Monday, June 15, 2009

first post from ANTIGUA!!!!

Hello from beautiful Antigua!!!!
It is so beautiful here! We are staying at a retreat center run by a nun named Sister Mary Joe. It is hard to explain in words what this place is like. All we can say is that we are very blessed! The people of Antigua are extremely nice and everyone has opened their arms of love to us. Majors Griffin are taking very good care of us and we feel right at home. Although it is a little bit hotter here then it is in the states :-)
Oh my! Our first week is over and we can't even believe it! We have been working very hard all week with the children at the preschool here. They are sooo cute!!! We have fallen in love with them and they with us! They call us "teacher" and a lot of us have gotten the chance to actually do some teaching.
One our second day here, Emily and Justin were chosen to go with Major Griffin to meet the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda. He is basically their president. They got to read scripture and pray with him. It was an honor and very exciting. Emily read scripture and Major Griffin did a devotional. Justin was able to tell the Prime Minister how lovely his country is. It was very neat to see how the goverment here is different then the United States. The whole team is scheduled to meet the Governor General tomorrow, vice president, which we are all very excited about it.
We came at a very interesting time here in Antigua. We arrived in the middle of Unity Week for many of the churches around St. John and we attended a service every day our first week that was a combined service of all different churches, and we got to be a part of one of the services on Friday.
Saturday we had our first day off and we got to go to the beach! How amazing! The girl's home that the Salvation Army runs is right next to the beach, so we got to meet some of the girls and took them with us. The beach is so beautiful and the water is so blue and so clear! We had every intention of not getting burned, but unfortunetly that did not happen and we are now dealing with having to aloe up every night. Some of us are worse then others, but we are all healing. We all had such a wonderful time regardless.
Sunday we had a wonderful welcome at the St. Johns corps and the All Saints corps. The way they worship is different from home, but we are excited to be able to experience new things!
This week will be very different then last week and we think that is how it will be all summer. We are ready to work, grow and share God's love with the people in Antigua! Keep praying for us! We love and miss you all!!!

1 comment:

Peter said...

Hi Emily and the fantastic Antigua team! We have been praying for you every day and we know that the Lord will be using your service this summer in amazing ways!

Everyone from Lawrenceville says Hi and that they are praying for you, too.

Love Mom and Dad