Prayer Rally

Here are some of our prayers from previous prayer rally's we've done. Just so that you guys can agree with us in prayer on a much more specific level.

Prayer Log
10.21.09
Dionis & Ian:

We started on our own. Praying for direction. After hearing what Tamara and Bethany pressed in for, we wanted to stay in line with that. We realized that water also helps plant seeds. God led me (Dionis) to Mark 4 (the sewer and the seed). We prayed that the island would become “good soil” so that the seed that will be sown or has already been sown will be able to grow and produce 100 fold. We also prayed against the “birds, rocks, sun and the thorns.” That whatever is stealing God’s word from the people would be gone (casting them out) so that God’s word can grow. Then Ian prayed that there would be people to support what God is doing… A.K.A. fertilizer, to compliment the fresh water and the fresh soil. Then we went back to ourselves but both of us were claiming the island and whatever God put on our heart.



Tamara & Bethany:

Okay so we walked to the church because Bethany was feeling sick so we figured we could walk or do laps around the church. We ended up lapping the church about 7 times or more and really spoke out against bondage within the island and the people. We kept praying for protection over and around the church that there will be angels surrounding the premises guarding against any evilness that may attempt to want to take residence. We also prayed for unity amongst the church members and leaders.



10.30.09
Marissa & Corinna

God I pray that you would romance each and every one of these kids tonight. God, they BELONG to you. They are YOUR property! They are YOUR creation. God I pray would you appear tonight… come in Jesus and present Yourself to their hearts.

God I pray for an awakening in the camp. God that you would raise the kids out of their sleep, out of their enchantment, God that they would be brought out of their graves and back to life-that they would come out of their tents and see the enemy at hand, within the camp. I pray that they would be awakened, but also strengthened… God that they would not fear when they see what is before them but that they would see the great crowd of witnesses… that you would open their eyes like Gahazi’s and that they would know that you opened their eyes in order to free them. Set up a table before them amidst their enemy. Show them that you laugh because in your hand is the victory already!

God focus our hearts tonight. Speak directly to the four who are speaking… God would it be Your spirit that wells up in them and in turn your words that come from their lips. God would all our hearts be bent on the things unseen… give us eyes to see past what is in front of us. Give us your eyes. How do you see these kids? What do you see going on in the lives of these kids? What do you see about the present situation? What is going on in the room at this very moment?

God I pray for legions of angels to surround us and to fight on our behalf, to fight alongside us. God that we would not be alone in tonight’s battle but that you and your Spirit would be well and alive in our hearts!



11.2.09
Corinna & Tamara:
The kids you had come over at our house Saturday night came by no mere coincidence. Each and every one of those kids you have called by name and have predestined them for your kingdom’s work. God you have blessed them with Your Spirit and I pray that now… You would show them how to walk it out. Give them each a spirit of confidence that comes only from you. Make it KNOWN to them who You are and how much You love them!! Build each of their identities in you and no one else—that their foundation would be built on You and You alone. Each one of those kids belongs to You and no one else. Teach them how to be leaders. Lead them God, give them Your strength, wisdom, joy, peace, discernment and YOUR love. From them, would there come a wave of revival. You’ve started it in their hearts—I pray let the fire grow and spread.

Likewise God, that you would build on and strengthen the core group. God that there would be a foundation built on You and Your Spirit by the time we leave. It isn’t US that’s changing things but You and Your Spirit. So God I pray that You would remain faithful and carry out to completion the things that you’ve started. That there would be a wildfire started—that this island would be completely turned around. That there would be an awakening in peoples’ Spirits like never before. Fire up those kids for You… don’t let anything stand in their way but MAKE a way for them. Teach them how to tuck in behind You and You carve out the way.

God I have prayed specifics for each section of this church. I have prayed a certain people will bring unity to the church body with understanding and patience. Another section (middle seats) those people in those seats will humbly walk in righteousness and will be leaders of the youth group. This section is for leadership that give them courage and fire to make a stand and lead our next generation. The right section I prayed that there will be deliverance in their lives; a freedom from any bondage or chains that may hold them back. Next I prayed for the worship platform and team… worship leaders help enter the people into God’s presence and for a surrendering Spirit. I prayed in sections because I feel that there are specific functions according to the body of the church that need to be played out in order for the church to be more forward. God I pray that the church will be unified, convicted, humbled, delivered, and sanctified = Freedom and wholeness exemplifying a body functioning together in righteousness with 1 body, 1 mind, 1 spirit, 1 purpose!



Bethany & Marissa:

Prayed for Pastor Jimmy & the band, give wisdom and unity, new vision and insight on what to do with the youth, what to do in the building of the church.

Prayed for the board meeting… God will give divine wisdom… big dreams. That God would expand dreams.

Prayed for a line in the sand to be drawn on Friday night. God would separate sincerity from insincerity.

Anointed the altar. Place of Holy ground for God to work. That there would be a border which distraction and peer pressure couldn’t pass. That it would be a holy separated place. A place for God to work.

Prayed that the church would start to live by their mission statement.


Josh & Anthony:

WE need to be a people that are more “passionate” about HEAVENLY GRATIFICATION than earthly gratification.

PASSION creates CHANGE ,if there is no CHANGE, then there is no PASSION!

Lord, show us how to be passionate, because we don’t know how. When, in Jesus’ name, you give it to us, would it be birthed from righteousness, for righteousness. Would be truly see your majesty.

We put to death the spirit of religion! Would we see you as a relational God instead of one that sits on the side line and critiques our every move.

Explode us into a new creation that is rooted on Christ our solid rock. Give us a throne room experience that would send us into a deeper romance with you. Create in us an overwhelming passion, so that we can create an overwhelming change.

In Jesus name AMEN

An Awakening to the Truth

K, so I just wanted to fill you guys in on tonight… Since we’ve been building up relationship with the kids and we’ve gotten to know them, spent time with them, built up trust with them… tonight we’re coming out. Anthony, Josh, Tamara, Bethany and Pastor Jimmy are all tag teaming it and are pretty much just laying it out for them. We’re confronting them about voodoo, pornography, alcoholism… and whatever else these kids are dealing with. We are going to use a bunch of video clips and verses to demonstrate our point. After confronting them with all of that… we are going to face them with the question of who are you? As in, who are you to Christ? What does that mean? Do you want to go deeper with God?


While we were doing the prayer relay today, just thought I would share a bit of my prayers… we were first shift and we just finished so I don’t know anyone else’s but I wanted to write this so we could have your guys’ prayers. So, during mine and Marissa’s shift today… My prayer was a few things… first one being: that God would pretty much enter tonight, as in walk through the doors personally. Maybe not physically but that His presence would be just like that. I prayed that He would romance individually, each and every one of those kids. God just moved in my Spirit and gave me this deep understanding that God MADE each and every one of these kids, he CREATED them… and He created them FOR Him! For HIS GLORY! He made them to WORSHIP Him… that’s what they were MADE for! God’s love for them is passionate and jealous. For each and every one of them! For Keela, Jazzmyn, Nicole, Mickey, Lesean, Jarard, Jehu, Jade, Shabri, Lashay… each and every one of them! Kelson… etc. Their hearts were DESIGNED for HIS glory. Therefore, they are HIS property; Satan has NO right to them… NONE whatsoever!!! God just gave me this vision of lying down in the gap, filling it so that nothing would come in-between Him and His creation. He wants to literally romance them tonight. My prayer is that nothing else would enter that room but Him… kind of like clearing the way for the King…. You know? Get everything out of the way so that Jesus can just walk right through.

Another prayer God put on my heart had to do with a vision He gave me a few days ago for the whole island. God just kind of showed me that the whole island is asleep, almost like being under an enchantment. While they are asleep, walking around with these veils over their eyes, they cannot see what’s going on around them. What’s going on around them is that the enemy has made itself at home right in the midst of their camp. My prayer today was that they would awaken out of that sleep and see what’s really going on… and when they awaken, not be afraid, but be confident because God is revealing this so that He can free them. I prayed that God would open their eyes just like Elisha’s servant so that they would see that there are armies of heaven ready to fight on their behalf! They have nothing to fear because they serve a God, who after just romancing them has already won the victory! All he does now is laugh while he sets up a feast before them in the midst of their enemies. I pray that the kids would take hold of what gets laid out for them tonight… the same way Lesean and Jehu took hold. That God’s Holy Spirit would just dwell in that room tonight and that He would move. God is on the move… He’s working off of the foundation He’s built through us and it’s a truly exciting site to see. He is so good, and so exciting and so big… I’m so blessed and so glad to be on His side and to be a part of what He is doing. I pray that whatever happens tonight, whether we see it or not, we would be encouraged knowing that God is doing His work. He is growing the seeds that He is planting.

My last prayer was for our group… just that our hearts would be 150% focused on what God is doing. I pray that God would give us His eyes to see… that we would have an awareness of the things unseen. That we would see past the things we think are going on and listen for God’s voice telling us what’s really going on… and that we would be ready to respond. I pray that His voice would be clear to each of us individually… especially to the ones speaking. I also pray that His angels would just be there… legions of them… ready to fight on our behalf and alongside us. That we would just be ready and waiting and listening for what awesome things God has in store for tonight.

Be praying everyone!! Thanks so much for everything already! We miss you!

Poem from Yesterday

Romance of  a Savior


I’ve fallen in love,
my heart is wooed.
It sways, as if to a lovely tune.
There’s nothing to say,
nor is there to think.
You are so beautiful
that it’s completely silenced me.

