Ten days…It feels like three. Though this was definitely a missions trip (my first, as well as being only the second time out of country, Cananda being the first), it was also part vacation…seriously, running around an Caribbean isle with fancy expensive electronic toys all day? That is play, not work, even on the long days…I love my major.
I am really sad to be leaving the beautiful isle of St. Croix. It is a beautiful testament to God’s handiwork. We just finished the last shot this morning: I shot Pastor Prince in his office, and then again outside looking at the architectural designs in front of the church building. I can’t wait to see the church after it is built fully, and I also can’t wait to see the finished product for this final project.
Please pray for both the church and the video. This sunny isle in the midst of the beautiful Caribbean, submerged in a spiritual darkness. Several people have mentioned that the main place that young men are located in St. Croix is either in the cemetery or in prison. Our own observations seem to confirm this. A beautiful people, in a beautiful island that need your prayers and support.
Today, we are flying back, with massive sunburns upon most of our backs. Water resistant=evil…water proof=Good. I am the reddest, but Mel and Ben blistered today…I am incredibly stiff, and sore. I move gingerly., partially due to pain, partially, because I can’t move faster. The plane ride will be fun…I am sad that the trip is nearly over…
I have Latin tomorrow, and I forgot to bring my book in order to study and not fall behind…whoops! I am nearly 25% behind in summer school Latin…bad juju…It will
Be hard to catch up…se la vie or sic viam est.
Some highlights: Snorkeling….hanging out with Carl and seeing the sharks…
Shooting children and getting yelled at…
Genetically enhanced cows…
Erika with the behind the scenes cam…
Sea Urchins…Ben, need I say more…
Shooting the ruins…
Eating with a vegetarian…
Picking on Mel and causing her to clean the house to vent stress…hehehehe…
Learning about some great pranks from Nathan…dry wall….
That’s all for now… It has been good.
Later
JimBob
I am really sad to be leaving the beautiful isle of St. Croix. It is a beautiful testament to God’s handiwork. We just finished the last shot this morning: I shot Pastor Prince in his office, and then again outside looking at the architectural designs in front of the church building. I can’t wait to see the church after it is built fully, and I also can’t wait to see the finished product for this final project.
Please pray for both the church and the video. This sunny isle in the midst of the beautiful Caribbean, submerged in a spiritual darkness. Several people have mentioned that the main place that young men are located in St. Croix is either in the cemetery or in prison. Our own observations seem to confirm this. A beautiful people, in a beautiful island that need your prayers and support.
Today, we are flying back, with massive sunburns upon most of our backs. Water resistant=evil…water proof=Good. I am the reddest, but Mel and Ben blistered today…I am incredibly stiff, and sore. I move gingerly., partially due to pain, partially, because I can’t move faster. The plane ride will be fun…I am sad that the trip is nearly over…
I have Latin tomorrow, and I forgot to bring my book in order to study and not fall behind…whoops! I am nearly 25% behind in summer school Latin…bad juju…It will
Be hard to catch up…se la vie or sic viam est.
Some highlights: Snorkeling….hanging out with Carl and seeing the sharks…
Shooting children and getting yelled at…
Genetically enhanced cows…
Erika with the behind the scenes cam…
Sea Urchins…Ben, need I say more…
Shooting the ruins…
Eating with a vegetarian…
Picking on Mel and causing her to clean the house to vent stress…hehehehe…
Learning about some great pranks from Nathan…dry wall….
That’s all for now… It has been good.
Later
JimBob
Well today is a sad day of sorts…. Today we leave Melissa behind in St. Croix as the rest of the team voyages back to Lexington and then on to our summer residencies. Ben staying in Wilmore to take summer classes, JimBob at home in Wilmore, Kristen driving ten hours home to Pennsylvania, Nathan rejoining Cydil and Ellie, Melissa staying in St. Croix until June 6th and then going to WGM headquarters for her internship and me flying home to Alaska. So one can see how today is a bitter-sweet day.
