I CAN!!!

First of all, sorry for the late update. Our Friday evening activities didn’t end until after midnight and I was way too tired to type this. Just to give you a weather update, the Tropical Storm never materialized in our area. We were pretty worried in the morning with a lot of heavy rain until around 9:30, but then the clouds broke and we had plenty of sunshine to finish the job. We had to modify the lunch distribution since Karen, Raoul’s wife came down with a bug and was out of commission. (thank goodness our nurse/angel Carrie was there to help out) So Clare, Kim, and Lissy took care of cooking the hot dogs for the village kids. An awesome ending to an awesome week.

Each year we come, our team is a diverse cast with a unique set of God-given gifts. Many of these gifts have yet to be realized until they arrive. This trip challenges the team in a variety of ways, which forces each member to dig deep while they are here. Some come with a preconceived notion of what they can do, which can sometimes be limited. Others come with an open mind, willing to take on any task that comes their way.

And each year we have a verse for the week that is used to focus us on what we are here for. This year is was Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things though God who strengthens me.” The key words in this passage are “I can.” Each time we met in the morning or at night, or at random times during the day, someone would shout out “I CAN!” and the rest of team would finish the verse. And for some reason we always do it three times.

Usually there are a few, “I don’t know how’s,” “I can’t do it’s,” and “I don’t want to do that’s.” Not once this week were those words uttered. There were, “I’ll try that,” “Show me how,” and “Sure, let’s do it!!” This verse filled our hearts from the first time we spoke them in Woodside Sunday morning, and led this team to do remarkable things.

We were assigned to a home of two beautiful people – Forbes and Lynette. What makes them so special are what they do for others. Lynette has her own ministry, God’s Hand Extended, which only she and her husband run. Each paycheck, they squeeze as much out of it as possible for themselves, and then provide for others in their area. They buy groceries for widows and families who can’t provide. They sit and spend time with those who have no families. They pick up people for various appointments, and also grow their own vegetables that they share with their neighbors.

Our job this week was to clean up their backyard, and create an environment that would allow them to grow more crops exponentially. Not only did we build 12 raised garden beds, but we assembled and raised two nurseries that he can germinate and grow vegetables until they are ready to be planted. We also painted their home and shed, patched and fixed their roof, and painted their neighbors home. And we also played, sang, and laughed with a lot of kids.

But that’s only part of our trip, the part we usually share with our friends and family members when we’re not real comfortable with our faith. This year, we promise to share about how we were also moved by the Holy Spirit. That’s the part of the trip that will stay with us. You see, the structures will begin to crumble, and the gardens will eventually dry up, but what will remain is the relationships with each other, the villagers, and Jesus Christ, our savior.

Each day we also had a verse of the day. On Friday, it was Hebrews 12:12, “ Therefore strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.” This verse was written to inspire the Jewish converts of Christianity to stay strong when under persecution when they were debating on whether to return to Judaism.

Many of us have felt and will feel persecuted by our friends and family members for taking this trip, and we usually just give the business side of the story. And yes, we work our tails off to help rebuild people’s homes. But more importantly we take this trip to rebuild lives – the people we help on the island and our own. Many villagers we come in contact with are praying for something, someone to come into their lives that can help, and we are the answer to their prayers. Many of us are taking this trip as a journey to find an answer to a faith question, or to reconnect with God. And I can say with conviction that we are all coming home with a stronger faith then when we left.

So we all have made a promise that when asked, “How was the trip?” or “What did you do?” our first answer won’t be about the work we completed, but will be about how Christ moved us this week, how we witnessed His glory, His grace, His power, and His majesty, in the people we met, in each other, and in the awesome island we visited. And when that hesitation starts to creep in and we begin to fall back into that uncomfortable feeling of sharing about our faith experience, I know we will strengthen our feeble arms and weak knees, because we know that we can do all things through God who will strengthen us.

Old and New

We’ve been coming down to the island for six years, and really have a great system on the job site. Lots of these jobs have become old-hat, like painting and garden building. In year 3, we built six gardens in 3 days and we were stoked. This year, we banged out 12 in one day. Our house painting teams have been super efficient this week, finishing the two houses in less than 3 days.

But each year we try some new projects. The first was erecting a nursery where the homeowners can germinate and grow new plants. We were able to finish the first one completely this morning, and begin work on the second.

The second was to help set and harvest the fishing traps off the shore line. Unfortunately, the ocean has been very rough, so we were not able to set the traps earlier in the week like we had hoped. But this afternoon, 12 of the team members set off on Raoul’s boat, Karazim One, and his brother’s boat to see what we caught. Things started off great with the first trap catching a snapper and a yellow fish, both good eating. But each of the remaining 7 shallow traps were empty.

Raoul and his brother were hesitant about going into the deeper waters where they thought we’d have a great harvest due to the choppy waters, so the team did some snorkeling for fun where we got to pick up some starfish and sand dollars. Also, Raoul’s brother speared an angelfish, lion fish, and a lobster. Overall, not the experience we had hoped for, but the potential for success is there.