I am completely surrendered,
hopelessly thrown forth.
Taken over by a lover;
a lover I don’t fully comprehend.
He is also jealous,
a jealous lover of my heart.
And when He loves me I find
it’s with such a love I cannot even recognize.

Not only is it a lost cause to escape it
But I cannot even be undone
My heart is tangled with His
His will becomes my own.

The most amazing thing I find,
is that no matter how hard I might try;
He will never stop loving me,
neither in death nor in life.

Paint me the most beautiful picture
It cannot match his face
Take me to the deepest depth of the ocean
It still is not as deep as His love for me.
How can one deny it?
How can one help but be drawn?
Because it was Him that found me,
Wretched as I am.
He called my name while I was wandering away.
He took me by the hand, to keep me from going astray.
Even when I was farthest from Him,
He left the 99 to find me.
And when He did, He held me close.

He whispered in my ear,
He kept me nearest to Him,
till He was all that was there.

His voice was all I knew,
His breath was all I wanted.
His heart beat with mine,
and mine with His.
His desires became my own,
and everything of me became forgotten.

Everything about Him,
is intoxicating.
There are no words to say it right,
But my heart was made to love Him.

He is the air that I breathe,
He is the world that I see,
He speaks through the wind,
and He created me.

His love is fire,
His love is truth,
His love is passionate,
It has me in hot pursuit.

I’ve fallen in love,
my life has lost all it’s meaning,
except for the Savior,
who has romanced me.

God's Spirit is on the Move

Alright… time to write again… and what good news I have!!! Yesterday, I must say was amazing. God is just so good, as I’m sure all of you already know! Let me kind of go into my explanation sideways. I’m also going to start with a little bit of personal…

I remember waking up yesterday morning and I had kind of a really depressing dream… not a bad dream, but the sort of dream that when I woke up, it made me sad that I had it because it wasn’t real. Anyway, I’ve been dealing with a lot of personal spiritual battles. I was thinking about it today, because God keeps doing all these things in me. He keeps breaking things that I didn’t know were there, giving me revelation after revelation about things… he puts mindsets in me and strengthens me and builds up my confidence. All this happens after really long grueling nights of just battles in my heart. The thing is that I’ve felt kind of crazy. I’ve felt kind of crazy because God will do all these things and then the next day; it feels like everything is coming against it to bring it back down. I’m also dealing with things that I’ve never dealt with before, and my spirit has just felt so beaten lately. What I was thinking about today though… what God kind of revealed to me was… OF COURSE! I mean we are in such a spiritually active environment. Satan has been throwing anything and everything at me… every lie, every old issue I’ve ever had, he’s gripped me in every way imaginable... even good things, things God’s put in my heart, he turns around for his evil schemes. Then when I mess up, his favorite thing to do is rub it in… keep me in the holes I tend to fall into. No wonder whenever God does something in me; it gets faced with unimaginable opposition later. It’s been such a wild roller coaster for me. Also, my natural tendency when I mess something up is to try and fix it. Something God just kind of started talking to me about was His point of view about that. It started with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader… kind of random maybe but God has been speaking to me through anything and everything. He even just speaks to me when I’m by myself and thinking about things. It’s something God’s done before (speaking to me while I’m just processing stuff), but not to this extent or with issues this heavy ever before. Anyway, back to the book… in it, this character named Eustace who is a rather unlovable character accidentally turns himself into a dragon. He has a miserable time of it and he hates himself. He’s disgusted at his eating habits and at what he looks like. Also, while unable to talk or be friends with people because of his dragon form, he thinks about what a horrible person he had been to the people around him when he was a human. Well, one night he meets Aslan (representation of Jesus) at a pool one night. All that Aslan tells him is to take of his clothes. Eustace didn’t really understand because he was covered in scales, but all the same he starts to scratch and scratch at himself until he sheds a layer of dragon scales. This entire dragon skin is laying beside him but he immediately realizes that he still has another layer of dragon skin on underneath… so he starts to again, try and scratch it all of. He does this several times until finally Aslan says that he has to do it. Every time Eustace scratched the dragon skin off of himself, it didn’t hurt. When Aslan started to peel away at the skin, he said it hurt worse than anything… but out he came as a boy once again and Aslan threw him into a pool of water to get clean. Immediately I knew that I was like Eustace, constantly trying to fix my own problem, trying to get it to go back to the way it was… I needed to learn how to let Jesus take the scales off of me Himself.

It’s just been really interesting because for so long I’ve been frustrated; I haven’t felt like myself and I’m caught up in all these things that Satan keeps throwing at me. God’s been moving and using me and doing things in and through me but every day has been an endless battle and having to reconquer and reconquer… it gets rather tiresome. It was good to have God show me that it’s ok… that He’s still right by my side through all of this and that He does indeed have a plan whether or not I see it. See what happened yesterday… after all of this side wind… back to the dream. Just because of things that I’ve been going through on this trip, this dream was really hard to take… I woke up and I wanted to disappear. I remember I made that my facebook status as well! Ha! I just needed to be pulled out into a different world. I had no idea that that was indeed EXACTLY what I needed and that was EXACTLY what God did for me. So, again, I’ve been reading the Chronicles of Narnia; yesterday, I was finishing up the last book: The Final Battle. It is an incredible book. Anyway, towards the end is when everyone goes to the new Narnia which is the equivelant of heaven. Just from the way C. S. Lewis describes this new Narnia and how it was real… he says that there is no other way to describe it except that everything was exactly the way that it should be. Everything was bigger, better, deeper… the same… but even more real. Just going into the depth of all these words, and the depth of Aslans character and how he really represents Jesus and in the end the children realize this… it was just massive revelation moment for me. What was funny was that hen I was reading Prince Caspian… I remember reading about the part where Lucy meets Aslan in the woods. See, I’ve always had a really close connection to Lucy’s character, just cause a lot of who she is resonates with me and I played her character in The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe… So, when I read about her meeting with Aslan, and just the kind of relationship that they have and the adoration, the affection… all of it. I remember wanting that so badly… with Jesus, and wanting to experience Him just like that. Well, that’s exactly what God did for me yesterday. After finishing that last book I just couldn’t even help but go straight into worship and through the revelations God was giving me… I really just experienced Him like that, as a lover, as a best friend, just so indescribably close to me. The feeling was just so strong that I actually wrote a poem about it. Ha! I love God, I love the things that He does… He truly is amazing.

Well, I got home and just decided that I should go for a walk again, there was just something really important about being by myself and letting God work through completely the things He was doing. It was one of those times where I couldn’t stop worshipping and really, nothing could’ve stopped me! I love having those times with God. Anyway, I got kind of called to go see Charoline… so I did and just ended up in a really great conversation with her. I never realized how much favor God has given me in that relationship with Pastor Jimmy’s wife until I talked to her yesterday. The things she confided in me and talked to me about, the testimonies she shared and just getting a better understanding of her heart was really cool! Definitely gave me even more of a heart to pray for her. I’m super excited because the whole time I was talking to her I just had this really strong feeling that God has something really, really cool in her very near future.

Later, we had two of the guys over overnight the night before. Jehu, and Lesean (I don’t know if I spelled that right). I don’t really know Lesean at all but Jehu is Nicole’s (a good friend I’ve made) little brother. He has been on my heart almost as much as his sister has been on this whole trip. Watching the changes that have happened to him throughout this trip has just been really cool. I don’t know what it is but his heart has just been… there’s just something about his spirit that mine has understood and I could see a sort of hunger. Most of us knew from the very beginning that he would be part of the core by the time we leave. Well, last night was just the coolest. Kirk just opens a conversation with them about whether or not they want to be serious about God and what that really means; really, just giving them the opportunity. It was completely God ordained because it got the guys into a conversation with them that lasted for hours about just what it means to serve God and different aspects of that life. At one point us girls got kicked out because Kirk said… we can make this final decision here and now or later… Lesean said now… so we girls went into the guys’ room. At first, we were a little distracted but I felt really strongly that something serious was going on in the other room and I wanted to worship or pray… it was really heavy on my heart. So we did… we started to worship which ended up leading into some massively intense spiritual warfare. I mean we were all yelling and declaring for a really long time… it was awesome really! My favorite part was this one time where we were declaring some stuff and I just felt really strongly to talk about how God has promised us that where two or more are gathered, He hears us. So, I just started to speak that out and say “here we stand united, we stand as one, in agreement” and we were all agreeing together… it was awesome! We ended with some more worship and eventually when the boys were done, we went to eat dinner.

Well, I was starting to get really sick, and I am sick now too… longest, most sleepless night ever… but still… so I went home earlier and the girls came later. When I got to the boys house this morning I heard the most exciting news. The guys had spent a lot of time declaring stuff together and just setting aside parts of there life that didn’t belong… but after we left… they were both baptized in the Holy Spirit. WOW!!!! So, so, so, so cool!!!! Seriously!! I was so excited when I heard that! Well, thank you to all of you who are praying. I just need to say please pray more… now that things are coming down, a core is being built… God is really on the move… there are bound to be many, many spiritual attacks. It’s just a given… Satan is not going to take this laying down. And as you saw from my explanation earlier… it’s not always a up front attack against the group as a whole… He is also going to try and take us down one by one, individually. Thanks again for all your prayers guys! Miss you! We’ll be home soon!

Friday the 16th

So, I would say it is about time to write again. It seriously gets harder every time I try, something always comes up.


The last time I updated, I talked about Friday night and how we all needed your prayers. This was the Friday before this past one because this past one, we didn’t have youth church at all. After I fill you in on the results of that Friday, I will do my best to fill you in on our trip. Which, at my fault none of you have had any knowledge of for so long; my apologies.

