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I have been showing pictures and talking about Eleuthera to my old college roommate for as long as I can remember, always waiting for him to come down some day and visit, to see exactly what has captured our hearts about this ministry.
Well, we have just had the opportunity to show him and his family. My roommate for 5 years, Jesse Frederick and his wife Erica (who is 7 months pregnant) and 1 year old daughter Teresa came to visit from Alaska for 10 days. I’m sure they could tell you, Eleuthera is NOT Alaska (a little of “were not in ‘Kansas’ anymore Toto,” if you know what I mean).
Amazingly, their trip has been the most eclectic week-and-a-half of all of 2010. Not only did they get to try the breadth of Bahamian cuisine, and travel the island from tip to tip, but we got the full gamut of weather that the Caribbean has to offer. From sultrily heat and humidity to a tropical storm that kept us huddled inside, we saw everything weather-wise.
One of my primary goals during their visit was to get them the chance to participate in one of the classes here. After sitting through one night, they commented that it was very eye opening to see the ministry in action here and to hear first hand from Bahamians the impact of the training. Many times in “missions” you hear about “converts,” but rarely do you get to experience the process of discipleship which our ministry is focused on.
Because the weather was “shady” occasionally, we didn’t have a beach-day everyday. However, that didn’t stop these hearty Alaskans. At times, it was rain or shine, “we’re going to the beach.”
Teresa warmed up to the idea of the Caribbean waters very quickly. Day 1 was a little wary, but soon she was building sand structures, and splashing away. Micah loved have a friend around to share his toys with… yeah right… well – he learned to share his toys – lets put it that way. However, having a little friend like Teresa around was a lot of fun for all of us.
Jesse and Erica have been faithful supporters of ours from long before we were even full-time missionaries. Throughout the years Jesse and I have spent hours praying together about my future in ministry and in many ways Emily and I are grateful to them for serving as senders. We couldn’t do what we get to do here without believers such as Jesse and Erica, and we thoroughly enjoyed spending time with them. You couldn’t ask for a better friend than Jesse, and hopefully it won’t be another 10 years before he visits the island again.