Operation Smile

Today I embarked on another hour long drive to Operation Smile which is an orphanage near the second largest city of Trinidad; San Fernando.  There were about 45 children there with the youngest being 4 and the oldest was 15.  We got to spend a few hours of the afternoon sharing the love of Jesus with these precious children.  We played some games, sang some songs, did a short drama, shared a story and a testimony, did a few magic tricks, and then spent the rest of the time just getting to know them.  There were about 5 or 6 kids that kind of flocked to me and took me around showing me the goats, and the playground, and their rooms, and various other things around their facility.  I had a lot of fun being taken around and hearing their laughter as they talked with me, but there were a couple of girls in particular that I spent most of my time with.  They were sisters, Alia and Diana.  They were 8 and 11 and we sat inside one of the slides on the playground and talked about all kinds of things.  They asked me questions about the ship and about my home and my family, my favorite fruit, if I dyed my hair or if it was really this color…all kinds of things.  Our time there went by so quickly and it was hard to say goodbye as it often is when God gives you a love for these people in such a short time and then you leave knowing that you will more than likely never see them again.  You just hope and pray with all your heart that something….just one little thing that you did or that you said while with them will in some way impact their lives and their hearts, if not now, years down the road and it will cause them to seek for and to find Jesus for themselves.  

Back to Rehab

Today I was given the opportunity to go to a woman’s rehab center called the Serenity House.  There were 10 women living there who are or have been addicted to drugs or alcohol or had been living out on the streets and seeking a place to get their lives back together.  Nine of us girls from the ship drove about 2 hours to spend the afternoon with these ladies and it was such an amazing time.  After introducing ourselves I sang a song for them.  It was a song called Come to Me by Jill Paquette.  The first couple of lines go something like this: “Broken and battered your confidence shattered but I am still here.  The things that you cling to they seem to just bring you right back to your fears.”  And the song goes on to talk about how Jesus is calling us to come to Him and everything will be alright and you will find love and healing through Him.  The women really seemed to enjoy it.  After my song, one of our girls shared her testimony.  She has had a pretty rough life and has a story that these women could relate to really well and after she finished sharing each of the 10 women there began sharing each of their stories with us.  It was amazing to see such openness and honesty and it was so good to just be real with each other as we all shared our different struggles and battles and how and in Whom we find hope and strength.  The lady that acts as the director of the place shared with us that she was ready to give up and close down because she felt like she wasn’t really accomplishing anything and she was just getting ready to have a meeting with the women to discuss some options when we pulled up.  She told us that we had brought her a new hope and motivation to continue the work.  Please be praying for her and the women there, as this is the only women’s shelter of its kind in all of the English speaking Caribbean.  During our time there I also had the opportunity to pray for a 16 year old girl who had been raped by a relative and gotten pregnant and had a 2 week old daughter.  What a precious pair those two are and she seems to have a genuine relationship with Christ and asked me to pray for her mom who is not saved.  I hurt inside for these women and the lives they have lived and the pain and the brokenness and the addictions they have fallen prey to, some of it because of their own choices and some of it because of unfortunate circumstances.  But these women were so open to hearing and talking about the Lord and we were able to encourage each other to never give up, to keep fighting the battle, and to trust God to provide the victory.  I tried so much to help these women know and understand that they were beautiful and precious and worthy of love.  The place they live in is in desperate need of repair and our team is really hoping that we can send some others out there to do some work for them and we would really like to have the opportunity to bring these women back to the ship with us and host them for a day and let them share a meal with us while we are there.  Please be praying that God would orchestrate that for us, as it would be such a blessing!

From University to Rehab

This morning a group of us traveled to one of the universities in the Port of Spain.  The original plan was to spend a couple of hours walking around the campus praying, handing out tracts, and starting up conversations with some of the students with the purpose of sharing our faith.  Upon arriving and speaking to the man in charge we were informed that we would not be allowed to do that because it goes against the schools’ policy.  We had brought some literature with us and were given permission to set up a table in one of the lounges and if students happened to walk in and approach us then we could talk with them.  I think this actually ended up working to our advantage because we had a number of people come through who had got word we were there and were curious about who we were and what we were doing.  God definitely worked everything out.

Later in the afternoon my team was picked up by a couple of men who run a place called the Rebirth Center.  It is a rehabilitation center for men who are or have been addicted to drugs and/or alcohol, who are homeless, unemployed, or any number of things.  This place was in the middle of nowhere.  They own quite a bit of land that is surrounded by the mountains and the jungle and they have a garden where they grow a lot of their own food and have a number of various jobs and leadership positions for the men to fulfill during their stay.  What an amazing time I had here.  There was probably somewhere between 30 and 40 men and we did a short program for them.  We introduced ourselves and the ship, had an interactive sketchboard message talking about brokenness and how Jesus came to heal our brokenness and then one of our guys shared his testimony and by the end of our little program we had 8 men come up to give their lives to Christ and we got to pray for each of them individually, Amen!  After this happened there were many others who were still interested in knowing more, so we had a spontaneous question and answer time where the men asked all kinds of spiritual questions.  Then a couple of the men that were already believers chose to come up front and share their stories with us and a couple of other guys each sang a song for us.  It was an amazing time.  Afterwards we had the chance to hang out and chat with them and some of them went and cut down some coconuts and sliced them open with their machete and passed it to me to drink; nothing quite like fresh coconut water!  I found it very easy to talk to these men, or rather they found it very easy to talk to me and I mostly just listened.  Our bus driver had to come tell me 3 different times that we needed to leave.  I could have stayed there all night, it was such a beautiful place and the guys have such crazy stories and it was such an amazing opportunity to share a bit of hope with them.  What a blessing to be used by God!

Laventille, Trinidad

After driving through the twisting mountain roads of Trinidad, my small team of 6 people arrived in Laventille, one of the most dangerous cities in Trinidad.  Most local people try to avoid this area as it is known for its high crime rate and violence.  We came to entertain a group of about 15 children who attend an after school program in the area.  After going around and having everyone introduce themselves, we took the children outside and played a few games, told a short story with a gospel message, shared about the ship and what we do, and sang some songs.  The kids were so sweet and even taught us a few of their own songs and actually made us sing them alone just to make sure we had actually learned them.  Afterwards, we had a little bit of time left to just hang out with the kids and love on them.  Right before we left I had a couple of the younger boys call me over and made me bend down and they each gave me a kiss on the cheek…too cute!

Ship Family

Every Tuesday night is ship family night. Everyone onboard belongs to a particular ‘ship family’ who get together to share a meal once a week and spend the evening together getting to know each other, going out in the port, watching a movie, playing a game, etc… It’s a good opportunity to get to know some other people and feel a little more like you belong to a family. This is a picture of my family….the Crowe family. We have lots of fun together!