DAY 17

Wednesday I spent the morning working in the office, but around lunchtime a huge storm came through and the power went out for about three hours. I couldn’t do much without internet or power, so it was a slow day.

Wednesday night we had intern Bible Study, and Brenda talked about the story of the Good Samaritan and related it to not letting ourselves become exhausted from serving others. We often take the commandment, “Love your neighbors as yourself,” to be a commandment telling us to love our neighbors, to love others, which is true, but we often forget the ending of the commandment: “as yourself.” Before we can learn to truly love others, we must first learn to love ourselves and overcome the critical thoughts that constantly circulate our minds. The Good Samaritan story exists inside all of us, and we have all been each of the characters in the story: the man walking down the road who is beat up, the priest who walks by, the Levite, and the good Samaritan. We’ve all been in every position, but we must love ourselves all the same because God loves us. This was an interpretation of the story I had never heard before and I enjoyed it.

DAY 18

Thursday I started on a big project in the office. BMH has two boards: an American board and a Bahamian board. Each group gets donations, which they keep track of in order to solicit more donations, but they have each been keeping track of their donations separately on different spreadsheets. In order to start a giving campaign to raise money, BMH needed to combine these spreadsheets into one master donor list. Unfortunately (or fortunately—depending on how you look at it) these donations go back to 2006 and there were over 1000. Also, different pieces of information were on different spreadsheets. So I spent half of Thursday, all of Friday, all of Monday, and half of Tuesday combining three spreadsheets into one and retyping over 1000 entries. It took around 22 hours total.

Thursday was my half-day off so I took a nap, read, called my mom, and updated the blog. Then on Thursday night KP gave a cultural talk to the group and I gave devotion.

DAY 19

I spent all of Friday working on my spreadsheets. Friday night was the closing bonfire at Abe’s with the group. It was great to hear this group tell stories from the week, where they saw God, and how this experience impacted them. It was a full moon tonight, and it was one of those huge, bright orange moons that is always beyond remarkable. The moon and its reflection on the water paired with the bonfire made for a spectacularly beautiful night.

The Moooooon

Fireside Tunes

Liz by the moon

DAY 20

Today we had breakfast at 5:15 and saw the teams off. Then we cleaned camp, ate lunch from a local barbeque place, took a nice long nap, and then went to Rainbow Inn next to Brenda’s house to swim and hang out. We ended up playing water polo for a while, and then went back to Brenda’s to shower for dinner.

We met up with Brenda at Rainbow Inn for dinner, and after a wonderful seafood dinner a musician named CJ started playing songs for open mic night and we all got up and danced. Tom, Ali, and I know how to swing dance and we tried to teach Jordan (which didn’t go so well) but it was so fun to all dance together. Afterwards we had a good conversation with CJ and learned more about where he came from and what he does.

Another guy came on stage at one point and played Wagon Wheel and it was wonderful.

Swing dancing the night away at Rainbow Inn

DAY 21

On Sunday we didn’t go to church because one of the teams came in at around 1:30 and we probably wouldn’t have been back from church by then (even though church starts at 11—yes it is usually a two to three hour service). The first team got there by 2:30, which meant we had about three hours until dinner, so Maggie and I took the group down to the Caribbean side to collect seashells and take pictures by the sea. It was nice to get to know the first group a little before the next group came in, since we had around 35 people here this week.

The next group came in around dinnertime, and after dinner we had orientation and then it was time for bed.

DAY 22

On Monday I again mostly worked on spreadsheets, and then that afternoon Maggie, Brenda, and I went running and swimming at Abe’s again. We headed back and had dinner, but unfortunately during dinner I started to get a migraine so I went to lie down. I thought I was going to be fine so I went up to intern Bible Study for a while where we laid on the porch with the sun setting in front of us and listened to Brenda read us the story of the valley of dry bones from Ezekiel over and over using different translations. We felt the wind as God’s breath all around us, and heard God’s message that “I have said it, and I will do it.” Having this faith that God brings us the life and is the life and through him we find life is vital to understanding the world we live in.

