The Great Grenada Adventure Weekend

In case you were wondering how come I haven't posted anything over the past two weeks, things were kind of quiet since most schools were in exam mode. However, the events of this past weekend more than made up for the lack of action over the last couple days.

It started on Friday, with another round the island road trip - this time from St. George's to St. Mark's, passing through Sauteurs on the way to Grenville, then finally back home through the Grand Etang road. The official reason for being in St. Mark's was for a school visit, but since I was there on a week day, I accepted Tony's invitation to take a tour of the new chocolate factory they are planning to open next year.

First phase of production - roasting the cocoa beans

Cocoa in de sun!

It was exciting to see all the equipment that would produce the by-products of the cocoa beans - from chocolate liquor to cocoa butter to chocolar bars. I can't wait till it opens next year to see it in action!

Since we were up north, I decided to stop by Leaper's Hill in Sauteurs.

Monument erected to commemorate the Caribs who leaped to their death 

The inscription on the monument reads:

In 1651, the Caribs, realising that they had made a mistake by allowing the French to remain on the island, became hostile. They killed many French men who in turn retaliated and with their superior weapons decided to wipe out the Caribs. The last stand the Caribs made was on a precipice in the north of the island, but they were completely defeated.  Those who survived, rather than surrendering, jumped over the precipice which the French called "Le morne de sauteurs" or "Leaper's Hill". The town that grew up there is known as "Sauteurs".

After leaving Sauteurs, we headed to Bathway to check out the beach there. This beach is the venue for many parties, but on this Friday afternoon it was tranquil and very tempting.

Beautiful Bathway beach

By this point the needle on my gas gauge was getting close to 'E' - I had forgotten to fill up before leaving town! I prayed all the way to Grenville, where we were able to get gas (thanks God for answering prayer). We joined with four people from Grenville in the first of their monthly prayer meetings for the ministry of ISCF. I was very happy to see that one of the attendees was someone who I had met at a youth program the week before - the power of networking :)

Since the meeting ended in daylight, I decided to be adventurous and take the Grand Etang road to get back to St. George's. For those of you who have never been to Grand Etang, it is a mountain range in the middle of Grenada, with peaks rising as high as 1910 feet above sea level. The road is very narrow with plenty corners, which apparently I was taking wide because I didn't want to drop off the edge of the concrete road, so when I was complaining about the oncoming traffic being on my side of the road, my navigator calmly informed me that I was the one in the wrong. I will definitely not ever be driving over that road in the night, because the lack of street lights coupled with the headlights from oncoming traffic would make it an even greater challenge. 

Gracias a Dios I made it back safely to St. George's in time for Worship Explosion - a monthly gathering of churches in the Springs area. 

Spirit-filled worship with the group Testimony

The evening of worship was refreshing - two hours spent lifting up the Most High is not a bad way to spend a Friday night :) But the evening was not over as yet. After the program finished at 10pm, some of the leaders from the Baptist churches in St. George's had a lime by Shannon's house. It was supposed to be a sleep over, but it was more like singing-and-dancing-to-the-theme-songs-of-shows-we-watched-in-the-eighties-and-nineties

They look normal now, but when you feed them at midnight it's a different story :)

We had a good time, laughing until the wee hours of the morning. The next morning greeted us with this beautiful sight:

Perfectly formed rainbow over the Carenage

After a lazy morning of more liming and breakfast at 11am, I headed out for Day 2 of my weekend adventure - exploring Fort Jeudy with Coleen and Darius. I honestly believe God put Coleen in my life to keep me out of trouble in Grenada: when she found out I was planning to explore Fort Jeudy by myself, she immediately volunteered her services to accompany because she know I wuda get lost inside there and is true! If you don't know where you are going, it could be very confusing inside there.

We went to Egmont first where there were some really spectacular views. Coleen had to remind me that we were in the middle of the road when I wanted to stop and take pictures.

Breathtaking view from Egmont

We then visited La Phare Bleu, which is a marina with villas and a restaurant. This was also a very beautiful place, complete with a restaurant on a boat!

Posing among the lovely landscaping :)

Raft with a hammock in the middle of the sea!

