November in a Nutshell

Ok, ok.....I shall not spend three full minutes in sincere apologies as to why it has delayed an entire month, and then some, since my last update...so I will try my utmost to make this brief. Hmm...I guess I could probably sum all my swirling thoughts of excuses into two words: BUSYNESS and PROCRASTINATION!

I am almost certain of the fact that the past month did not have 24-hour days and 7-day weeks...but I guess they say, time flies when your having fun, and the past month was great! A couple days off school for Thanksgiving and Mid-Term, spending a week with some of my family, school trip, preparing for Christmas and just the normal things we do around here.

I must say it seams strange entering the Holiday's so far away from family and friends...just makes me realize how truly blessed I am.

 It's the season for cruise ships...this is a picture of a small ship,
taken from the top of Fort George.

The Island has quite a few different Forts that are left behind from war.
They are a lot of fun to explore and always a good view!

Davy...one of my precious students who always brightens my day!

Jayten....a cute little guy who lives in LaBorie and comes to church with his family.

 Some of my wonderful family came to visit me for a week! We had a grand time!

 My beautiful little sister, Cherise.

 My soon-to-be sister-in-law, Rachelle

And my amazing big brother, Brandon.

Excited for these two awesome peoples wedding in April! :)

Supper at the Nutmeg

A Sunday night at Fort Judy watching the sun set...

And the full moon rise! Amazing....

 The LaBorie Youth Staff....don't know what I would do without them!

 Tuesday afternoons Amanda and I hike down to Hopeville and have Bible clubs on some steps with kids that live around there....

 Fellowship meal at church

Monday afternoon Bible study with Keonna and Celina...two girls who go to school here in LaBorie and accepted Christ at Crusade the other month.

Celebrating U.S. Thanksgiving with a festive meal of Chicken, stuffing, salad, Cranberry sauce, and Pumpkin Pie.

 We took a school trip to the Airport fire station...
watching them spray the water was a highlight for everyone I think.

 Skylar, Jamal and Darrell stopped to pose for a photo.

 Watching them mix some "suds" into their water tank.

 My precious little 1st graders, minus Cyle. I really don't know
why he didn't make it on this photo! =(

Eating our lunches by the Airport beach.

Twas Beautiful....like normal. =)

 My two little go-getters...Renel and Jamal

Kelly and Nigil proudly posing with their colorful caterpillar

 Girls night out with these two wonderful ladies that make my world so much better.

 Amazing supper at Port Louis Restaurant

Jerk Chicken, garden salad and garlic bread.

 After 10 tuesday afternoons of Bible clubs, the children who came at least
7 times get to go on a little trip somewhere. We took them to the beach
for games and a snack.

 Running races...

 Lilly and Tim

Tamika

 Timisha

 Tishirah

 Football....

 Excited about their popcorn and juice!

If ya can't make them stop their craziness, you may as well just join them! :)

And...the Christmas Season is here with so many activities! Foodland,
a grocery store in town, asked us to come and sing in their store one Friday
afternoon. The children loved it and did very well.

 Trying our best to make our house as Festive as possible! =)

 Baking Christmas cookies for many different events coming up...

 We had a grand time...and maybe a bit crazy too.
Comes from being in the kitchen a bit too long!

21 dozen cookies later....

I have been reading through Nehemiah in my personal devotions, and have been very challenged by Nehemiah's life...

It's so easy to analyze, scrutinize, and talk about all the problems in the world, but what we really need is people who will try to do something about it. Nehemiah saw a problem, and was distressed. Instead of complaining or wallowing in self-pity, he took action. Nehemiah knew that God wanted him to motivate the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem's walls, so he left a responsible position to do what God wanted. He organized, managed, supervised, encouraged, met opposition, confronted injustice, and kept going until the walls were complete!

Nehemiah could have given up at the first bump in the road, decided it wasn't worth the trouble, and went back to his comfy life in the palace of the Persian government. But Nehemiah was a man of action, determined to follow through with God's plan no matter what came in the way.

How quick am I to give my time and energy, and step out of my comfort zone to do God's work with a mind set of determination to complete the task no matter what hardships come with the job? Has been a challenge in my life.

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season, and remember the reason why we are celebrating!

Purposeful Living

Ever get the feeling that God is playing hide-and-seek with your life...purposefully keeping you in the dark about which road to take and which choice to make? If you are like me, you directly find yourself in the situation of crying out, "Speak to me, God. Email me. Message me. Tell me WHAT I should do here!" 

We scramble for different verses in the Bible in hope of a little comfort from the promises that He DOES indeed hear us and WILL answer us, but yet we are still meandering through life, lamenting our situation, wishing for direction and waiting for clear, direct and immediate answers for our questions. 

