CHANGING  SEASONS!

This is a new season.  But you live in the Bahamas Jen.  Has the heat gotten to your head that you have forgotten that the seasons don't change?  Well, if you want to get technical about that I can have a separate conversation with you, but that is beside the point.  The truth is, I am entering a new season here!

A lesson I’ve been challenged with presently, is my willingness to “give” out of response to what Christ has already given me.  I am not speaking of finances here. Ultimately the Lord has met my greatest need through his son Jesus.  But the challenging question from God is this…… “Jen, out of gratefulness for what Christ has done in your life, are you willing to “give” of your time, resources, AND heart to those that are in need of your service?”  My response………...Of course God!  Why else would I have left home and sacrificed all that I love?  God challenges me again.  What about life outside of your ministry at ALC?   What about the ministry in your new living situation?  It means giving an open and ready ear to your roommate who desires conversation even when you've had a long and tiring day.  It means using your car generously to transport friends with no expectation of return favors.  It means giving up an evening that could be spent resting or socializing for the building up and discipling of young people.  It means using your God given talents of teaching to serve the younger generation through children’s ministry at church.  My response……….Oh Lord, this is a lot!  How can I do this?  It is too much!  God’s response……  You’re right!  In your own strength YOU can’t!  But I can!  Don’t you remember that I will not ask you to do anything that I won’t give you the grace to do? 

Ouch!  How easy it is to forget my ever dependent need for God.  It is a time of refinement.  And indeed I value your prayers as this mission field widens. Please pray that I respond in the spirit and love people unconditionally as Christ does.  I trust this may serve to encourage each of you as you seek to serve God in your lives.

Here is a picture update of the last month.  Enjoy!

Typically, the month of August staff go away for some rest and support raising but that doesn't mean the place shuts down.   This year I stayed to make curriculum modifications, and prepare for staff training.

Tika worked alongside of me creating new animal signs for the petting farm.

Sam and the other facilitators put their arts and crafts talents into action by painting and decorating the wooden frames.  We have sent the signs to the print shop and will have this project finalized soon!

August is also a good time to do other maintenance projects. Julian Williams (on ladder) from Toronto, served on the island for three weeks.  One of his many projects was painting the inside Media Centre classroom.  Thanks Julian for volunteering your vacation time to serving here.

This year was more than painting projects and school year preparations.  At the end of August, the returning staff were welcomed back with the threat of  Tropical Storm Ericka that was headed straight for Nassau.  Pictured here, we as a staff are discussing tropical storm and hurricane procedures.  Though we were disheartened by the damage the storm did to Dominica, we were thankful for the prayers of many as we watched the storm slowly turn to the southwest.

Mixed in with ministry life there MUST be opportunities to sit back, relax, and be ministered to.  I am thank ful for these ladies that I can have coffee and prayer time with.  It is important to have others speaking into your life, and I am privileged to have both older and younger women to do that.

The weekend before my birthday a group of people came together in the outdoors, to celebrate "Jen" style.  Enjoying the outdoors and God's beautiful creation of course!

A friend loaned their kayak to me

And several of us got a chance to try.

August 31st - Day 1 of staff training.  Our program director, Dilan VanRyn introduced the day and gave an overview of the week.

It happened to be my actual birthday and also the day that was set aside to celebrate all staff with birthdays in the month of July and August.  

Day 1 of staff training we welcomed three new facilitators to the team.  Charlotte (left) from Canada, Hope, from Nassau and Micah, from Indiana.

As a way of introduction and tour of the facility, we sent the three new staff on a quest to lead the teams on a scavenger hunt.The veteran staff had to be blindfolded.......

....and mute......

.....leaving the new staff to lead the way!

We did several days of team building.  In an effort to keep veteran staff engaged, my challenge this year was to come up with different activities which I am thank ful seemed to draw out a lot of personality, learning and personality styles, etc.... etc... etc.....  Team building, whether in ministry or in the corporate setting, is one of many elements needed to facilitate a healthy group coming together in the formation stage.  

Another important element new to staff training this year, was some Bahamian culture training.  Most conflicts that arise in a team can be due to misunderstandings and assumptions.  This round circle discussion was a great opportunity to come together and openly talk about things that could be cultural misunderstandings.  It was valuable for getting some things communicated out in the open and providing some laughter.

Something that I greatly benefited from when serving at another camp was facilitator staff dinners.   This was  designed for the purpose of getting veteran and new staff together in an informal environment to help with team bonding in an informal environment.  The first dinner was at the Seeley house.  We enjoyed a meal and then a game of Mexican train dominos. in their screened in porch area.  We also had an evening.........

at my new place.....

the Wallace home......

Pat and Janice(end of table)......

...and pizza night at the Van Ryn home!

Curriculum training is going well.

