New Things

This picture is from this past Sunday. It represents a big post-covid milestone for our church, Caribbean Christian Fellowship. We had live music! One of many changes that the pandemic brought was that the few people who felt comfortable leading worship at our church had moved away or were staying home indefinitely. Almost exactly one year since we first went online and changed to video worship, we had a volunteer step up. Chris Chu, a vet student from CA, who is very talented with guitar and singing. He has such a heart to serve and we are very blessed that God brought him here and called him to use his gifts in this way.

For the last 5 or 6 years, Children's Church has been held in the office above our church. Child Evangelism Fellowship graciously allowed us to use their space. While we were grateful, we were also a bit cramped. I spent many Sundays reminding little fingers not to touch the office equipment and ministry supplies. At the end of February, CEF agreed to co-renting the space with us and allowing us to turn the main space into out CCF Kids hang out and classroom! 

We have couch and chair space for everyone, a TV for lessons, and a place that we can relax in while the kids learn and grow. We have a lot of fun ideas to take this space up a few notches, and can't wait to implement those. Once quarantine is no longer necessary, we would love some mission teams to come help us paint and decorate!

In addition to Sunday morning, we are able to use this space for childcare during Celebrate Recovery meetings. Providing a safe, warm, and inviting place for kids while their parents pursue healing through Christ is crucial. Last night I got to serve for CR Kids and we watched Wreck It Ralph and lounged on the couches, laughing and having fun.

This space is also where I am writing this blog post! And Aaron will be able to work here in peace when our kids are on Spring Break for the next two weeks. In addition, its a place where we can meet with people, do discipleship, and even store donations for the food and clothing drives we help support. God is going to use this space for big things!

Aaron took our church through Life's Healing Choices in January and February. It was really cool to see church and CR collide in that way! Now we are Genesis - going chapter by chapter, verse by verse. If you want to check out any of this messages, you can watch them on youtube or listen to them by podcast.

Clover's favorite night is Life Group. She loves when people sit on our couch and give her pets. She can't figure out why some people (vet students) are more into than others (Kittitians, etc), but she doesn't ask questions. 

Shared with permission.

Celebrate Recovery has been growing in the last few weeks! With four returning participants and three new ones, it's been so cool to see how God is working in the lives of our CR friends. Pictured above is Carlos teaching large group. He has stepped up to teach twice this year! We love seeing his heart to serve others in a ministry that means so much to him. 

A big part of CCF and our ministry here is to Vet and Med students. Covid sent many of them home, or delayed their move to St Kitts as new semesters started. 2021 has seen most of the students return! A good chunk of CCF student attenders graduated in the midst of covid and we didn't get to say proper goodbyes, but we know we will see them someday! What a cool thing to have family through Jesus all over the world.

Speaking of both goodbyes and students, our friend Margaret is leaving the island to finish her medical degree and clinical year. Margaret has been in St Kitts for as long as we have, and saying goodbye to her is not easy. She has blessed us with her amazing voice on the worship team, and she made the spiciest soup Aaron has ever had the privilege and delight of eating. We will miss her, but we are also so happy for her next step!

Our next update will have more about Easter, Spring Break, and possible CR Nevis starting up! In the meant time, here is some family life updates:

Both of our children made the honour roll/principal's list for first term! We are really proud of their hard work they put in every week. 

Dean has finally achieved man-bun length with his hair! He is very proud of it.

We got to take a short get away to Nevis as a family. It was a much needed break, and it's something we hope to repeat in the future. We took a break from technology and just soaked up nature and family time.

There were paths to explore...

Things to climb on...

Plants to learn about...

Leaves the size of small boys...

The sweetest old-world styled blue house to stay in...

Frogs, monkeys, donkeys, and roosters that crowed to wake us up...

Our coolest find was this Dolly Parton book in the library! A little taste of home. 

Dean turned 9! He had a birthday party with his school and church friends at a cool video game place in town. He had a blast!

The "winter" means pleasant weather, and we tried to get outside a bit more. The fancy golf course here has, essentially, become a public park and greenway since covid prevented tourists from coming. We can park at one end, close to our village, and walk all the way to the shops and restaurants in the tourist area at the other end. We even walk right past a few friends' houses on the way!

Two weeks ago we woke up and a puppy was hiding on our porch! She was so skinny, covered in fleas, scared to death, and determined to stay at our house.

 We followed the law and advertised that we found her, in case she had an owner. Once the waiting period was up, we put her up for adoption. We had four interested people within the first half hour! She was adopted as soon as the first person showed up to meet her. I think she has a very happy life ahead of her with her new vet student owner. And she will bring them a ton of joy as well!

Addalyn hosted a birthday party for her friend and classmate! It was really crazy having a ton of middle schoolers over to hang out and play games, and they were LOUD, but so sweet and fun! We are really glad we got to be a part of it. It took us back to out youth group volunteering days!

So many birthdays! I got to spend time with my friend Kewi celebrating that she made 20 (as they say here). After breakfast, we went out and took a ton of photos - a very fun, typical St Kitts thing to do.

Addalyn re-chipped a tooth! Luckily, it didn't hurt and we could get it fixed quickly. While we were there, the orthodontist came in to talk about braces! How are we old enough to have a child who is ready for braces?! Oh well, we will roll with it. And Addalyn may have a new smile coming soon :)

Thanks for reading, and for catching up on our life! We love you all!