“37 The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

4 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! 5 This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath[a] enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

9 Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

11 Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.’”

And then I had to leave intern Bible Study early because the migraine came in full force, but when I recovered later I found that we each were given a sheet of paper and we passed them around and wrote nice things about each other on them. What a great thing to wake up to.

DAY 23

On Tuesday I finished my spreadsheets in the morning, then I worked on designing a tank for BMH for a while. Be excited. It’s pretty great (if I do say so myself).

Today was the After School Program’s End of Year party (and Liz’s last day in the Bahamas), so we picked all the kids up from school and took them to Cocodimama Beach and we swam and played games and ate food for a few hours. These kids are so much fun to hang out with, and it has been a wonderful pleasure to have been able to play with them twice a week for the past few weeks. They have so much love in their hearts and so much potential. It was a wonderful way for us to be able to finish our time with the kids.

On Tuesday night we again went with the group to Bible Study at the church, which this week was led by Freddie Ferguson, the music director at Wesley Methodist Church. After church we had devotion, and then we had circle time outside where we went around the circle and said our best and worst moments with Liz (because she was leaving the next morning). My worst moment was at Pineapplefest when she burped in my face without turning away. Or when we were both in the room in the middle of the day and she kept trying to peer pressure me into turning on the AC (which isn’t allowed except for at night). My best moment was when we would walk to the store together and talk. I’m sure glad I met Liz Jackson.

Never a Quiet Bus

DAY 24

This morning I had planned to take a sunrise hike to the Atlantic side of the island with the encouragement of one of the team members from Northside UMC. I announced it the night before, and 13 people showed up for the hike at 5:30 am. We made our way through the trail in the dark and made it to the Atlantic for a beautiful, cloudy sunrise. It was beyond worth it to get up that early for such a beautiful experience.

Sunrise group

I went on site this day also, so when we got back to camp I had to change and pack up my stuff for the work site. Then we said bye to Liz and took group pictures in front of the cross.

Bye Liz

I went to the worksite with a group of girls from Northside UMC in Jackson, TN. Our site leader was Pedro, who I had never talked to much but is a wonderful person. We were working on Mr. Warren’s house in Hatchet Bay. Mr. Warren lived in Nassau and worked at the airport for thirty years, but was forced to retire early after a series of procedures. He moved back home to Eleuthera, but his house was is disrepair and needed a lot of work. Previous teams had torn down the walls and ceilings in three rooms and replaced them with fresh sheet rock. We worked on patching, painting, and sanding these walls and ceilings for most of the day.

We went to the beach after work, which is always nice, and then headed back to camp for dinner. After dinner, our local Christian rapper C-Dash came to perform for the teams. He was very good at engaging the audience in his songs, and it was so much fun to sing along with him and the groups.

C-Dash the rapper

DAY 25

This morning I worked on typing up on a spreadsheet the names and information of the kids who have signed up for the kids camp that BMH is hosting in July. Then, Brenda, Maggie, Madison and I loaded up our sound system and twenty folding chairs and drove over to the James Cistern Primary School for graduation. One of our After School kids, Ancito, was the only person in the sixth grade this year, so the whole celebration was for him. The superintendent, principle, teachers, and community members all came together to celebrate his success. All the kids filed in, which was neat to see because we knew all of them. Then people spoke and kids sang and danced and people talked about Ancito’s successes and all he has done and will do in the future. The whole ceremony lasted two hours. In the states, we get upset if a high school graduation lasts two hours for 400 students. And around forty people attended a two hour ceremony for one student graduating sixth grade. Ancito (along with another boy LJ) have been working two days a week at BMH as well as being leaders at After School in order to earn a laptop, so Brenda presented Ancito with his laptop at graduation. Ancito also gave a very emotion filled address thanking all those who have influenced him over the years.

I had never seen them this behaved before

Shawnae, Ranique, Ojay, Nicolette, Camia

Ansito being escorted

Ansito's speeches

It was great to see the community come together like that for education, but after we left Brenda told us how Ancito is an illegal immigrant here (he is Haitian) and doesn’t have any papers, which means he won’t actually be able to attend high school most likely or represent the Bahamas in the Olympics like they were saying he could. And there isn’t anything they can do to change that.