Yesterday, in the morning we logged our last footage as Ben and JimBob both fell asleep…. Both are burnt really badly. Ben has blisters on his shoulders and upper back and JimBob is a very pretty color pink… just not for a skin color. After lunch we packed up the van one last time with our camera gear and traveled the shot distance to the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base here on St. Croix. Melissa and I were in heaven, we both have really close friends involved with YWAM and so it felt like we finally got to experience a little bit of the YWAM bliss ourselves. After we got some footage from the base we went to Christiansted and Fredricksted to get some last shots of the island and get souvenirs. Nathan (for Cydil) , Melissa and I got the only found in St. Croix Cruzian knot bracelet. On the way back we were going to try to get footage of the kids getting out of school… however we were too late and so in the way to drop Ned off at the house we picked up Carina and a friend. After that little adventure we traveled to the other side of the island to Fredricksted to get the rest of our souvenirs at Jeffery “Sonny” George’s shop. We (Kristen, JimBob and myself) then proceeded to go down to the beach and pick up some shells to bring home…so ask to see them! J
On the way back to the apartment we stopped at K-Mart to print some photos for the Princes and since it was a one-hour photo kiosk we went and had dinner at the McDonalds in the “mall” or lack there of. It was by far the saddest mall I have ever seen, and trust me I’ve been to a lot of malls. The only thing that was still opened in the bottom part was the McDonalds we ate at. After our yummy dinner with Ronald we went and got the photos and came back to the house and iced and aloed everyone up just in time for the Princes to come over of a visit. It was a beautiful time together, from the very first night to last night there was such a difference. We think we all felt like we belonged and were apart of the family. We were able to give them some hospitality gifts and in return they surprised us with gifts for each of us to remember St. Croix. We were able to joke, laugh and play with Carina………
Yesterday, in the morning we logged our last footage as Ben and JimBob both fell asleep…. Both are burnt really badly. Ben has blisters on his shoulders and upper back and JimBob is a very pretty color pink… just not for a skin color. After lunch we packed up the van one last time with our camera gear and traveled the shot distance to the YWAM (Youth With A Mission) base here on St. Croix. Melissa and I were in heaven, we both have really close friends involved with YWAM and so it felt like we finally got to experience a little bit of the YWAM bliss ourselves. After we got some footage from the base we went to Christiansted and Fredricksted to get some last shots of the island and get souvenirs. Nathan (for Cydil) , Melissa and I got the only found in St. Croix Cruzian knot bracelet. On the way back we were going to try to get footage of the kids getting out of school… however we were too late and so in the way to drop Ned off at the house we picked up Carina and a friend. After that little adventure we traveled to the other side of the island to Fredricksted to get the rest of our souvenirs at Jeffery “Sonny” George’s shop. We (Kristen, JimBob and myself) then proceeded to go down to the beach and pick up some shells to bring home…so ask to see them! J
On the way back to the apartment we stopped at K-Mart to print some photos for the Princes and since it was a one-hour photo kiosk we went and had dinner at the McDonalds in the “mall” or lack there of. It was by far the saddest mall I have ever seen, and trust me I’ve been to a lot of malls. The only thing that was still opened in the bottom part was the McDonalds we ate at. After our yummy dinner with Ronald we went and got the photos and came back to the house and iced and aloed everyone up just in time for the Princes to come over of a visit. It was a beautiful time together, from the very first night to last night there was such a difference. We think we all felt like we belonged and were apart of the family. We were able to give them some hospitality gifts and in return they surprised us with gifts for each of us to remember St. Croix. We were able to joke, laugh and play with Carina………
So that was basically a quick summery of our last day in St. Croix….. OMG I almost forgot!! This was hilarious! Last night we were doing confession cam for the behind-the-scenes footage and Ben was the first to “confess”. Well Ben didn’t realize that it wasn’t actually confessing this and he proceeded to confess to us all that he lied to JimBob about why he needed to borrow his needle. Ben had asked to borrow JimBob’s needle to “sew his underwear” but what he was really doing was popping a zit! Poor Ben he thought we were actually confessing! It was great fun hearing all the memories and random things from the trip…..Behind-the-Scenes Footage of the St. Croix 2008 Media Mission Team come soon to a Asbury WGM Student Center near you and across the global at youtube.com!
Today Nathan, Kristen and Melissa are off doing the laundry and JomBob, Ben and I are at the church getting footage of the blue prints of the building, working on on-line Old Testament classes and writing the blog. In a few short hours we will be leaving our island home of St. Croix to return to Kentucky. We have so many stories and lessons learn from our adventures and I know each one would love to tell them to you… so ask and when you ask make sure you really want to know because we will let you know! Thank you for all you prayers and support as we were here in the Caribbean, it really is appreciated.
Love one last time from the beautiful island of St. Croix
Erika
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