DAY 7

Today, since it was Sunday, we were thankfully able to sleep in before church. Then we all walked to Wesley United Methodist Church together which is right next to the Caribbean in James Cistern. It’s always fun worshipping with the Bahamians because of the way they are not scared to let the Holy Spirit work through them in worship. For example, this Sunday’s prayer involved the congregation standing in a circle holding hands and whoever felt led to pray, prays—everyone at the same time. So all these different leaders in the church are standing there talking to God out loud and you try to listen to all the prayers because they are so beautiful but you can’t listen to them all and it’s just one big rush of God. We also saw all the kids from After School at church, and we sat with two of the older girls, Shawnae and Ranique.

After church I walked to the store with Liz to get a drink before we headed back to camp. Liz is a volunteer who has been here for four weeks and will be here for two more. She serves long term in India, but she had to leave for a while so she came here to serve. She works mainly with the After School program, and has poured her heart into this ministry. Whenever you’re with Liz, you can always count on having awesome conversation.

Once we got back to camp, it was a mad rush to get ready for our four groups coming to the island. Despite a few little mishaps such as a water leakage in the girl’s bathroom, the camp was spotless and prepared when the teams arrived. It was weird to see the camp so crowded with people at first because we were used to it being empty, but we quickly got used to it. We have teams from Brooklet UMC in Georgia, Franklin UMC in Tennessee, and a group from Fontbonne University in Missouri. It was an interesting adjustment switching from being the newbies at camp to be the “experts,” but we quickly learned it was pretty easy to ACT like we knew what we were talking about.

After dinner, orientation, and conversation, everyone was ready for bed early after traveling all day. We are excited and praying for safe and productive work for the teams this week!

DAY 8

After an early morning of seeing the teams off to the work site, I quickly settled into my job in the office. Monday is finance day, so I helped out with going through receipts and filling out petty cash forms and on accounts forms. I also folded about 100 tshirts, worked on making a flyer for a Kids Camp BMH is holding in July, wrote thank you cards, and basically did whatever jobs Brenda came up with for me to do. It’s good work for me to do because I can check tasks off a to-do list, which makes me feel like I’m accomplishing a lot (even though they are all minute tasks). I really do enjoy the work I am doing. It’s interesting to see how each intern’s job fits him or her, and they all seem to be working out well.

In the afternoon, Abe asked Madison and I if we wanted to go work out with him and Brenda and some other people, and since we had heard about the infamous “gym” we decided to go with them. The “gym” is located in the back room of one of the local stores close to Abe’s house. The room is concrete with no electricity or AC, and they have set up an old weight machine and a few other workout tools. Madison, Brenda, Abe, Keith (who works with the Eleuthera Bible Training Center), Tony (a local who owns the store), and LJ (one of the older kids who comes to After School) all did a crossfit type of workout together, which was fun because we really could all go at our own pace. We all just did what we could, but it was so fun to see how you can truly make something great out any space. And it felt really great to exercise after eating all of Ms. Pauline’s delicious cooking (she cooks bacon in extra grease, if that tells you anything).

The "gym"

Not exactly National Fitness

On Monday nights we had decided that the interns would meet with Brenda to do an intern Bible study. We were still finishing up our book “A Mile in My Shoes,” and this next chapter was on “How to be a Compassionate Christ Follower.” We began by working to define compassion, which Webster defined as “The human quality of understanding another’s suffering and wanting to do something about it.” We were supposed to think of examples in our lives when people have shown compassion for us, and it ended up being one of the best Bible studies I’ve ever been a part of. The book talks about how in order to be compassionate, we must first face and understand our own experiences. If we cannot comprehend our own suffering, then how would we be able to “understand another’s suffering?” But it’s difficult for us as humans brought up in American society to face our suffering. We all act as though we have it all together; we all put on a show. But everyone has garbage, stuff that’s holding them back that they haven’t yet faced. We talked about the lamenting Psalms, and how it is okay to cry out to God, to be mad at God, to question Him. The important thing is to still have faith in Him. To, even in times of despair, think of times in the past when God has been faithful and have faith that God will be faithful in the future, as the lamenting Psalms do. I’d never focused on this aspect of compassion before; I had never really dug deep into what it means to feel compassion, but it is an important idea to understand and be ready to face when you are in the missions field.

