Friday, May 23, 2003
Happy Greetings
Dear Friends,
We are writing you again this month because the school year is coming
to its close and we
have more news to share!! Patricia and I just experienced the high point of this school year on the Junior/Senior Class
Trip to Trinidad. Man, was it a success! And how God moved!
Patricia had been organizing this class trip since last October and the
students had been working the entire year to raise funds for this trip.
A lot of people said that it could not be done but praise be to God for
providing the way! In March,
Patricia contacted Youth With a Mission (YWAM) Trinidad, to see if they were interested in accomadating us, and
thankfully they were. This
was the first 'missions' trip for many of our students. In fact, some of our students had never been out of
Suriname, much less to a 'real' beach.
But, I better not get ahead of myself, so let me start from our departure.
Last
Wednesday, May 14th, everyone met at school around noon to depart. We had to finish getting some paperwork in order for our departure, and
as we were finishing,
I was trying to get everyone grouped together to pray. Well, one of our students spoke out and said "I think we should
pray before we go."
(Exactly what I was trying to do), so this was an awesome indication that this was going to be a great trip. One of the
major struggles that
we face with our students, is getting them excited about God. The school population is no longer Missionary-Kid oriented.
There are a few missionary families still around, but we are having a
pretty large exodus of missionaries at the conclusion of this school
year, so the majority
of our students come from the international diplomatic background. So, this was a big positive for me when the student
requested prayer. We prayed, loaded up the bus and headed for the hour
long trip to the airport. At
the airport, we stood in line as the first heavy downpour of the rainy season began to fall. We got our bags
checked, passports in order, security cleared, and waited to board the
plane. Patricia and I had eagerly awaited this day. We really needed
a break from Suriname
and its daily routines. The students were very excited too. Finally, it
was time to board the airliner.
We took
our seats, and the kids were bursting with anticipation. One of our students had never flown before, so she smiled as I took her
picture, but then she began to cry silently as we took off into the wild
blue yonder. Another student comforted her, and her worries subsided
after we reached altitude and the attendants came around with the food
and drinks. Gazing out the window, I realized that this was the first time
that I had flown out of Suriname in the daylight. I studied the South
American coastline and noticed how the ugly, brown coastal stream from
the Amazon really mucks up the beauty of the ocean. The band of muddy
water stretches about 3 miles wide along the South American coast, then
the waters turn the beautiful blues that we are all familiar with. I
thought "What a shame, all that beautiful blue water, and all we see is
chocolate milk-colored water in Suriname."
The flight itself was very peaceful and uneventful. It was an awesome
sight to behold, seeing
the island of Trinidad appear into view. We flew along her southern coastline and then veered northward to land at
Port of Spain. Trinidad is a much larger island than I had imagined
(about the size of Delaware). Over
1.2 million people inhabit the island. A population of 850,000 residents are under the age of 21; this is more
people than the entire
population of Suriname! We landed safely and made our way through the airport to customs. After a minor glitch of
getting our Indonesian student through customs, we made our way to baggage
claim, retrieved our bags and headed out the door. There, to our
delight and surprise, were Amy and Rob Krieg, waiting for us. Thank God,
that He provided the
opportunity for Amy and Rob to join us on this trip. Amy and Rob are dear friends of ours and mighty prayer partners. We
worked together in our Youth Group back in New Bern, NC until the Marines
called the Kriegs to Quantico and God called us to Suriname; so they
were a sight for sore
eyes! I had the pleasure of allowing Rob and Amy head up the devotions for the week since the kids get tired of hearing
it from me and Patricia. We also met the YWAM folks also waiting there
for us; Albert, our big Trinidadian bus driver, and Matt, YWAM youth
counselor. We packed everybody and luggage into the bus and headed for
the YWAM campus. The campus
was situated high in the mountainous region of Trini.
Upon our arrival, we unpacked and got our gear squared away. We met
Kevin Prins and his family, who run the YWAM operation in Trinidad. We
had a full schedule
ahead of us for the next five days. We went over the schedule after we had our dinner of Roti. We then loaded up the bus
and headed out for our first excursion--a steel drum band. The calypso
band's name is "Exodus". The students got to fool around with the
steel drums as we waited for the band members to arrive. The kids really
had a blast playing the varied steel drums. I'd say that there were at
least 75 different
drums there. The band arrived shortly and played several songs for us, then it was time to pack it in and head back to
the campus.
Rob began his series of devotions that challenged the kids on
"Choices". He shared a poignant message that compared and contrasted the
choices made by Judas
Iscariot and Simon Peter. Both disciples, Judas, of course, betrayed Jesus then chose suicide and eternal damnation as the
consequence of his
choice; while Peter made the choice to deny Christ three times, but had the opportunity to be redeemed/restored by Christ and
Christ used him in a mighty way to build His church. It was
interesting to watch the students absorb the message. The senior students
are at the fun part
in life where their entire future lies ahead. So, then we retired to bed.
