Trinidad & Tobago 2010--last entry!

As I have mentioned previously, our mission trip ended with a weekend stay at a resort on the island of Tobago. We flew there on a small plane and Jaela and I had a room to ourselves! The weather was just perfect, too.

I've created a second slideshow of our weekend in Tobago. It showcases the resort (and the view from our room--of the pool AND the ocean!), our Sunday morning visit to a Church of God, a boat trip, and of course, gorgeous scenery!

The boat trip was my favorite part of our time in Tobago. For only $15, a group of us went on a two hour trip on a glass-bottom boat. The glass-bottom part makes our boat sound luxurious...on the contrary! You'll see it in the slideshow--we kept joking that we were going out to sea, but most likely wouldn't make it back! The tour people even picked us up at our hotel. However, they transported 10 of us in a very small white pickup truck, which meant 7 of us were piled in the bed of the truck--awesome. The tour itself was amazing! Our boat floated over a shallow reef and our guide explained all about the fish and plants we were looking at. Then we got into the water to snorkle over the reef. Our guides almost didn't let us snorkle because the waves were so choppy and the current so strong that they were afraid for us. But they agreed to let us do it as long as the whole time we were in the water, we would hold onto a long rope that was tied behind the boat. It was so fun!!

Then our boat took us over to a very famous part of Tobago--Nylon Pool (named by Princess Margaret). It's a huge sandbar located a few miles off the shoreline. You can get out of your boat to enjoy the water because it's ony about 3 to 4 feet deep! The water is warm, clear, and calm. It was so amazing to be standing in shallow water when we were so far from the island! You'll see pictures of Nylon Pool in the slideshow, also. And the other awesome thing--normally Nylon Pool is full of other boats taking out tourists to wade there, but our boat trip began at 9 am (due to our flight schedule) unlike the rest of the boats who begin at 11, so we were the only ones out there! It was so peaceful and so gorgeous. I could have stayed out there all day!

A few last pictures to share...

Check out this guy's dreadlocks! All the way to his knees!

Can you image how heavy that must be?!?

Pink faces after a day in the sun.

This is my favorite kid, Akem (sp?), pronounced AH-kem.

He was stinkin' hilarous! He got to know each of us in our group

and I think he was everyone else's favorite kid, too!

Back in Detroit--posing for one last picture.

Trinidad & Tobago 2010, part four

Now that I have acquired additional photos from others on the trip, I had many more I wanted to share with you. I realized there were too many to put into one post, so I created a video. I'll have another video coming soon that captures our lovely weekend on the island of Tobago.

The beginning of the video illustrates our accommodations at the church building and then moves into the work of our project. There are much better "before" and "after" photos of the sanctuary, too.

You will also see photos of the Bible School program run by several ladies on our trip. I was disappointed that I wasn't able to participate more in the Bible School, but it took place during the afternoon, in the middle of our work day, and because we had so much work to finish in so little time, only a few people were assigned to run the Bible School. Thankfully several kids hung around the church building to get to know the rest of us--they were so sweet!

At the end of our trip, we flew to the island of Tobago to stay at a resort for two days. This meant we wouldn't be at church on the Sunday when the congregation members would come in and see the sanctuary transformed. Several of us were saying this was a shame, and that it would be nice to be there to see their reactions. But one lady made a statement that was so true, it changed all of our perspectives instantly. She said that if we were there that Sunday, more than likely the church members would be giving credit to us for the work we had done. With us being absent, the members could completely focus on God's work and say, "Look what He has provided for us!" She was so right--all the glory is to God!

God moved through all of us that week to make us a family. If you have ever seen and/or heard God at work, you know how hard it is to put into words. His presence was felt the entire time and it was so powerful. I hope watching this video reminds you of God's love and provision for all of us, His children.

Trinidad & Tobago 2010, part three

As much fun as the trip was, it was a lot of hard work.

The "mission" of our trip was to lay tile on the entirety of the sanctuary floor, which was just plain cement when we arrived. We also painted the entire inside of the sanctuary, which was two stories high, as you can see in the photos below.

