Mission trip to Bahamas

We just got back from Spanish Wells, Bahamas serving with an amazing missionary family, the Boykins.  We feel so blessed that we were able to serve God in such a beautiful place and really connect with the people there and spending amazing time together as a family.

Here are the Blue and Boykin kids on our last night together.

Here is our adorable house in the Bahamas!

 

       Here is Michael at one of our spots we stopped at to "beach" and snorkel.  This was a fun afternoon with a few other families to fellowship and get to know each other.

We didn't take many sunset pictures, but one night we walked back to our house and Brooks played in the sand and we got an okay picture of the sunset.

Here are some of the kids painting the church at the Haitian community.

Here we are picking up trash at the Haitain community - they don't have the convenience of trash cans/service.

Nathan giving little Jay some of the toys we found while picking up trash.

I cannot begin to tell you how gorgeous the water is on this island.  Brooks kept calling it the pool.  The boys just lived in the water!

Everyone on this island (almost everyone) rides on golf cards.  Imagine - no car seats, no traffic lights, no traffic!!  It was so peaceful and simple.  I had a really hard time coming back to the hustle and bustle of America.

We went night fishing one night after dinner, until 10:30!  The boys were ecstatic...we caught some fish and had so much fun with all the other kids too. 

Here are all the kids checking out the live fish in the bucket.  Brooks just loved this!  They would poke it so it would flip around and then just squeal and laugh with delight.

Michael got a couple - it was so hard.  It was pitch black, really windy, and the ocean was moving!  i could never tell if something was eating my bate, or it was just the waves moving.  Very difficult fishing!

Sweet Josie fishing!  We just loved getting to know all the Boykin kids.

Some guy on the island painted his van just like the mystery machine from Scooby Doo.  As we were taking a picture, Josie was so embarrassed (we made her look like a tourist) which cracked me up.  She was so funny with her comments about Americans and tourists!

Here are Michael and Brooks packing up rice for our food bags.  We took over about 60 trash bags full of rice, beans, sugar, potatoes, onions, cornmeal, and flour.  The kids did such a great job bagging everything and delivering it all was another great experience.  We drove around on a different island and handed out bags, prayed with the people, and just visited with them trying to find out any other needs they have and how God could help meet them. 

Here is Jay (2) at swimming lessons in the ocean.  We taught about 5 times while were there which was definitely fun and interesting.  Most of the Haitian children have never even gotten in the water.  They were definitely fearful and it was tough holding and reassuring teenagers in the water.  Others, picked it right up and were swimming right away.  Overall, they loved the swimming lessons and always had a hard time getting out when it was over.

Here is Brooks getting ready to jump off the bridge for the first time.  This boy has no fear and jumped right off into the ocean!

Nathan trying to climb the rope back up to the bridge

Nathan LOVED the bridge.  He did flips off the lower and upper part of the bridge and any time we had free time this is where he wanted to come play.

Daniel like the bridge too and had a blast jumping.

I did not do a great job taking pictures while in the Bahamas - but here is one cute one of all three near the water.  I regret not getting a family photo!  Hopefully, my heart and mind won't forget.

Another good chunk of time was spent organizing, sorting, and then finally passing out clothes (donated by people in Austin) to the Haitian community.   They were so excited and it was good for us to see what else they need so we can hopefully meet some of those needs now!

Just a pretty water picture.  The camera cannot even capture how electric the water color is!

The boys getting ready for VBS.  This was one of our main serving opportunities while in the Bahamas.  We had about 60 kids that we played with and taught for 8 days.  I won't go into all the details, but it was just a really neat, challenging, but God-centered time.

Michael Blue and Michael Boykin were in charge of games and did a great job.  Here we are playing Red Rover

Michael would pick up and drop off about 15 kids in this golf cart everyday.  Amazing how many people would fit.

Here is one of the houses in the Haitian community.  I love all the bright colors.

Luna, a precious little girl at VBS

The Bahamas celebrated their independence on July 10th, full with good food, celebrations, and fireworks.  So, the boys got to celebrate July 4th in America and July 10th there - double whammy!

Daniel hanging out at the Haitian community.

One of the games at independence day is a 60 year old tradition called the slippery pole.  They grease up the pole with Dawn soap/Crisco and the children try to climb to the end without falling off.  It was hilarious and the boys had a blast that day.

Brooks and Daniel on the back of the cart

Here is the laundry line - nobody has or uses clothes dryers or dishwashers because electricity is so expensive there (top 5 most expensive in the world).   I was very thankful for my dishwasher when I returned home!

Just a sailboat hanging out at the beach.