Friday, the 16th of October… thank you to everyone who prayed for that night… it went really, really well. Still, I think I should start with talking about our morning and just some of the stuff that God was speaking to us; the two nights before actually as well. At the time, we girls were just experiencing a lot of spiritual activity. I suppose it’s to be expected right before a night like Friday. Two nights before… Tamara had woken up in the middle of the night and just felt like there was a presence in the room… she didn’t do anything at first but then all of a sudden she felt like someone had flicked her nose. At that, she sat straight up in bed and started to speak out against it and calling on God as would be expected. The night after that was interesting as well… this was Thursday night. Marissa and I were at the house together first. We had just gotten ready for bed. Marissa was asleep and I was in the nearly asleep stage when all of a sudden I had this really strong imposing feeling like something was in the room. Oh I nearly forgot, I don’t remember if I mentioned it last time but if you remember we ended Thursday with an incredible time of worship. So, I had just come out of an amazing time with God and I was getting really pumped up for Friday the next day. When I was nearly asleep and felt this presence in the room… I was so tired, and still coming off of being in the presence of God so I really just didn’t have much of a care about it. It was the funniest thing… it wasn’t that I didn’t care… my feeling was more like, you’re not even worth my time. So, I didn’t even bother speaking out against what was in the room. I simply filled my time with worshiping God because I knew that at the sound of Jesus name alone the demons flea. There I was, half asleep just praising God, and I had an amazing sleep! I did wake up once because Bethany, who sleeps in front of me, woke up. I was honestly too exhausted to bother but I got the story the next morning of what happened to her and why she was awake so early in the morning.

Now I don’t know the story as well as she, I may leave out parts. According to her she woke up with a curious present feeling as well. She described how she also felt as if someone was pressing down on her throat, not allowing her to speak. She wanted to call out but was too afraid that she couldn’t. As for how long she stayed like that, I don’t know the answer. Eventually though she sits up and starts to pray. This experience lasted a lot longer I know because she prayed and then later felt like something was again going on in the corner. It was interesting.

As for the next morning, Bethany and I shared our experiences with each other and then both had incredible times with God in our devotions for that night. At the meeting for Friday night, Bethany and I shared a little bit about what we had been experiencing and then we dived into our words. Bethany shared first, hers came from Jeremiah 30 and 31. I don’t remember everything that she talked to about and asking her to explain it she just says it was all just overwhelming. I do remember that it had to do with what God wanted to do for the kids that night. Sorry, I am writing this a week later. Well, then I shared mine. I read from Ezekiel 37. When I had read this, seriously it hit me so hard; almost word for word what God wanted to do for the kids… it was amazing. This passage talks about how God took Ezekiel to this valley of bones. In this valley he tells Ezekiel to start and prophesy over the bones. It was cool because almost every aspect of the verse applied to the kids. For instance, even the prophesying. Our entire goal for the kids that Friday was to prophesy over them and affect their lives that way instead of just preaching to them. Not just that, but the words that he says… “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.” Ezekiel was also told to prophesy over them and that the bones would be brought to standing and muscles would form along with skin. The people would be raised from their graves and given life. This whole time, God is just putting the kids from the youth group in that place and saying all these things were for them. One reason this was so impactful for me was because we had just discussed at prayer meeting on Wednesday night that there is a Spirit of cannibalism on the island. Not physical but spiritual, and we believe it came from actual cannibals that lived on the island years ago. Anyway, these people devour each other in words all the time. To us they are extremely nice and many are hospitable… but to each other, no manners, no please, no thank you’s. Just demands, just harsh words and tearing each other down and eating each other alive. So, it made sense to picture the kids from the group as that valley of bones, having been devoured and picked clean. God wanted to raise them up and prophesy over them and speak over them. Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool… read Ezekiel 37 if you want even more of what God was saying.

As for the night itself, it went just accordingly. What’s more is that there weren’t very many south kids there. Not that we don’t want the south kids to come but having mostly north kept it much more… tame? I don’t know what the right word is, the kids were just a lot more calm and attentive. Ian and Josh shared some of their testimonies and just kept it really real with the kids. The whole time, it was just really laid back and relaxed. What’s more is that at the end of it all we got the chance to just pray over the kids and we prophesied over them. It was cool to see them actually come up and actually want to get prayed for. I think some of it was a bit messy, we had to put ourselves out there a little bit and none of these kids had been prayed for like that before. There were a few that I prayed for that I could tell whatever I said affected them… then there were ones that were just up there because their friends were and knew all the right answers to give and were really just confused. All in all though, I really think it went well. I had some cool experiences with some of the kids and I know that everyone else must have as well. Bethany for sure had some cool experiences, I know because she and I talked about it. I know that in the end doing this was a great deal more effective than just talking to the kids. I strongly believe that it’s going to take more than that though. It takes a constant connection with God so that even on a normal day that’s not a Friday night; when we’re maybe even just hanging out with them, being able to hear whatever it is that God is saying. The changes aren’t going to come from one night of “Oh God let us hear your voice tonight, and just tonight” No, it comes from the day to day, relationship with each other, pressing into God, constant prayer, constant listening. So, when it comes to that, keep praying for us. It’s another 24 days or so I believe and I don’t want to leave without there being a visible change and a firm foundation for them to go off of.

Ok, this is a long enough entry, I’ll have to fill you in on other stuff another time.

A Night of Power and of Change

Alright… well I completely fail at writing blogs I’ve decided and I apologize to all of you. I honestly would sit down to write one like every other day, get halfway and then not be able to finish. It’s harder than you think for some reason.

Anywhoo… so contrary to what you all believe… we do not spend all our time at the beach. I promise. Yes, in our free time, that’s where we love to spend our time…. But there are other things going on. I will be honest with you guys though… sometimes, no… a lot of the time, we have a little too much free time. Let me explain just a little bit further. It’s interesting with a mission trip like this, there are a lot of aspects that go into it that bring about this kind of issue. When we first got here… for the first 3 or 4 weeks, we were diving into the word, having spiritual warfare, pressing into God for the things that he wanted to do. Then at some point in the trip, life took place. We’re here for so long, 3 months, that life just kind of worms its way in sometimes. Facing issues such as having a lot of down time, and then how to fill that down time… when we finally got internet up at the boys house, we filled most of our down time online, or watching movies. If we weren't online, then we would hang out at the beach to relax. Another thing, really, Kirk isn’t here to babysit us... we're all older, but we're still a bunch of kids, so it’s a little easy to lose focus. I’m not saying nothing has been accomplished so far. On the contrary, we've accomplished many things! We’ve been building relationships with people and with families and with kids. God has done things and is changing people and is changing us. Still, not to the extent that all this should be happening. The changes happening now, are good, but won’t be impactful unless they become even more real. We need more than just a glimpse of something new, we need a wave of something new. We need a kind of change that when we leave this island, we can leave in confidence knowing that God can run with what we’ve left behind us.
We we’re discussing this last night at an informal meeting we had at dinner. For weeks some of us have been really restless with how rowdy the kids are and how they don’t pay attention. None of us have really dealt with a group of kids like this before and we didn’t know much about how to handle it really. It’s easy to just get frustrated and focus on the fact that they aren’t paying attention. Plus, there are kids who are listening and are hearing from God, and they have to miss out because of the kids around them that just won’t focus. It’s been a battle every single week. Well, along with all of this, Josh has had it on his heart to really change things up. Him and Ian are leading it tonight and we are putting our hope in a change. Josh has felt really strongly that we really need to make the kids take the initiative. They are really good at church answers, you tell them a bible story, they know the outcome. You ask them a question, they know how to answer. It’s boring, it’s not life changing at all. Tonight, they are having the kids make the choice. Why are you here? But more than that, do you want to hear from God or not? If not, then out of harsh love, we are just going to say, you need to leave. We love these kids, we’ve gotten to know a lot of them, and we don’t want to kick them out. But unless they take the initiative and unless they make the decision that they want something to happen inside of their hearts… there is absolutely no point in them being in service.

Another change going down tonight is that we aren’t preaching to the kids. I think because Ian and Josh are both doing this together and just because they are very different, I think this is going to be effective There is also one more reason which I think is the most important but I will get to later. Anyway, they are going to be sharing a little bit of their testimonies and really just breaking it down for the kids and being real with them about their lives and choices in their lives… and the things those choices lead to. After that we are going to spend time praying for the kids. Right there, is what will be the most effective part. Pastor James told us this a while ago as well. He told us that really, we can preach to these kids all we want; but, until we speak into their lives directly; until God becomes personal to them and shows up right there in front of them and makes Himself real to these kids; none of that is going to matter.