We finished up the night with devotions, conversation, and of course way too many card games.

DAY 9

This morning started with breakfast with the groups, morning chores, and seeing the groups off to their worksites. Then I worked on my usual tasks in the office for the morning. Since it is Tuesday, the After School kids came in the afternoon. I have started to really enjoy After School because I am getting to know the kids by name, and I’m realizing that, however crazy they may seem, these are the sweetest and most loving kids I will ever meet. When working with them on homework, it’s hard for me to deal with how far behind they are, that a third grader struggles with reading Curious George or doing simple multiplication tables. The JC Primary School had only one teacher for most of the year last year. They had only ONE teacher for six grades of students, and as a result, many of the kids are impossibly behind. I only wish I had enough time to help each and every one of them catch up, but the After School program is the best thing we can offer these kids right now, and I am so thankful this program is in place.

Letting the chickens run free for a while

Jordan and Josh

Following After School, we went to work out at the Big Rock “gym” again, and then came back and got ready to go to Bible Study at the church. It’s so neat when all the groups all walk together down to the church by the sea, and also to see how everyone reacts to worshipping with the Bahamian people. Then we came back to camp, had devotion, and talked with a guy visiting who is on the BMH board. He came down to talk with Abe about installing an Aquaponics gardening program at camp. In other words, he wants to make it possible for us to grow our garden using only rocks, water, and fish poop. I love it here.

Leaving camp

Welcome to BMH

Wesley United Methodist Church

DAY 10

Today was my day to go out on the worksite, and I was also intern of the day, which means I was in charge of making all announcements and staying in contact with the groups. I went with a group from Georgia on the worksite to the house of a little girl named Nae Nae, her mother, her uncle, and her grandmother, who all lived in a two-bedroom house with no electricity or water. The living conditions were awful, so BMH was doing what it could to help improve them. We were working on closing in the porch to make another room, fixing the bathroom, and installing electrical wiring. I spent most of the day mixing concrete and using it to patch the walls of the house and getting to know the group members a little bit more.

Mixing concrete

Nae Nae liked to help

We took a break to get coconuts down from the trees and got the Bahamians to show us how to open them

We finished at the work site at four and headed to the beautiful Rainbow Beach (the same beach we swam at the other night after cave devotions). I forgot my snorkeling stuff, but luckily I had my goggles with me because on the far end of the beach were some major cliffs and rocks that have tons of fish and coral; in other words, there is great snorkeling. Two of the locals that are site leaders, TJ and “Smitty” were going spear fishing so a group of us tagged along to watch. It felt wonderful to swim and to see the world that we always forget exists under the water.

Rainbow beach with the snorkeling cliffs in the background

TJ caught a lobby

We were circling around the outer cliffs when one of the youth came up to us and said a jellyfish had stung him on the back and that it was really hurting. I (being the lifeguard that I am) checked it out and saw that there were multiple red, raised sting lines on his back and also a little blood. We made our way around the cliffs to get out of the water, and after seeing how much the sting was hurting him, I convinced one of his friends to pee on his back because that’s what is what is supposed to help a jellyfish sting. Unfortunately…. I don’t think it really helped that much. Woops! It was pretty funny for the rest of us though (don’t tell the kid I said that).

We got back to camp, and after dinner I decided to lead a group on the trail behind camp to the salt pond and the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. I had a group of about ten people come along, and we made it to the salt pond just in time to see the orange of the sunset. We walked over the hill on a very overgrown “path” to the Atlantic side of the island where the waves are big and the water is dark blue and not turquoise. It’s amazing the difference between the Caribbean side of the island of the Atlantic side. The hike was awesome, but unfortunately it got dark while we were at the Atlantic, so we had to hike back in the dark. Luckily I had my handy dandy headlamp with me, but still I think a couple of people got a little nervous. But it all worked out!

Down the Atlantic side

Sun setting across the Salt Pond

Madison and me

Tom, me, Madison, and Jordan

When we got back to camp, Jordan, Madison and I laid on the basketball court out back and looked at the moon and talked. Then we went inside and did devotion. Then, of course, we played cards before bed.

Oh and today was my mom’s birthday. So happy birthday mom!