 Micah is our youngest and has a very sweet  and easy going personality.

Hope was a summer camp staff member with us and has embraced the use of props to keep her teaching engaging.

Charlotte (Charlie) has come  to us with teaching experience and seems to enjoy the younger ages.

All three are well on their way to bringing the wonders of God's creation together with the curiosity of kids!

There has been much more going on during the last two weeks of staff training but I have only highlighted a few things.  Thanks to you all for your prayers as this is a busy time of year for me.    Thank you again and again for all who have read and are reading updates.  Please inform me if you would rather receive updates in a different way.  Currently, I send them via e-mail and facebook.

Love and blessings to you all:

Jen

Praises:

•  Productive month of August with curriculum and staff training preparations
• Staff training is going well.  New facilitators are open and receptive.
• Thank ful for a new place to live.

Prayer:

• Continued grace and dependence upon God for all staff through the training process
• Wisdom for me to have a healthy ministry, home, and church life balance
• Pray for continued adjustment to my new living situation
• Pray for wisdom and discernment for us as a leadership team at Adventure Learning Centre and Camp

WHEN GOD MOVES.......I MOVE!

With most stories, there are unexpected developments that capture the reader’s attention.  Likewise, in the update that follows, there have been some unexpected, God orchestrated, developments in the story that He continues to unfold in my life.  Many of you have been faithfully following the blog updates and are aware of the incident two months ago of my car being stolen.  As many of you know, the car was recovered!  Praise the Lord for that! The next chapter in the continuation of the story gets even better as God has used the events of the stolen car to answer a deep heart desire prayer.  Hopefully that peaks your interest to want to read more of how God is moving!  :)

For those of you who prefer to skip to the end of the book to see how the story ends, here is a timeline  from the beginning of the stolen car incident up to the present.  The story is far from over, so you will have to keep reading my blog updates to hear what happens next!

June 14th - Woke up to find the car had  been stolen

June 19th - Car was recovered and positively identified

June 25th - Car again in my possession

July 6th - Phone call about new living situation (huh???)

July 20th - Car picked up and taken to garage for all repairs

July 28th - picked up repaired car

August 10th - Move into new home (huh??? how does this relate?)

Some of you want to know how the "August 10th- move into new home relates to the rest of the entries.  See detailed story below!  

June 25th - Car again in my possession

Getting the car back didn't mean it was ready to drive.  New license plates and some minor repairs needed to be done beforehand.  The process of requesting and receiving new license plates took longer than one might expect, but I'm leaning how to exercise patience and flexibility in these experiences.   What I can say, is that inspite of the inconvenience, the Lord was orchestrating something that would blow my mind!

 Orchestrating far more than what I had asked for!  Stay with me now as I set the context.......  In my last blog entry, you saw the day and life of ALC staff during summer camp.  We finished summer camp a week ago but for 6 weeks it was full speed ahead from 8a.m. until 5p.m.  Naturally, this left zero time during business hours to run around to find needed parts and a mechanic available to do the repairs. Saturdays were my only option but I still found it challenging to get things done between my animal feeding responsibilities and other things going on throughout the summer.  However, in the midst of these delays, a phone call came........This is where it gets good!  :)

July 6th - phone call about new living situation

This doesn't look like me.... and you're right, it's not the real me!  But the phone call was real.....like a dream come true!  I was about to get the answer to all of my waiting for the car situation but with an added bonus!  Listen to this! A church acquaintance of Mark Wallace, another ALC staff member, had inquired about whether he knew of anyone in need of a roommate.  Mark mentioned that I (Jen) had desired to live offsite for quite some time but that financially some things would have to come together in order for that to happen.  He proceeded to notify me of their conversation and gave me her contact information.  Before I had a chance to call her, she called first!

Pause for a moment while I give some context......

This woman, Priscilla Cartright, was widowed 10 years ago, and since then had been living in a home with her 29 year old daughter.  Just this past January Priscilla remarried, leaving her daughter to live alone in the house.  After 6 months, Candy (daughter), expressed wanting a to share the place with a housemate.  As I talked with Priscilla on the phone that day and heard her story and I shared mine, it became quite evident that the Lord was answering both of our prayers.  They were praying for a roommate for her daughter, and   I had been desiring to live offsite for several months but had resolved that the accommodations here at the camp were more than sufficient.  Honestly, without supernatural provision, paying rent and the bills somewhere else wasn't financially possible.