Still, even that, even praying for the kids… yea, it's great idea! Nothing else is working so lets try praying for the kids this week and see what happens?! No, it’s more than that, we feel strongly that this is what God wants, and we know that Him and His Spirit is what will make this effective. Which is the other reason I was going to explain earlier; Josh and Ian could be new and more effective because it’s two of them, because their not preaching but being real with the kids instead. All that could make it effective… yea, sure, maybe. They are all really good ideas, and they all have really good hearts behind them. Still, when we were talking about it last night and when we started to discuss the buses and where we were going to put the kids who would leave… and the politics behind how some of the church members will deal with what we do… well we just kept on going in circles about all of it. As they were doing that I just started to feel really strongly about expectation. I just got this image of us thinking everything would go really smoothly because this is a really good idea and the kids will have to take it the way we expect them to… and I was thinking about what would happen when that wouldn’t happen. We all had a good understanding that it could still be messy and things were still going to happen though… so what exactly was it that was formulating inside of me? Well, I finally got a chance to talk and as I started to talk it was seriously one of those times where I didn’t even know what I was saying. It was stuff in my heart that I didn’t know how to put into words and yet as soon as I opened my lips, it came out. My heart said… we can talk all we want about all of this. Really, we could have a perfect plan. This whole initiative thing is a really good idea, and I think this whole change it up, be real with the kids thing is a really good idea… but really, unless we cover it in prayer (which at that moment I felt like we were just so far form that)... Unless we cover it in prayer, we will be even more ineffective than ever before! The ONLY thing that will cause ANY kind of change tonight, is if the Spirit of God moves in power like never before. HE needs to change hearts, HE needs to penetrate and speak directly to these kids! I was saying how I was tired… so tired of us going into the past 4 Fridays only 70% or 50%... We love the kids, and we’re there for the kids… but there are still parts of our hearts that complain about the buses, or get really tired… or get fed up and too focused on how rowdy the kids can be. Every week, and I’m tired of it. I want to go into tonight in the presence of God. If something starts to attack me, or any of us; we need to be transparent, and come alongside each other in prayer; be encouraging and unified. I feel also like sometimes on Friday nights, we can be very divided; in a funny kind of way. Tonight needs to be different. I want to walk into that room and walk onto those buses with 110% of my heart, ready to go, in this constant connection with God, hearing His voice clearly; focused.

So, I said that I really wanted to spend a lot of time in prayer, that night and today… because we never pray enough… ever. We always have like one session and expect God to move. But our hearts… GAH. It’s not something I’m getting to worked up about to the point that I’m focusing on the fact that for the past few weeks this has happened. It’s easy to do that and be like, oh man… we’ve been wasting our time, we’ve failed, what do we think we’re doing? It’s easy to do that. But 1 Corinthians 4:3-4: “indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but I am not innocent. The Lord alone judges me.” Getting stuck in our mistake is a silly thing to do. The only thing to do at this point is to let Jesus pick us up and keep going… not just keep going, but running… stronger and faster than before… at a steady pace, alongside Him and let Him now do what He wants and needs to do. Don’t continue being ineffective by getting caught in the past; but give it to God, and let Him move. I am so thankful that we serve a God who is just like that… “he works ALL THINGS for the good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” That means everything, our mistakes, our failures… He turns it all around for His glory; because that’s the kind of God that He is! Praise His name!

So, the reason I made sure to get this blog up is so that I can have you guys join us in prayer for tonight… Pray for God’s Spirit over Ian and Josh so that everything that they say and do would come from God and not from themselves. Pray for us as a group, that our hearts would be unified, woven together by an unbreakable thread; that we would be transparent with each other tonight and be focused on God and on prayer.

Funny, one last thing… there was one point where Josh started to share with us two visions that we had. One based on this story from Ezekiel that Pastor Jimmy talked about on Sunday… where Ezekiel was standing in a river and at first it was at his ankles, then it went up to his waist and then over his head or something. Josh was saying how God was taking us deeper into the river. His second vision had to do with two pools of water. We’ve been in the shallow pool for a long time and God is taking us into the deeper pool. It was cool because Anthony and I both had similar revelations about these visions. Anthony brought up one about how in the shallow pool, we are exposed cause we’re not totally in the water, but when we get into the deeper pool we’re submerged by God’s presence. It also made me think of how when we’re in the shallow pool, we’re exposed and we focus more on ourselves but in the deeper pool it’s all water, it’s all God. Also, in the shallow pool we are immobile, we’re just standing there, ineffective. When we’re in the deeper pool, we’re in constant motion because we have to swim. Both of these I thought we’re really cool. It’s so funny cause this conversation just continued… Anthony then brought up that he thought it might be weird to say this but if we could go and someday pray out in the water together. I think the thought sparked from the idea of being submerged. Still, while he said that I had another revelation which I thought was really cool! It was just like… yea! That wasn’t a stupid idea at all… it was more the idea behind it that mattered. The perspective change that fun and prayer should not be separated, which we had kinda done a little bit in the past few weeks. Why not while we’re out having fun spend some time praying… or when we’re all sitting around with nothing to do… praying. We want to break the perspective that it has to be for a specific time and in a specific place. We want to go back to living and breathing God, walking, talking and laughing with Him. It was cool… just one revelation after another and God just changing things in us. We ended the night with a bunch of worship together as a group… which I have been so, so thirsty for so it was really cool to finally get the chance to do that together.

So, again, just be praying for us guys… We love and miss you all… tonight needs to be a night of change. The only way that’s going to happen is if each and every breath, and each and every step is in His Spirit and according to His will.

First Time @ the Schools

SEPTEMBER 9TH


On this day we visited one of the elementary schools.. I don’t remember the name of it but I remember it really well because we get there, it’s stinking hot. At first we spent some time getting Kirk introduced to the principal who was fascinated by him. Then out of no where, there came this massive cloudburst… it seriously rained like 7 inches in the half hour we were there, it was crazy! Anyway we got a chance to hang out with the kids then… Their roof wasn’t thatched though so they had a ton of leaks. It was dripping water left and right. Man I wish I wrote these blogs the day of so I could remember everything.

I remember that I talked to the principal a lot… he came up and just started talking about what it’s like to work there, his family, the island, everything. He stopped at one point to make a super random comment about my eyes, how much he liked them and how he’d never seen anything like them… which I thought was really odd. See people on the island have really strong accents and sometimes tend to talk really fast… he just said something about it and then went right back to the conversation… it was really bizarre.

That night we had crawfish that the boys caught for dinner, and baked potatoes. Us girls decided we wanted to set up a nice table so we set it up with a sheet and plates and prepared a lot of side dishes and fruit for them… It was really fun… it’s like a giant game of house.

We also passed the time drawing pictures on the board of the daily events, which I have a few pictures of up on my Facebook I believe.



SEPTEMBER 10TH

Another school day…another elementary school. We get to this one and again, it’s their lunch time, we get to just hang with them. After talking to some of the kids and learning their names and ages etc… some asked me to play teeter totter, that was fun and then I pushed a few on the swings. When lunch was over, all the kids were gathered into one room so that we could do a kind of presentation for them. We did a funny version of the story of Jonah… I’ll try and get the little bit of video that I have of it up later but it was pretty funny to watch. I liked the way we did it where most of us got involved in the story telling and asking questions, which I think made it more interesting for the kids. In the end, they kinda wanted to know more about Kirk than anything else… this one little girl just kept asking question after question and she was so cute about it too!

After the school we went to this beach at the end of the island.. It was beautiful, just like all the other beaches. I got to climb a tree there, which I love doing only I had to jump right back out cause there was a bee… still fun. On the way back I changed cars and rode with Bethany in P. Jimmy’s truck. We both kinda dozed off the whole way back… there was one point I woke up cause P. Jimmy had stopped to get this mango for Bethany, they were out of season but he got one! (BEST MANGO I’VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE!) It took us a lot longer to get back than it took everyone else… by the time we got back everyone was at our house. Anthony and Bethany ended up going off somewhere while we hung out online and I drew on the wall… We had really delicious pasta for dinner… and again, I can’t remember any other details from this day! I know that they watched a movie cause it’s in my notes and I couldn’t but I don’t remember what I did instead…?

Two In One

Ok, so these are two posts in one... from last week sometime, I should have the dates written right before the post itself. Sorry it's taking so long, one of them I wrote the day of and just never posted cause I never wrote the other blog. Anyway here they are!

SEPTEMBER 7TH
This day, I woke up and I was actually very sick... I don't know why... well I do know why but I just had the worst headache and I was super super naseous (I don't know how to spell that)... Well all morning no matter how much water I drank… I still felt like my throat was on fire! I am not exhaggerating when I say that I drank about two gallons of water in 3 hours and went to the bathroom like 12 times!

I really don’t remember much from this day at all… I know that next, we waited for David for like 3 hours longer than we thought we would and then he took us all fishing… well the guys, he left Bethany, Marissa and I on the other side with Dionis and we went shell hunting. I found some cool conch shells. It was really fun to just swim in the reefs too. Later we had a leadership meeting at the church for the youth leaders which I think went well.. David led it which makes everything so much more interesting but it was really good.

We had a late dinner again. I really don’t remember anything else from this day and that’s ALL the notes I had written down! Haha… sorry, I doubt anything too exciting happened anyway, I mean maybe, but it was too long ago.


TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER EIGHTH
Okay this is only yesterdays blog.. I've been too tired to write the other ones... but i didn't want to fall too much behind and last night was so fresh in my mind that I had to write it all down!

Today (Tuesday, September 8): Today I woke up a little later than I would have liked but it was ok... I was still feeling a little crappy from the day before, but not really, it was more like.. I woke up with this giant weight of selfishness, pretty much I was grumpy. The weird things was that I wasn't really outwardly... I let things go and stuff... but inwardly I was getting really really frustrated and I was just being really selfish... anyway, I think a lot of it came from just feeling like crap the day before. I went to the guys house early cause I was hungry. Luckily the door was open, I had some toast, cleaned up a little bit and then realized that I needed some alone time. So I took the van back to our house and picked up Bethany and Marissa, and they left me at the beach for an hour by myself.

