Three and a half years ago, the Lord brought me to this island-confused and not understanding why...then I fell in love.
I fell in love with the people and the beauty. I fell in love with long Sunday afternoons and a people who know what hard work looks and feels like. I fell in love with a culture that held material things loosely and the hands of their friends tightly.
The next summer I went back and the Lord renewed my love for this place and then opened my eyes to some of the crazy hard parts of living here too. It is a "Christian" nation, which means very little to most of the people I know except for that they have a place to be on Sunday morning. I saw 85% of families being single parent (if that) households. I saw my high school friends getting pregnant at 14, 15 and 16 - to pay bills. I saw young boys who grow into gangs without even knowing it. I saw the beginnings of a drug culture, alcoholism, and a paralyzing boredom that led to all these decisions. I saw poverty and I saw brokenness and I was filled with a horrible hopelessness...
Then I remembered Jesus.
The Gospel is our hope. Later Senior year the Lord called me to a special ministry, called Young Life, that is a perfect fit for the struggles on this island. Young Life is simple-God loves each of us desperately and right where we are, everything we do and say should help our friends to see this.
Ben and I have the incredible privilege and challenge to try to live this out on Eleuthera. To build Young Life into the foundations of the schools so that as kids grow up, they grow up with leaders and mentors encouraging and praying them on every step of the way.
This is a long and incredible hard process, but we believe that God can use this ministry to change this generation and generations to come. And that's worth it.
Thanks for believing this with us!
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