a growing community

Keisha, Kristin, Keva, Jen, Karen, Aniah, Mindy, Demetria

We're so thankful for the ways God is knitting us in at Kingdom Life Church. And we're seeing God bring a beautiful combination of people to make our "home away from home" family. Two weekends ago we were invited to a birthday party for our new friend, Jen Rogers, who moved here in June from Denver, CO. (We were atonished when we found out Jen was a member of the Denver Sovereign Grace Church!!) She happily began attending Kingdom Life from the very first Sunday she was on the island. As a single lady in her mid-life, Jen is an excellent example of pursuing others rather than waiting to be pursued. She realized that celebrating her birthday could be a lonely time here if she didn't take advantage of the new friends and church family God was placing in her life. When she sent out the invitation to come for cake and fellowship, I was thrilled to see her reaching out to her new church family! And what resulted that Saturday afternoon was much more than a little birthday celebration. We laughed, we explored the native fruit trees at the camp where she lives, we talked of God's provision...we made some great memories. All because Jen reached out. Hope you enjoy the photo fruits of that day!

From left to right: Logan and Tim Seeley, Keith, Clarence and Demetria Rolle, Adalbert and Karen Ingraham, Kristin, Keva, Back row of picnic table: Kara, Mindy Seeley, Kendall, Aniah Ingraham, Andre Rolle.  Front row of picnic table: Jen Rogers, Alexandria Rolle, Keaton

Left to right: Mindy, Jen, Faye, Karen, Demetria

walking in the beautiful wetlands area

We stopped to look at the horses and donkeys at the Learning Center

for those of you who are visual...

Here ya go, folks.  A choice of videos for your viewing pleasure.  Both show re-caps of our wonderful week of Music Camp.  The first one is shorter and very well done by our own Clarence Rolle from church (works for Ministry of Tourism here).  The second was produced by the Metro Life team and is quite a bit longer (and also shows a lot of their personal mission experience).

ENJOY!

http://vimeo.com/72848212  

https://vimeo.com/72708139

finding our rhythm again

Happy Saturday to you.  I am so thankful for the last few weeks of busyness and guests in our home!  Just when we need it, God fills our lives with great people and wonderful experiences.  Music Camp, the crew that came to serve from the U.S. Sovereign Grace Churches, and having Gracie Brown stay with us over the last two weeks were God's provision to us. 

Gracie is a kindred- spirit- friend of Keaton's whom she met while we were at the Pastor's College.  I will never forget, upon leaving Lancaster for the PC, John Haughery telling us of his special childhood friend whom he had met years before when HE was a boy in Gaithersburg.  Same type of PC training model...families together for months, then sent out to churches all over.  John's boyhood friend ended up being a friend for life and stood with him on his wedding day.  Keaton had no such hopes for her year at the PC...yet God blessed her with Gracie.

 

Having her visit with us for two weeks was a reminder of how God can alter the course of our lives through relationships...and we never know when or where we are going to meet people who may become forever etched into our future. 

These past weeks and days, we've also had the chance to bond more with Chris and Stephanie Jessee.  Chris is the director of worship, youth, and children's ministries at Metro Life Church in Orlando.  He stayed with us back in April? when the Orlando prophecy team came.  We met up with he and his lovely wife and kids during our short stay in Orlando this July. Then we were able to work together during our week of Music Camp, and host them for a few nights after the rest of the team headed home. 

We also met some wonderful adults and teens from Niceville, FL, Philadelphia, Clearwater, FL, Miami, FL, Charleston, SC, and Gainesville, FL.  We were blessed to the gills when mission team members showed up with bags of coffee, 9 containers of Goldfish (which my girls requested), toiletry items, books, chocolate chips...the list goes on.  They already were serving us so amazingly just by coming to help staff our Music Camp, but they went above and beyond by bringing us treats!  God continues to amaze our children by the way he provides gifts like this that we often can't provide for ourselves.  It's our "manna" we tell them.  Can't keep it and horde it, but while it's here, let's enjoy it, share it, and give God thanks.