After
breakfast, on Thursday morning, Amy began her devotional series on "Worship". This is something that our whole student body needs
prayer for. Amy talked about
how one needs to communicate to even have a relationship with another. Thus, worship is our way of communicating
with God, in order to develop our relationship with Him. This really
struck a chord with some, and that's what we had been praying for.
We had a busy day ahead of us. We loaded up and headed downtown to
Port of Spain to the historical museum.
There we toured the museum, but it really didn't become that interesting until we headed upstairs to the
art gallery. That is where
I lost myself. They had a good-sized collection of paintings by Trinidadian artists. I had a wonderful time
studying each piece and actually discussing the pieces with one of the
students, who is also an art student of mine. We had a great time
discussing the artworks. After the museum visit, we headed over to the
zoo, and I have to
admit, we were quite impressed. They had a nice collection of animals, from every monkey you can think of, to lions and tigers and
ocelots, oh my! to tarantulas to anacondas to pythons and boa
constrictors to an entire plethora of birds. Quite impressive. We ate lunch
while at the zoo, then we headed downtown for several long hours of
shopping. Port of Spain's
downtown shopping district is much larger, cleaner, and offers more variety than downtown Paramaribo; so it was a
welcomed change. After the
exhausting shopping trip, we had to do even more shopping by visiting a local Rasta-Farian commune that makes leather
sandals and shoes. The females
went nuts buying sandals. I don't know if it was the burning cannabis in the air or all the shopping, but we
were hungry again. We then entered the best part of the day--dinner at
TGIFridays! What a treat! Wow, this was great--this was the first time
for most of our kids to eat in an American-style "sit down and order"
restaurant. One of our students was amazed at how nice the bathroom
doors were, that there was actual soap in the bathroom, and there was
an automated hand
drier. You're lucky if the public bathrooms in Suriname even have a door, and you can forget about soap, TP, or sometime to dry
your hands on! Some of the kids were even overwhelmed by the menu, so
Patricia gave them a quick lesson about entrees versus appetizers and
what exactly 'smothered
steak' was. Patricia and I treated ourselves to the filet mignon and loaded baked potatoes---mmmm, 10 months had passed
since our last steak
dinner--I was in heaven (almost)! But the best part was yet to come. Rob
had hid the fact that it was his birthday that day, however Amy let the cat out of the bag. The kids excitedly sang
"Happy Birthday" to Rob in English and then in Dutch. Then Rob and Amy
surprised everyone by buying everyone the dessert of their choice! The
kids about fell out
when they saw the actual size of the desserts--they were humongous! Patricia and I split the Oreo Delight (and about went
into sugar shock). Bellies filled and hyped up on sugar, we headed
back to base. But we were
not finished with the evening. We were at base long enough to change clothing and load back up. At 9:30 pm, we pulled
out to head to the beach for a special occasion--turtle nesting. It
took us almost 45 minutes to reach the beach. We walked down the gentle
slope to our turtle guide. He explained that we were about to be
witness to mother leatherback sea turtles coming ashore to lay their
brood of eggs. It was a full moon (not for long), and we followed the guide
down to the beach as waves crashed the shore. We passed 2 nesting
turtles along the way. We stopped to watch a turtle meticulously digging
a hole in the sand. Then she dropped her eggs into the hole. The
kids were in awe. As we were witnessing this spectacular event, something
more amazing was happening to make this night memorable--a full lunar
eclipse. So, as the
earth's shadow slowly crept across the face of the moon, we witnessed God's divine plan in action: as the mammoth turtles
(8 feet long, four
feet wide, weighing up to 1,200 lbs) labored in egg laying, we observed 2 more turtles emerge from crashing waves and make
their way to the nesting ground.
It was a magical night.
On Friday
morning, Amy continued her "Worship" series shortly after breakfast. We loaded up the bus to go do our Christian Service Project.
YWAM had recently purchased land to build an 80-acre campsite, so we
headed over to the
site to clear land. We broke into small groups and used machetes to cut back wild brush and trees. The students worked
extremely hard and I was the only one injured when I stepped on a rusty nail
(it is healing up fine). We
worked for about 2 hours and then broke for lunch (fire-roasted hotdogs). After lunch, we headed for the beach.
Of course, we all had a wonderful time. For several of the kids, this
was the first time
that they had stood on a white sandy beach and body surfed in the blue-green waves. After about 3 hours in the water, we
all ate Trini-style Shark-n-Bake.
