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So I suppose it's time for my monster of an update about the trip to the Bahamas. So, everyone, buckle in, and here we go.
So, lets start off at the beginning. Staff training week, was incredible, as it always seems to be. God really makes a group tight whenever they gather together to serve him. After that week, it felt like I was saying goodbye to old friends when I left the Quebec team. That's pretty much all that happened that week.
So, the first week of ministry. This was probably my favorite week as far as getting to know the students went. The ministry was, I'll be honest, not as strong as I might have liked, but the group themselves (as much as the leaders hated Crossover) was a blast. I still, 100 names and a month and a half later, remember almost everyone's name, which is quite the accomplishment for me. In addition to the great group and interesting ministry opportunities, there were bugs. Not just a few bugs, but there were BUGS. In fact, I was eaten alive, and....well, never mind, I won't go into that. So, that was the first ministry week in a SUPER abridged version (I'm counting on only Jess and Blair to care enough to read this entire thing, and I figure you know what happened :)).
Alrighty then, on to the two weeks until the next team. We connected with the other Bahamas team again, and said goodbye to Jimmy, then we embarked on a rather terrible week in that we only did enough work to make us dread working, but not enough to feel like we'd accomplished something. After a week of that we made it to the off week at Paradise Cove. Praise the Lord for that...Paradise Cove is one of the most fantastic places on Grand Bahama. Not only is it beatiful, but they also have a pretty spectacular coral reef. Now I'm going to have to take a minute here to explain to you all about the people I was staying with. More specifically the guys. Matt was the site coordinator for the other site, and while he's a quiet guy, whenever he does open his mouth he's most likely being sarcastic, and he's so serious about it you can sometimes not tell. John also was there, and he's is one of the coolest people I know. We decided to go crabbing one day (Sherlin taught us how, and it seemed easy enough) and we drove up and down the highways for about an hour, not seeing anything. So finally Matt slams on the breaks because he saw a crab, so we all pile out to take a look. This crab was about the size of a big toe. How he ever saw it is beyond me, but we proceed to use our expert Bahamian crab-catching techniques (picking them up and breaking off their legs) on this miniscule crab. As if that wasn't bad enough, we actually filmed part of it, and we showed off to the girls when we got back...Such is what we did...for we are losers...:)
It is time to move on to the third ministry week, which was only the second week we had a team. This was a mixed week, because half of the group was really cool, but half were from a richer church, and were a bit more exclusive, I suppose the polite way to say it is. This week was very well organized, because by this time Greg, who is actually in charge of Crossover short term missions and a veteran at leading trips, arrived and also it was in a city this time, as opposed to the country, and logistics fell into place. For my part as service leader, there was a house that belong to a family in the church and was completely shelled out, so we reroofed part, we reframed part, and we put up siding. The kids were hard workers, and we got almost all of it done, and out of the four ministry days we worked past quitting time on three of them. Ministry wise this was a good week. Relationally, it was mixed. As I said, about half of the group was phenomenal, but the other half was a constant battle to try to get them to do anything. Probably the highlight of this week relationally was the fact that I managed to convince parts of that team that I was 1) the father of three children and 2) married to Avril Lavigne (neither of which are true, in case you don't know me so well).
The final ministry week was probably the best as far as ministry opportunities go, but probably the worst as far as getting to know the students. I had about four or five sites that I had to keep running smoothly, so I never really had the chance to dig in and work with the students like I generally try to do. I learned a lot about myself and my weeknesses that week. Like how I really need to be more organized. The group itself seemed like they were cool, but I was so consumed with running to the hardware store and coordinating jobs for the next day I probably only spent about an hour a day talking to students.
So, now I'm back in the states, and I have a meeting with my pastor tomorrow morning about maybe taking control of the youth group for the next couple of years. I need your prayer on this, because if you stuck it out through this email, you probably care enough to remember to pray for me. I've never really taught high/middle schoolers before, so it's completely foreign to me, and I have to trust that if God wants me there (which I think he does) that he will give me the abilities which I believe I lack. So, that is my summer in a nutshell, I hope you enjoyed it, and I love you all. God bless...
-Rob