We arrived in our Companion Diocese of the Windward Islands
in November and stayed until Easter. The Diocese includes three main Islands
which are also independent states, running from about 100 miles Northwest of
Venezuela in an arc that reaches toward Cuba – Grenada, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines and St. Lucia. Advent began with a huge gathering (1,200+) of the eight
parishes on St Vincent (diameter 26 miles) in an outdoor stadium – I am fourth
from the Left.
Our
main work in terms of hours of work was the development of a very small School
Library at Bishop’s College Kingstown. This is a Church run high school that
gives about 400 children who do not have the grades for entrance into the free
Boys High School or Girls High School or tuition for one of the private high
schools a second chance to succeed academically and potentially lift a family
out of poverty. The students do not have textbooks so the Library will help
them both learn to read and how to find information in a library. The
excitement on the children’s faces made it all worthwhile.
In reflecting on our experience I am using the Mission Statement
of Jesus from Luke 4.16-18 as an outline. Bishop Ker-Wilson prayed for us before
we left and visited us in St. Vincent. We discovered the importance of prayer
coverage in our first weeks when everything seemed to be going wrong. We sent
emails to prayer teams in Calgary and the US asking for more prayer and within
a week things turned around. Witchcraft is taken seriously in the Caribbean.
The
Good News was proclaimed by our love in establishing the library and through the
Alpha Course, my preaching and in our participation in the Prayer Group and
Bible Study Groups. The excited faces of the 28 people at the end of the Alpha videos
taught us that this was a new and life-changing experience of both Christian teaching
and Christian community.
We were also proclaiming freedom to people possibly in the mental
Bishop Greg and wife Vickey |
Recovery
of sight to the spiritually blind was the result as spiritual eyes were opened
to see the potential power of God at work in the world. This experience will
help some people resist the lies of Liberalism which have seriously damaged our
Faith in the West.
Easter Day with Sue et all |
We actually did get to the beach occasionally where I (and our Bishop and his wife Vicky) snorkeled around the small islands in the background. That's Serena (Whopie to us) who ran a beach bar out of her van and Brooker - a real fisherman who lived on a boat just offshore. As we left we where overwhelmed by the love of our dear friends at multiple faewell parties and showered with gifts. We had an awesome time and are looking forward to speaking
and writing on this in more depth.
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