Well for the past 2 weeks, Emily and I have enjoyed the company of our pastor from First Baptist Frisco, Chuck Martin. Although he couldn’t fly his whole family down for his teaching stint with us, he did invite his sister Libby!
One of the goals I had during their visit was to help them experience as much of our island as possible. So we drove from the top tip to the very bottom of the island exploring all the sights and sounds. Both of them had read online about some of the natural attractions of Eleuthera like the Ocean Hole and Preacher’s Cave, and we had a good time visiting those places in person.
Most of all I was pleased that they got a real sense of both the people on our island and the scope of our ministry here.Besides picking sea shells on the beach, they got to have some quality time building relationships with our friends here. Including a visit to a Haitian church where both Chuck and I were invited to participate in the service.
Although Libby didn’t participate in teaching the classes with Chuck and I, she did come to serve – and if you asked her, “This is a missions trip!” She helped tremendously around our facilities, and even planted a garden for us – soon we’ll have fresh veggies! Emily told me many times how very much she enjoyed spending time with Libby, especially while Chuck and I were gone for 6 hours each night.
It is just so great getting visitors sometimes. From the dinners together, to having someone to talk with about old friends and familiar places, we loved our time with Chuck and Libby.
We told Chuck while he was here, that apart from leaving our families, the hardest thing about living on the mission field is loosing our home church family. During his time here, it felt like we got a portion of that fellowship back again, it truly was a special time with them,and we look forward to when we can see them again.