A Summer to Remember

Wow, where did the summer go?! As most of you know I was on staff-leave for June and July this summer back in the states! Between graduations, time with family, wedding festivities, honeymooning, packing and moving back down, it was a breathtakingly beautiful whirlwind from the second I landed in the States to the moment Ben and I unpacked back in our little island home. Thank you all for the prayers for a good visit with family and friends, for our big day, and for our new life together- we are more grateful for each of you than you know!

And now our summer in pictures:

And now we are settling in and getting ready for another amazing school year...come one September :)

Remembering Why

This past month was so full-very thankful for all that Lord brought our way! We had the chance to dive more deeply into relationships with faculty and potential leaders in the schools, mixed cultures again with friends and family visiting our island from different parts of the states, we’ve gotten to do a whole school club (awesome) and had some sweet one-on-one time with friends! And most recently we got to gather with all of the other Caribbean areas for the first ever Caribbean Committee/Leader Weekend!

This weekend came at a good time for everyone. Anyone that works with high school kids know that spring is the busiest, most packed, craziest (and a lot of other similar adjectives) time of the year for our students and thus us. For kids without a lot of home support, this is the time when we find ourselves helping them with projects at post-midnight hours, studying for endless amount of BJCs and BJCSEs (British/Bahamian exam system), trying to encourage the discipline it takes to make it to the end of the year while secretly remembering the feeling that you will die if summer does not come SOON! In short, spring is when coffee counts and Jesus gets our most pitiful cries for help on an hourly basis!

This incredible weekend with the Caribbean team pointed all of us back to why we do what we do! The midnight projects and 5am wake-ups are not out of obligation to a community that “needs us”. These students desperately need the love of Jesus…we know Him…we love Him…and He gives us the privilege of introducing Him to kids we love. He could do it without us…but He choose to use each of us, ordinary people, to reach out to His world. How freeing and simple is that? Jesus calls for our hearts, and promises that with the full hearts of an obedient few He can work miracles.

Seeing those obedient hearts reflected in the eyes of everyone I met last weekend was a very powerful thing. It reminded me why Ben and I are choosing to leave our families and the comforts of home, why people across the globe spend time each week to pray for our little corner of the world, why people sacrificially give of their hard earned money…and why it is all so worth it. The kingdom draws near when we give our hearts and our lives to Him and His work.

I have spent almost a year on this little rock in the big ocean and have learned more things than I can count. I’ve learned that education is not a given, that the hot sun is fun when I’m on vacation and tanning but not so much when it makes our houses or the open classrooms unbearable, that not all families are a gift and that food isn’t scarce when we share. But what I have learned most of all is that, no matter what our outer circumstances, the life and love we find when we let God be the one piecing it together is a little bit like heaven…because it’s rooted in the One our souls long for.

hello spring :)

          February is always such a short and sweet month that I feel like there will never be enough time in it to write a blog that does it justice! It was full of fun as we settled into club for Central High on Mondays and Windermere High on Wednesdays! We laughed til our stomachs hurt at skits (especially the “Gangnam Style Gurus”), we danced and sang our hearts out and started to tell a story that has not only changed my life but the lives of everyone who has truly HEARD it! In short it was a busy, busy month full of love, laughter and a new excitement on the island for what this thing called “Young Life” is! I can’t what until Young Life is so normal that the exciting part will be the guy called Jesus that all of the “Young Lifers” are talking about!!

          March came and brought spring with it! I think there must be no time of year more wonderful than the day you wake up and realize that it is spring again!! It happens for us here so much earlier than most but wherever you are it makes you stop and take notice. Spring is the time of year where the world wakes up again, creation blossoms and you can only imagine that God is looking down on us with a smile and willing us to enjoy it!! In Young Life we have been talking about the full life that God calls us to- that entering into relationship with Him does not mean a dull life but rather a whole new world full of adventure and beauty…and it totally feels like God is backing our words up!

          Students are studying really hard right now for exams which will begin shortly after Spring Break in two weeks! I feel like I've only just gotten used to the rhythm of a more relaxed school system and now it is totally changed with the “crunch time” of approaching exams. It just goes to show that it has been a year of learning in all areas- a fact that I’m thankful for because it has required me to dig deep in the community, which has unintentionally caused the planting of roots…my own! The struggles that seemed like they would break me when I first got here are fewer and farther between and in their place there is new wisdom and some sweet, sweet friendships!

          My wonderful husband-to-be got to visit last week and we had the gift of spending the week together while still each working…a picture into how our much anticipated life will be! It seems like a crime that two people should be allowed to be as happy as we were that week- I can’t wait to share this little world and the rest of my life with him!! Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for us as we researched and tried out ways to make it possible for Ben to do his job that he loves from here! We know God is good but it does seem like He has outdone himself for us. Everything went off smoothly and we finally let ourselves breathe and dream about His plans for us here together.

          I don’t know whether it is the spring time, the fun days and real conversations with these kids that I've come to adore, or the wedding that is just around the corner, but I am finding myself dreaming a lot these days! It feels like the Lord has opened us up to a whole world of possibilities and a whole new level of love and relationship with Him that I wouldn't have dreamed possible, and the kids are catching on! These students that I have shared life and dreams with know that I love them completely and fully…and they are just starting to ask the question of why! This is such an exciting question for me and such an exciting time in our relationship, because the “why” of loving them is the most important thing I will ever get to share with them!

          That’s my prayer request for you guys this month! That, no matter where you are, you stop to think about the “why” of being loved…it points you, in all its human imperfect splendor, to our very perfect Savior! Can’t wait for these sweet friends of mine to feel the beauty of that the way I do right now!!