Suffering For Jesus!

As I was home and like always when Pastor Kelley talks about me he says I'm suffering for Jesus in the "Beautiful Caribbean Sun." Here is a GREAT picture I could resist taking and posting here! JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE I GUESS!! Things are getting pretty busy here, we have a strategy conference here beginning May 4th where we will have 40 YWAM directors and leaders from around the Caribbean here. It will be a lot of people and lots of work they say! Then right after that we have a 6 week DTS Equip that is leadership training for DTS leaders. THEN I GET TO GO HOME AGAIN!! I have been working since I got back on grouting a tile floor and finishing the room I have been working on for awhile now. I just have a few more things to do then we can start moving things in!!!

My time in MT was nice, despite the reason I was there it was SO nice to be among family and friends again. I was an extremely short trip but good!! I didn't realize how much I missed everyone until I was there and able to be with them. It was a nice time to take a break from everything that is going on here and not even think about anything but family and friends! I came back to lots of work, not only preparation for the conference but putting together an information packet for the local pastors group is extremely time consuming! We were suppose to present it to them today Saturday but the meeting was canceled so we will have 2 more weeks to work on it. Which is a blessing because I wasn't able to do anything while I was gone! Nothing else is really going on. People coming and projects that's about it. After we present to the pastors group we will have lots of personal time consumed by creating relationships with them. It is time to get YWAM known once again on the island! It's all about planting seeds and making something grow!

OH!!!! I am so excited that the DTS Equip is starting because 2 of the students from DTS are coming back to attend this school!!! I can't wait to see them, and we also have one other coming in July to help with our childrens ministry for 2 weeks I think!!! Now if I could just get my buddy Jonas back here from Switzerland life would be awesome!!

Finally an Update!!

WOW well it has been a busy few weeks. Not really sure why but I just have not had time to update. I have spent most of my days working on my construction project of patching the ceiling in the apartment and FINALLY I am finished!!! What a long process that was. I have also begun to work on putting a packet together that we will be presenting to a group of pastors to let them know what we as a ministry are doing on the island and asking how we can be of service to them. Our community has some serious problems that a sadly being accepted and we want to try and help be a solution. It is so easy to think that St. Croix is just this island paradise but if you look past the surface you will find the real problems of the island. The fact that children are taking weapons to school almost daily to protect themselves. Drug and alcohol abuse is not just a problem among adults but starting as early as 8 years old for these children. Children are suffering for their parents not taking responsibility and working and giving them a decent lifestyle. The school systems here suck, the children are not being taught what needs to be taught at their level. When they graduate they might if they are lucky have a jr. high reading level. Parents are prostituting their own children after school to support their addictions and to provide for the family because they are to lazy to get a job. IT IS INSANE!!! This is the community we are trying to reach! It is amazing how when you think of this you wonder is that even possible in the United States?? YES IT IS AND I SEE IT EVERYDAY! Homeless people walking around everywhere you turn. Where do we start? What area do we try and tackle first? Who knows but through building relationship with a few of the pastors on the island that are actively seeking to change this island we might be able to do something. IT is pretty sad that YWAM has been on this island for over 20 years and due to previous problems it has lost its impact on the community. People barely even know we exist and we are seeking to change that. It is a HUGE step to take because we can only do so much but we feel like it is time to make things happen, it is time to get our name out into the community and churches and serve them in any way possible! So that is what i am working on also when I am not doing construction on the base. On the 25th of this month Veronica and I will be presenting YWAM to a group of 12 pastors and hopefully be starting relationships that will open doors for community outreach opportunities. We feel it is important to connect with churches and organizations already working here and helping them on what they are focusing on then trying to start our own ministry because we honestly don't know that much about the culture or community for only being here for 7 months.