Grenada Journal Cont.

Thursday, February 18

Our first official day in Grenada!! We got up at 6 and they picked us up at 7:10 and we went to Chris and katrina's house for breakfast.The guys then went to pick up the benches for the crusades and take them to where the tent would be. We women went to the monthly ladies Bible study. There is two churches down in Grenada under the Olive Branch Mission and the woman from those churches get together every month to have a Bible Study. It was great to hear woman discussing the Bible and everyone participating in the conversation. We then had a snack of fruit and bars. We then headed back to the Main House (Chris') and made lunch of chicken sandwiches and french fries!! We then walked to the store and we bought supplies for the next couple of days and I also found a notebook so that we could keep a collective journal, we all participated in writing in the notebook. We then went to the airport to watch planes come in. We had a very beautiful hike up to where the runway started and one plane had just come in. About 15 minutes later we saw one on the horizon and then it circled around for awhile then eventually landed ,it was amazing it seemed like it was going to land right on our heads. When we got back to the main house we had a Grenadian meal of pilou, cabbage salad, and cheese bread, and banana cake. It was so yummy. The crusade minister came over for supper and it was fun to hear their conversation. After the minister left we had a quick meeting to plan our week ,because since we came a day later it messed up some of our plans. We then played Black 7 we had loades of fun. Chris then dropped us off at our homes.

Friday, February 19

It was our turn to make breakfast. We made eggs and toast. We then headed out to paint one of the native's homes. We all lathered the sun tan lotion. We had a bumpy ride over with very sharp corners. They lived on quite the steep hill and the house was on stilts, that made for the interesting experience of setting up our ladders and scaffold. The first day it seemed like we were spending more time setting up ladders than painting ,but by the end of the day we had it all down pat. We had so much fun painting , we were outside all day and some of us (me) got more paint on us than on the house (or so the rest of them said). That day we had packed our own lunch of sandwiches and chips!! We then went back to our respective houses and took showers then came back to Chris' and made pizza for supper. While we were waiting Katrina and I talked about breeding dogs!! That evening we had jr. night at the school. For jr. night they play games for an hour then they have Bible story/lesson and then snack. It was so much fun we played "knock out" and then Matt read the children a story ,then the guys handed out glow sticks to everyone. The children LOVED the glow sticks. The women and I had a very good conversation about how friendships on the mission field are so very special. We then went back to Chris' to get our key then we went back to our house and did laundry and hung out with the lady teachers we were staying with. We drank Pina coladas and talked it was so good to hang out with them a bit and get to know them better.

Saturday, February 20

Today we were again in charge of breakfast and we made pancakes (even some pancakes with choclate chips)!! We then met together with the people from the two churches and had a prayer meeting and then went to hand out tracks and invitations to the crusade. We split up into groups of 3-4 and canvassed the whole town of Labore. it was great to meet so many of the natives. They can be a bit hard to understand sometimes as the have very broken english. We then went to the beach for the afternoon and it was amazing the sand was so pure no broken shells or seaweed. And the water was so amazingly blue and clear!! We came back and had an hour to get ready so I wrote an email to Mountain View. They then picked us up and we went out to eat for supper. We ended up at a Chineese place and it was empty so we figured we would get our food quickly ,but it ended up being 2 hrs till we got all our food. Most of them had all their food except for 3 of us and I hadn't gotten any of my food at all. We ordered 3 times until we finally got all our food and by the time I got all my food I wasn't even hungry for it. So the guys tried to see who could suck the noodles the fastest. By the time we were ready to pay the bill it took them 30min to figure that out. But it made for many laughs. We then went to the beach to take pictures after it was dark. We were going to do it at sunset but since it took so long at the restaraunt we didn't have time until it was dark.

Sunday, February 21

We got to sleep in until 8:30 and then we went to church and had prayer meeting before the service. I love how they pray before each service it prepared my heart for worship. They had the service and then I taught the 8-11yr olds for Sunday school. It was so much fun to interact with the children down there. After church was over we went back to our house and changed then we went back to the house and ate lasagna for lunch and then we headed out to go hiking for the afternoon. It took us 20 min to drive 7 miles. We hiked to the waterfall and the native's natural waterslide. On the way to the waterslide I was going across the river and I lost my flip flop and I went back to get it and slipped and fell right into the creek. Right before that James had told me to be careful with my camera fortunatly I grabbed my camera as I fell so it only got a little bit wet. The natural slide was amazing it is this big rock formed as a slide with water going into this pool of water that the natives wash their clothes in and go to take their weekly bath. We then drove another couple miles to the beach where the natural bridge is. It is on the Atlantic side of the beach so the waves were alot higher than the Caribbean side. We took lots of pictures then Chris made a fire in the sand and then we roasted hot dogs and ate supper on the beach. We then headed back to the house to get ready because it was the first evening for the crusade. We had an amazing message about how Jesus loves us tremendously. Eli had the children's class. After crusade we went back to Chris' house and had snack and hung out for a bit.

Monday, February 22

Today we had chapel at two of the schools. The first school was the mission school and James and Matt had a demonstration with toothpaste and how when you say something you can't unsay it. We then handed out mini tubes of toothpaste to all the students. We then went to the preschool and told them a story and then sang for them and gave them smarties. They were so adorable. We then went to town to do some exploring and we saw the fish market and then to the fruit market and we then went to the dock where the cruise ships come in to got souvenier shopping. We then went to a grenadian buffet. We sat out on the veranda and it overlooked the ocean. We then went shopping to buy the stuff the guys needed for their children's classes. When we got back to the house we practiced our songs that we were going to sing that night at crusade. It was fun to sing together. After we were done singing we ate supper of the Grenadian national dish called "oil down" it was really good (this is where the pig snout comes in). Jim preached on our love for God. After church we went back to Chris' and washed the dishes from supper then we headed home and we ate pringles on the way!

