My friend, Omar-William

This is Chris and I'd like to introduce you to a little boy that has captured my heart while here in Antigua. Last week when we went to King George Park to play basketball and volleyball, Greg and I held up the volleyball posts for a group of kids so they wouldn't fall over. A bunch of these neighborhood boys tried to play together, but they needed some intervention due to arguing and fighting. I jumped into the fray and helped get a game organized. Greg did the reffing. During this time, this little boy stood with a sad and pouty face and wanted to play, but was difficult to manage during the game time. After it was all over, I talked to him and asked him why he was sad and he told me he was hungry. I happened to have some trail mix in my bag so I gave him some of that and told him the nuts were the most important. (His eyes lit up when he saw the M&Ms!) He needed to eat them all. He did, and then asked for more. Some neighborhood thugs harassed him for begging. I talked to him about coming to church as well as shared Jesus' love for him. I thought that was the last I'd see him. Well, early this week, who should walk by the front of the church while we were preparing to work, but Omar-William and his brother! They were carrying their school composition books and said they had "moshed poks." Translation: messed up backpacks. Or something like that. Janice and I went out and bought them new backpacks that afternoon and put Bibles in them. When they came by the next day, we presented those packs to them and once again shared the love of Jesus for them. (the picture with Dave's blog shows us giving them the backpacks). I told Omar-William a lot of things, but I also told him I had more stuff for his pack if he comes to church on Sunday. I can't tell you how thrilled he was with that new pack! He hugged me, smiled and still had that smile on his face this morning when he walked by while we were passing out Bibles. I hope he shows up to church at Grays Farm this Sunday!

Please pray for Ron and Janice, Dave and Julie, Gert, Greg and myself as we plan for the service on Sunday at Grays Farm. We are the last team members here and have promised them we will come to church on Sunday. Once we made that promise, Brother Michael has insisted we all preach and lead the service. If everyone who says they are coming to church on Sunday, actually comes to church, then it will be full. I do know we need to challenge the Grays Farm believers to see Jesus in their midst and to allow Him to work through them in order to be a light in a needy place. Again, pray for us. It seems our work is not quite done.

Team #2 leaves bright and early tomorrow. How we will miss them! They have inspired me, just as Team #1 did, only in new and different ways. I praise the Lord for Tony and his passionate, physical work on the Grays Farm Church; for Debbie Bowman and her courage and joy in the midst of not feeling well and yet still managing to minister and share with us and the Antiguans; for Austin and his joy in working alongside the team and his openness with the Antiguan youth; for Ray and his desire to see improvements in the community and a hope for our continued connection to Grays Farm; for Andrew and his new passion to share the love of Jesus with those he meets; for Deb DeSantis and her joy in absolutely everything, even doing some of the dirtiest tasks; for Gert and her love and compassion for the people we met on a day-to-day basis. I have been so blessed by our teams! I can't wait to get back and share with all of you what a great God we have and how amazing He is that He put together the people into these teams that would serve Him for the specific tasks that were laid out for us each week. Only God could do that!

Thank you so much for having the patience to get to the end of this blog! Thanks to my kids for sharing comments and keeping up with your parents! I love you, MA&A, J&E, J&C!