Our Sweet Home Church

We had a great visit last week from Forum Christian Church, from Columbia,MO. I (Maddie) grew up at Forum.  EK and I attended there together for 4 years, before we came to St. Vincent. It was refreshing to see new faces on campus and comforting that those faces were familiar to us! Even better my grandma came on the trip! It was so nice to spend time with her. I was use to seeing her often before we moved to SVG so having her here in the flesh to give a big hug was awesome.

The group did a lot while they were here, the men worked hard at the preschool, preparing a new space for next year, others in the group helped paint around campus and helped in the office. My grandma brought me 60 rolls of tulle so we could make tutus for my dance girls.
I am so thankful to all the people that donated money to my dance class so they can have real tutus and leotards when they do their spring recital.
We also got to have a fun day with the group and took the ferry over the Bequia-a great afternoon in the sun! Forum took us all out to our favorite restaurant, Driftwood, it was such a treat to spend the evening with everyone and to fellowship over yummy food and a gorgeous view of God's creation, we even had the sounds of chickens in the background, since there were several below us from where we were seated :).


Our evening at Driftwood filled with good conversation!

 Thanks mom for buying washable paint for the kiddos-they had a fun time trying it out for the first time and only one 1 kid got it all over him, good thing it will come out :)

Story time with Miss Gwynette AKA Grandma, as you can see she had a pretty captivated audience

I took one finished tutu to dance class to begin "bribing" the girls to make sure they show up every week to dance class so they can get one if they learn and preform the recital dances-they were ecstatic and couldn't stop twirling 

Where we spent every afternoon last week-tying tutus in a sea of pink and purple, thanks Emery and Julie Crockett for your help and you too grandma! We even got a couple of the students to help, they were much faster than us...

On the ferry arriving at Bequia

Thanks again Forum Christian Church for being such a supportive and loving Church Family! It was so encouraging having you all here and to see your service and sacrifice while working with WISE and our students-WHAT A BLESSING!

Big Things in Small Groups

Every Sunday night we have small groups with our students; it is a great time to study God's word and to get to know our students on a deeper level.  A couple of weeks ago I asked our students to share their testimony with the group, so far we have gotten to hear 2 of our students and it has been awesome!

The first student opened by saying "I am special" I think this was a great reminder that all of us were made as part of God's plan.  What an uplifting attitude to have about yourself and your Creator-that he makes us all special.

Another student shared about his experience in the Haiti earthquake of 2011. He was visiting his 2 best friends when the earthquake hit, he survived, unfortunately his 2 friends did not. Again, this student feels God has a plan for him because he survived and he knows he must do great things for God.

It is such an encouragement to see the strength and courage that so many of our students have.  Many of them have overcome many hurdles in their lives.  I am overwhelmingly thankful for each and every one of our students and that they are all here to learn more about God and their purpose.

"I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, because I hear about your love for all his holy people and your faith in the Lord Jesus. I pray that your partnership with us in the faith may be effective in deepening your understanding of every good thing we share for the sake of Christ. Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the Lord's people." Philemon 1:4-7

I hope this encourages you to share your testimony and faith with others so they may see every good thing comes from Christ!

Trees and Flowers and Parrots Oh My!

Last week we took our preschoolers on a field trip to the Botanical Gardens.  We all piled in the van and truck and drove through town to reach our destination. The kids had a great time on the bus pretending to drive in their seats and saying "my car done beat you back!" AKA "my car is faster than yours!"  We were able to have a nice time walking through the gardens using all of our senses as they have learned about in school.  We got to smell a tall cinnamon tree and look at the fish in the lily pad pond, and listen to the St. Vincent Parrots squak and even say "hello".
Our only incident was when we asked all the preschoolers to stand on the roots of a tree to take a picture...They all stood their smiling and having a good time. When the kids began to break from their poses I noticed one of our boys was facing towards the tree "relieving" himself, I guess it was better than him wetting his pants :). Little boys will be little boys, and it was a somewhat funny too. All in all it was a successful day!

Dancing Queens

As most of you know I teach a dance class once a week to approximately 15 girls in the community.  Every week seems to have its blessings and challenges; as does everything in life.  Sometime the girls come very early to class or show up late, they always have a lot to say, which some weeks makes for more talking than I would like rather than dancing.  But every girls leaves with a smile and seem to be filled with joy from the art of dancing.  