You could spend hours admiring the flora

Lighthouse on top of the boat-restaurant

We then headed down to Fort Jeudy. First stop was an open area on the coast where we had a light picnic of soursop juice and vanilla cookies. Kudos to Coleen for getting me to drink soursop juice!

Perfect spot for kite-flying

Unique roundabout that Grenada is famous for - a circle in the grass around a light pole!

We then headed down to the first beach - Will Cox beach is a nice little cove which is good for fishing. There is sea grass under the water, so you have to be careful when putting your foot down that you don't get stuck by one of these creatures:

Locally known as 'sea egg'

This is more popularly known as a sea urchin. Those little white pointy things were actually moving on my hand so it was tickling. There were some guys roasting them on the shore so we gave them one more to add to their pot. When we left there, we drove to Modeste beach, where we enjoyed the coconuts generously provided by Darius.

Enjoying a drink of sweet coconut water

Shells resuced from the rubbish heap - they do a lot of lambie fishing here

Our final stop was Fort Jeudy beach, where we had our last dip as the sun began to set.

Darius reliving his boy days on the swing

Sunset over Fort Jeudy beach

But the lime was not over yet... we stopped off for ice cream on the way home, even though I had a dinner to go to. Coleen sets the standard high when it comes to hospitality!

Enjoying a sweet treat at the end of a long day

Taking my second coconut to go

Pops and Sister Wilma are involved with the Gideon's ministry in Grenada.They had their end-of-year dinner on Saturday night, and I was cordially invited to attend. So when I got home, I just had to get ready and go again.

Ready for dinner in 17 minutes

The dinner was nice, meeting up with some folks I had met when I first came here. Sister Wilma put so much food on my plate that I had enough left over for a full Sunday lunch! I stayed back afterwards to help clean up, but you know when I got home I hit that bed hard...

After having such a packed Friday and Saturday, I didn't have much planned for Sunday - just church in the morning and an afternoon nap, since my beach buddies are presently out of the country. There is a pastor who I met in October and he invited me to his church, but every free Sunday I had was taken doing ISCF promotionals in other churches, so I had not gone as yet. We saw him at Fort Jeudy beach yesterday, and I told him I would try to make it either this Sunday or next Sunday. So this morning I got ready and left in enough time to get to True Blue Bay Resort, where they have their service, for 10am.

On the way there, I slowed down at a traffic light. On my right there was a family at a bus stop - the grandmother caught my attention, because she was pushing a pram with a baby in it. I was wondering about where the mother was, when a little girl ran up to the grandmother, saying "Phone! Phone!" in an anxious voice. Then I noticed the mother holding on to the side of the bus stop crying. I drove off, thinking at first it was none of my business. But then the Holy Spirit brought back very clearly to my mind James 2:14-16, where it questions the validity of one's faith if it is not accompanied by deeds, and I knew that I couldn't just "hope that they would be OK" but I had to go back and see if there was anything I could do to help.

So I took the nearest roundabout and went back. By that time a cyclist had also stopped, because the mother had cut her foot on some broken glass and it was bleeding profusely. I knew I had to take her to the hospital and make sure that she was properly attended to. She was crying because of the pain, but I got her to calm down enough to give me directions, because I had never driven to the hospital from that direction before. She took me up the back road, which had a very sharp corner that I had to do a three-point turn on before I could go around it. The road was also very narrow, so I thank God for the experience I had on Friday going over the Grand Etang road that I was able to go up there without feeling like I would fall off the edge.

When we got to the hospital, we needed a wheelchair, because she could not walk, and was bigger than me so it would have been a challenge to get her inside. There was no wheelchair available at Accident and Emergency, and the receptionist couldn't leave her post to find one, so I had to go searching. I was able to get one, and thank God by then there was a security guard nearby so he helped her into the wheelchair and got her inside.

