Favorite people pics

Here are some of the beautiful people we had the pleasure of meeting along the way during our stay in St. Lucia and Antigua.

Wednesday, heading home

Smiling Preschool faces...Well, i guess not all of them are smiling!  They're probably wondering "Who is this white lady taking all these pictures!?"

This sums it up very well...

On our way out of town, we stopped at the school one last time so we could see things in full swing! We arrived just after lunch when the kids were having recess.  We got a few quizzical looks, but for the most part, the kids were interested to know who we were.
Our trip home was uneventful and safe. We were so thankful to have had the opportunity to make the trip and meet so many wonderful people and to realize how we are all one in mission and that we are all children of God.  What a blessing!

Antigua, Monday and Tuesday

Cindi Holman, leading a class on play in the classroom

Monday morning was the beginning of the Caribbean Conference. We had an opening devotion and then broke out into different classes. After lunch, a couple of other ladies who were there attending the conference with their husbands and weren't officially part of the conference, and I, decided to get in a little shopping in downtown St. John.  We all got a few treasures to bring back home to our friends and family.

Tuesday, the conference ended up around noon and then a group headed to a beach to enjoy the afternoon together.  While there, we saw a waterspout out in the distance. It hung around for a good 5-10 minutes. We also stuck around to see the sunset.  Here are some pics.

We can be a little silly

Good bye sun!

For dinner, a bunch of us enjoyed a nice meal together. Here you see me digging into Seafood Fettuccine Alfredo. The seafood included: shrimp, mussels, crab, and scallops.  (I thought my mom would be proud of me for eating the scallops!)

Sunday, Antigua

Sunday morning worship in Antigua was quite a neat experience! To worship within a different culture but to be worshiping the same Jesus that we worship in our home congregation is hard to put into words. The choirs (both singing and steel drum) added a nice flavor to the worship. And in their second service, the children from 3rd and 4th grade sang as well.

Adult choir

Steel drum choir in the balcony

3rd and 4th grade singers

After lunch, the conference attendees hopped into two vans and took off for a tour of the island. We drove through different neighborhoods of significance and then took a nice bumpy road to a place called Devil's Bridge.

Famous Antiguans

Devil's Bridge

Here you can see the "bridge" of Devil's Bridge

Teacher Joy and Angie

After Devil's Bridge, we bumped back to an old sugar cane plantation that had been somewhat restored to show how it used to work. There are no longer any major sugar cane plantations on the island because it is very labor intensive and after slavery emancipation, the continued work in the sugar cane business reminded the Antiguans of slavery too much to continue.

Sugar cane "windmill"

From there, we drove through the rainforest and saw where they grow the black pineapples. They are not named because the pineapples are black, but that the soil is black.

one of the few 365 beaches on Antigua that you can't get to unless you stay at the resort

black pineapple farm

We headed back to church after the tour for the opening service and then a traditional Antiguan meal. The service was an opening for the first ever called worker Caribbean conference. Three islands (Grenada, St. Lucia and Antigua) were represented.

future steel drummers

conversations held under the church bell