 

I meant to give a resounding "THANK YOU LORD!" for the amazing turnout we had at our Music Camp held August 6-9.  All in all, 97 children came at one point or another to our camp, with an average attendance of 85 each day.  Only 15 of those were from our church.  So...70 or so visiting children were exposed to the gospel each day.  Along with that, we had 83 children perform Friday night...in front of all their parents, siblings, and extended family.  I have never seen our church so full!!  We pray God will water and fertilize these gospel seeds that have been planted.  In conjunction with this Music Camp, Keith would like to begin a Community Children's Choir with practices held in our church either weekly or bi-weekly.  He mentioned this idea at the concert last Friday night, and it was met with hearty applause from the parents.  This would be a way to provide underprivileged kids with an opportunity to belong to something positive and skill-related.  They would receive musical training, social connections to Christian children, and ultimately be exposed to the gospel weekly.  We pray God works out the details and provides all that would be needed for such an endeavor.  Will you pray along with us?

 

filled to capacity

Kingdom Life Music Camp 2013 started off with a BANG this past Tuesday at 9am.  With over 80 kids in attendance the first day, we realized God had answered above and beyond the prayers we prayed for this camp's attendance.  Today was day 3of 4 and we are still in the 80-85 marker for kids coming.  WOW.  That's a lot of kids, you know? 

It feels as if every inch of our church building is filled with humanity.  It feels as if every inch of our strength is being called upon to love and serve these kids the best way possible this week.  Broken and spilled out...I think I said that a few posts back.  We are so tired we can't think straight at night (sorry, 'cause nighttime is the ONLY time I have to blog!)  I would love to be more eloquent, but for now I'll leave you with some names, numbers, and pictures.  

J-quan, Dave, Savannah, Maquanda, Stephen, St. Clair, Jermaine, Samuel, Keni, Kennae, Alisha, Ephraim, Paris, William...just a few of the many beautiful children I get to love on this week...pray for them...pray for salvation...for their parents too...

85 children!  We prayed for 60 and God gave us 85! 
6 hours a day...long days...kids come early and leave late....
24 hours...24 hours from now the camp will be over, the concert will be over, and we will have shared the gospel with 85 kids and all the moms, dads, aunties, uncles, grandmothers, cousins, and neighbors who came to see them perform. 

community day

WOW!  It is hard to imagine that just a year ago, we were doing our mall "Community Day" presentation for the first time.  Keith's parents and nephew Jess were here for it.  Today the same bench where they sat was just across from our booth, and I looked longingly at it, thinking, if I just stared long enough, Jackie would re-appear there.  But she didn't.  She's with Jesus.  And I wouldn't take her away from Him for anything.

  In honor of her, I wore the blouse we bought her for her birthday on that trip.  I was able to reclaim it on our trip to Florida last month.  And how Jackie would have loved to hear our Children's Choir singing today...  And maybe she did?

We must have handed out a hundred balloons today, greeted many families, and invited their children to our upcoming Music Camp/VBS this week.  I believe we received about 15 more registrations today, bringing out grand total to 69.  We were praying for 60, and 69 would be wonderful! 

Our worship team sounded exceptionally good in the mall, proclaiming the goodness of God and the kindness of our Savior.  Many people gathered around for songs such as "How Great Thou Art" and "Blessed Assurance."  Keith was even interviewed on a Christian Radio station!  He had mentioned to the radio guy in passing, that this kind of religious activity would never be welcomed at a mall in the U.S.  The man found that interesting, so they began interviewing Keith. Cool?  I think so.  It also provided an opportunity for him to pitch the Music Camp one more time!  God's ways are definitely higher than ours. 

All in all, we had a full but wonderful day as a church.  Gracie Brown, Keaton's dear friend she met at Pastor's College in 2011 is here for 2 weeks, and already she's been a blessing.  We look forward to our time with her and all she will add to our mission this week!

