Farewell to Trinidad

As our last "official" duty here in Trinidad, we helped out with teaching Vacation Bible School at Hope Mennonite Church this past week under the theme of "Building Up God's House." It was an appropriate topic given that the church building itself is under construction. Barb taught the 10-12-year-old class, with around 10 students in it. I taught the youth class. On Monday evening, there were twelve students in my class, most of whom have been involved in the youth group at Hope. But for the next few evenings, I had 19 or 20 students each night, many of whom had no previous experience with church at all. One of them kept asking questions like, "Are we going to have lunch?" and "Will there be any field trips?" It was a wonderful opportunity for outreach. However, it was also a challenge to keep everyone's attention and stay focused on the lesson. Wednesday evening was particularly challenging since my helper for the week was home with a migraine. I ended up giving the class a big lecture on the theme of "respect." I was surprised when everyone was back on Thursday, and were on their best behavior as well. On Friday, each of the classes did a presentation for all the other students about what they learned during the week. One of the church members also invited a friend of his who plays steel pan to perform. Parents were invited to attend as well, although very few showed up. In addition, a rainstorm in the afternoon had knocked out power to the section of the village where the church is located. So we had to have the program by candlelight. It was a busy, but fulfilling conclusion to our service in Trinidad.
~Richard

In the evenings it has been a week of teaching. During the days, it has been a week of packing and of liming. (To lime is to hang out with others). We enjoyed several invitations for meals with friends here and received many words of blessing. People here have been very kind. So have many in Kansas who have helped manage our life there for us enabling us to be here. We truly are blessed to have an international church family. I have said several times that we have enjoyed our time here and we also enjoy our life in Manhattan. It is the transition between the two that we do not relish. But many have offered words and acts of kindness to assist in this area. In less than 36 hours we will be boarding a plane for the United States.
Barb

For the past month, and even a bit before, the World Cup has taken over media and conversation here. People are always discussing their favourite teams and players, and sometimes I feel very lost! However, we can always find out how everyone's doing from the electronic billboards that report the scores of the games, even if they've not yet concluded. When we were at the grocery store the other day, the TVs were set on the World Cup, and there was a group of people crowded around to watch. When a couple wanted to have us for dinner sometime this weekend, they had a hard time deciding when would work so that they wouldn't have to miss any of the matches, and when we went over to someone else's house for lunch, they had the game on and made sure they didn't miss the last 2 minutes. It's actually kind of fun, and we've been enjoying checking on the games periodically when they're on. I can only imagine what the excitement would have been like if Trinidad&Tobago had made it in, like they did last time, as the smallest country ever to have been in the World Cup!
~Roxy

Today we went to church at Diego Martin again. It was nice to see them again before we leave. I was happy because there were more people there than I think I've ever seen and especially a lot more youth/children. Friday was when I really started saying good-byes. That was the last night of Bible School at Hope and also the day Roxy and I limed with some of our friends. Today again was a day we said a lot of good-byes; first at church and then all afternoon. The pastors had a meeting downstairs and so we told them they could come up and see us if they'd like to. We spent the afternoon watching the World Cup, playing Monopoly, eating pumpkin pie (we had a bunch of extra pumpkin from our Thanksgiving) and saying good-bye to the pastors.
~Olivia