You Are So Good To Me: End of the Caribbean Update on June 1st, 2010

My friends, we draw from an infinitely deep well. As the time in the Caribbean on board the Logos Hope draws to an end, a new chapter is being readied. I am currently sailing across the Atlantic for the second time, which means I have a lot of time to reflect, and hopefully to rest. I will not lie; I have been exhausted, and have been having a hard time on board. I am ready to come home, but there are suspicions that God is not done molding me yet. So here I am, struggling to make it three more months until the next step, and looking back, unable to ignore the beauty of my past 10 months in the Caribbean. It has been a hard ten months, getting used to a culture so different than mine, but I suspect I have grown. God has been in work at me in discontent with my spiritual life, but finding a solution has proven evasive.
The Caribbean is a nice place, with billions of kids. The islands bear a lot of resemblance to each other with a few exceptions, but they are all naturally beautiful, with beaches and mountains and rainforests. Dominica probably dominated the area of natural beauty of all the Islands, as I had a chance to get out two weeks in a row on hikes to see waterfalls and large hills, absolutely amazing. The people are also as varying as the islands; they are quite similar. They talk the same (until you’ve been here for long), eat the same, and live similar. I must admit that the people were my biggest challenge (apart from the richer islands of Bermuda, Aruba, and the Bahamas) since they were quite overbearing and rude. It was hard for me, at times, to see the beauty of them in that they are quite patient (compared to us), caring, and blunt. I realized my need to be blunt working in the café and selling things, thus affecting my general demeanor.
From St. Vincent’s to Dominica, my journey has been a wild one, including a job change, a trip home, many frustrations, and popcorn. From playing basketball in a youth prison to a recent chance to go to another place where kids live away from their parents, I have hopefully been different from people’s expectations, and hopefully been a light. From David in St. Lucia, to Andry in Aruba, I now know a few people I try to keep in some touch with that I would never had met except for the Lord. Pray that I can shine so bright to these two! From the streets of Jamaica that now house so much violence (I know the place) to the beauty in Dominica the Lord has shown himself by his creation, but I didn’t need to come here to see it, maybe just to realize that everyone of us is gorgeous. There is a song by a band named Water deep called “Everyone’s Beautiful”, and it captures how we should feel, how I should feel. Christ’s calling wasn’t one of loving those who are easy to love, or loving those who love you, or helping people per say. No, our calling is much higher. We are called to love everyone, pray for our enemies, no matter how hard it is. It is easy to love those who make you feel good, but loving the murderers, the rapists, the kidnappers, the Muslims, the Hindus, the Mormons, our family, those who curse us, those who don’t think about us, and we even have to love ourselves. Our calling is far higher than I had beforehand realized, and it would be overwhelming, but I know the love we receive is far greater than the love we could ever give. Thank you God for sending me to the Caribbean, and I pray that you grew me in a specific way, and forgive my stubborn and obstinate heart. Thank you supporters for enabling me to see the world, and myself, in a whole new way, one I hope will teach me many things. Now on to Africa…