It was good, just dying to myself.. and asking God to refocus my heart. Sometimes we just gotta do that. That's what I learned throughout the day... Not every day is filled with excitement and feeling of purpose and selflessness... everyday should be since we walk in the blood of Christ... but we still fail because we are human. Sometimes, there is just some humbling that needs to happen. Anyway, spent time with God for a while on the rockface, waves crashing, tearing away at the stone. It was really nice, and it was nice to know that I was alone. There was one point where I layed down on the rock and was just listening... this one wave came... I thought the rock was going to split apart... the whole thing shook and all of a sudden I found myself really wet.. when I wasn't that close to the edge at all!
Well in the end I walked back.. I was still feeling kinda sick... Marissa was there to take me back to the house. At the house we waited for everyone to get up and then had our staff meeting... We discussed going to the schools and ideas we needed to have... Then Kirk put me in charge of doing the touch card again. I was really disappointed to because Pastor Jimmy needed someone to go get produce with him and I was volunteered and agreed to it.. I really wanted to go! But later when they were about to leave and someone was asking me if I was going, I said "yes!" and then kirk said "no!". I felt like my heart couldn't even sink to a greater depth. Going to the beach, i prayed and spent time with God but I was still in a place where I needed to let things go... I wanted so bad to just get away and go get fruit pretty much... and then "no." from kirk. I feel bad that I did whine just a little bit about not wanting to go... which is just like us humans isn't it? I say that because I know for a fact that God was answering my prayer yet again just then... and I was complaining. He is a good God and He loves me, He wasn't about to let me sink into my selfish mood, so he provided me with an oppurtunity to break free of it. It took a little bit of work but it worked out in the end. Kirk wasn't making me stay back cause he wanted to ruin my day and I knew that, he needed my help and this was my job. He apologized but I told him I was just having a long morning.. I really was, it was tough. Praise God though that He helps me through and when I give my all to Him, He is my strength and my redeemer! After hours, literally hours, of slaving with Kirks computer, I wanted to die. I was yelling at the program, at Kirk's computer... see he has his keyboard programmed very differently.. it's very hard to operate, especially when you don't know how.. Also I was using a program I didn't know, to edit the poster for Kirk. Hours. Honestly though, it was through that time and giving myself to God and what He asked me to stay and do that helped me overcome in the end... from that point on, the rest of my day was amazing! Heavy spirit of selfishness lifted and the joy of Christ in it's place! Once I was finished, the finished product looked great! It was so satisfying!

Then Marissa, Bethany and I headed to the grocery store to get food for dinner. When we stocked up we cleaned up the guys house a little bit, then went to ours and cleaned it up even more because our living room as a mess from the previous two nights. We set up a table with a sheet for a table cloth and started to make our part of the dinner for the guys (who were out spear fishing for their part of the dinner)... we made the baked potatoes and cut some green oranges and veggies for the potatoes. The guys showed up not much longer after we got the food going with a really good catch... two crawfish (though they caught more, I think P. Jimmy took some), a "grubber"? (which is actually really really good!) and some other small fish. Anthony and Ian cooked up the crawfish and the fish... after a little while of waiting.. we all sat down to eat together! I honestly don't remember eating together "as a family" so many times in a row! Every night for dinner we sit down together, it's really nice.. this time we had a fancy table all set up. Dinner was fun, we joked around about stuff for a long time as we ate. After clean up and some computer/hangout time... we embarked on one of the greatest adventures I have ever had! (Anthony, Ian, Josh, Marissa and Me!)

The five of us head out to go crabbing, and there are a few videos of this on I think Josh's facebook. First thing that happens... Ian squashes a huge crab on the road, he swerved, FOR it! And it was one we could have caught! We all repromanded him for it.... then we started heading down some roads to catch some crabs... finally after a few.. we head down this beach road and right after seriously praying for crabs, I think God wanted to laugh at us by sending one... right in the middle of the road!!!! Anthony and Josh go after it.. that thing was seriously the fastest crab I've ever seen! But they got it and stuck it in the bucket. Off witht he rest of the night we go...

Ok, well Ian is driving. Ian... is kinda a scary driver!!! These roads are not like back home... they are either dirt, sand, really rocky or it looks like someone just splattered pavement here and there and then carved out some pot holes just for fun. We drive an old Kia van whose front seat is all torn up and makes a sad "I'm falling apart" noise. Ian is driving this thing like 50km/h through these roads. NOT A GOOD IDEA! First thing that happens.. we jerk so hard that the crab flies out of the bucket. Josh can't get it to put it back so now its under the seat and everyone is yelling to put their feet up.. theres a ledge so it can't get through but we pull over and open the door and it crawls through the side, and then through the side to where I'm sitting in the front seat. The video to this is also onfacobook. Well now I have to fight with it to keep it from going underneath the dashboard on the engines side... so instead it crawls up the dashboard on the wheel side.. it just burrows into it and won't budge.. I never realized how strong crabs are but they can be like stone if they want to be. I couldn't fight with it so Anthony wanted to give it a try... He fights for a while and then I remembered that I saw plyers in the car when I cleaned it out earlier and I got them for him... Anthony grabbed one of it's claws, but it was so determined not to come out that it let Anthony rip its claw off the poor thing. Josh gave it a go and got his finger pinched instead. So we decided there was nothing we could do and I just kept my feet up as we drove.
There was one point which was just so funny for me... Marissa is sitting in the back between Josh and Anthony... all of a sudden she says "We should play corners guys!" How could anyone not take advantage of that?! She set herself up SO perfectly! I couldn't help but say "You would like that wouldn't you Marissa?" I mean, the words were out of my mouth before I had time to stop them.. it was like I was watching them float away in slow motion and there was nothing I could do... they were spoken! But it was funny!
We saw one of those bat moths and agreed that those things have to be possessed... their eyes glow!!!

Oh! Another favorite moment... We drive up to this beach bluff, and its really pretty... I mean Atlantic Ocean waves continually crashing and the moon is bright... dark thunder clouds all around, lightning flashing across the sky.. While the guys are taking pictures at one open space on the bluff.. I walk around to another space... Well someone yelled my name when we started heading back, I couldn't tell who... so I did and I was quite nearly directly behind them. I was right behind josh,well a little to the side as he turned, and yelled my name again! I couldn't believe it! He didn't know I was right there! Well he gets in on the left side of the car and I'm riding in shotgun.. So the first thing I do is get to my side and drop down. Anthony is in the back on my side and looking at me through the window figures out what I'm doing, he's in, once he's in, their all in. Josh is freaking out now... "she would wander off on her own" he says as he heads out to the bushes when he sees i'm not in the car; calling my name... some of the others call for me too, to add effect.. while he's out there I got in the car.. I shoulda just stayed out of the car the whole time but oh well.. I got back out as he came back asking for a flashlight.. shined it into the bushes, called my name some more and then got into the car to drive forward and check somewhere else... we move forward and I just walk next to the car.. he gets out again and goes to look for me and I get back in the car.. a minute or two later he starts to come back and sees me or heard the door or something.. he just gets back into the car and says "I hate you guys" and we all laugh.. we only caught the very end on video... where ian explained what just happened.. but it happened.. and it was funny! I havn't laughed that hard in a long time.. but then I laughed really hard this whole night! ok moving on...

On our way back, Ian swings around to another road instead of heading all the way back... Almost immediately we come across this HUGE puddle.. (vid of this on facebook), I hear Ian say as he comes to a stop "Thats a puddle. ... That's a biiiig puddle." He puts it into reverse and we're all convinced that he's just going to turn around... after pulling a few yards back, he guns it for the puddle! Oh Ian.. as we're driving down this road, we for some reason come to a stop, and we're video taping this part for some reason as well.. All of a sudden someone yells spider, everyone (including ian who isn't even in the back seat!) jumps out of the car... I just looked back to see what was going on and saw the look on everyones faces and heard Josh and Anthony's girlie screams... When I shined the light on the roof of the car.. I couldn't believe just how TINY the spider was! I understand fear of spiders.. but all four of them! I think I was just surprised because from their screaming, it sounded like it must have been one of those huge ones that we always see in the bushes, so I was fully expecting to turn and see one of those.. it took me completely off guard to see one that looks just like the ones back home.. But I must have laughed till i cried it was so funny! AND IT'S ON VIDEO!

Anyway, then we drove home, oh at one point I crushed Anthony's fingers in the door.. which sucked.. but he was ok thank goodness... that was when something happened to the van, I didn't really understand what it was but we made it back ok, Thank the Lord!Getting back, we upload photos to our laptops and watch the videos.. As we do this, Anthony is fast asleep on the couch! So Ian and Josh start sticking pencils and crawfish shells from dinner all over him... we videotaped the whole thing, go watch it it's funny! That was the night.. that all ended at like 12:40... now its like 2:30am...

Sorry so late!

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6TH

Ok I don't remember much about this day... it was a little bit ago and so many things have happened since that it's long form fresh in my mind.. that's what I was afraid of; but there's nothing I can do now. I will do my best to get the main gist of it down.
We had church on Sunday of course. It was really different. We get there and David (one of our favorite islanders) opens up with some scripture and then we sing a song. After that we all crowd into a small side room with some of the youth kids for their morning sunday school church. It was very different, and we all almost automatically saw things that needed to change. Not that we were just going to step in and demand that they change... only that we saw the issues at hand. It was interesting for most of us. Following Sunday school was the actual church service. Worship was honestly really long, again, some changes needed to be made... but P. Jimmy brought a good word :) It was my first oppurtunity to see him as a pastor, doing his job pretty much. Every other time I've been around him it's always been having fun out on the cays or something. We had communion (i don't know spelling for that), and then lunch at P. Jimmy's. Honestly, P. Jimmy should be banned from having food at his house. Seriously, it's just all so so good! And they had so many amazing cookies and little cheese cakes and stuff, man, to-die-for. No joke. There were a lot of bees tho.. mostly just this one, but I just can't handle those warrior wasps so I ate inside. Sigh... I will conquer this fear by the end of the trip, I promise.
Oh we met some of the kids, that was pretty cool... I met this girl Nicole and as soon as I saw her God spoke to me to remember her name... ever since she was really heavy on my heart.
I really don't remember every detail anymore, but I think after that a lot of ppl spent time on laptops and then I did all the guys laundry, folded it and stuff.