So I agreed to meet the family and see the house.  It's located about 20 minutes away from the centre.  We visited a bit and talked about whether personality and lifestyle would be a good fit.  During our conversation, I learned that Priscilla and her husband are very familiar with the Adventure Learning Centre from the early days when our founder Randy Grebe began the ministry.  They have generously donated resources and funds to the ministry and her daughter Candy had even served as an employee for a season as well.  Priscilla then stated that knowing my situation as a missionary to the island serving as a volunteer at Adventure Learning Centre that she and her husband would let me live  in the home rent and utility free.........excuse me, what did you say????   Yes....you heard that right!  And let me tell you, when I heard that.......

my mouth dropped wide open!  How can it be that the Lord is giving this to me???....I desired it months ago......I wanted it real bad........too much......but it just wasn't possible.  All I could do was pray about it and let it go.....it seemed impossible.   BUT that's where I was wrong!   All things are possible with God.  Is there anything too hard for the Lord?   But the Lord had brought it to me on a silver platter.  I wasn't looking for this.  This picture illustrates how I felt in that moment.  I think of Randy Grebe and the story he tells of when the ALC camp property was being offered to him.  He would tell the story best, but I remember him saying "Let me pray about it, turning to close his eyes for a second in prayer and then opening them wide with the response "Thank you Lord!"

So you might be asking.....what does this have to do with the recovered and repaired car???  Remember what I said earlier about my summer camp schedule?  Only God could orchestrate something like this.  While discussing this new living situation,  Priscilla's husband Wayde found out that my car had recently been stolen, and was waiting to be repaired.  It turns out, Wayde owns a number of car businesses on the island, and after the second time meeting him, he offered to have my car picked up, taken to the car business service centre where they made assessments for the needed repairs, acquired the parts, installed the alarm system, and gave me a free loaner car until it was finished.  And did I mention, he only charged me for the cost of the parts and the alarm system and didn't charge me for labor???

And so, we have come to the present.  This coming week, August 10, 2015, I will be moving into my new home.  I have had a couple of weeks to process it all but even as I write this, I am overwhelmed by God and was moved to tears during church today about "How good it is to be loved by you (God)".  He has turned an unfortunate situation around for good.  This past week I had the opportunity to travel to one of the other island's of the Bahamas for a time of rest before settling in for the rest of the month to finish up some projects.  While away, I was able to spend time in God's creation where I am most refreshed.

I walked through a wetland where the mangrove trees towered above me and

enjoyed a  peaceful drive at 60 miles per hour with no cars, or beeping every other second

to visit the Lucayan National Park.

I was thank ful to stay with and rec-connect with the "Dean" family(Calvin not pictured) who moved from Nassau to to Freeport, Grand Bahamas a year ago.

Though I wouldn't describe myself as a big reader, when I am in rest mode, and the book is good, I can read it straight through!  And I did just that!   Calvin Dean, the father of the family pictured above wrote this book during a difficult time in his life.  I found it to be very applicable to life and the circumstances that we find ourselves in.  I was especially encouraged with the the example of Joseph and the way that he dealt with the valleys and pits to the mountain tops and palace places.  Joseph's story was far from glamorous but each stage of his life was meant for a purpose to train him and prepare him for what God had purposed for him later.  I am believing more and more the same for my life.  I can look back upon years past and put my finger on perhaps the "why" for God bringing me through that season.  He allows all things for good.  And so.....the story of our life.....its all for good!

Praise:

1. Successful finish to the 6 weeks of summer camp.  More than 400 campers came this summer.  Pray for seeds planted to grow.
2. Thank ful for our summer staff.  Pray for them as they return to their college studies this fall.
3. Thank ful for time  away last week to regroup and rest.
4. Thank ful for provision of a new living situation and finances to help with car repairs

Prayer:

1. Pray for my move this week and for quick and smooth transition to living in a new environment and adjusting to a new housemate.
2. Pray for ability to focus and be productive to finish curriculum projects that need to be completed before staff training.
3. Pray for incoming new staff and for staff training beginning August 31st
4. Pray for the leadership team  as we meet and discuss the operations of the ministry.
5. Pray for the board of directors as they seek an executive director to oversee both camp and centre

COME  WITH ME.....UNDER THE SEA!!!!!

That is our summer camp theme, and we are already over half way through, having just finished week 4 out of 6.   It's been hot, its been wet, and its been exhausting, but the Lord gives strength to endure the hot sun and patiently persevere through each day   :)  What's exciting about this time of year, is that we have many kids that come for the entire six weeks.  At moments, they drive us crazy..... but.we love each one and it enables us to build relationships with campers therefore helping to lead them further into a relationship with Christ.  This is my 3rd summer camp in Nassau, and for the first time since I've been here, we have reached our maximum numbers of children every single week with 80  plus 5 or 6 staff kids.  Thanks to the committed summer camp staff, we have been able to maintain a good camper to staff ratio. 

SUMMER STAFF TRAINING WEEK

So what does a typical day at summer camp look like?   Well, it begins with summer STAFF!  We rely heavily upon volunteers to make summer camp happen.  As with any team coming together and forming, the need for bonding and building relationships is foundation for a well functioning team throughout the summer.  This post will first give a short summary of our week of staff training followed by a picture tour through a typical day at Summer Camp, followed by more specific roles that I play.

