their work here was a tremendous blessing to us and to this country. The Lord used them in powerful ways that many children here (and adults too) will not forget.

Our family was very sad to see them go. In fact, Maddy kept telling us at the airport that she wanted to go back to Alabama too. 🙁

On Saturday we spent the day at the Marriott swimming in their amazing pool… a little “family time” after the team left. As we were walking back to our car we passed a bunch of kids dressed up in caps and gowns for graduation. It “just so happened” that the students of Beach Allen Primary School were having their graduation ceremony at the Marriott that evening and they all recognized Sean! They asked if he was coming to their graduation and he said he would go home, get changed and come back.

Of course, he was little late so he stayed in the back. But the principal noticed him and brought him up to the front (with everyone watching) and sat him in the second row! All the kids got to see him there and they even had a small presentation about CEF and the clubs that took place there that week! After the graduation was over, the boy who originally asked if Sean was coming, came up to him and thanked him for being there.

God is sovereign!

Other Interesting Things

We were able to watch a fireworks show in St. Kitts on the 4th of July! There was an earthquake on the same day too. It only lasted seven seconds and was so small that Sean and I didn’t even know it happened until we were told about it!

Last night a field somewhat near our neighborhood caught on fire and is still burning a little today. It’s very dry here right now so I’m sure it doesn’t take much to set an entire field ablaze. With the way the sun was hitting the smoke behind the mountain it looked like fire was coming from the volcano and we joked about the “dormant” volcano waking up. Let’s hope that doesn’t actually happen!

This Week

Tomorrow our intern for the summer, Nathan, is flying in. He will have a few days to adjust and then next week he and Sean will be traveling to and from Nevis everyday teaching a 5 Day Club by themselves. In fact, we have several 5 Day Clubs planned for the three of us while he is here!

We are so thankful for your prayers and support. We are certainly trusting the Lord more this week than we ever have before.

Last week we welcomed our bosses, also known as our Assistant Regional Directors for the Caribbean (Myron and Nita Tschetter) to St. Kitts and Nevis!

They were here to conduct a National Board training Thursday through Saturday for current board members and a few prospective members. The training was a great success and was just what the ministry needed here to continue moving full force ahead!

The ending of the training culminated in the dedication ceremony for our new national office Saturday evening! A good number of people attended to celebrate with us and to pray for God’s continued blessing on the ministry in St. Kitts and Nevis.

Nigel Brown our Board Chairman and his family

The Tschetters and Donna Hill our Nevis representative board member

We even had a “cutting of the ribbon” event!

It was a good day for CEF of St. Kitts and Nevis! We now have a place for Sean to work (and he doesn’t have to share a room with Maddy when she naps) and a place for people to come for training, literature, meetings or simply to get information. This office can even host visitors from other countries because it has a full kitchen, two bedrooms and two bathrooms.

This week we will be moving everything office related from our house to the new office. By Monday, Sean is planning to be working there completely!

Here are a few more pictures from the Dedication Ceremony…

View from the side and front of the National Office, the office is upstairs

Stairs leading to the back entrance of the office

Coming Up

On Saturday we will say goodbye to Sean’s family. 🙁 We have really enjoyed having them here for the last few weeks and will be sad to see them go. Hopefully they will enjoy their last week here. The rest of the time we are preparing for the mission trip team from Redland Baptist Church in Wetumpka, Alabama… they will be here NEXT WEEK! I can’t believe we are about to host our first mission team!