Finally, after the remaining 14 team members at the site finished up for the day, they took a walk back to last year’s site to visit with the kids. There were lots of hugs, smiles, and tears, as everyone reconnected after a long year.

With only one day left, and an impending storm, we are all praying that we will be able to get back to the village to wrap up our unfinished projects and to say goodbye to all of our new friends.

A Fruitful Day

One of the great things about being in a village in the Caribbean is the easy access to island fruit. There are trees with ripe fruit dangling all over the place. Just a few houses down from where we are working is a fresh mango tree. The kids were very willing to risk life and limb to climb on the longest and highest branch to grab mangoes for us. We were uplifted by the juicy deliciousness of our afternoon snack.

Besides actual fruit, we witnessed the fruit of the spirit alive and well in our team. It is easy to stand back and watch God at work through our team members. Whether it’s the singing and laughing of the children at play, or the dirt and sweat pouring from our souls, a smile was not far away. It’s been awesome to witness God working in so many ways through us and in us too.

Once again, there wasn’t a time during the day when we weren’t actively engaged in a project. A group of about 15 kids were enrolled in a makeshift VBS led by Jeff, Clare, Kate, Kim, Lizz, Catie, and Ali. John had his team of carpenters perform an old-fashioned nursery raising. Carrie S, Tina B, Jess, James, and Dan M. summoned their Amish heritage to get the structure in place. Our team of painters, Todd, Tom, Linda, Helen, Jackie, Jenny, and Lissy finished with the trim and touch up of Forbes’s house. The garden club – Chelsea B, Chelsea R, Warren, Rob, finished all the frames and loaded dirt into 7 raised beds. Carrie J spent her day working one on one with Forbes, the homeowner, in putting up the trim around some windows and doors. And I spent my day making 4 trips to the hardware store and feeding center. And I started working on my special project, refurbishing the family’s shed with a parachute roof (ask me about it later).

Unfortunately the traditional Wednesday night church services have been dwindling, and we were unable to attend a local church service. However when God closes one door he opens another. We ended our day with an amazing beachside service that reinvigorated us all. We prayed, we sang, and we spent time alone with God, all while enjoying the majesty of this gorgeous island – the sunset, the moon, and the lulling waves were a perfect backdrop to a perfect evening.

Full-steam ahead!

The word that best describes this team is “machine.” We had five jobs today – painting, roofing, building the nursery, building the garden frames, and playing with the kids. Everyone was engaged in their activity – no one was lagging behind.

The teams broke down like this:
Painting - Helen, Todd, Linda, Ali, Chelsea B, Jackie, Tom
Roofing – Jeff, James, Lizz, Catie, Kate, Jenny
Nursery – John, Carrie S, Dan M, Tina, Jess, Carrie J
Garden – Dan S, Chelsea R, Warren, Lissy
Kids – Clare, Kim
And Rob just drove around with Raoul all day, interviewing a Bishop and a Minister from local churches, and helped Karen in the kitchen. (But he is working on the team video)

But at any time, if someone needed help people were stepping up to get the task completed. By the end of the day, the house had two coats of blue paint, the nursery had 2 ½ walls finished, 6 garden frames were assembled, and the roof was repaired.

Because of our hard work, we have added a few more jobs – repairing the shed and painting the neighbors house.

We ended the day with our trip to Port Lucaya for some souvenir shopping and ice cream. What a great way to end the day.

Great Expectations

The first day at a worksite is always a surprise. We don’t know where we’re going, what the site will look like, and the extent of our jobs. This year we were sent to fix up Forbes and Lynetta’s house. This family of five is the hub of a small village. Their back yard is set up as a garden that helps feed their neighbors. It’s a pretty big yard compared to other’s we’ve worked on. It has a makeshift, four foot fence with plants randomly growing all over the place. Our goal is to clear out the area – pick up trash, move large rocks, level the land, and create a more organized garden.

Well within minutes the team went crazy. In the midst of our chaos, this yard was transformed. They organized a system of breaking the rock, shoveling into buckets, and dumping them over the fence. The garbage was eliminated, or relocated to over the fence. It seems odd not actually putting the trash in trash cans to be removed, but it’s just the way they do things down here. A task that Raoul stated in the morning should take us about a day and a half to two days was finished by 2:30. That’s just how we roll.

But the day did have a few mishaps. We were able to purchase for Karazim a portable canopy to be used at the worksite to provide some shade. After about an hour, Tom, James, and Warren were able to complete the task. It was gorgeous – was. It was awfully breezy today, more so than usual. A strong gust bent and broke some of the side bars on one of the extension pieces. Tomorrow we will try to fix it. A few people got a little dehydrated or got headaches. And finally, I got stung by 7 wasps trying to retrieve a bucket that was dropped on the other side of the fence – courtesy of Dan Marr. I may change the name of the blog to "Bee stung for Jesus." Unfortunately, I couldn't get Jeff Hill's camera to load the pictures because he got a few good ones of my stings. Thank goodness for Carrie Steele because she nursed me back to health.

Tomorrow we will start assembling the frames for the raised gardens and a new project of building two arbors to house the vegetable flats. A group will be painting the house and another will be on the roof patching a hole. It’s gonna be another busy one.