After saying bye to all our kids and Ancito, it was our day off so we went back to camp and packed up our stuff to go to a resort called SkyBeach where we could swim at the pool. On the way we stopped at one of Brenda’s friend’s houses, and as we pulled into the little neighborhood we quickly realized that this was much more like the Bahamas people think of when they think of vacation. Two golf carts in the driveway, a hammock on the screened in wrap-around porch, no one would complain in this neighborhood. One of the houses used to be owned by the English Royal Family. It’s so crazy to think that this neighborhood exists on the same island as the communities where we are doing our mission work.

SkyBeach was closed for a special event, so Brenda said we could go back and swim at the pool in her friend’s neighborhood. So Maggie, Madison and I slept by a private pool with a view of the Atlantic and the sound of waves that the Royals have probably swam in before. Life is good today. 

It was a good day

DAY 11

Today is the teams’ final day on the worksite. After breakfast and seeing them off, I spent the morning continuing my work in the office. Today my jobs included working on the registration for the BMH Kids Camp, updating contact lists, writing thank you notes to donors, and working to figure out which churches Abe should contact from Georgia when he goes to the Georgia United Methodist Conference this next week. To do this, I cross-referenced two lists: one included a list of churches that brought in the most donations and the other was a list of the churches with the highest global outreach. I also took into account which churches have visited BMH before in order to create a list of the churches that would be most beneficial with which to make contact in order to gain more support for BMH in the Methodist community.

After lunch, I had the afternoon off. I spent the afternoon preparing my devotion, working on my blog, and calling my mom. Then Madison, Brenda and I drove a couple minutes down the road to the Eleuthera Bible Training Center where we met up with Lori, the wife of the man in charge of EBTC, and her two daughters. Together we did strength exercises and yoga on the front porch of their house on a hill overlooking the Caribbean. Lori used to be a personal trainer, so the workout was great, and after we finished we went and jumped in the ocean in our clothes because it was just too inviting not to jump in. Looking out over the ocean, I was having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that I came here to work, and yet I’m having SO much fun.

View from our yoga place

After dinner we heard a testimony from one of the ladies that works in the kitchen, Ms. Maxine. Following her powerful story, I gave the nightly devotion. My devotion talks about making God a constant presence in your life. First I define “present” by quoting the book that the interns were supposed to read this summer. It says, “Being present involves letting go of our constant preoccupations, immersing ourselves in the here and now, and giving ourselves wholeheartedly to whatever is at hand. Involving far more than being merely physically present, it’s about becoming more aware, alert, awake to the fullness of the immediate moment. If we are with another person, it means engaging him or her with all of our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength.” Rarely am I ever fully present with a person standing directly in front of me, let alone with God. We often praise God when something good happens in our lives, but we leave Him out when things aren’t going so well in our lives. The American mindset is that everything is always fine. We ask each other how we are doing, and the answer is always “I’m good.” Even if something difficult is going on, we put on a happy face and walk around like we’re fine. 

Two types of Psalms exist: Psalms that praise and Psalms that lament. Lamenting Psalms are Psalms in which the author cries out to God in anguish. Psalm 22 says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.” The author is crying out to God in pain without fear of angering God. The lamenter tells God how he or she feels, asking Him why He is not with him or her. Then the lamenter says to God, “I need you to be with me. You have been with me before, why are you not here now?” The lamenter is in a sense calling God out. He or she feels lost and is in despair, and he or she does not choose to hide it from God. But the key is that the Psalm does not end there. After the crying out, the anger, and the sadness, the lamenting Psalms all end with praise for God. They say, “You have been faithful in the past, I know you will be faithful now.” Psalm 88:13 says, “But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.” We can scream and cry and pour our hearts out to God without him being angered. But the challenge is that in the morning we must again lift our prayer to God. 