I mostly teach ballet and a little jazz.  The girls are learning the technique of ballet and then I try to teach them a dance every week...this is their favorite part.  They also get really giddy when I let them "free dance" or to play "freeze dance" where they get to dance while the music is playing but have to freeze in a position when the music stops. 

Recently my dance class was TREMENDOUSLY BLESSED by Columbia Dance Academy (CDA), from my hometown Columbia, MO.  Before I came to SVG I taught at CDA for 5 years.  I cannot say enough good things about this studio.  It has such a wonderful family feel and a close community. Jeanne Szkolka, owner and teacher, was my childhood dance teacher.  She and others at the studio were so supportive and excited for our move to SVG, and very excited for me to teach a dance class here.  When Miss Jeanne and others found out that none of my girls had any dance clothes (there is no dance supply store on the island and secondly these girls would not be able to afford those things) they decided to have a clothes and shoes drive. 

Words cannot describe the girls faces when they saw the shoes, leotard, skirts, etc. I don't think their smiles could have gotten any bigger.  They all enjoyed picking out and trying on their very own shoes and dance clothes.  Everyone got a pair of tights too, I told them they didn't have to wear their tights every week if they didn't want to because where we practice has no ac and can get pretty hot and sticky.  However, the next week they all showed up with all their dance wear and put everything on.

I can already tell they are taking the dance class more seriously because now they feel like real dancers with their clothes. 

My main goal of this dance class is to show each girl the love of Christ, and I am so very thankful for everyone from CDA who donated to my class and for showing them love as well.

I am reminded when the children came to Jesus and some of the disciples tried to stop them. But Jesus said to them, "Let the children come to me. Don't stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children"...then he took the children in his arms and placed his hands on their heads and blessed them."  Mark 10:14-16.

Even though supporters my be thousands of miles away, thank you again for taking these girls in your arms, placing your hands on their heads and blessing them!

Our New Rommie

If you are deathly afraid of spiders I would suggest you DO NOT watch this video.....

Promised Pictures

Okay I am now able to finally upload pictures to the blog again so here they are!

The students working on the preschool ceiling

5:30am in Kingstown celebrating 9 Mornings!

Some of our students got called on stage and sang a song

Steel Drums...Love

Caroling around the community on Christmas Eve

Christmas dinner with faculty and students mmmmm

Students opening their presents

Clowning with Pip and Squeak (Mom and Sis) in the community, the kids loved their balloons

Salt Pond

Mom and Cal enjoying the black sand beaches

On our way to see Dark View Falls...had to cross the bamboo bridge, felt like we were on Indiana Jones, don't worry there were no alligators below us

Elephant Ears

Riding in the boat with Speedy at Wallibou Bay (where parts of Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed)

New Years Eve Party

Boat ride through the Grenadine Islands

Girl's Night

This post is a little delayed...to start off the Christmas break we decided to have a girl's night!

We decided it was time for a night with just the girls so I had the woman faculty and students over for facials, manicures and chocolate! The guys played dodgeball...we had WAY more fun :).

The girls had a great time getting their nails painted by Sis Angie, a teacher at WISE, she has completed nail school so she is excellent! I made a homemade facial mask, we all felt our skin was extra smooth afterwards and believed we looked younger (or so we told ourselves).

I found the recipe on Pinterest, if you don’t know what Pinterest is then you need to! I love it. The recipe is:

1/2 tablespoon Local Raw Honey
1 1/2 tablespoons Organic Oatmeal, ground ( I always grind my oatmeal in my coffee grinder, but you can also use a food processor.
1/2 tablespoon Organic Milk

Place honey in a microwaveable bowl and heat on high for about 10 seconds. Add the oatmeal and milk to the warmed honey and stir well. Let the mask sit for a minute or two. This will help it thicken up. Apply to clean face. I usually put a thin layer on my face and then I go back over it with another layer of the mixture. Leave mask on face for 30 minutes and then wash off. It takes a little bit of effort to wash it off. I just use a warm washcloth and wipe it off in sections. Apply your favorite moisturizer once the mask is washed off.

Now you can have your own girl’s night and treat yourself with a facial and some chocolate, I suggest Lindor truffles; there were a hit at our party!

Showing off our face masks

All of our Christmas nails