Tuesday, February 23

When Mary Beth and I got up to Chris' house David and Alma were making biscuits and gravy for breakfast. After breakfast most of us left to go help set up for the sports day event for the school children. Sports day they do high jumps and such. The guys help set up the tent and sound system while we women watched. The day kind of got long because we didn't understand very well what was going on, so James, Matt, Mary Beth, and I went walking around town. We sat by the water and soaked our feet it in and chatted for awhile. We went into one of the souvenier shops and looked around for awhile. On the way back to the playing field we saw one of the container ships getting unloaded that was very interesting to watch. We went back to the field it was time to eat. We had chicken, rices, mac and cheese pie, and dumplings it was not the best food I had while we were there ,but it was filling. The guys hated it and later on they saw someone else had brought pizza and snacks so they bought some of that and here it ended up that it was dough, cheese, and carrots they decided that wasn't much better :). After lunch we decided to go back to the house ,on the way there James decided he was hungry for ice cream so we decided to get dropped off at the store and buy some. We got into the store and couldn't find the ice cream ,but we decided to buy stuff to make pina colada (down there they don't make it from a mix they make it from scratch). We bought our supplies and some spoons (we had to buy 100 so that we could eat our ice cream) after we paid for our merchandise and headed home and on the way we stopped to eat our ice cream at the local land fill. We stood around and ate and laughed then we dug some cement blocks out of the dump and stacked them up for our tripod!! After we took our pictures we headed home and made our pina coladas. I was in the kitchen making the drink and was trying to decide how much of the ingredients to put in ,and Matt came in and was giving me "advice" and he told me to put the whole can of cocnut in beacause it needed more and since he doesn't like coconut I figured I could trust his judgement (I didn't know that he was being sarcastic). James tasted it later and said it was good if you like coconut. That night we had good old American grilled chicken (Some of us were VERY tired of the grenadian food). After supper we went to the crusade and Jim had a very good message on Satan our enemy and his tactics to make us fall away. It was a great day!!

Wednesday, February 24

The guys left after breakfast to go put more pegs in the tent so that it wouldn't fall over. When they came back we headed out to put the second coat of blue on the native's house. It was our most fun day painting because we got done long before they came back to pick us up and the guys had a water fight and kept us well entertained. When they came to pick us up Chris took a picture for us (we took alot of group pictures while we were there). When we got back to the house Katrina let us use her computer to look at the pictures and videos we had taken!! We then helped prepare the food for supper then we went home showered and came back to the house to eat. We had rotis (a grenadian special). We then went to one of the biggest Forts to watch the sunset. Oh it was so beautiful to see the sun set over the water! We took tons of pictures of eachother and group pictures!! We then waited till the van came to pick us up to take us to the crusades. While we waited we had a good chat about how we felt about the trip so far and our farewell. We then got to the crusades just in time for James to have the children's meeting. Jim had a message about the Holy Spirit and how we should never quench His leading in our lives. Afterwards we went back to the main house and doctored our way to coconutty pina colodas then we headed home and ate pringles on the way home.

Thursday, February 25

Today was our last full day in Grenada. It was so hard to believe 9 days could fly past so quickly. We slept in and then went to Chris'. They weren't there because Katrina's brothers came in on one of the cruise ship. We ate breakfast then we sat down as just our group and had share time and singing. It was so awesome!! The thing about this trip that all of us were sort of dreading was all the nights of church we had planned, but I think that was the biggest thing about this trip that blessed us the most. Around 10 someone came to pick us up to take us to the glass bottom boat tour. It was an amazing trip. Such blue water that is so clear. We got to see amazing colored fish and coral. I was not sick at all until we stopped for lunch and we were just going with the waves we all started feeling it a bit. James made us all sandwiches and put WAY to much mustard on (Note: it was dripping out that is when you know it's too much). When we got back we went exploring the island. We went up half the island and went through the nutmeg factory. By the time we got back to the house we were VERY tired of sitting. We had about 20 min to get ready for our supper at Scott and Evonne's house. All the teachers and ministers were there. After supper we too our first official picture with our matching clothes. We then went to crusades and Jim had a very good message on how Jesus is our door of Hope. We then went back to Chris' house and hung out one last time. We laughed so much and told stories. We told Katrina goodbye that night because we were leaving early the next morning. We then made our last trek to our houses.

Friday, February 26

Leaving Grenada. :( such a sad day. We left at 6 and headed to the airport. The sun was just coming up and I got to see another beautiful sunrise!! When we were standing in line to get our bags checked in the guy in front of us asked how we decided on pink and David quickly said no it's coral :) he never did want to call it pink. It took a long time to get our tickets and go through security. When we left the runway I felt as if I left a part of my heart in Grenada. We had a 3 hour flight to Miami then James and Matt split off from us because they had a wedding they were going to attend in Georgia. It was sad to not end the trip together but because our trip got delayed a day later they had to go straight to Georgia. The rest of us headed to JFK we had a 3 hr trip from Miami to New York. We flew 6 hrs and then had a 6 hr road trip from New York to Virginia. David drove us out of the city and then Eli drove an hour and half, then I drove the rest of the way home. We arrived home at 1:30 am Saturday morning and it was COLD. It was good to be home.