We must stay constant in prayer and focus on staying present with God. We had been singing the song 10,000 Reasons throughout the week during devotions. The song says, “The sun comes up. It’s a new day dawning. It’s time to sing Your song again. Whatever may pass, and whatever lies before me let me be singing when the evening comes.” I believe it’s easy for us to stay focused on God here in Eleuthera where every direction we look we see the beauty of his creation, whether it is in the ocean or the palm trees or the blue sky or the people. But our challenge is to stay focused on and present with God when we return back to our homes. Romans 12:12 says, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” God listens to our needs, and He answers our prayers. We just need to call on Him in all things.

DAY 12

Today was excursion day for the teams, and all the interns went with them this week. We headed north on the island, and started the day with a stop at Glass Window Bridge, the narrowest part of the island. On one side of the bridge is the calm, turquoise Caribbean Sea and the other side of the bridge is the dark blue, billowing Atlantic Ocean.

Josh, Tom, me, Madison, Jordan

View from Glass Window

Then we continued north to Preacher’s Cave. The cave was cool, but we quickly headed over to the beach. Madison and I grabbed our snorkels and swam over to the cliffs where TJ, Smitty, and Tom were spear fishing. The coral and fish were awesome, and I got to try spear fishing a little bit. At the end, the boys saw a barracuda and chased after it and speared it. I came up for a breath at one point, and I saw the barracuda jump completely out of the water with the spear going through it. But they quickly shot it again and luckily caught it.

Preacher's Cave

Preacher's Cave

Then we headed south a little ways to Gaulding Cay. We dropped the teams off at the beach and the interns went to pick up lunch at the Laughing Lizard (a restaurant I have eaten take-out from twice before but never been to before. Think hip coffee shop mixed with island food/bar and no coffee). Then we brought the food back and ate on the beach and swam for a little while. Then we went to Gregory Town where Island Made Gift Shop is and an ice cream store and Pineapple Fest was going on. This means that down by the water there were a few booths set up selling food and other goods (including, thank goodness, pineapples). The pineapples on Eleuthera are so soft and sweet that you can eat straight through the core. 

Gaulding Cay

Island Made Gift Shop

After leaving Gregory Town we headed back to camp and dropped off people that were “beached out” and then we headed to a beach on the Atlantic side of the island. TJ, Smitty, Tom, Madison, and I swam way out to an island to go spear fishing. We had a lot less luck at this beach than the last one, and after about an hour we had only caught a lobster and one other fish. We were heading in to leave when Smitty thought he saw a shark fin close to the shore a little ways down the island, so we ran down to see what it was. Turns out it was a huge fish (we weren’t ever quite sure what kind it was), and they ran in the water and speared it. It took a couple of tries and a lot of flopping, but they finally caught it. It was crazy to see them spear this huge fish and how long it stayed alive and how difficult it was to carry. I had never seen a fish that big before. It was a good way to end excursion day.

TJ, Smitty, and the fish

After dinner we headed over to Abe’s house for closing devotion. I remember this night being one of the most powerful experiences on my mission trip to Eleuthera two years ago, so I was excited for what the night had in store. I headed over with Brenda and Madison a little early to get the bonfire started, which started instantly despite the rain that morning. Even I was impressed with those fire-starting skills. Brenda had everyone talk about where they saw God this week and their favorite parts of the week, and I hope it was special for everyone involved. We sang the song “Oceans” to close and had quiet time and I just still can’t believe the way God is working in me and through me and all around me on this island. I can’t imagine a better way to spend my summer and I am so thankful for the opportunity to be here.

Bonfire at Abe's

DAY 13

This morning we woke up at 4:30 to see the teams off to the airport. Possibly the hardest thing I’ve had to do since I’ve been here is get up this morning (and that’s saying something because I’ve had to do a lot of hard stuff). But we woke up and had breakfast and saw the teams off on the bus. We had to clean the entire camp before our day off would start, so I did some major recruiting from the teams to help speed the cleaning process along. After they left we cleaned the girl’s side and the girl’s bathroom, and then we were mostly done.