We had a two hour wait, so we had enough time to get to know one another. Her name is Ann, and she has four children, aged 3 months to 13 years. She is raising the children on her own, with the help of her mother, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. I was able to encourage her, in the midst of her challenges, to put her hope in God rather than men. By the time I dropped her home, she was asking for my phone number so we could keep in touch. Please be in prayer for total healing, because she works as a cleaner, so she needs to be on her feet for long periods of time. She is also diabetic, so pray that there will not be any complications in the healing process.  Pray also that she would surrender her life fully to God.

She had to get four stitches

In Trinidad, this would have been a 'normal' weekend for me, but it certainly is not the norm in Grenada. I am thankful for my wonderful friends who made it so enjoyable, and also for the opportunity to demonstrate my faith through my deeds. My encouragement to us all comes from James 2:24 - "You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone." Let us be on the look out this week for opportunities to demonstrate our faith in action.

First trip home

This was my first visit home since I left at the end of September. Needless to say, I don't think I've ever received so many hugs and heard so many screams over a 6-day period before :) It was great re-connecting with friends and spending time with family while reminding myself of all the things I love about home...

Enjoying my lunch of curry duck with mango and pumpkin lovingly prepared by my aunt

Out to dinner with my family

Spending time with my pumpkin

Sunday school young adults class

My first baby, all grown up now

The one thing I did not enjoy was the traffic. My entire schedule was built around me trying to avoid wasting time in bumper to bumper traffic on the roadway. I left a lot of things undone, visits not made because of the traffic situation. On Thursday I went into town, spent half an hour driving around looking for a place to park, got frustrated and left. I think I am spoilt from living in traffic-free Grenada...

Officially I came home for Alistair and Shena's wedding. God smiled on them as He ensured that the rain stopped in time for them to take pictures outdoors after the ceremony. It was a beautiful ceremony with nuff kicks as the minister had an interesting sense of humor, and the groomsmen had no behavior. That, combined with Alistair and Shena's unique personalities ensured that the wedding day was a tremendously enjoyable day. 

The newly weds - praying for a purpose-driven marriage for you two!

I also had the pleasure of reconnecting with some friends I haven't seen in two years.

As an added bonus, I was able to witness the dedication of my latest god-daughter, D'neve. It will be difficult figuring out how to be a part of her life when I can't spend so much time with her physically, but the love is certainly there.

She always responds when she hears my voice

I am overjoyed to report that I am now able to pay off for my car!!!!! Over the past two months, I have received financial gifts from persons, that I have been saving until I had enough to pay off the outstanding balance. I am extremely grateful to all who gave. I see all as expressions of love - those who committed to giving on a regular basis, those who gave a one-time gift, those who gave in spite of not having an abundance of personal finances, those who emptied their wallet when they saw me - may God richly bless you all as you have helped to supply this need. Now on to the next project - a laptop for the Ministry :)

I had mixed feelings on returning to Grenada. I was happy to in Trinidad and see my loved ones, but I now have persons here who I consider to be my Grenadian family, and I know that God has 'assignments' here for me to do. I just wish there was someway we could all be together in one place... wait, that is what heaven is for! And it is forever! My prayer is that all my friends and family would surrender their lives to Christ so we would never have to say goodbye.

Embracing Grenadian culture

The past couple days I have been indulging in much of Grenadian culture, specifically the food...

It all started with a 'Potluck and Social' held at Wildwood Park on BBC Beach. God provided us with a lovely sunny day, after it had been raining all week.We had a great time playing games, liming, swimming, and of course, eating good food!

Beautiful beach weather

My friend Colleen who has got my back!

Johnell trying to block my path in Chinese Checkers but he was defeated :)

Just in case we planned a dancing session on the tables....

Bringing back the ole time days with hop skotch

Having a good rope swing

Had to wait in line for a turn at the tyre swing dem chirren was having too much fun

Oil down in Grenada is a little different from Trinidad - it is full of all kinds of meat (chicken, pork, crab, fish) and callaloo

Having my full after waiting 3 hours... dem does grate de coconut for this by hand!

Lambie for the after lime. It had some kinda octopus thing in here too

Then last night Sister Wilma decided to introduce me to another local delight - tittery. It's a pretty sad story how they get these fish - at a certain time of the year the fish come to a point in a river in order to spawn and that is when people spread out their bags to catch them. 

