The End is Near

It's interesting to me that the end feels a lot like the beginning. We have no car (thank God it sold), the Newcomers aren't here, and it's stifling hot!
We are completing our last 2 weeks here at the school and on the island. I thought I was attending my last Esther Bible Study this past Monday, but the ladies decided to meet again tonight and Memorial Day evening to finish up. Always be flexible. Pastor Sunni and Jane (interim at Cruz Bay) are taking us out for a farewell dinner this Friday night. A sweet couple has offered for us to use their little villa this weekend to get a break from the Ranch, so we will stay there Sat. and Sun. nights. Our last Sun. here (June 6) Dickie will speak at Bovoni Baptist on St. Thomas in the morning and do teacher training on Sun. afternoon. Besides all of this, we are preparing for an end-of-year school program and packing our classrooms and the Ranch!
We are so excited about returning. We can see God preparing us for the next step; He does that in subtle, but clear ways.
Hope all of you are doing well. Let me hear from you!!

Tonight we will eat at Maho Bay Campground with the Newcomers and Scott Drennan. Scott is a 28-year-old friend who came here 7 years ago to work with our school. He also did Christian Ministry in the National Parks and now works for Maho. He's a very special young man from the Nashville area, and I always tease about needing to find him a girl!! Any ideas?
We will be at Three Sail church at the Newcomer's house this Sun. morning and the Newcomers will be out at Calvary.
The children had a Field Trip today for Earth Day. It was lots of fun to be outside for the day after giving achievement tests all week.
The heat here is stifling. I thought I was used to it, but it really takes a toll. We need to find more time to jump into the ocean!
I can't believe we are on the countdown to come home. About 6 more weeks. It will really be interesting to adjust to the States again. Everything we do down here is on a small scale, and everything we do in the States is not!
Please pray for the Monday night women's Bible Study I am co-leading. It's a very diverse group of women - should be interesting!

The only place to get pizza on St. John is at a local place called Ronnie's. Claire's youth group met there each Wed. night until recently (now they are at Episcopal church) and the Rheas and rest of the Newcomers enjoyed pizza a distance away from the youth. A couple of months after we were here, Ronnie (owner) and Glen (worker) called Claire to the kitchen and told her they noticed something different about her - that she really paid attention to what her youth leader was saying.
Last night, Glen removed the movie, Armageddon, from the DVD player and struck up a conversation with us about books he has read recently which state there is deity in everyone. He was interested in the concept of people reaching out to the god in each other instead of to God above. The Lord has opened a door for us to continue to talk with and pray for Glen.
This just confirms to me that no matter where we are, we are witnesses for Him. Sometimes we fail, but thankfully he restores us back to a right place with Him.
If you are reading this and are experiencing guilt and failure, I pray that you will find your way back.
Have a wonderful day. Let me hear from you!!!!!

We've been really busy lately. Last Sunday (4/11) we attended a 35th anniversary of a church on St. Thomas with lots of singing and praising! A man from the D.C. area who is with NAMB brought the message. This past weekend we spent Friday night with Terrence and Sharon Jones on St. Thomas. He is pastor of Grace Baptist. Had a nice visit with them. Tonight is the second night of the Esther study - about 11 women will be in attendance.
Can't believe it's time to start talking of returning home. We actually bought a For Sale sign to put on the jeep. Dickie keeps hinting at bringing it home, but that ain't going to happen! It's a mess, but will be great for someone here on the island.
Leaving for Birmingham on May 13 to attend graduation at Samford, and will come back here for 3 weeks to finish school year. Fly home to stay on Monday, June 7.
Daniel has to have minor out-patient surgery on his foot May 5. Chris Maynard is caring for him for one day and night. It's hard not to be there but we have discussed it with him and he agrees that it's OK.
It's interesting that several of the things we wanted to see happen down here are happening during our last few weeks (women's Bible study, concert in the park, etc.). God's timing is certainly better than ours! Will try to blog more often. Thanks for reading.