Day 1

Day 1 is in the books. What a long day it was. We met at Woodside at 5 am and didn’t land in Freeport until 5:30 pm. As if our four hour layover in Atlanta wasn’t bad enough, we had a 45 minute delay. But hey, we’re here and like I always say, nobody died.

We took advantage of the layover to form our small groups/teams. This year’s theme is superheroes, so we all created our own and came up with a catch phrase and mascot. Ask your kids more about it when they get home.

We arrived tired and hungry, but that soon disappeared after eating some of Karen’s fabulous lasagna. The eleven newbies got initiated and are now officially part of the gang. Only a few broken bones. (Just kidding Barb and Mary).

Small group time will be a growing experience for all of us as we focus on Phillipians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

We are all looking forward to getting to the work site tomorrow to see what Raoul has planned for us, but we know it’s God’s plan that we are following this week.

Why the Bahamas?

There were a lot of emotions mixed up in my head when I would first shared about this trip. What would my non-believer friends and family members think? I was still in the infancy stages of my walk with Jesus, only about 6 months into it, and I was worried I would lose my old friends. Have I become a "Jesus freak" or a "Bible thumper?" Was the old Dan gone? I was truly worried about what they would think. Explaining what a mission trip was very uncomfortable for me, not really knowing what a mission trip was myself. Most thought I was just going on a Habitat for Humanity trip.

But what shocked me the most was this one. "The Bahamas? What about all the people in your OWN country who need help?" Wow - this hit me hard. Were they right? Should I do something here at home? I would reply, "Hey, I didn't pick the location. I'm just a chaperone." Looking back at that moment, the thing that upsets me the most was not how I responded to this particular question, but after. I slowly stopped sharing about what I was going to do for fear of more of the same from others. It was almost like I was ashamed. I didn't have a defense. What would I say? I had no idea what to do, so I did nothing.

But something happened on that week back in 2005. And for anyone who has ever gone a mission trip, you know what I mean. At first we were the Americans and they were the Bahamians, us and them. But before long, those barriers were melting away, and I let myself care. I didn't want to. I wanted to go down there, fix up some houses, play with some kids, and come home. Caring was not on my agenda, but I couldn't help it. There is something about the spirit and faith that these people had that made me fall in love with them.

And just like that there were no Americans vs. Bahamians. We were all Christians. Children of God working together. It didn't matter where they were from or where we were from. Jesus reached out and ministered to all people, no matter their background or location. So why should I limit myself to these boundaries? Why should I be care what a few people thought about it?

So I came home that summer and shared with everyone about my week - what it was like, what we did, who we met. And if people questioned me, I shared even more. I wasn't going to hide this. These people, this place - it was all apart of me now.

I can't wait to get back each year. But I also can't wait to come home and give the answer, "Why NOT the Bahamas?"

Headaches

The headaches are here. Not the ones that will go away with some Tylenol. These are headaches that can't be controlled and that's what makes them so painful. And they've been here for a few months.

They began in late April, when team member Warren Marr was trying to add on to our group and discovered something that I wasn't aware of - our flight didn't exist. WHAT? I was sure he was wrong (even though he deals with flights for a living). So I called DELTA to see what was up. "Oh yeah," was their response. "Sorry we didn't inform you. We changed your flight." Our lunchtime arrival was out and a dinner time flight was in. That wrecks our first day, beach-game, team-building day. OK, we'll make do.

The second, and probably most important thing is MONEY!!! Now it's not like the date the money is due is a big surprise. One of the first things I do is give a due date, and like clockwork there are more than a few people who need an extension for some reason. That's why I make the money due a few weeks before the checks are due, but I was cutting it close with a few team members this year.

In mid- June I got a phone call from the Hill's. Before I go on, let me give you a little history lesson about the Hill's. This is the fourth year that the Hill family has been on the trip, and it always seems that something comes up in their busy lives so that someone has to drop out. In Year 2, Ellen and Catie were planning to come, but had to miss. In Year 4, Nick had to stay back for a college class, and now in Year 5, Nick and Scott have work issues that are keeping them home. So Catie and Jeff are filling in.

We are now less than 2 weeks away and I need paperwork!! Forms - insurance, liability, parental permission, notarized documents - all need to be in my possession very soon. If we were to leave today, the trip would only have 6 people on it. For those of you scoring at home, that's 21 with some sort of missing paperwork.

Even with the headaches that are caused, I've come to learn that they work themselves out - not by some coincidence, but because God has a hand, THE hand, in making sure everything works out. I don't look at the flight change as a problem, but an opportunity to bond in other ways. Having Catie come on the trip will be awesome for Jeff because now he has had a solo trip with each of this children. And the money and paperwork thing - well there is no bright-side to that. They ARE headaches.

So I'm going to heed the advice that I first heard from friend and team member Carrie Steele when I first became a believer back in 2004- let go and let God! I can't control everything. As a matter of fact, I can't control anything so why try. I'm going to sit back and enjoy the ride God has planned for us.