Road trip Entertainment

The students squeezing in the van and having a good time...who needs the radio when you can sing!

Ice Cream and Roadtrips

We had a fun filled weekend here in SVG. Our 2nd year students are graduating in just 12 short days and will be returning home to Haiti and Guyana. We will miss them all dearly but are so happy for all they have accomplished during their time at WISE.  To celebrate EK and I took them to get some frozen yogurt at Cafe Soliel and then we went to the Botanical Gardens for a "photoshoot", the students LOVE taking pictures...as you can see.

On Sunday we were all invited to Georgetown Christian Church which is about an hour away.  The church's minister is a WISE alumni. One of our students Bro. Jerry delivered the sermon and did an great job!

Here is how we traveled...piling into the back of the truck

Georgetown Christian Church

The view outside of the window in church...it was right off the ocean!

Jerry giving his sermon on God's faithfulness

Please be in prayer for out students and for all of the faculty at WISE over the next 2 weeks. We have a lot of people coming on campus for graduation and a lot of preparation to do.  Please pray for our students to finish strong, to have safe travels back home, and to share the love of Christ around the Caribbean.  We have 7 students graduating: Jerry, Samuel, Feler, Alertha, Marie, Germaine, and Rachelle.

Reflection

It is very surreal for us to think we will be leaving WISE in just a few short months and returning home to the United States. While our one year commitment at WISE is coming to a close, we continue to reflect on all the wonderful things God has allowed us to be a part of with this mission and how these blessings will forever be in our hearts!

Is there such a thing as a “Missionary Type”? For us, it was very safe to say working on a mission field was not on our radar.  I (Maddie) had been on a few short-term mission trips and EK had never been on any.  We always felt called to ministry but envisioned God calling us to work strictly in our local churches and communities.  Little did we know that there is not a “Missionary Type” and God had additional plans for us…

One day we were contacted by WISE’s director and his wife, Brice and Amanda Wurdeman, out of the blue, asking if we would like to teach at WISE for a year.  I will say it again, working in the mission field was not something we had ever thought about, but we decided to pray about it to give God a chance to tell us what to do.  Over the next few weeks God did so many things confirming that WISE is where He was calling us.  He gave us peace by allowing us to meet someone from St. Vincent and the Grenadines in our small town of Columbia, Missouri. We also asked Him to close and open doors for us…so He did. Once we made the decision to come to WISE God blessed our support-raising tremendously and made the overall transition go very smoothly.

God has taught us so much during our time here, we could write a book about it, but for the sake of space we will just list a few: to be flexible, willing, humble, submissive, culturally aware, joyful, thankful, and to try to be present in every moment God has given us. Our time at WISE has most of all taught us about trusting in God and how His plans are better than ours.  We are still amazed how God changed the trajectory of our lives in such a short period of time.  Often we get really stuck in our “plan for life” and we forget to look around to see what God has prepared for us.  Our encouragement and prayer for others is to lean on and trust in God and to always keep your ears and heart open to His calling because you never know what He might ask you…He may even call you to the Caribbean!

It is bitter sweet to know that our time at WISE will be complete at the end of June.  It has been a joy to watch God’s work at WISE. It has been a privilege working with the faculty and students along with the community and we will dearly miss them.  However, we are confident that God already knows His plans for us and we are excited to see what He reveals.

Christian Service

This semester we implemented "Christian Service" for all of our students.  The requirements are for each student to complete at least 5 hours of service to people in the community.  The goal of this was to encourage our students to get off campus and interact with new people as well as letting them learn they can serve anywhere!

We were not sure how it would go since this is the first time WISE has done something like this. However, our students are loving it!!!  I have been so proud of their initiative to walk the streets of the community meeting people and offering help in many ways. So far our students have helped cleaned people's homes (sweeping, moping, cleaning dirty dishes), babysat, cleaned up yards, and volunteered to help in activities such as children's Sunday School and Kids Club.

I met with the WISE student council last week and they thanked the faculty for introducing Christian Service to the students.  Many students expressed they would have NEVER thought of doing anything like this, [which is a little comical since we do talk about serving others at this school...it is in the Bible isn't it? :) ] Some of the students that are graduating in April plan to take the idea back to their home churches to encourage others to serve in many ways.  The student council was also inspired to do a Christian Service activity as a student body so next week all the students are visiting an area of town that needs a lot of cleaning up. They plan to help where they are needed and also meet with people to build relationships and pray for them.
I will let you know how this service project turns out and try to post some pics of it as well.

I know a lot of times we think we don't have much to offer to other people but sometimes simply sweeping someone's floor, or cutting their grass can make all the difference in someones life and most of all it is showing them the Love of Christ through you!

Have a great day!

Lesson Learned or Should I say Learning...

We have started the small group study workbook Living Crazy Love by Francis Chan on Sunday nights with our small groups.  Yesterday we talked about distractions and things that keep us from honoring God. I wanted to share an excerpt from the workbook that really settled in my mind and dug at my heart....

"But if you find yourself so focused on these things (good distractions ie: family, friends, church activities, work, etc.) that you aren't enjoying God's presence in the midst of it, consciously trying to honor God through the way you do these activities and pursuing the things that you know God wants you to pursue, then these things have become distractions." 

This really hit home for me. Being on the mission field there are always a lot of hats to wear. EK and I both teach at the college, I work at the preschool, EK helps with student issues, we are both campus coordinators, we have fellowship with the students, help lead student council....
All of these roles are important and we know God had chosen to place us in these roles for a reason. I find it very easy to go through my day to day routine and NOT "enjoying God's presence in the midst of it." Frankly, I forget to even invite him/acknowledge him in these activities. 

Today I made it a point to enjoy God's presence while I was at preschool, and boy did I see a difference.  I had more patience with the kids (though there is still always room for improvement :) ), I tried to see them as God sees them, as his dearly loved children which helped me to dearly love them. 


I invite you to evaluate the distractions in you life and to identify if there are areas
 you are not enjoying God's presence.  I am going to continue this challenge throughout the week to see how I do and what difference it can make while I work and interact with others.  

Now go and enjoy God... and from the words of Paul "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!" Phil 4:4

Sixteen Singing Students...

This was during a night of fellowship. I asked one of our students, Bro Jusme, to sing a song he wrote for our visiting group from Forum Christian Church. I love it when our students sing they are so talented and always have a lot of fun!  The title of the song is "I Love Jesus!"

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!