Curried tittery with beans

Last night I also got indoctrinated into the "Tanya Log" night lime. This is a traditional drink that is prepared especially for limes that occur in the night.

Colleen grating the nutmeg

Darius bubbling the pot - grated tanya, condensed milk, coconut milk and lots of spice

I helped by eating it afterwards - it was delicious! It was also the first time I had Grenadian guests at my apartment so that was a lot of fun.

Before I end this post, just wanted to share two more roundabouts from the lovely Spice Isle:

Consisting of three large truck tyres painted white, this one can take you into Woodlands or Lance Aux Epines (pronounced Lans-ee-peen) or back to Grand Anse

This was in Wildwood Park's car park - I guess they wanted it to blend in with the scenery

In case you haven't realised it, I am really enjoyed exploring and experiencing Grenada - I highly recommend it!

Such a time as this

The past two weeks have been a time of establishment and building of relationships. It continues to amaze me how God's hand has been clearly evident in bringing together the people and resources needed for the relaunch of the ministry of ISCF in Grenada. For example, after doing a promotional at a church couple weeks ago, a lady walked up to me and told me that she is a reporter with the Grenada Informer and she wanted to do an article about the relaunch of ISCF here, so I sent her the information and the article was out the next week.

Sister Joan Purcell, the chairperson of the Interim Committee of ISCF, used to be involved in politics up to a couple years ago. She still has her contacts in government, so she organised for us to be interviewed on the Government Information Services' morning show. The hostess was really nice and seemed genuinely interested about the ministry. She even invited us to come back when we start meetings in the schools, and to bring some students with us!

On the set with Tahira Somebody

I have also met with many different ministries locally that have a similar vision to reach young people with the Good News and to help them to live victorious Christian lives: Youth With A Mission, Repairer of the Broken Ministries, Raise Praise, Christian Students Association, Cross Connect Ministries, Inheritors of the Earth. We look forward to seeing how God will use strategic alliances with these ministries to advance the work of the ISCF ministry in Grenada.

Meeting with President of Christian Students Association

On Saturday 2nd November we had the official service to relaunch ISCF Grenada. Those who flew in for the service had quite an adventure getting here, but they eventually arrived safely. When people asked me before the service how many persons were expected, I told them I had no clue because all the communication I was getting from people were saying that they couldn't come so I couldn't say for sure who was coming. However on the day of the launch there were approximately 60 persons in attendance, and I was very happy that we didn't have to eat all the refreshments ourselves :)

Supporters of ISCF Grenada

From all reports, the service was well received by those who attended. I give thanks to God for bringing all the pieces together and for the great testimonies that were shared. For me, the highlight was the testimony of Kelvin Dottin who is the Co-ordinator of Ecclesiastic Affairs in the Ministry of Youth. When he assumed office in May this year, he wrote a list of projects that he would like to accomplish. The first item on his list? Restart ISCF in Grenada! He had no clue how to go about doing this, but he knew the impact that the ministry had on his life as a student, so he knew that this generation of students needed to be exposed to ISCF. So when Sister Joan approached him in an effort to get the support of the Ministry as we restarted ISCF in the schools, it was really confirmation to him that God had placed him in office for such a time as this.

Meeting with Mr. Dottin to discuss the reintroduction of ISCF in schools in Grenada

I also give God thanks for laying it on my sister Dyann's heart to come to Grenada last weekend. 

So happy that she brought my Pumpkin with her!

God knows the tremendous support and encouragement she was to me during the time she was here, not only on the day of the launch, but also in sharing her experiences as an ISCF sponsor at our first meeting with sponsors. Four teachers from four different schools attended, so we are grateful to God for the start that we are now able to make.

Participants at the first orientation session

Over this past weekend I was also able to build some relationships that are clearly God-orchestrated. I didn't go looking for them, but God opened the doorways and connections have been made. It has been a blessing to see how God just intervenes and provides support exactly when you need Him to. One opportunity that has arisen is the privilege of sharing a Bible Study with someone, so please pray that the study of God's Word would bring freedom.

Preparing for a study in the book of Ruth