The first day of work, I helped with the tiling. Quick-set is what was used to lay the tile; it's basically the cement. Not only did we have to spread Quick-set on the floor before placing a tile on it, we had to coat the back of each tile with Quick-set as well. This we called "buttering" the tiles and Jaela and I buttered over 300 tiles that were laid on day one. Each tile was 16x16 inches, and the Quick-set had to be spread in a very even, thin layer, all the way to the edges and corners of the tiles. It was a good work out for the arms and I had a nice blister on the palm of my hand at the end of the day.

All of us rotated jobs throughout the week, and on day two, I started helping with the painting. I did this until almost all of the painting was done on Thursday morning. Although it was hot (high 80's) we obviously were indoors, and the sanctuary had an abundance of windows and doors which were kept open. Also, six or seven giant fans were brought in, so although we were sweating all day, we always had at least a nice breeze going. We all reminded each other frequently to stop for water/gatorade breaks so as to make sure no one got dehydrated.

I also helped grout the tiles. This was really fun! Our knees and backs ached from bending over the tiles for hours, but I so enjoyed filling the cracks with grout, then using the foam to clear away the excess grout to leave a nice, clean filling.

Laying tile is quite the process: preparing the Quick-set, buttering the tiles, laying the tiles, waiting 24 hours for the freshly-laid tiles to dry, cutting tiles to fit around the perimeter of the room, grouting the tile, waiting an hour or so for the grout to dry, washing the tiles with a sponge and water, re-washing the tiles, and buffing them with a cloth to make them shine. Whew.

We worked all the way until lunchtime on Saturday, and then we had a flight at 2:30 to fly over to the island of Tobago.

It was amazing watching the sanctuary transform day by day. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the completely finished sanctuary, but along with other photos I'm missing, those will be forthcoming when I collect them from others on the trip.

The tiles we laid, pre-grout. The church designated white

tiles to be where the chairs are placed and the red-marbled

tiles to represent the aisles.

A view of the mountains from the church - magnificent.


Three of my girls - Andrea, Hannah, and Andrea.




You can see the painting in progress...




A view of the street directly in front of the church. The little
booth across the road sold all sorts of stuff as well as
snacks and drinks. In Trinidad they have Banana Pop
and Pear Pop.

The sanctuary. This is the morning of day two; you can see the tile that was laid on Monday.

Trinidad & Tobago 2010, part two

To me, one of the most exciting things in life is traveling to a foreign land. I think of myself as an adventure-seeker, and nothing is more adventurous than deliberately placing oneself in unfamiliar surroundings, choosing to be outside of one's own "comfort zone." It is when I have ventured outside of this comfort zone that I have experienced the most personal growth. In a way, I feel travel is essential for me. It breathes new life within me and allows me to learn more about myself. Travel is the journey to help me find the true "Deanne." Each moment experienced during my travels has become part of my identity, and the more I travel, the more I desire to see and experience other parts of the world. As much as I long for the opportunities to travel, I also relish returning home. Home is where all that I have absorbed of the world quietly integrates into my heart, home, friends, and family. There is nothing like the sweetness of coming home and crawling into your own bed and returning to all things happy and familiar. The return home also helps me realize how immensely my life is blessed. I have so much and live a life that truly most of the world could only ever dream of. So I am thankful to be reminded of just how good I have it. This helps me to take things for granted less, although I, like everyone else, inevitably take almost everything I have for granted. My trip to Trinidad has encompassed all I described above. It's always hard to put experiences and memories into words, but I will try nonetheless. The whole experience left me filled with so much joy!

This is the sign outside the church facility in Arima, Trinidad. Arima is in the northwestern vicinity of the island. The church facility is less than ten years old and is quite large! Our group spent the majority of our trip here, working, eating, and sleeping.

Saturday, January 30th was a travel day. I was picked up by Bill, Jalene, and Jaela Jones at 2:30 am and then we made it to the Detroit airport at about 3:45. The early start wouldn't have been so bad, but once we flew to Miami, we had an EIGHT HOUR layover until our next flight! It was a killer!

(Side note: Whilst boarding our 6:40 am flight, we encountered one very inebriated passenger on the plane stumbling down the aisle. We watched as he made about four tries to get his bag placed in the overhead bin. We all felt so sorry for those sitting next to him on the flight!)

We arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad at 10:30 pm. Church members had a truck there to transport our suitcases to the church; then the rest of us were taken in cars driven by other church members. The cars were all very nice! The islands of Trinidad/Tobago belonged to Great Britain until the 1960's, so there are many echoes of British culture there. Thus, they drive on the left side of the road and the driver's seats are mirrored to ours in the US.

Once we arrived at the church, there was a wonderful meal ready for us! (We were all hungry--they didn't give us a meal on our flight from Miami, let alone peanuts or pretzels!) We met the church's pastor, Pastor Providence, and his wife. We ate and visited with the church members who had chauffeured us, then headed upstairs to our accommodations.

We stayed in several different rooms upstairs--one for the men and two for the women. The rooms had bunk beds and our room consisted of the six youngest of us on the trip. The three couples each had a room to themselves downstairs. The beds were very comfortable and we had one women's bathroom upstairs and one downstairs to share, both with showers.

Trinidad is quite similar to the US in many ways and not at all close to a third-world country. Their standard of living is not quite the same as what some of us are use to in the US, but overall, they have very nice homes with all the same comforts you and I enjoy. They are very tech-savvy with the Internet and their cell phones, and they love Wii's as much as we do!

English is the language spoken by the natives. Their accent sounds very much what we would describe as a Jamaican-sounding accent. I loved to listen to them speak! Most of the time communication was not a problem. It reminded me a bit of being in England, though. At times, when Trinidadians were speaking very quickly to one another, it sounded as though they were speaking a different language! Also, some had very, very thick accents and spoke quickly which made them much harder to understand. Thankfully, many church members realized this and made the effort to speak more slowly when talking with us. :)

Sunday morning, church began at 8:30. The sanctuary is quite large and it was a lively service! There was a worship band and most worship songs they sang were ones we were all familiar with. Our group leader, Demitrius Booker, gave the sermon. When the service first began, we were a bit puzzled because not many church members were there. They slowly trickled in at 8:45, 9:00, 9:15.... we later learned that time is more of a suggestion! We called it "TT time" ("Trinidad & Tobago time") and I just loved that about the culture.

We were fed lunch, prepared again by church members and served to us in the fellowship hall. Our meals were served to us like this the whole week and the food was just amazing! So delicious! We had lots of rice and beans, lots of chicken, vegetables and the sweetest fresh fruit! It was heaven. :)

Sunday afternoon, the church had arranged a bus tour for us of the surrounding areas and other Church of God locations. The pictures below are of our tour:

Gorgeous flowers!








Here we are up in the mountains at the Church of God
College. This building is the girls dormitory.


On the college campus.



View from the college. The house in the foreground
is the home established for the Church of God's
missionaries to Trinidad. (currently vacant)

We experienced phenomenal weather while in Trinidad & Tobago. It was in the high eighties and mostly sunny for our entire trip. We were all loving it and dreading going back to snowy Michigan...

Our bus

Trinidad & Tobago 2010, part one

I had intended to post sooner about my trip after arriving home on Wed. (2 am), but unfortunately I caught a stomach bug just as I was leaving Trinidad and I've been on the outs ever since. It did make for quite the horrible travel day, with two 3-hour flights and a 9-hour layover in Miami, but I am just so, SO thankful that I got sick on the way out and didn't have sickness keeping me from experiencing ANYTHING while I was there!!!

God is amazing! I cannot put into words how blessed I feel that He chose me to be a part of this mission trip. It was a phenomenal experience and I walked away with countless memories and new friends.

I'm planning on sharing my trip in installments, as I have so much to tell. I also have great photos to share, but my camera isn't the greatest and many of my photos are blurry, so I'm waiting to get photos from some of the other girls who went on the trip.

As a preface, there were 22 of us total who went on the trip. Two girls turned 18 while on the trip (they came with their dads), three of us were in our 20's, one was in her 30's, and everyone else was around age 50 through their late 70's.

After only one or two days together, we already felt like a family. Our group represented 10 different Church of God congregations across Michigan from west to east. We consisted of the old, young, the black, and the white. The fellowship we had with one another was an incredible blessing.

I'm going to post something each day for the next several days, so check back to hear what God has done in my life, the lives of the others in our group, and in Arima, Trinidad!