Flexibility has been a key word for us. The boys left Atlanta on Saturday to visit us and Joseph apparently got on the plane with a stomach virus. By the time they reached Ft. Lauderdale, he was dehydrated and had to be hospitalized. The CT scan showed an irregularity at the base of his spine, so Joseph and I are in the hospital now awaiting results of his MRI they did on Sunday. He is feeling fine. Stephen, Rebecca and Daniel flew down to St. Thomas last night and arrived safely.
This is such a shock. We aren't expecting anything serious, but should get the results in a few hours.
I have stopped trying to figure out why things happen and am learning to deal with things as they happen. God's plan is big, and we are not to understand all things, but walk in faith each day.
His ways are not our ways.
We expect to be a plane this afternoon to join the rest of our family! Please keep Joseph in your prayers, and I will let you know results soon.

Started the day with one of my boys standing at the screen door of the classroom and burping very loudly. So it goes...
Dickie and I have given up trying to dry clothes on the line. I now go the laundrymat each Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. Last Friday Dickie went with me and we were sitting outside reading while our clothes washed and dried. Will and Teresa passed by on their way to Youth at Calvary and saw us out there. They got a real chuckle out of that sight.
We have new neighbors at the Ranch. Ms. Grell (Kindergarten teacher) and Ms. Hunt (1st grade) have moved in with their daughters (6 yrs. and 4 yrs.) Needless to say, the apartment bulding has come to life! We are one big happy family! I told the little girls that if my door is open they are welcome to come in. The other afternoon I was cooking bacon and eggs and they knocked on the door and said "We smell bacon! Do you have any extra bacon, Mrs. Rhea?!" So I let them come in and have one piece each and told them the rest was for Mr. Rhea. They are really cute and a joy to have around. I even got to read them a bedtime story the other night.
The boys and sweet Rebecca come to visit 4 weeks from Saturday! I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!

The Lord knows how to encourage us just when we need it! This was brought in by one of my little girl students this week:
"Jesus is great because He has done a lot of things for us. He saved us from our sins. He helped us wake up in the morning. He helped us sleep in the night. And He helps us do our work. He is strong and He is the Lamb of God. I even believe in Him so much that I will never forget about Him. And He's my Savior. And He created the world. I love my christian school. We talk about Him every day."
That pretty much says it all!!

We are receiving a lot of information about relief projects in Haiti. It seems there are many aftershocks occurring, and the conditions are still dangerous. A cargo ship is coming by St. John in 2 weeks, so our island is in the process of collecting needed items to go over. We are also aware of a flotilla of yachts going to Haiti soon. These boats hope to reach the parts of the island not receiving help from Red Cross and others. Check out Good Samaritan Haiti online.

It's been somewhat of an adjustment to return here after being in the States for over 2 weeks. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at home seeing family and friends. The time away from home has put a lot of things into perspective, and caused me to appreciate more about my life than I did before. Like I've said before, God is certainly using this time to teach me about myself, other people, and Him. One thing has been on my mind lately: I don't want this time of special service to become mundane and routine. I call it "special service" because we left home to serve here for a very specific time; however, wherever we are living at the moment is where we should serve Him. So, even though we "come down the hill" each day to work at the same job, I want to remain fresh in my outlook for opportunities to be a witness, and to keep the same attitude when I return home. Hope some of this makes sense.

I want to go to Haiti! I feel so sorry for those people, especially the children. We are off 5 days at Easter, and if there were any way to get there, I would go. God will lead.

If anyone wants to come down for a visit, let us know. The Newcomer Motel is open to all!

Wow! So much has happened since I last wrote! We enjoyed a wonderful trip home to see friends and family. Stephen and Rebecca had an engagement party in Birmingham, and we met all of her family - very large and wonderful! Since we have returned to St. John, it's been mostly school and more school. We did meet this week with some folks God has brought to this island who have the connections and resources to build a sanctuary - very exciting! We attended a movie (my first here) on St. Thomas last Saturday with youth from Calvary and had lots of fun. Dickie is teaching at Three Sail church each Sun. morning in January and anywhere else he is needed. We will go Sat. to help Calvary members clean up the piece of land they have on the beach. There will be a community family outreach there at the end of this month. We will make visits for that this Sun. afternoon. Tonight, Pastor Terrence Jones and his wife, Sharon, are coming up to the Ranch for dinner and a long overdue visit. He is pastor at Grace Baptist on St. Thomas. So, I must get to the store to find something to eat tonight!!
We are very burdened about Haiti. Would like to go there someday to help out.