The girls and I will be serving dinner again out at Adventure Learning Camp this week, filling in for dear Mindy who just had her knee operated on.  Have no fear, the Bunting Girls (and Gracie) are here!  The camp is where our mission group from Florida is staying anyway, so by cooking out there, we'll only get to spend more time with them! 


Pray for us as we step into this week of serving, morning, noon, and night.  We know we will make some amazing memories and see God move in ways we haven't yet.  Pray for stamina, safety and health, resources, children to be saved, and for those of us who know Christ to be drawn closer to Him.  We couldn't do this without you all praying!! Keep up the good work.  'Til next time...

Keva and Kristin...kindred spirits

Beautiful Tia...2 weeks 'til college!

Kendall and Sarah...fun friends

Donovan loves Pastor Keith!

though the fig tree should not blossom...

I've always treasured these words of Habakkuk,

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, YET I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.  God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places."

After our precarious homecoming (see last blog post), we knew we needed a fresh vision of why God has placed us here on 21/7.  There is always a period of adjustment when we come back home to Nassau, as we are re-entering a developing country with many inconveniences we do not experience back in the U.S.  

At first, our prayers seemed to be counter-productive.  Instead of our eyes adjusting to all the blessings of living here, we began to see more of the challenges.  Our refrigerator would not return to working status after the power had been cut for 24 hours, our van wouldn't start, and when it did finally start, it was blowing lots of gray smoke out of the exhaust.  The pool guy was not returning our phone calls and so the pool continued to be a rich green color, playing nursery to many tadpoles.  We were quickly reminded of the happy mosquito population inside our home as we pulled out the OFF spray. 

Then Saturday came.  It was "Spread the Word" Saturday to advertise our upcoming Music Camp-VBS which begins August 6.  We had been expecting at least 20 people or so to come and help canvass the streets, yet only 13 of us arrived at the church.  Other than the Moss and Bunting families, we had only 4 people come to "Spread the Word."  We knew there was a birthday party taking place that had been planned before we set this date, but we didn't realize HOW MANY people it would involve!  So the 13 of us prayed, equipped ourselves with water and sunscreen and hit the streets around our church. 

The two hours or so we spent canvassing the church neighborhood were two of the best hours we have spent living on this island.  I have previously posted about the Kemp Road area...it is a low-income, "don't be there at night" type of neighborhood.  But what joy we found there as we met people, invited them to our Music Camp, and just walked the streets together!  Heaps of trash were just a part of the ambience.  As I got down to talk to one little boy, I was struggling not to eyeball the old shoes, abandoned refrigerator, and countless discarded cans and bottles that surrounded us.  Another boy was ingeniously making a basketball hoop out of an old crate and hammering it to a telephone pole.  I picked up his ball, dribbled it, and shot it through his new hoop.  He stood looking in disbelief that I, a middle-aged white woman, would play with him.  I was touched by how much they wanted to hear what we had to say, people coming to gather as they saw us standing amongst their neighbors sharing our invitations.  Two unknown ladies said they wanted to help spread the word and took a small stack of invitations to hand out as they walked in another direction.

At one home made of plywood, two mothers stepped out with guarded looks at first.  I quickly smiled and said, "We're from Kingdom Life Church and we're having a FREE music camp August 6th through the 9th..."  They took the invitations and began looking at them. Children in a group of 6 or 8 suddenly were there at our side, saying "I wanna come!"  "Me too!"  One young lady, who said she was 17 said "I'm comin' too!"  We looked at each other, knowing the camp is supposed to be for ages 5-12 and said, "Go ahead and come.  There'll be other teens there helping." 

I can't even tell you the good it did our hearts to interact with these wonderful people....people God made and desires to save.  Even now, my heart is full and my eyes are weepy to think of them.  Homes that don't have running water, homes that are ramshackle and surrounded by rubbish.  But people with beautiful smiles and hearts eager to be loved by somebody. 

We hope to go out again this coming Monday, when the team from Metro Life will be here to help.  Honestly, next to Sunday meetings at church and serving out at Adventure Learning Camp, this is the biggest highlight of living here so far.  "For the needy shall not always be forgotten, and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever." Ps. 9:18

Pray that God will urge the hearts of these mothers to send the kids, and that the kids will remember to come.  Pray that hearts will be fertile ground for receiving the gospel next week.  Pray for souls to be saved.