I thought that the shark tasted a lot like catfish. We ended the evening back at base with dinner and
devotions.
On Saturday
morning, I awoke with a sore throat. It seems that several of the kids were coming down with severe cold symptoms. I spent most
of Saturday drowsy from Benedryl. We did load up on the bus that
morning, after Amy's devotion,
to go visit a bird sanctuary nature reserve. It was a beautiful sight, even in my groggy state. We saw about every
tropical bird imaginable. It was a very serene setting. After the
reserve, we went to eat lunch in a park that overlooks the coast. We then
headed to a shopping
mall (to the delight of everyone). It was an American-style shopping mall, so it was fun. We were a little concerned
over the safety of our kids. Kidnappings are a daily occurance in
Trinidad. The running total
for kidnappings appear on the front page of the Trinidad newspaper. While we were there, about 5 different people were
kidnapped, but the
big news was that 2 different people were released or rescued. Thank God we don't have this problem back in Suriname.
After a couple of hours at the mall, it was time to head back to the
YWAM base. I was so sick, that I took a nap while others socialized or
whatever. Rob awaken me
for supper. So we ate and I regained my strength just in time for the ultimate part of this trip--Saturday's
evening devotion.
Ok, this is what I had been waiting for. I knew that God was about to
do something special. Rob and I, along with Matt had prayed for
individual students on Friday night.
So, here we begin the last evening devotion of the trip. Rob shares his testimony with the students
while giving another
great devotion on choices that have eternal impact. While Rob was giving the devotion, I began to pray very hard for God to move
and convict the hearts
of our students. While Rob played a song off a CD for the kids, I prayed even harder.
I even noticed Patricia and Amy praying for the kids. I begged God to break these kids and give them a
contrite heart and
spirit. And then, God began to move. Rob
closed in prayer,
leading to kids to pray silently to rededicate their lives to Christ. We assume that all that were with us are professing believers
because Rob even offered
the prayer of salvation. No one responded to that one, but they all responded to the rededication. Rob was about to
dismiss them, but then I wanted to pray aloud for our kids, and so I
did. I prayed for each individual
student around the room. I was once again kicked out of the Man's Club because I broke down emotionally
while praying for the kids. Amy
then followed after me, and then Rob closed with prayer again dismissing the kids, but offering that if any one
of them wanted to stick around and pray, they were free to do that.
Well, something amazing happened--none of them left. They continue to
pray silently! I then felt compelled to go over to a student and pray
one-on-one with him. This
is something that we did on a weekly basis with our youth group back in NC, but we've never had the opportunity to do
that with these kids. Patricia,
Amy and Rob soon got with a kid. We each continued to switch off in prayer with all the students, so most
of the students got
to pray with each of us. Then God wasn't finished yet--several of the students began to pray with each other!! This was an
awesome blessing for Patricia and myself. This is the most openly
response to God that we have seen in the last 2 years here!! This blessed
our socks off! 2 of the guys prayed with each other for a long time,
as well as several of the girls.
After months in the valley, we were finally having our mountain top experience. Please continue to keep
these students in prayer. This
was not just an 'emotional' experience that you sometimes get working with youth, because these kids are not
emotional about anything. This
was a genuine God experience. I am still rejoicing over this, and it has been a week ago.
Well, Sunday morning we packed up, went to the airport, and flew back
to Suriname. Suriname is
in the throes of rainy season. I think we got over 8 inches of rain in the first 48 hours of our return. Went to
school on Monday, and every student on our trip is now sick. Even kids
back at the school
had been sick during our trip. The big joke is that we are suffering from SARS, however I don't think SARS is a joking
matter.
Pray
for our kids health and especially their daily walk with God. We had our Open House/Fine Arts Festival/Science Fair this evening at
school. We have 11 actual
school days remaining and a lot of work yet to be done. Please pray for me in regards to finishing this year's
Yearbook. We've had many
technical problems getting the thing together. Please pray that it all works out so that we get this thing completed
in time. I also have to oversee the art direction of our End-of-Year play.
We have to
do 2 more major background scenes next week. We have graduation and the play on June 2nd.
Then we have the End-of-Year acheivement tests, so we are busy, busy, busy. Please pray for our stress
levels (mine especially). I will be giving my final sermon of the year this
Sunday at our local church. Pray
that God gives me the wisdom needed in my preparation and delivery. This has been a long email, but this has
also been a long year. I am thankful to see it end on a positive note,
so I hope that you are able to share in our rejoicing over this class
trip. We will probably send out one more prayer letter before we depart
Suriname.
Feel
free to drop us a line to encourage us in this final stretch. Take care and God bless you.
In His Service,
John and Patricia
