I MUST PREACH THE GOOD NEWS

of the kingdom of God in other towns, too, because that
is why I was sent. – Luke 4:43

Culturally Engaged at Grace Church is defined by more than an event, a mission trip, or a chance conversation. It is a daily experience; a lifestyle of serving in our community. Serving opportunities are intended to create relationships with everyday people, and to positively impact our culture. The goal is to seek those places today where Jesus Christ would be found and to change lives once there.

We were told that Monday was going to be the “hard day.” Now that it is coming to an end, I’d disagree. The day certainly was long, with no lack of activities to keep us occupied, but the rewarding feeling after each new activity erased any thought in my mind that the day had been difficult.

We started with breakfast on the front porch, reading and mingling to start the day. At 8:30 we were able to do a Skype call with Bernard, our missionary contact in Kenya. Each day it has been so encouraging to see genuine servants of God share their passion for the people they’ve been called to minister to. Bernard told us about how he is involved in Kenya, and also opened our eyes to some of the social and cultural obstacles. Following our time with Bernard, the group split into 2: half going back to work on the church project and half staying to work with some special needs kids and prepare lunch. I went with the construction crew. Making, transporting, and pouring cement is not as bad as it sounds, for two reasons: 1. Our team is awesome. Working with friends who encourage you and make work enjoyable is a great thing. 2. Working alongside local Bahamians in an effort to better their community is really rewarding. The sense of community and commonality was refreshing and energizing. By no means was it a mild temperature day, so we kept the kool-aid flowing.

After everyone got cleaned up a little, we piled into the bus and van, heading off for a few quick site seeing stops. First was Looking Glass Bridge, the narrowest point on the island where both Atlantic and Caribbean are just 2 lanes of traffic apart. Waves occasionally crash below the bridge, one of which flattened group members Ken Cole and Dan Weidenbenner.

The other notable stop was to a fairly secretive pond the locals have coined the Blue Hole. It’s basically a super serene pond with a prime jump-off ledge. Props go out to Morgan Pittman, Katie McCall, and Bekah Shealy for being the brave women who took the plunge. After the sight seeing, we began our final activity for the day: helping teach English classes to some local Haitan students. Ranging from beginners to fairly advanced readers, we worked alongside the Fastkies and the Yacoe family teaching the locals the ins and outs of English. It was so cool to see how eager they were to learn. Helping them become better communicators and being better equipped to be in the workforce was an awesome opportunity to really engage and serve people. I am definitely going to sleep hard tonight. One more full day, and then we travel back. God has been faithful and working so far. We are all excited to see what God has in store for our last day. Please continue to keep us in your prayers.

-Nate Emery

We arrived in Eleuthera yesterday after traveling down to Ft. Peirce to catch our historic 1940ish, yet extremely dependable DC3 to the islands. The generous and hospitable flight staff supports missionaries all across the islands while donating their expertise and money (http://www.missionaryflights.org/). However, all social norms of polite in-flight behavior went out the plane as soon as we took off. About half the passengers unbuckled to go talk with one another, goof-off, and/or meet the pilots.

This past week in Fusion, our 5th and 6th grade ministry learned about symbols and the significance of symbols in our spiritual walk with Christ. We spoke of baptism being a symbol of our spiritual cleansing and new life with Christ. We spoke of communion being a symbol of Christ’s body and blood given up for us to have a relationship with our spiritual father. These actions, seemingly meaningless to the unbeliever, are symbols and reminders that point us to the foundations of our faith. As we move through life and circumstances, we are given personal and physical symbols that point us back to our Father’s love. A good friend’s healing of a serious condition still serves for me a symbol and reminder of God’s mercy. However, one specific symbol for the Allendale community was the completion of a new park in a small rural community, but serves as a reminder of hope, a growing church, and a coming Kingdom.