The truth of the matter is, most times God is speaking to us. Slowly, quietly, and little-by-little in that "still, small, voice"....I'm simply too busy running MY life, and fulfilling MY desires to even hear his voice. Still I cry out for direction, for an answer, and get frustrated when I don't seam to get a response!  

Over the past two weeks, I have been challenged with this. Am I REALLY listening? God speaks to us through different things, but unless my life is being completely controlled by the remote in God's hands, I will easily confuse His voice with the voice of my flesh. It doesn't matter what I think is good and right, or what I think sounds like a sensible and honorable decision, at the end of the day, all that matters is obedience.

Each choice I make, will greatly affect my destiny, weather I think it is important or not. Why do I only consult Him with the "major" decisions and then simply fly through my daily routine, basing all my "small" decisions on my desires?

On October 31, 1983, Korean Airlines flight 007 departed from Anchorage, Alaska, for a direct flight to Seoul, Korea. Unknown to the crew, however, the computer engaging the flight navigation system contained a one-and-a-half-degree routing error. At the point of departure, the mistake was unnoticeable. One hundred miles out, the deviation was still so small as to be undetectable. But as the giant 747 continued out over the Pacific, the plane strayed increasingly from its proper course. Eventually it was flying over Soviet airspace. Soviet radar picked up the error, and fighter jets scrambled into the air to intercept. Over mainland Russia the jets shot flight 007 out of the sky, and all on board lost their lives.

God is reaching out from heaven to you and me today and offering His divine wisdom to guide your and my life to success and fulfillment. He is speaking to us through the people around us, through His Spirit, through His word, with a still small voice. Am I taking the time to listen and accept His navigational directions that He has all mapped out for me? Or am I rapidly making decisions for myself yet occasionally consulting Him for those "big, life-changing" decisions? And when I don't get an immediate, booming answer, just go by what I think is wise? Each choice I make every day, whether it seams big or not, WILL effect my destiny. Am I making God-honoring decisions? Am I living a purposeful life?

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Just the thought that we are beginning the 10th week of school and there is only 6 weeks until Christmas break is mind boggling! Where is time going? Is there really a whole 24 hours in a day? There are some days I wonder if the clock hasn't simply jumped a few hours ahead. But then their are those times, during those 30 minutes of explaining and re-explaining that difficult concept, to your thoroughly confused little first grader, using every single bit of possible creative inspiration you can find, and still have them look at you with that "blank stare". It is these moments that I feel the clock has simply stopped and those 30 minutes seam to be forever and an age! 

Nonetheless, my life on this little island, continues at a high rate of speed with lots of excitement each day! I guess that's the joy of life as a missionary! You just never know what all you will be doing in a weeks time!

 Last Friday was Thanksgiving day for us. So two days off school was a readily welcomed thing for me! :) After realizing that my students never heard the "First Thanksgiving" story, and really didn't know much about this well-known holiday, I decided to spend most of last Wednesday doing different projects and fun things to help them understand where Thanksgiving day originated and why we celebrate it. 

They were very pleased with their paper pilgrim hats. This picture explains my students very well. We have Cyle (to the far right) making one of his many strange faces and simply being silly. Next to him is Jamal, giving me that warming smile that shows how pleased he is with his recent accomplishment. Beside Jamal is Renel, who really is having a grand time with the rest of us, but is always distracted by something or another. David is next with his little grin, just sweetly giving me his attention that I'm trying sooo hard to get from the rest of them! And there is Darrel, just kind of leaning in on the side for a few moments, pasting a grin on his face to please his teacher before running off to do something adventurous! (Rebekah is not pictured)

Cyle proudly proclaiming how many sets of matches he got in the memory game.

With the building project at our school this year, the play ground was off limits for quite a few weeks. It was just recently opened back up for us, and there are some pleased students AND teachers! 

Kaylie gets ready to push Jayden on the swing.

 Joshim posing with his creature he just caught.

Jaheem competing in a game of bite 'em.

On Thanksgiving Day, we went hiking as a church to Black bay Cave and Palmerston Lake. We didn't go very well prepared, and ended up carrying our flip-flops as we squished and slid through the mud. But there were some beautiful views along the way.

 We had to lower ourselves about 6 feet into this whole to enter the cave...

Trying to dodge these large bats, or catch them!

After a while we entered a cute little beach where we could wash off a little bit, and also got a nice little shower of rain.

Last Saturday we had our staff meeting at the old governor's mansion that was ruined by hurricane Ivan. It was so much fun exploring the ruins.

It must have been a beautiful place back in the day...

 My wonderful Grenadian sisters who make my world a much better place!

Our favorite star that shines brightly every night. It is one of the planets, but sadly none of us are very star scholarly....possibly Venus or Jupiter?

A plane coming in at night....watching them at the end of the runway on the rocks by the ocean.

I hope and pray you all have a wonderful week back in
the land of the cold! I really am not jealous! :)
Until next time, Janisa