Later we all went to the beach together. It was super fun, I ran ahead, I felt like running and I wanted to explore at the same time. So I ran ahead... I got to the corner of the rock and the shore and there was a shark! No joke! And it was huge! I mean not a great white or anything... but it was longer than I am tall. Well it was only a few feet away from me when I saw it and I was pretty much in the water... I mean it wasn't a huge deal but it nearly gave me a heart attack. It just turned around and slowly started to swim away. I ran back and then Ian and Dionis ran to me and I shared in all my excitement about the shark. We walked up the edge of the rockface together and finally spotted it swimming within the shoals. Once the rest of everyone caught up to us we just hung out and climbed the rocks for maybe forty five minutes to an hour. We were out there for about an hour and a half if I remember. It was super fun though. I love it on those rocks, it's gorgeous and watching the waves can be mezmorizing.

I stayed behind a little bit as everyone else started to walk back cause I needed to talk to God about a few things... One of them being the need for me to refocus my heart for the trip.. I really needed a reminder of why I was there... well, we get back from the beach and Dionis runs in to P. Jimmy's house, when he came out he said that Kirk needed me. I went and got cleaned up and then headed over to P. Jimmy's house. Getting there Kirk threw at me that he wanted a touch card (a card with info and media about a youth group etc.). He wanted it that night, for the next day. We talked about it a little bit and then P. Jimmy's son came out, apparantly he was assigned to help me with this project. He had been asked to come up with a good name for their youth group. P. Jimmy's son's name was Blake and he was just a young teenage boy. After having the oppurtunity to spend some time with him though, he ended up being one of the coolest guys. Kirk and I talked to him a little bit about the card and then I asked if I could be free to ask a few questions. I wanted to make him think a little bit about stuff to kind of get him more excited about helping us with this. I also wanted to get a better idea of where he was with God. I asked him what God meant to him and what He looked like in his youth group, what he wanted Him to look like. This whole time Blake has one of those, "yea yea let's get this over with, this is weird" attitudes about him. I am not swayed. Kirk and I discussed with him about how sometimes we like to think of God as a thing and not a personal God, which he is most definitely the latter. God is so much more than a personal God, He designed us specifically for relationship with Him. Anyway we also asked him if he could hear God, he said not really... then we asked him if he could talk at the age of 1... he didn't think so.. we asked him why... well he was still growing, developing... so why can't he hear God? Well he's still growing and developing in his relationship with God. It was pretty cool, he didn't soak it all in right away but he's one of those kids who's listening even when you don't think he is.

After that, Kirk sent the two of us to work. So we went off and started to hack at what we wanted to do as a touch card design. Oh I should probably explain that we came up with the name "project-x" for the group, for these three months that we're here at least. So, after some prayer, we really dove into the project. I kept questioning him to keep him thinking and make this his project... since we were talking about growth I asked him what best represented growth... he said plant or tree. So I started to break down with him the different trees that are in the

Bahamas (I wanted it to be form their country) and how different aspects of that tree represent our relationship with God. We found out that they have evergreen trees down there and actually stuck with that one because Blake felt it fit the best. Evergreens stay green, they never fade, their roots go deep... they have many branches and sometimes they can get overgrown (the bushy ones are the ones that they have)... so they have to get trimmed back. All excellent comparisons to our growth in the Lord. Once we had the tree down I asked him if thats all he wanted to do, draw a tree and then write project-x? Then he came up with the idea of making a timeline of growth. At this point I could see that Blake was getting much more into what we were doing, and getting a little bit excited!

Saturday the 5th!

Sorry I didn't get this blog up for a while, I had laundry to do the other night and I was sick last night.

So yesterday... pretty normal morning... woke up, headed to the guys, cleaned the guys house, ate breakfast... only this time the boys didn't wake up till way late and Kirk wanted to have a team meeting so we had one without them and then when they got up we headed over to the church for a little prayer meeting with Pastor Jimmy. After that, our plan for the day was to visit the deepest blue hole in the world... Pastor Jimmy had some things to do first so we planned to meet him at 2:30, until then we were gonna just hand out.

Thats what we did for the most part, we hung out, ate, and SOAPed until Pastor Jimmy was ready to go. For a while Anthony Josh and Bethany were playing music at the church together and Ian and I headed to P. Jimmy's to drop some stuff over for Kirk... so while we were over there P. Jimmy asked us to come with him to one of the nearby islands... he owned that island, like many others and has a house that he's working on over there. We got to check it out and it was amazing, all these boardwalks that go throughout the island and really really nice decks, even the house itself... once it's all cleaned out is going to be a really nice vacation spot. Later we finally started getting ready to go to the blue hole.

P. Jimmy makes it over, we all hop into the back of the truck and then take the 30 minute drive to the blue hole. For being one of the deepest in the world... I was surprised that, no one was there. I'm realized a long time ago that Long Island.... is NOT a touristy place. I never thought it would be but just seeing just how much it isn't is surprising to me because there are some really beautiful places on this island. Anyway we went swimming in the blue hole, it was crazy thinking about how far down that thing went, and we were over it... oh man. There were a lot of fish, which was cool; and I got a chance to practice diving just a little bit! I used to be good at it actually, until my ears started giving me serious problems... and you can imagine the pressure at a 600' deep hole. I was a little nervous about being a barracuda... but Pastor Jimmy just keeps telling me that their harmless... yesterday he says "Oh, it'll just smile at ya!".... yea... really. But here's how I feel about the whole barracuda thing anyway.... we've all heard Pastor James' experience with the barracuda, and I see it as we just can't get past it... we've focused on how they tend to attack you while all the islanders here aren't bothered by them at all. P. Jimmy is determined to get me past this fear.

When we get back... we all get cleaned up and then it's dinner time! When us girls were walking to the guys house, Anthony was heading out to pick up food for dinner with Ian. I stood outside and watched as these giant thunder clouds rolled in. Lighting was everywhere, but no thunder. It was the one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I didn't realize it at the time, cause at home storms like that just come up and role away, we don't get many lightning storms. No, these things were getting bigger and heading over. For the next few hours after they rolled over, we just had endless lighting... hitting right over the island, and right over out heads! It was pretty intense.
Anthony gets back and then him and Ian get to work on the dinner... it took twice as long to make cause we had to improvise on finding ways to cook the food. But it ended up being amazing... we had spaghetti, it was enough to feed an army of people, no joke, we have a ton of leftovers. Still, it was super good.
After dinner, we all just sat down together and then Josh suggested that we do SOAPs. We all agreed and after Dionis, Josh, and Anthony shared theirs, Ian and I shared ours. It was cool because ours were all different but then connected too... I didn't think mine would apply at all, but as Anthony shared his, especially the end of his I was encouraged that it totally connected. Anthony talked at the end of his about our relationships with each other and how God told him that He wants us all to be best friends for life after the end of this trip (or to build those kind of bonds).... and it was cool because God was just endlessly talking to me about how He wants to use our relationships with each other and the things that He wants to do in our group etc. Then I shared how that morning, when we had the prayer meeting with Pastor Jimmy, God gave me a vision of how the group of us are a stick... and He is taking a knife and making us into a spear. Well this stick has branches and moss and whatever else gathers onto a stick, so there's work to do and He's cleaning us off and sharpening us, to make us usable. It was cool. Then we had a really awesome conversation about how sharpening hurts, "there's going to be some OW within some of us on the trip," Kirk says. I totally concur. After that we got into a discussion on calling each other out on stuff and what that means and then a little about how we ought to do it in love and not for our own selfish reasons.
Oh and I have to add that yesterday poor Josh cut his hand trying to climb some cave cliff… who knows.. but he was understandably afraid of a shark attack after that and I’m driving the boat away from him at that point…
I know that there was something else I wanted to say on this blog but I can’t remember what it was at all… not at all… This is why I need to make sure I write blogs the day off.. oh well, sorry! I’ll write it later if I remember!

Ocean Swells

Ok so its 1:10am here… just finished uploading a ton of pictures on facebook so feel free to go look at them!


Today was yet another good and amazing day! Woke up early, Bethany and Anthony pick up Josh from the airport, and while they are gone… I get the opportunity to finally sweep the floor entirely and get rid of all the food on the floor. Then I did my devotions. When the guys woke up, we had breakfast and by then the gang was all there. We pretty much just relaxed all morning.. Kirk had errands to run, try and get DSL up and running so we have good internet up at the guys house… so we all just hung around waiting till he and P. Jimmy got back so we could go on the boat, which was the plan for the day.
Dionis wanted me to make sure that I blogged about how we wouldn’t let him nap earlier. See what happened is, we were all super hot, it was a little unbearable this morning. Then Bethany suggested to Marissa and me that we go hang out in the guys actual room because it’s air conditioned. We didn’t know anyone was in the room. Well I was about to jump onto the mattress when I noticed that the giant bundle of white sheets was Dionis mummified. So glad I noticed as soon as I did! Well I didn’t jump onto that mattress but there were two others that the three of us climbed onto… then later Anthony and Ian decided it would be a good idea to come into the room too and poor Dionis couldn’t sleep… not that I feel too terrible for him cause he was up tonight on my laptop and keeping me from writing this blog sooner so he must not have been that tired! Oh and he wanted me to mention that were making him breakfast specially tomorrow because he always wakes up late and never gets any.