Abe was signed up to participate in the Pineappleman Triathlon today (as a part of Pineapplefest of Gregory Town), and earlier in the week Brenda, Madison, and I had decided we would go with him and do the running part of the triathlon (a 5k). Maggie and Ali came back from South this morning, and Maggie decided to join us. I briefly considered doing the whole triathlon, but I didn’t have a bike. I was going to do the swimming and running, but we (no surprise) ended up a little late to the event so I didn’t have time to change into my suit and sign up before it started. So I ended up just doing the running, which was hot and humid and consisted of two big hills. Not my favorite run. I ran more on the way back than the way out, and right at the end Abe caught up to me and made me run fast with him. It was tough. But we finished! And had the cool ocean to jump into as soon as we got back. Which is the first thing I did. I can now say that I have placed second in a 5k (even if only five people were competing and three of them were my friends). I’m still proud.

Pineappleman Triathlon

Brenda, me, Madison, and Maggie

At the beginning

Halfway selfie

So right after the race we are swimming in the little harbor area of Gregory Town to cool off and we see people start pointing at the water on the far end. We hear someone say “manatee” so we decided to swim over to see how close we could get. We swam right up to the manatee. I borrowed Abe’s goggles and could see him swimming around under the water. Every once in a while the manatee would come up to breathe and you could see it’s little face and whiskers. The manatee was about eight feet long and so magnificent. We were able to pet him, and every once in a while he would turn around and run into us. One of the local boys got a hose to give him fresh water and he came up to drink the water. WHAT A SPECTACULAR WAY TO END A RUN.

Manatee

Eight feet long

 

Pineappleman BMH participants

The team from South Eleuthera wasn't leaving until later in the day, so they had come with us to the triathlon and Gregory Town this morning. After the race, we drove them to the airport and then went back to pick up Brenda at the festival. The triathlon was a fundraiser for the Zion Children’s Home on Current Island (we visited it last time I was here). The ladies who run the Home asked if we could take the kids back to the ferry dock, so Abe dropped Madison, Maggie, Brenda, and I off at Laughing Lizard for lunch before he took them up to pier. Abe ended up getting tied up with stuff so we ended up being at the Laughing Lizard for three hours (which was nice because they had wifi and the internet at camp had been out for two days). But by the time Abe showed back up, Brenda, Madison, and I were all passed out because (although it was only 2) we had been up for eight and a half hours after only four hours of sleep. Then we headed back to camp to pick up the rest of our friends and went to Rainbow Inn by Brenda’s house to swim in the pool. We played a game similar to Categories for almost two hours before we went back and showered at Brenda’s and hung out for a while. Abe and Liz showed back up and we all headed back North again to Gregory Town to go eat dinner and hang out at Pineapplefest. Between the eight of us, we bought over fifty conch fritters because they were so cheap. We listened to music and saw the “Miss Pineapple” beauty contest and soaked up some Bahamian culture.

Laughing Lizard

Pineapplefest

Girl interns and Brenda

We left around ten and headed back to camp and immediately went to bed because it had been a looooong day.

DAY 14

I slept eleven and a half hours of much needed sleep before waking up for church at eleven. After the two-hour service, we headed back to camp to do last minute cleaning and preparing for our new groups coming in. Only eighteen people were coming this week, compared to almost forty the previous week, so we were hoping for a little bit lower key week and we were hoping to build some deeper relationships with the team members. The groups arrived, I collected passports, we ate, we did orientation, and then it was time for bed. It was amazing how much smoother this week went from last week simply because we had a week of experience under our belts.

BMH at Wesley United Methodist Church

DAY 15

In the Bahamas, the day after Pentecost is a holiday called Whit Monday, and in accordance with the Bahamian culture, we do not work on holidays. Therefore excursion day was Monday for this week’s teams instead of Friday (which I was aware of because I am in charge of making the schedule). The Methodist Churches of Eleuthera were putting on a festival in Governor’s Harbour in honor of Whit Monday, so we all went to support the church. Also BMH was in charge of preparing games for the kids to play, and Liz had worked super hard to prepare some awesome games for everyone to play. I spent the morning taking lunch orders from everyone and collecting money and placing orders along with helping Liz load the truck and make sure all the games were in order. Then Brenda, Liz, Tom, and I crowded into Abe’s truck and drove the most beautiful drive down to Governor’s. When we got to the festival park and set up all the games, we mostly just hung out until the groups finished worship and came down to the festival.

