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It has been years since we’ve had our alma mater come down to serve here on the island. What a blessing is has been to work together with the students from Cedarville University here at Windermere. The sunny Bahamas are quite the nice change during a spring break from college in snowy Ohio.
We asked the CU team to come a day early because our annual WHS Fair Day. It was 4 years ago on this event that I first learned about the need for missionaries at Windermere while talking with my friend Dale. Now we’re closing in on perfecting what our Fair Day looks like, and this year we had all the help we needed from the Cedarville team.
This team was comprised of members from the Alumni office: a service organization called DAE. Emily served in DAE while she was at CU, and it was a blessing to her to have her old service org with all their stories and memories.
We had the girls on the team sing a selection during church on Sunday. They chose a song that I haven’t heard since my time a decade ago at Cedarville. It was a treasure to hear the same spirit and harmonies that I once heard so many years ago back in Ohio. I found as I fellowshipped with them and talked about the ville that there were so many different aspects of college that I treasure and loved, but had since slipped from memory. It was like going down memory lane in the best sense and we thoroughly enjoyed our time reminiscing with the team.
After the fair we had Monday off of school, but instead of resting we used the team to construct the first phase in our summer projects by clearing off the pads for our new buildings. The task was not easy, it involved moving heavy items and worst of all, items filled with termites, and other creepy crawlies. Ethan and I worked to construct the temporary storage shelter where we’ll keep everything until the summer buildings are finished.
However, the highlight of the week was Cedarville ministry. They came down prepared to run our Spring Spiritual Emphasis week. In the past we’ve had local ministers or speakers from Nassau come. Although they’ve been instrumental in leading our students, the college students had a way of interacting with the high schoolers that was a much easier connection. Additionally, they broke up the students into small groups where each one would lead them in small group discussions over the subject material just covered. Unanimously, our students have voted “best spiritual emphasis ever!” I would have to agree, and I’m so thankful for the work of the DAE students to prepare their lessons and testimonies to be a blessing to our students here.
We first came to the island of Eleuthera on a Cedarville team, and the subsequent summers to begin what would be come our home here. We are so thankful to continue our relationship with the school, and we look with eager optimism towards DAE or others return to lead another banner Spiritual Emphasis week!