Oh I also want to mention that Feisty… the crab that Anthony caught last night… CRAWLED OUT OF THE BUCKET overnight! Those crabs are nuts! The one I caught was still there tho! 

Once Pastor Jimmy got back with Kirk, and after a lot more working things out…. We get on the road to get on the boat… after buying water and gas, we head to the docking beach and shipped out. P. Jimmy just drove that thing as fast as it went around these beautiful islands… we just got 30-45 minutes of just enjoyment of the ride and the view… so beautiful! After pulling by a few islands, pastor Jimmy turns to me and says that he was going to show us the coolest beach in the whole world… the best one he says. I remember thinking about how I would react, if it would actually be that cool… what would make it so cool… I believed him, I just didn’t know what to expect… well were going and going out on the ocean, and then all of a sudden, when were a 1000 yards away from this island… he slows down, in what looked like the middle of the ocean. The thought kinda flickered through my brain of what it was but it was just so unbelievable to me that I shook it off…. The beach was UNDERWATER!! It extended all the way to the island and far in two directions… P. Jimmy said that when the tide is low it’s just perfect white sand… but we could get out and it was just ankle deep water…. It was crazy, trippy, and unreal.. but gorgeous! We all want to go back there again, it was probably the coolest thing ever!
While we were in that section, we saw a Nurse Shark, that was pretty cool too, we chased it around for a while poor thing. Then we were off once more, into the ocean blue. We get to this strip of rock and put on our snorkel gear, grab some spears and head out to spear-fish. I didn’t spear fish, but I did snorkel! So cool! Being able to see everything and all the fish, and watching the guys dive after fish, trying to spear them.. pretty awesome.. We looked for fish on both sides but couldn’t really find anything worthwhile. Out there though, further out, the swells were so high.. we would get the boat air borne and then land… which caused a lot of bruising, mostly for Marissa. But it was sweet… even Kirk just loved it! Sometimes a little to intense, there was one point where I thought he was going to fly out of his chair, I was standing right behind him… and it scared me… Praise God he was fine! We drove under this raincloud, and the drops were like bullets, shooting like crazy!

Everyone wants to make sure I tell the story about how a flying fish came out of the water and hit Josh in the arm and made his arm slimy.. I missed this whole thing, I don’t know what I was looking at, but I remember looking over and wondering what was going on.

We tried out a few more places for spear fishing, but mostly drove the boat around a lot… Anthony got a little motion sick and started throwing up over the side… that was pretty gross… glad we didn’t swim there. I don’t know why they wanted me to make sure I said something about that too. Then one of the last places P. Jimmy took us spear fishing.. I got out but after a while got pretty tired, it’s hard to swim against the swells while you’re holding your breath (I wasn’t using the snorkel, it limited my breathing so much that I figured I might as well hold my breath). All us girls were in the boat but the guys were still on the hunt… P. Jimmy was thinking about joining them (he never ended up doing that), so he wanted me to drive the boat. At first I was just like.. he must be joking! He was dead serious! Kirk is just like “why not?”….so I finally said I would but P. Jimmy has to show me how… so for the next hour, I’m maneuvering this thing on these swells that want to push us into the rocky islands! It was actually pretty fun, you have to get the hang of it, and I was still kinda off with my steering sometimes by the end of it but it ended up ok!

There was one point where we were trying to pick up Anthony after we decided that that was it for the day and I was up alongside him when P. Jimmy was like, ok go around.. so poor Anthony was about to go in when I start going around in circles around him… it was funny though!

I have to say…Josh and Anthony had spear-fished before, but Ian was beast! He caught a few of the fish! And loved it! He did also spear a blow fish though… which we all felt bad about… you can’t eat those things, and when you spear them… they tend to explode.. I mean, it’s like popping a balloon.

Going back, the sun was setting and it was gorgeous! Awesome trip back too.. we were all exhausted but it was a good feeling. While we were getting the boat out of the water… all my bug spray had washed off in the ocean.. so within minutes of being on land… I got bit by some kind of horsefly (which hurt really bad!), and later I found 10 more bites all over my legs… and these ones are bad compared to the ones I’ve had before.. Marissa faced the same problem on her arm.

Heading back we were dropped off at our house to get cleaned up and then we went over to P. Jimmy to have dinner! It was amazing! I honestly am so blessed by P. Jimmy and his family right now… I wanted to cry at dinner… Just how generous and loving they all are, the ways that they help us and provide for us and take care of us is just incredible. They barely know us! I pray that I would never be ungrateful because it is truly amazing and an amazing blessing! I mean they help us out with groceries, so we don’t have to spend 100s of dollars everyday on food, they make us food, they take us out on a boat all day… they invite us into their home… they show us around…. They give us anti-itch cream that is the best that they have on the island…. They are amazing people! Again, I am more than blessed!

At dinner (which was amazing), we had some interesting conversations…. We were all pretty tired I think and in an interesting place haha… but it just made me think a lot about stuff. Just how different our perspectives are, and yet how the same they can be, about our disagreements and differences really… just the group that God put together down here in general I guess… I just had a really cool thought that encouraged me so much… I really believe that a lot of what God is going to do down here through us is through our relationships with each other. How fitting is that? After our church has been diving into community to have that be part of this trip? What a demonstration of who God is! Not only that He is going to use our relationships with each other but who He chose to do that with. Our group has so many odd puzzle pieces that you wouldn’t really know how they would fit…. But what God just kinda put on my heart that really encouraged me was that none of that really matters… because we are unified in His Spirit… we all serve the same God, love the same God, and love each other through the same God. He is good and He is bigger than who we are, bigger than our differences… and He uses those differences, because He can. How awesome is He that He would use the least likely circumstances for His glory?

What’s really cool is that reflecting on it now I am reminded of my S.O.A.P. from this morning which was:

God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him. --1 John 4:16

He just spoke to me through that verse this morning about that… living in love, living in God, and what that would look like, what it actually means.. How it would change relationships and perspectives. God is love… love conquers all, and love lives in us. So what does anything else matter? By our love for each other, His name will be known! Praise God that He always has the end in mind, He always has a plan, and it’s always for the best! Miss you all! Keep up with the blog!

Inaccuracy

Ok so my blog isn't lined up with the time down here... Both of those last two posts were written at about 12:30 in the morning on the 4th of September. It's 1:15am now... so just add three hours if you need to know the time.

Island Living... American Style

Today was our recoop day. Bethany and I set our alarm for 8am but when it went off... we tried to get up but after we agreed that we could both sleep for so much longer, we did... for two more hours. I remember the first thing I noticed when I got up was that it was pouring down rain outside... again! Ha! Well I was super hungry and the guys have all the food back at their house so I was like... Bethany I have two raincoats so we're going to get food! Walking in that rain, you honestly get drenched within SECONDS... but it was nice. I was really surprised I must say, that we had mosquitos swarming our faces while we walked... in the rain. It seemed so impossible to me but it happened! We then get to the boys' house, and it's locked. They are still in bed. So after waiting outside for a very long time, trying to find another way in... I finally decided that they needed to get up (it was 10:30) and I wanted food... so I tapped  on the window and thankfully Anthony heard us and let us in.

Ok... That was just the beginning of our day. We decided we would like a good breakfast; you know eggs, sausage, pancakes... the works... so we go to the grocery store. After loading up on food... we head home to make it. We needed dish soap too cause we had all these greasy plates from our dinner the night before that weren't clean yet and we needed food. While Bethany started the dishes, I went straight to getting breakfast made. Well first thing I did was rip open the box of Aunt Jamima's Pancake Mix... It was a little difficult to open... for some reason the cardboard wouldn't tear the way I wanted to... I guess it was all just to add a little bit to what I was about to face. The box of pancake mix.... was alive. Hundreds of these tiny bugs were crawling all over the inside!!! It was absolutely disgusting! So, both boxes were like that, so we took them back to the store and got good ol' bisquick instead. Had a hearty breakfast and then decided that we really couldn't do that again cause it ended up costing us a good amount of money (it is EXPENSIVE)!

We had a little bit of a team meeting started after we ate and cleaned up... but it was more just chill hangout with each other time. Pastor Jimmy got a list of things we needed and brought back all this stuff for us (which was awesome, he is awesome)... anyway, one of those things was a broom; because see, these stupid ants were swarming the floor and they hurt when they bite, so we wanted to get rid of them. Now, I don't remember how this happened exactly but I was sweeping and somehow a door was opened somewhere and this (what I like to call "warrior wasp") flew into the house. I can handle spiders, I can handle the bat moths, I can handle the land crabs, I can handle the geckos, and I can handle the scorpions.... bees, wasps of any kind... no. I was out the door... then saw that everyone else was following me, screaming all the way ... guys included, Ian just as scard as us but managing to say "why are we running out the door?" as we ran! These things, seriously, are creepy... we have them back home too, they are just in greater number down here. Anthony grabs the broom for me and starts going at it... after a while of us running around to keep away from the thing, it flies out (thank the Lord). Only later when we had our real team meeting, they were buzzing at the screen doors and I was convinced they had come for revenge.