For staff training week, we began each day with team building.  Pictured here is a group being led blindfolded to the white object on the grass.  Any group coming together must learn how to work with one another and rely upon each others strengths to overcome obstacles.

We had some really good break throughs that week with individuals trusting and working through their fears. 

Each day after team building, we did some guidelines and  procedures training (led by Dilan Van Ryn) which included some basic first aid training (led by Laura VanRyn)

and some bus training to learn songs for singing with the kids when transporting them to and from the beach and field trips.

SUMMER CAMP PICTURE TOUR

Each morning, campers begin the day with welcome and worship led by our college volunteers Paige, Dakota, and Andia.  These ladies volunteered for a month prior to the start of summer camp designing, painting, and decorating the main media centre room with "Under the Sea" theme.  So thank ful for them!

After welcome time, campers are divided into groups by age

 and rotate through 4 classes throughout the morning.  The classes change from week to week with the exception of Bible.  Laura Van Ryn has been our Bible teacher and every day has done a fantastic job of making Bible stories come to life through hands on and heart provoking exercises.  Some of the other classes have been.........

Sports

Crafts

Archery

Animal  "Ventures"

and Wilderness Adventures.......

......my  favorite class!  :)

as in......the next two weeks, other classes campers will experience are Art, dance, Go Green(taking care of environment), and film making.

After class time, is lunch, followed by a daily afternoon activity which varies depending upon the day.  Monday afternoons we have done ALC activities like horse and train rides, petting farm tours, water games, popcorn and movie, planetarium experiences etc.....

 Tuesday is beach day!

Demetri, one of our returning campers from last summer!

Wednesday is field trip day.  Week 1 we went on the Sea World Explorer...........

.....where the campers went "under the sea" to view the fish.

Week 2 was Ardastra Gardens, the local zoo

Week 3 was bowling.

Week 4 was a trip out to the western edge of the island to Clifton Heritage National Park.  We were given a tour of the area with history of the plantation and slave ruins that remain.

Thursday is pool day at nearby South Beach public pools.

  Friday we spend the afternoon doing an awards ceremony to recognize each camper by name for a special character trait observed by their counselors throughout the week.

AS FOR MY ROLE AT SUMMER CAMP........

I have had mixed roles.  Two out of the first four weeks I've been the sports teacher.   Week 1 we played a lot of large group "Under the Sea" themed games and water relays.  Thanks to the Lord for equipping me with many ideas and games that I've added to my "bag of tricks"  over the years from teaching and camping experience.

Week 2 I taught my favorite class of all.....Wilderness Adventures!  We went hiking...

camping.......

more camping......

cooking hot dogs......

....on the trail;

and roasting marshmallows......

for making smores!  :)   For many of the children, it was their first time eating a smore.

Week 3 I stepped aside from summer camp to host teacher workshops.  Between two days, we facilitated 30 teachers for their professional development day.  It was an opportunity to highlight the programs that we currently offer.......

and to promote the brand new planetarium programs grades 1-3 that I have spent the last year working on.  This program Lord willing will launch this fall.



Week 4, I returned to my role as the sports teacher.  SURVIVOR - man vs.wild!  The activities were designed to be "kid friendly" extreme, by challenging them our of a comfort zone.  Some of the other activities that I don't have pictures for were the water tug of war challenge and the dunk tank challenge.

There is so much going on this summer!  And there is so much more to share with you!  First the bad news, I will not be returning to Denver in August as I did last year.  Due to some ALC related curriculum projects that need to be completed before the start of fall staff training, I will be working the month of August.  Stay tuned for another update on the stolen/recovered/ and repaired car.   At that time I will also share with you some really interesting ways that I see the Lord at work in my life.   One last item of importance is change and transition within the ministry.  Mark Wallace stepped down from director of the Adventure Learning Centre.  He will continue serving as the planetarium director.  In the meantime a team of us have been asked to serve together to lead the ministry until an executive director is put into place to oversee both the centre AND the camp.

Praise Reports:

1. Successful 4 weeks of summer camp and for God's sustaining strength to endure hot summer
2. Provision of finances, resources, and individuals to help with moving my car situation forward.
3. Praise for an answer to a long time personal prayer request.

Prayer Requests:

1. Pray for energy and strength to finish last two weeks of summer camp strong.
2. Pray for ALC related projects that must be completed in August prior to fall staff training
3. Pray for myself and the other members of the leadership team (Tim, Mark, Dilan, Myself, Sean, and Eldora) as we meet together weekly and discuss ministry related business.  
4. Pray for the board as they work through these changes as well.

Blessings, and thanks again to you all for your prayerful and practical support!  You are loved and missed!

Jen