Face Painting

Liz and I

Ojay about to get TJ with a water balloon

As soon as worship finished, the congregation began a slow processional parade from the church down the road to the festival site. They were playing drums and other instruments and dancing the traditional “junkaroo.” Most of the group members participated in this parade, which was fun to see.

The parade

We spent the rest of the day playing games with the kids including face painting, tarp toss, and my personal favorite, the water balloon fight. It was so much fun to see the joy on the kids’ faces while playing the games Liz had provided for us, and it was great to see the teams interacting with this community I have come to call my own. I believe that being able to understand and work within a culture completely different from your own is an act of strength, tolerance, and understanding, and when I came here I didn’t know if I were going to be able to break down the barriers put in place by my own safe and comfortable life. I’m so proud of the way I have been able to get to know this blessed community and the relationships I have built so far on this journey.

We were at the festival until about 3:00, and then we headed to Navy Beach on the Atlantic side to finish up excursion day. I was supposed to go back with Brenda and work on finances, but she said I should go ahead with the group to the beach. We body surfed in the waves and hung out in the waves for an hour, which felt glorious after a long day of sweating.

Later that night I walked to the store with Liz. “Ms. Liz” has spent her past six weeks here working with the after-school program and has developed it into something wonderful. As we were walking the streets of James Cistern, about every five houses or so a face would pop up in the doorway and say, “Hi Ms. Liz!” and it would be one of the kids from After-School that we both knew. We ran into three or four other people we knew on the way. And of course we had good conversation. Liz is definitely one friend I’m thankful I’ve made.

When we got back we did a quick intern Bible study with Brenda, simply because she had picked up a book and read a few chapters and wanted to share with us what she learned from the book. She talked about how we must embrace the things that make us uncomfortable in order to help us grow. That God tests us by putting things in our lives to take us out of what is comfortable, to ensure that we have faith to carry on. I believe that’s what I did by entering this community. The dialect, the customs, the way of life are so completely different than ours, but I have grown to understand and accept the people for who they are and embraced the lifestyle while I am here. I think I’m almost picking up a little accent. Maybe.

DAY 16

Today was back to the office. My workload started out small simply because we hadn’t been in the office for four days, but my to-do list quickly grew to almost a full page. I mostly worked on preparing notebooks full of information for our outposts on Current Island, Andros Island and Nassau. We have a group going to Andros next week, and then in a couple weeks this information will be helpful to me because Tom, Madison, Jordan and I will be heading to Nassau for two weeks to host teams there. The first week we will have 36 people and the second week we will have 18. I will be in charge of keeping track of all of the finances and paperwork. So basically I will be responsible for running a small nonprofit for two weeks. I am learning such valuable skills.

We worked on our various office work until it was time for after-school. Unfortunately our bus wouldn’t start, so we were thirty minutes late to pick up the kids. Liz and I drove over to the school to tell the kids what was happening and bring them water, and about ten minutes after we got there Brenda pulled up in the bus, so we headed back to camp. I worked with Grawille again, who read me four books. I was so proud of him, but then I realized he mostly had the books memorized and was too scared to try a book a little harder. He did do a great job at sounding out words he got stuck on though.

Once the kids left, Brenda and I drove to Abe’s house and ran a two-mile loop with Amelia and Jackson. Exercise has been keeping me going when I work from 6:30 am to 10:30 at night every day. Luckily it started raining on us halfway through our run because it was very hot and very humid today. 

After dinner was supposed to be church, but because of the rain and our large group, church was relocated to the dining hall. We sang two songs American style, two songs Bahamian style, and then had worship. It was so neat to see the two cultures combine.