All Who Are Weary

  “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28

  This week, in my devotional, I was asked the question, “What are some things in your life that are making you feel weary or burdened.” As I thought over each area of my life I laughed to myself. Is putting down “everything” an acceptable answer? But I knew that wasn’t exactly true. We have so many life-giving areas as well! So why do the burdens and things that make us weary always seem to come to mind first? Do you do that too?

  We are fresh off furlough. A time that I used to assume was for rest. And in many ways it was! Time with people we care about, so many conveniences we haven’t had in a long time, and the chance to share about the incredible things God is doing on this precious island.

  Even still, travel, and late nights, and illnesses took a toll on us. Not remembering basic directions in the town we grew up in and constantly thinking “right side” as we drove down the road. Reminding ourselves that we can swipe our own debit card, or how to pump our own gas, all left our minds feeling muddled and confused. We came home to St Kitts in need of a “break from our break.”

  And God, being so incredibly gracious and kind, knew that even before we realized it. We have eased back into life in St Kitts one thing at a time slowly because of circumstances beyond our control. We are remembering to drive on the left, hand our cards to the cashiers, and that sometimes God is the One who is asking us to wait and to slow down. The burdens of running multiple ministries, educating our kids, keeping house, and living in the heat can all make us feel weary, but the Lord really does give us rest in it all! He sustains us through busy furloughs and island life alike. 

We were all glad to get in the SUNSHINE (and 1 month later we are all about the shade again lol)

Getting together with friends to swim is one of our favorite Sunday rituals.

Addalyn was able to join a new gymnastics class! This one is small and there are no written exams (like in the last class she tried to take) and she is loving it!

Our church has started a Good News Club at SKI Academy. Once a week we get to spend an hour teaching a bible lesson, singing songs, and playing games.

The kids have a blast and we've had a great turn out so far! Plus, our kids get to attend club while we are volunteering. SKI Academy is the school they will be attending this fall so it's been a blessing to have them on campus and getting to know other students.

Thanks to all of you wonderful, incredible, and generous people, our kids will start at SKI in September! We are still about $160 a month (or $1,920 in total) away from being fully funded for this. We are trusting that God will provide the rest. If that sounds like something you would like to be a part of, you can finically support us through Shepherd's Staff by clicking the link: Aaron & Katelyn Comer

We had a bit of a scare with our dog, Clover, this month. She spent an entire day stumbling around, lethargic, and barely willing to get up or move around. The vet thinks it was possibly seizures, but we are just glad she was better the next day!

On top of that, the very same day Addalyn woke up with tonsillitis! It was crazy have two sick girls in the house at the same time. Everyone is feeling 100% again, praise God!

Celebrate Recovery hosted a Labour Day beach hang-out (or "lime" as we call it here) and invited our church. We had so much fun spending time with everyone who came out! They helped us BBQ and we played, swam, talked, and laughed all day. 

Many of you know that we will be saying goodbye to our Pastor and his family (our ministry partners here), the Graysons, a year from this summer. We are soaking up our time with them and we know it will be a very hard goodbye. However, we are looking forward to the arrival of the Gill family! They will be eventually taking over pastorship and music ministry of our church, and we can't wait to get to know them better and to do ministry and life with them!

In addition to the Gill family, we are SO EXCITED to get to announce that the Roark family will also be moving to St Kitts to serve with us as missionaries here! Will and MaryBeth are both from Knoxville and are even from our home church, Faith Promise. Will and Aaron went to high school together, and MaryBeth attended with Aaron's brother and sister-in-law, but none of us really knew each other until just before we left for St Kitts. Their beautiful stories of Christ's love and redemption have enabled them to do recovery ministry for the past several years. Now God is bringing them here to partner with us in bringing Celebrate Recovery to the entire nation of St Kitts. Will is also an incredible worship leader, and we can't wait to put him to work helping to lead music at church and CR. Their goal is to be here by August 2019!

  God is so good and kind to bring us TWO amazing families to do the things He is calling us all to on this island. Even when our burdens seem big, or the work seems hard, when we are busy, or weary of waiting, God keeps proving Himself faithful over and over. It’s true in our life here, but it was true in our life “there” (the US) as well. He keeps inviting us back, every day, to lay down the burdens and to find real rest in Him.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement! 

We love you all,

Katelyn