Each morning I wake up to bits of sunlight sneaking in through the curtain. Each morning I pull the curtains back and am greeted by the view of banana leaves and palm branches in the back yard. A while back Jared had turned some of the yard into a garden patch. In the recent weeks I've been noticing a pumpkin becoming larger and larger with each week. Some mornings I'm in a hurry and don't take much time to think about the sights and sounds of a tropical December morning, but more often then not I think about how beautiful the morning sunlight is, how the tree branches wave every morning and how that pumpkin keeps growing. Time keeps moving on and most days feel insignificant. But the days turn into weeks, the weeks into months, and the months into years. Often it hits me that someday I will miss pulling the curtains back in my beautiful tropical home. So now is my time to enjoy every moment of this life.
School began with a good start. Students came with bright smiles and teachers were ready to be back in the classroom. Since we have had so much online schooling, many students were behind. It is taking extra effort from teachers to get their whole class in the same spot. The first few weeks of school I spent time helping the new teachers or slower students. It is fun to invest into the lives of children who are at such an influential stage of life. Jared has been kept busy at school as well. He does not teach a lot of classes but makes sure things are running smoothly. He is often found studying in his little principal office and occasionally interrupted for a behavior issue, something that needs fixed, or just a little child needing a hug.
While I had enjoyed time at school I was beginning to feel the pressure of Grenada Bible Institute coming up. GBI is a week long bible school specifically for the youth of the Mennonite churches. We head up the island about an hour to a building designed for church functions like this. There is a kitchen and dinning area as well as a few bedrooms and some large dorms for a crowd of people. While this is a time for the youth, there are much more then just youth going! We are planning for about 30 people. There are two pastors coming for the States that will be having some classes. Clair and Barb Long will be here for a few days and he will have a class on 'The sermon on the Mount.' Ryan and Amanda Horst are coming from Canada and he will be having two classes 'Seeing Jesus through the Old Testament' and 'The Life of Daniel.' Jared is also teaching a class on the history of the church 'Christians through the Centuries.' I am planning and cooking all the food. It has been a lot of work and I have spent hours over the menu for the week, grocery shopping, and hours working in the kitchen, preparing what I can ahead of time. I've been trying to freeze as much as I can so that I can sit in on some classes. Jared has spent hours upon hours in his office, reading and studying for his class. Preparation for GBI has taken up a bit of our time over the last few weeks and we are looking forward to a spiritually filling week. Please pray for us! We leave Sunday afternoon and return to Laborie of Friday evening.
While I've enjoyed the kitchen work I'm ready to see the end! We decided to have a thanksgiving meal on United States Thanksgiving Day. I made most of the food and till the end of the day my feet were aching and I was ready to relax! The Olive Branch staff are gifted a nice Christmas meal each year. As wife to the business administrator, I am in charge of this event. It was fun to plan a special Christmas meal. I decided on a traditional Lancaster County Christmas meal starting with a ham and ending with pecan pie! It was an enjoyable meal and I wished that all the work put into food would last a bit longer! Jared and I planned a few fun Christmas games which everyone enjoyed. We asked everyone to get a picture of a baby picture and then everyone tried guessing who was who as a baby! It made for some good laughs and some good conversations! While I was planning the thanksgiving meal and the Christmas meal I was also working on my GBI meal plans so I felt like my head was in to many places at one time!
A few weeks ago we had a crusade in Laborie. There were big speakers set up pointing out in different directions. Some of the men from church had messages for the community of Laborie. One evening a local community man from the Pentecostal church had a message as well. We were very thankful for nice weather. There was no visible changes or commitments from people. One evening before crusade Jared and I were eating supper and talking about how hard this work is. We even mentioned how it doesn't even feel worth it at times but then we went on to remind ourselves that God has promised that His Word will not return void and we will claim that promise even when we see no results. In the days and weeks after the crusade many people stopped us to ask when the next one will be. We trust people were listening.
This week there was a Christmas program at school. Since school only started in November the children put lots of work into learning a few new songs as well as practicing a few old faithful Christmas ones. The children did very well but still did a few cute childish things to bring a smile! As I was sitting there I was hit with sadness to think that this school is closing. In a few years there will be no more students attending this school. Jared often mentions how hard that is for him to watch. While we still strongly feel it was the right decision, it is a hard step of faith since we can't see the future. We continue to trust and take this step of faith.
At the program, three of the students and Mr. Weaver did a little skit on the children's book 'The Christmas Miracle of Mr. Toomey' The story is about a wood carver who harbors bitterness but is touched through carving the figures that go with the Christmas story. Jared and I worked together to make a carved nativity set. I drew the people and animals of the Christmas story on some free pallet wood we had and then Jared cut them out with a jig saw and sanded them a bit. It was a fun project to do together and using the homemade nativity set in my house as Christmas décor brings me joy!
My days are filled with many normal tasks that every other housekeeper does. There is always the next meal to think about, laundry to do or another room that needs cleaning. But, I will tell you a story that probably didn't happen to you last Sunday in church. There is a dear lady that comes to church but she does have some challenges. For some reason, I became her person. She will often sit on the same church bench a I do on Sunday mornings. This Sunday morning was no different. About half way through the message, she got up, walked the length of the bench and sat down right next to me. She tried to ask me something in a half whisper but since I was listening to Pastor Jared I didn't understand. I didn't really say anything and continued to listen to Jared. Next thing I knew my glasses were leaving my face and going on hers. It happened so fast that I had no time to stop her! She put them on and began to look for a chapter in the Bible. She pushed them up high, then pulled them down on her nose, then took them off and looked at them, then tried putting them on her face again. By now I was ready for my own glasses back so I kindly took them off her face and helped her find the chapter she was looking for in the Bible. In this culture, my things are your things and your things are my things, even eye glasses! God Bless you as you serve this week. Whether its in your home, work place, or even the smallest ways like helping somebody find the right chapter in the Bible on a Sunday morning!
Please pray for us this week as we go to GBI. We will be leaving Sunday afternoon and coming back on Friday evening.
Pray for each of the teachers. Jared will be teaching a church history class and he covets your prayers. Teaching is not something he takes lightly and wants to do his very best.
Pray for me as I cook. I keep saying I am doing my best but God will have to fill in the gaps, and there are certainly some gaps for Him to fill!
Pray for physical health as well as spiritual health. Satan seems to try harder when he sees things like this happening.
Pray for each heart that will be there, American, Canadian and Grenadian. Each one of us is on a journey and we want this week to be a time of growth in each life represented at GBI.
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