Day three in Abaco by Holden De Vries, a student with Pella Christian’s team.
The past few days we have been spending our mornings painting a church that was hit by the hurricane. The windows were shattered and the roof was in bad condition, we were working with another organization, Crisis Relief. We met The Keith who started it, he shared his story about how he was called to Christ and how he met his wife. We helped Keith and his right-hand man Rick put in some windows, and they told us about how they work so well together. From Wednesday when we started on painting to when we left this afternoon there was a dramatic change in the look of the church. There was a lot of joking going on while we were painting, which was good cause it kept everyone in a good mood. My favorite part was getting yelled at for working too hard along with Kegan while we were moving scaffolding.
Day three in Abaco by Katy Roose, a student with Pella Chrisitan’s team.
We started this Friday morning with a delicious, more traditional Bahamian breakfast of grits, corn beef hash, eggs, and toast. Our first stop as a group was the community center. There was still evident damage from hurricane Dorian as the building was in the process of reconstruction. We observed some different house styles and landscape as we drove more through the town today.
Upon arrival at the church we have been working at, we were able to see the progress we made in our work of painting and cleanup. It is so fulfilling to watch the group work in different ways. As it says in Romans 12, we have different ways according to the grace given to us. Not one gift can do the work of the church alone. Definitely a highlight of my day today was singing Jesus loves me in Kreyol, led by Pastor Robin. “Yes Jesus loves me! Wi Jezi renmen-m!” It is also always entertaining to watch how far Holden will hang off a ladder 🙂
We were welcomed back to Camp Abaco today with the laughter of kids as we were able to play with, eat, and do crafts with them for the night. I was amazed by the spice tolerance of the kids as my buddies Donald and Deanjalo ate spoonfuls of hot sauce plain! 🙂 These kids radiated the joy of the Lord so evidently and each of them shared their joy with us! As we said goodbye to them, we raised our hands, promising to continue to pray for the kids, and them to pray for us. This day was so fulfilling and we are eager for tomorrow to come as we get the opportunity to see more of the Bahamian culture!