Keaton, Kristin, and Leslie caught in the rain as we canvass the church neighborhood

welcome back, or not....

We have made it safely back to Nassau!  And it is no small thing.  Thank you to all who have prayed, provided, and partnered with us in the last 16 days.  Our trip back to the U.S. was a whirlwind of visiting with friends and family, hours and hours of driving (which we don't need to do again for a long, long time!), and shopping for things to bring back to Nassau.  We were feeling pretty eager to get home yesterday, sleep in our own beds and just relax after all the activity of traveling, but alas; that was not what our Heavenly Father had in store for us!

After boarding the plane at 12:30 and sitting grounded for over an hour, we realized we would not be leaving the U.S. when planned.  The plane had mechanical issues.  We were thankful the pilot never tried to leave the ground.  Eventually the flight was rescheduled for 4 pm. The flight was smooth and safe and we were able to land, go through immigration and customs without any incidents.  This is no small thing, I assure you!  Every time I have traveled back to Nassau in the last 12 months, there have always been issues at the airport, usually at immigration.  God was answering our prayers for a smooth re-entry, and we are so grateful.

 We arrived back at our house around 6:45 last night, having been taxied by Cedric back to his home, where we had left our car (and a receiving a wonderful dinner to take home with us from Alexine!) All of us are a little under the weather with colds, and we were anticipating a few hours of relaxing, after the long travel day, little sleep the previous night or two, and a general need for down-time.  Keith was eagerly hoping for a dip in the pool to cool off before going to bed. Once home and walking up to the front door, he noticed a  yellow sticker on the door, announcing that our power had been shut off that day due to an unpaid balance.  Ahem....the power company here doesn't give warnings or make deals with you, they just shut off the power a few hours before nightfall...and boom...you're in the dark.  Since we are renting, all our utilities are paid through our landlords.  If we don't receive the bill from them...well...you see what happens.

 We also quickly saw that the pool was filled with algae and debris.  It was a lovely greenish color.  OK, not so lovely.  We were confused as to why this would happen, since we had a pool service man taking care of things while we were away.  Apparently, he did not come over the last 16 days.  So the pool is in dire need of chemicals and cleaning, and won't be up for use any time soon. 

We made a few calls and realized we would need a place to stay for the night...so back we went to the Mosses!  What would we do without them?  They gladly put us up for the night and here I am in their guest room, typing this blog post this morning.

As we reflect back on our trip home yesterday and all the details that surrounded it, we see a few things.

1: God is faithful and our lives are filled with obvious blessings.  He took care of us.  He sustained us through all the driving, flights, and changes we could not have planned for.  He provided a smooth entry through immigration and customs, easier than ever before.  Cedric was right on time to pick us up and drive us to our vehicle.  Alexine had a lovely blessing of a warm dinner prepared for us to take home.  We can celebrate the kindness of friends, once again.

2: God is faithful when life is full of unplanned disappointments.  We cannot ever assume things will go as we've planned or that we'll find comfort when we think we need it most.  God speaks through the difficulties, however small and insignificant they be.  A rescheduled flight, a power-less home, overgrown yard, algae-filled pool and having to ask for help yet again, may not be the comfort we were seeking, but they are what God gave, alongside all the positive aspects of yesterday.  Blessings in disguise, I am sure. 

This morning we were able to take some time and pray, asking God to help us have clear sight as we return to life in Nassau, embrace the busy weeks ahead, and get our home back in order.  It was a grace-filled morning after a series of unplanned moments yesterday.  It can be our tendency, as fleshly people, to only speak of the negativities in life.  And of course, in the fallen world, there are many.  But it takes grace to speak of the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.  And that is what we want to communicate.  GRACE.  God's riches at Christ's expense.  Always.  In every trial.  In every unseen event.  GRACE.  We live in it, are redeemed by it, and stand because of it.