Barbados, Day 2

Don’t get mad at me if I didn’t tell you.

I’m in Bridgetown, Barbados, as part of a ministry team to a church there.

These are amazing people who make up an amazing church. Why they would so love God and each other makes God's work obvious. They sincerely want to grow in the grace and love of Christ, and to avoid some of the "Christianly" stuff that often goes with a growing community. You know, the stuff we do that looks spiritual, but is really fleshly control stuff. Here's how we get along, here's how we do church, here's how we don't, here's how we force unity, etc.

Herb Sims spoke at their gathering about "doing nothing." It was terrific. He drew from some of the many instances in which Jesus did only what He saw the Father doing and said only what He heard the Father saying. In other words, He did nothing on His own, but lived in order to know God all the time. And that's the new way of living for us, as well--life by the Spirit. It frees us from having to come up with what to do, and places it where it belongs--with Him.

Last night we met with some of the leadership of the church. Essentially, we hung out with them for several hours, which is another way of saying that we enjoyed rich fellowship. But that's too stuffy.

We spoke together about how God secured us individually, about our love affairs with Him, and about how that works out in the larger community of believers. They're from S. Africa, Canada, England, America, and even Barbados--fancy that, locals. And yet, each of them have this terrific story of discovering the incredible love and grace and mercy of God for them. It's magnificent to be among them.

This morning we'll meet with them again.

Here are some pictures from yesterday. Many of these pictures are taken from the balcony of the vacation home we're fortunate to be staying in.  

And if you would like to check out a blog written and contributed to by all the members of the team, go to http://barbadosproject.blogspot.com.









Here's a local gang. From the left, Pauline Karcher, Tracy Sims and Laurie Troublefield, part of the U.S. team.

These long pods rattle eerily in the wind, especially at night. The first night we were all puzzled as to what was making the sound.

We're staying at the top right of the building.

There are lots of sea turtles here, which we can see (though very briefly) from the balcony. This gives you some perspective on how big some of them are. In the next instant, the turtle turned and attacked the surfer, devouring him in mere moments. I would post those pictures, but for the sake of the children viewing this post. . .

I'll post more pictures, including some of the Barbados leadership team, later tonight. Pray for us?