The Changeover

The last few days have been crazy down here. Emotions are all over the place. The fun from yesterday's beautiful "God in Nature" day, the joy of closing service, and the sadness this morning as the first group gathered their things and said goodbye to the Flamingo Bay one last time. And only a few hours later, a whole new group arrived wide-eyed and excited for what will come this week. So I guess I'll start with "God in Nature" day. This is Raoul and Karen's way of saying thank you to us for all of the hard work we do during the week. It's a chance for them to take care of us. The day starts with a little cleanup at the feeding center, and then back to the hotel to get ready for the boat ride to the cove. The ride takes about 30 minutes on Raoul's donated boat, Southern Lady. He uses it for days like this, but also for transporting items back and forth from the States because it is cheaper that way. One of the fishing ministry boats also came along to take some of us out to hunt for star fish, sand dollars, or other fish that may be around. The rest of the group snorkeled, swam, looked for shells, or just hung out. We grill hamburgers and hot dogs and just enjoy each others company for our few remaining hours. With some time to spare before dinner, we squeezed in a game - Flyswatter Hockey. This year the Cherry Bombs took home the Stanley Conch Trophy with a last minute goal to win 1-0. We always wrap our Friday with a great service about the weeks verse - "When you make a vow to God, do not delay to fulfill it. He has no pleasure in fools; fulfill your vow." Ecclesiastes 5:4 - and talk about how we will use this verse in our lives when we return home. This morning was a little somber as the coffee gang hung at the gazebo one last time. There were a few tears and lots of hugs as the first weeks group took off, and I'm happy to hear that they got home safe and sound. But as soon as we left the airport, it was business as usual. There was a little over an hour until the new group arrived and a few chores needed to get done, like buying laundry detergent! Once the group got to the hotel, there was a little delay in getting all of the rooms cleaned and ready, so they explored the beach and the pool until they could get changed. But that was resolved quickly and it was off to play! We ate dinner at the pavilion, played our icebreaker games, and even got into our teams. No team names were created yet - that's for tomorrow. We wrapped up the day with a great game of Dizzy Izzy bat race. The kids seem to do just fine, but the adults can't seem to stay on their feet! Luckily, no one fell into the ocean like last week. On the way back, the conversation turned to the weather and how much cooler it is in the Bahamas than back home. That's sort of funny because this week will be much hotter here than last week. Looks like they brought the heat with them! We are very excited to see what God has in store for this team of 33 missionaries.