He Faithful Will Remain...

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side...

Leave to thy God to order and provide;

In every change He faithful will remain.

Be Still, my soul; thy God doth undertake

To guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;

Be Still my soul; the waves and winds still know, 

His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below....

when change and tears are past,

All safe and blessed we shall meet at last. 

About 2 weeks before I left Grenada, we had a joint song service with all three churches. It is always a highlight because the singing sounds so nice. Towards the end of the service, someone chose "Be Still my Soul". It is an old familiar, but took on a whole new meaning to me this time. He IS faithful who promised.

As I reflect back over the last year of my life, I can't help but feel so very very blessed. My year spent in Grenada was quite possibly one the best years of my life. You know, God really does know what is best for us and what we need, before we even know ourselves. When I stop and think of how much He has taught me in the last year, it's amazing. 

I couldn't have picked a more beautiful place to serve. The Isle of Spice has got to be one of the most gorgeous places in the world....yea, I'm being prejudice, I'm sure. 

A random Saturday night sunset at Fort Jeudy

Bathway Beach

 Another one of the many reasons I loved living on a warm, tropical island....fresh mango, passion fruit, rock fig, papaya, fresh coconut. Doesn't get much better!

But there were some bad qualities that came along with living in the Caribbean. During dry season, water becomes scarce. And even when the water is turned on, there is a good chance it will be rather nasty.

 You can see exactly where my scrub brush made contact with the water filter...

Large un-welcomed guests...

We found this guy living on the top of the swing set beam in between the wooden beam and the tin.

Once he was dead, Mr. Horst sliced it open with my schoolroom scissors to see what his last meal was, and it was a rat! =)

Caused a lot of excitement.

Another thing that goes along with Grenada is cockroaches....and lots of them. We left ours get a bit out of control, so we emptied our cupboards, sprayed a ton of BOP, left the house and 2 hours later came back to this...

 You can only see the big ones on this picture.....there were hundreds of little babies! Felt wonderful to have everything scrubbed and clean....was quite the chore tho.

Sleepover with the second and third grade girls. Thank God for hot dogs and mac n cheese. Always a winner for children this age. =)

 Water painting...

 My God child, Shenique.

 So precious...

 For the last school trip of the year we took an Island tour. All the mothers were invited along and we took two large buses out for the day. Was quite an adventure!

Since the mothers were along, we got a break from watching our students. So Natalie and I owned the VIP section. =)

 Jamal found a colorful caterpillar and was greatly intrigued.

This monkey was chained at one of our stops. The students loved it!...well, the ones who were terrified.

Checking for snacks in Collin's pockets.

Stopped for lunch at this little park area across from Bathway beach, at the top of the Island.

Renel, Cyle, and Jamal....only looking at the camera cause miss told them to. 

Me and my first graders

Miss Eberly with her 2nd and 5th graders

Mr. Horst with his 3rd graders

Miss Martin with her little kindergartners 

 It was a long day...and a quiet ride home! Was a blessing. =)

Afternoon Ice-cream break in the pasture.

 My two little girlies....Rebekah and Renel

David and Darrell

 For the last girls club we sang around a campfire...

 Roasted marshmallows, and made smores. The girls loved it.

Thaddeus ( a member from LaBorie church) got married to Miss Rose (a widow from the Limes church)...it was a special day.

Me and my amazing sisters....and to think I went most of my life without knowing these two. Aaah...they are the best! 

weddings, goblets and photos....all so much better with this lady!

The LaBorie "singles" lol...These people are pretty great!

My wonderful Grenada family

Had the privilege of attending this girls graduation. Shivani, you did amazing! So proud of you!

Receiving the "Award of Excellence"

Giving her speech as Valedictorian of her class.

 Amanda, Ginger, Katrina and I got Chris to drop us off at the top of the island one Saturday morning. We walked the whole 32 miles from top to bottom in a little over 8 hours. Was quite the adventure.

 We got to see a beautiful sunrise by the ocean along the way...

We stopped at random places to eat snacks, drink some water and rotate from shoes to flip flops. Till we got to our destination, we were weary, smelly, and wet. I don't think any of us had the desire to take another step, but it was well worth the sore and achy bones. 

Birthday time...always a highlight

Yep...they were excited.

This girl has become so precious to me over the past year....I already miss you. You're determination and and zeal to be the woman God wants you to be has inspired me so much!

Kevonna...another dear friend who I learned to know over the year. Will miss all your random times of stopping in to just chat for a bit.

Her cute little one year old daughter, Kayla.

The last Bible clubs trip for the year. We went to a park and had ice-cream cones. Oh, how i love them!

The 3 little fox boys joined us...David, Micah, and Caleb

The whole group of Tuesday afternoon Bible clubs kids. They were a crazy bunch, but so much fun!

These little twin girls would walk the last quarter mile with us. They were very faithful at attending, and always had a big hug for me every week!

The last day of school was beach day. Took all the students on the beach in the morning....They loved it. I sure got pretty good at counting little heads in the water.

Then we went to Rick's cafe for a pizza lunch. The students loved watching the fish. And yes, the man in the corner is my boyfriend....it was so much fun having him there.

Pizza....a nice treat for all of us.

Was blessed to have this awesome guy with me for my last week in Grenada.

Was so much fun showing him around the Island....

Eating some awesome Grenadian food at the Creole Shack.

Ryan, Greg and I hiked the Seven Sisters Waterfalls one afternoon. You hike up the mountain and come down through seven different falls. The Second to last one is a 30 foot jump. Was a lot of fun!

The highest waterfall that we jumped. 

 Of course we had to cook a good pot of oil down before we left. Yep, that thing in the middle is pig snout.

Carter patiently waiting for Pastor Kendall to serve him some.

Alana and Shivani....two ladies that became very special to me. We had many good laughs together.

 The last week I was in Grenada, we had VBS at Laura. I helped out with the youth girls class. We had quite a few people come down from the States and Canada to help us out. Things went well, and we had a great turnout, praise the Lord.

 Games and snack station...

 Bible lesson...

Lesson reinforcement....

Singing and Bible memory...

A bus load of us went touring one day....This beach is in Grenville; a large city about halfway up the island on the east coast.

We stopped at a LARGE tree for the guys to climb...

 Holding a turtle at Belmont plantations...

 Anendale falls with this awesome guy...touring was so much more fun with him along.

My last children's church on a Wednesday evening.

This little lady was not happy to see me go, and neither was I happy to leave her behind. Celina became like a little sister to me, and I had the privilege of having Bible studies with her on Monday afternoons.

I just want to thank each one of you for your prayers and support over the past year. I was blessed so many times with cards in the mail, emails and even visits from some of you. Thanks again!

I have been home for 3 weeks now, and it was high time this update got sent. Life back in the states has been exciting and busy, but can tell already will take quite a bit of time until I am adjusted again! My prayer is that I would continue to be faithful were the Lord has placed me, and want to challenge each one of you to do the same! Hope to see some of you around a bit more often!