Seeking to Hear His Voice

Be still 
in the presence of the Lord, 
and wait patiently for him to act... Psalm 37:7a

Be Still?  How do I serve God by being still?  Wait?  How many deadlines missed or opportunities gone because I waited too long?  Wait patiently for him to act?  We all know what happens when we pray for patience!  :)   How do you practice being still, trusting in the everlasting sovereign God who has promised to act, without ignoring the element of human responsibility? Cant do it. The link between the two must be evident,  "in the presence of the Lord".  Without being in the presence of the Lord, it is not humanly possible to be still and wait patiently.  So that is the encouragement.  To be in the presence of the Lord as we live this life.    Let's do this!  Who's with me?

 Its been awhile since I sent out an update.  A lot has happened since my post back in June.  I will try and summarize beginning with the most recent.

October

      

Programs have begun.  This past week we blessed an entire grade 3 class from a local school who recently experienced a tragic loss of one of their students.  The child, Eugene Woodside, 8 years old, was sitting in his home doing homework with the help of his older sister, when he was suddenly hit by a stray bullet which had been shot in the neighborhood and came through the wall of his small wooden home.....

  

And so for two days, we had the opportunity to minister more intimately to the hurting hearts of the teachers and students.  Many of the children came off of the bus opening their arms and giving big hugs while saying "I remember you from last year".  Throughout the day, they seemed to be desiring  extra love and affection as many of them would wrap their arms around our staff throughout the day.

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What makes Adventure Learning Centre unique from other environmental education is that we have the privilege and opportunity to share the love of God by pointing children to the wonders of His creation, and to a relationship with Jesus. Certainly we don't understand why bad things happen and definitely CANNOT explain the reasons for some being spared and others not, of catastrophic shootings, storms, earthquakes and fire this last month and years past.  However, it can be said, that there is hope for those who trust in Christ for their salvation.  One day all pain and sorrow will be no more and we will be re-united with those who've already gone before us.


If you have been following my blog updates and have yet to accept God's free gift of salvation, message me privately.  Id be happy to talk with you. Time is running out!  More and more of the events we are seeing are predicted to increase as the day of Jesus' return draws closer.  As in the days of Noah, the people who rejected the truth were left behind because they refused to believe. Jesus is coming soon!  Don't be left behind!




                             

 New Staff

Our teaching staff changes from year to year as God gives and takes away.  This year, we have two very promising young ladies joining the team.  Kadisha (left) from Trinidad, has lived in the Bahamas for two years and has joined us.  Stephanie (right) from New York, has returned to us after having served here for 9 months back in 2009-2010.  We look forward to their contributions to the ministry here.

Stephanie (left) and Kadisha (right) have already led their first group of grade 1 students

Celine, Sam, and Kenny are all returning instructors for this semester.  I am thank ful for them.  They each bring an element of skill, creativity and love for the Lord to this ministry.  Pray for them for whatever plans the Lord may have for them in the coming months.

September


Staff training began the first week of September with a team building activity including the consumption of donuts. (Is that motivation to consider coming to serve with us? :)

 
Then of course 3 days into training  switched gears to make preparations for Irma which was forecasted to come our way.   But after the storm decided to take a more west ward trac and then north, we only received tropical storm force winds with strong gusts lasting 3 days.

Thank ful for no damage and back to curriculum training,

                                     

Horse training in preparation for Birthday Parties,

and of course puppet training....a favorite element of the programming for the kids but a skill that takes months of practice to perfect.

I am thank ful for this staff pictured here.  One afternoon we took some time offsite to hang out, have lunch and relax outside of the ministry and work environment.

August

       

In August, I was able to get away to visit friends and family.

My parents both turned 70 this year and so I flew back to Colorado to surprise them for their big birthday party!

 

I celebrated my birthday with friends here on the island.

July

 In July, summer camp kids had the opportunity to visit the Logos Hope Ship while it was in port.  They are an international ship which brings knowledge, help and hope to the world through literature, cultural understanding, relief work and much more.  One deck of the ship is designated the ministry floor which includes a bookstore, a cafe, and other activities open to the general public.  For more info, see omships.org

Randy Grebe (right), currently serves on the ship and is the founding father of Adventure Learning Centre & Camp.

Randy (right) has a very playful personality and continues to have a love in his heart for the ministry here.  During their 1 week sabbatical, his desire was to bring the entire ship crew of 400 to the Adventure Learning Centre for an evening of fun.

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200 came one night, and the remaining 200 came two nights later.

     

During their three week stay in Nassau,the ship ministry sent out work teams to various areas in the community.  Some built cabinets to replace the ones ruined from the flooding from hurricane Matthew.  Others painted buses, and a few started a much needed project in replacing one of our play structures also destroyed by a fallen tree.  Mark, Tim and Aaron worked a couple of weekends to oversee the work teams.

And we say thank you Logos Hope for your support!  The students are enjoying this very much!

The Logos Hope ministry spent time reaching out to support community efforts but we had the opportunity to also enjoy their programming onboard the ship.  A team of us took a group from my church on board the ship for one of the live theatrical performances, "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"

 I was also given the chance to stay onboard the ship as a special guest for a couple of nights including access to areas only the crew were allowed.  In this picture, I am on the bridge where the ship captain and his crew operate the direction of the vessel.Direction???  I'm glad you asked!  One of the nights I stayed onboard the ship, I woke in the middle of the night (which is rare for me), with a very strong sense from the Lord that he was telling me a change of direction is happening.  As a side story,  did you know that at one point in my life I found myself sailing in a 60 foot sail boat across the Atlantic?  No.... it was not a dream! (ask me about that story later) During that experience, I was assigned to do the middle of the night "watch" which means I had the wonderful responsibility of keeping the sailboat on course.  It was a lot of pressure considering the slightest bit of turn to the wheel could make the final destination point very different than desired.  Let's get back to what I was saying about sensing God is in the process of changing my direction.  My prayer has always been since the first year I came, that I would serve the Lord here until He changed my direction.  This is why I find this message so intriguing.  But lets just say that just as I was careful on that sailboat to not make any sudden movements to the wheel which could have taken us off course, I am not making any "sudden movement" so to speak in making a quick and hasty decision.  Instead, I am finding rest in pressing on and continuing to pray that if God is changing my direction, he will make it clear as to how, what, when, and why.  I have communicated these things to the leaders of the ministry along with making known specific needs for finding a program director whom I may train so that when the time comes, there may be a smooth transition.  

That transition as I shared in my last update could mean falling back into curriculum development.  I still have that nudging to expand the program by adding some marine life to the nature centre.   This nudging began when a young man Jesse Keizer with a passion for Marine Biology shared his vision for the nature centre.  Would you pray specifically for someone to come with a heart to serve and who would "specialize" and cross train others so that even when we loose staff, the program can continue?


 Remember, this is a small non-profit ministry that relies upon donors for projects such as this. Would you Consider supporting financially to this specific project?  These are the needs.

1.   Time for me to research this topic.  
2.   Resources to start up something simple like a touch tank. 
3.   Ongoing resources to maintain salt water touch tanks and aquariums.  

Other Prayer Requests:

1. Prayer:  Please continue to lift me up as I seek to hear the voice of the Lord and his plans for my life and ministry here.
2. Prayer:  Please pray for wisdom and discernment for the board of directors and the leadership team for decisions made for the ministry.  
3. Prayer:  Continue to pray for the provision of an executive director.
4. Prayer:  Pray for provision of help in the area of maintenance, facilitators for future semesters, and a program director.

Thank you for your partnership and interest in my life and the ministry here!

Blessings to you all,

Jen