Another good Anthony killing bug story was later when Dionis reached down to grab something from Kirk's backpack... I don't remember who yelled that there was a bug on the bag but we all looked to see this cockroach right next to Dionis' hand.. it was huge. He screams and runs and then after a while Anthony finally kills the thing.. but it really didn't happen till an hour later.. those things just don't die.

Bethany and I drove to the airport to get Marissa with Kirk...  I got a kick out of hailing everyone as we drove.. also, driving on the other side of the road is pretty fun... but I mostly really enjoyed how you can just wave to everyone as you drive, infact its the culture! While we were getting Marissa, Pastor Jimmy was taking the boys spear-fishing.... well once we got Marissa, they were still out there, the doors to their house locked, Kirk stuck in the van with us... so after some driving around and endless calling of Anthony we drove over to where they took off and hung out with Pastor Jimmy's kids till the boys showed up. They finally did and we cut some coconuts and went home (coconuts are really good by the way, their milk is my favortie).

By this time I was super super hungry again! So we finally got back to the guys and had leftovers and cereal for dinner. After dinner, another team meeting... Bethany shared an old soap, but it was perfect, fit in with a lot of our hearts and just stuff God wanted to say... we talked some and then prayed, it was really good.

All this time, Anthony is determined to take us land island crabbing. Pastor Jimmy brings a crab in and demonstrates for us how to catch them... they are beastly. So we go, and that's what we were doing until 12:30 in the morning... driving down choppy roads hanging onto the car and running after crabs when we saw one. We only caught two.. but I caught the second one!!! It was pretty sweet :) I was so happy to have had the oppurtunity to do that! It was really very fun even though the roads we took had virtually no crabs... we were at it for probably more than two hours and couldn't find that many at all.

One last word about today... the mosquitos.... are.... terrible. Poor Bethany got pretty much eaten alive today... I have a lot too, but not as many as her and not as bad as her.. I don't know if she's allergic to the ones down here or what but it was pretty bad. Anyway, we'll be praying for that, it's a small thing but God cares even about the small things, sometimes they are the most important.

So, that wasn't even a full day and look at everything that happened! Just wait till we start ministry... woah baby :) Anyway we miss you all! Although I'm adjusting to the heat I still miss the cold... the thunder storms every night on the horizon I must say are pretty cool too. And how it doesn't really get dark here that much. But still miss home! Miss you middle school girls! Remember, I want to hear testimonies! I'm so excited for what God has in store for you guys in your schools this year! I really believe it's going to be big!

Bat Moths!!

NOTE: This is September 2nd's blog.. I just didn't know how to get internet access until today so I'm posting it now.

Hey everyone! We made it! We’re in the Bahamas! We don’t have internet access yet so I am writing this on a word document before I forget the events of our travels. Let me just say, you do not want to be with any of us individuals after the lack of sleep that we all faced on our way over! I don’t even know who was worse; we were all a little crazy by the end, and passing out left and right at different layovers. After over 24 hours of having our bodies be completely lost about what time it could possibly be… we finally land on Long Island… guess what, it was raining! There is something about us Seattle people… I’ve decided that we are born with some kind of inherent rain magnet. Even this missionary couple commented on how unusual it was to get this much rain; but the whole afternoon, overcast, thunderstorms on the horizon and rain. Although, it wasn’t bad, it was so warm and humid outside that the rain didn’t affect any of us in any huge way. Regardless, the rest of the day was more relaxed as we settled in… we drove around to our houses, dropping off luggage and checking out our beds… Let me just say that I was warned about tarantulas, I was warned about scorpions (I havn’t seen either of those yet)… No one told us about BAT MOTHS!! AND GIANT WASPS! The bat moths aren’t so bad, just creepy… but I am terrified of bees and these giant wasps with dangly legs that just swoop over my head are not going to be my favorite part of this trip. We did see a pretty big spider, but it wasn’t a tarantula… it reminded me of the bird spider from Woodland Park Zoo… Ian is not the friendliest with those  Ian actually is probably the funniest person on this trip so far when it comes to our experiences. Later, we went to the supermarket to get some groceries. After some bowls of cereal we just hung around the guys’ house and the church.
At dusk we went to check out the beach! Oh my word… these beaches are amazing, they aren’t huge but they are beautiful. The sand can go up to your shins and the waves just crash and wash over you, incredible. We hung out there, taking some pictures and messing around and then went back to the guys’ house to wait for Kirk and Pastor Jimmy for dinner… which by then was at about 830. We couldn’t have been happier, I couldn’t have been happier, after eating cliff bars and odwalla bars for the past 48 hours, I was more than happy to stick cheesy noodles into my mouth. Sooooo gooood. After dinner, Bethany and I cleaned up, cleaned our room.. she crashed and I’m writing this… now I’m going to crash too, I am exhausted. Tomorrow… spear fishing and recoop! Also, Marissa will be joining us and it’ll be awesome to hear about her trip over!

Packing Blues

I've decided that packing for a three month trip to the Bahamas is a nearly impossible task. Sigh. I don't know if I have everything I need or not.. I will prolly need things mailed down to me, along with another suit case... sigh. I hope not. Oh well, once we get down there none of that will matter I'm sure. I'm still excited and nothing can take that away!  I ask that you guys be praying for us! For what we do but for our group as well! That we stand united and not divided... I know that one of satan's main strategies is to divide the church... I pray for a unity in the Spirit that gives us the strength to work side by side for these two and a half months! Knowing just a little bit about my God, I know that He is not only more than capable, but He wants the exact same thing. I'm so glad that I can put my trust in Him. I love you all! I'll miss you!

Countdown

Today was our last Sunday before we leave... what a weird thought. It was fun though.. honoring Dave and Heather... I will miss them, although I hope it won't be too long before I see them again! I can't bear to let a whole year go by without seeing Reese!!! Anyway, another good day. Ha, everyone keeps asking me if I'm excited.. I think I'm putting off my excitement until I get there... right now there are a lot of things to finish and accomplish and do in the meantime. Nearly done packing... nearly... I hope I have everything that I need, I don't think I'm packing enough but I am just going to have to deal with it I guess.

Well we have prayer really early tomorrow, have to be at the church at 5:45am and I have to pick someone up beforehand. It's my last one! So sad, and so exciting. I'm about to start an entirely new chapter of my life. No new school year... more like a whole new...well chapter haha. I am so excited! I will miss you all! Those of you who my last time seeing for a while was today :)

To my 8th grade girls starting their first year of high school this year... God is with you! Every single day! Not one day goes by that He forgets or anything... no, you are on His mind every step of the way. Let me encourage you girls to focus on Him! Even a month into the school year when school work starts getting tough or getting into the new school is harder than you think... God has called you girls each by name, He has an AWESOME plan and purpose for your lives and He wants to use each of you in AMAZING ways! Trust Him! With all your hearts trust in Him, and in who He is, what He's done, in His promises and in the Hope that He gives us through His son Jesus Christ. I love you girls! So sorry I won't be there these first few months... but I'll be back, and I want to hear testimonies!

Christ's Kid

I am a daughter of the Most High King... He is awesome and He loves me!! Praise God that I walk in His protection and love. Today, Ali, my cousin and I decided to go visit Hurricane Ridge... I love the penninsula and wanted to see it one last time before we left on our trip. The way up was way relaxed, we are all just talking and having a good time, we turn on the road that takes you up to the ridge and start hitting the curvey roads. Well we didn't even make it to the ranger station when this car heading down the mountain starts to swerve. At first he just jerks slightly to the left and to the right... then it gets more violent and he is more like careening out of control... our relaxed atmosphere is nearly untouched as we all watch this occur in disbelief. Being the driver, I was trying to decide what to do. When it was clear that he was coming for us, I decided to try and pull to the side and get out of his way. No major stress, no increase in speed, no slamming on breaks, I simply pull to the side. The kid pulls a 280/360 in the road and comes up our side, hitting my door. The impact was a lot harder than it felt. No shattering glass, no airbag, no real movement inside the car. Just a bump.

I vaguely heard Tim telling me "alright, let's pull over"... so calm... everything was calm... I was calm... he was calm... Ali was calm. I stop my car, keeping my eye on my rearview mirror, not really sure what to think. A minute or two went by when Ali was finally like "Corinna, are you ok?!" ...I was fine. "I can't believe how calm you are!" she says... I couldn't either once she said that... It didn't really hit me about what had just happened until she asked after my well-being. I get out of the car and the kid does too... he yells "are you guys ok?!" "Yea! Are you ok?!" I yell back. He said he was fine and he had lost control of his steering... he too was in disbelief. He goes on telling us what happened and exclaiming about how he thought he would end up in the trees for sure. Praise God he did not, praise God we did not. Ali told me to take pictures so I was thankful I had my mom's camera and I did... the kid told us his name, said his dad was on his way.. we traded information.. worked everything out... Then we spent three hours up at Hurricane Ridge just basking in God's glory.

It wasn't until we were on our way home that in a moment of silence in our car, Ali, asleep in the back; I turn to Tim and I say "Do you realize that we should be dead right now?" And he just emphasizes his agreement... that impact should have knocked us into the trees. If I would have done ANYTHING else.. we would be seriously injured... If I would have stopped my car, he would have hit us dead on. We barely felt anything and the more we thought about it the more we realized that God's hand had to have been right there... It was amazing.. What an awesome God we serve! I am His daughter and He is watching my  back. I'm not leaving this earth until HE decides haha!! Praise God!!

ALSO!!! MARISSA!!! Now that things are for the most part settled I can say that Marissa is our new addition to our Bahamas trip and I am so excited and so blessed to have her as an added member!!

Here are pictures of skid marks from the other car, and the dent he left in my door!