Fun weekends are uplifting to the spirits.

Graham's flip off the boat
Brant, post-boat attack
Brant jumping off the ship
The world's most awkward and hilarious picture
Graham below me, under the boat. I'm pretty pleased with this photo.

Katie and I made cupcakes for the outreach. Pardon my horrifying shirt.
All us girls waiting on the bus
Graham, Katie, and Atalie, pre-snorkeling
sea turtle!
Dwayne's backflip off of the boat

As you can tell by the pictures, we've had some pretty awesome times this week.

I'm not going to lie--the ministry part is difficult. It's summer school, as I told you, so there just aren't that many people on campus. And sometimes you only talk to one person a day, sometimes you don't talk to any...and THAT can be discouraging. This week, I didn't share the Gospel with one single person. And that doesn't really make me happy, but I have to remember that it isn't about a number, and it isn't about what I can do. It's about what God is going to do through me, with me, despite me, etc. And I did have two conversations this week--one was with 2 girls, and we talked about spiritual things, but it just didn't lead to sharing the Gospel. It was really good to talk to them though. They had really good opinions and were very talkative and willing to share what they believed. The other conversation was with the president of the student guild. So, I mean, he's a pretty important person, and he knows why we were there. We gave out cupcakes on Thursday as an outreach, and so even more people at least know about Crusade and know how to get involved or just that they can ask questions if they're interested. And I mean, you never know what God's going to do once you're out of the picture. You want to physically see results, but you don't always. Sometimes you just get them talking and thinking about spiritual things and you have to let God do what He's going to do.

And just personally, I don't think that Satan wants us here. Because seriously, everything that can go wrong HAS gone wrong. There have been very few students, it has been raining like a beast, some of us have had low spirits, and by this point, MOST of us have had something physically go wrong with us--Katie got sick, Graham broke out into mysterious hives that made him sit out for a day, I got stung by a jellyfish, Brant tore up his back on the boat and looked like he'd been attacked by a shark, and James got hit in the face with Chris's elbow, which caused him to get 5 stitches. I mean, none of this is greatly interfering with our ministry, but doesn't it kind of seem like we're getting attacked? In pretty much every way possible? And I kind of think that Satan just doesn't want us here, because we're here for a reason, and as long as we're all healthy and positive and available, then we're going to be of some use. So I think that everything that has gone wrong (and probably will continue to go wrong) is just interference so that we can't accomplish what we're here for. Think again, Satan. A little rain never hurt anybody.

And we have had some adventures. On Friday, which is our day off, we wanted just us students to spend it together, gallavanting about the island, and so we hopped a bus to Speightstown, which is the worst town ever, and whoever told us it was touristy lied. We were the ONLY white people there, and there was NOTHING to do. We ate at this place called Pizza-Man-Doc, which wasn't even good, and eventually, we found public access to the beach, which was very calm, and so I could go quite far into the water, and we played around in the ocean and had seaweed fights for about 2 hours. Then, we went to the art exhibit there, and then we caught the longest bus ride back of my life. We spend MOST of Friday on a bus, too, because we had the lime that night, and got on the most crowded bus I've ever been on. There had to be 100 people on it. People were standing up, all squished together, it was hot, it was miserable. So we finally got to the lime and were EXHAUSTED because you have to go up this ridiculous hill to get to the STINTers' apartments, and we played Yahtzee for a couple of hours. Then we trekked back DOWN the hill to catch the 11:00 bus, which didn't come until about 11:45. Like you all expected, life moves slower here in the Caribbean. I'm afraid I'm going to be late for everything once I get back in the states, because I'll be running on Bajan time. I fell asleep on the bus coming back and would have definitely gotten left if someone hadn't caused the person next to me to jostle and wake me up. It was a long day, we spent most of it on a bus, but it was good for adventure and team bonding. I wouldn't want to do it again, but I'm glad it happened.

Then, yesterday, we spent the day on a catamaran (sp?). It was AMAZING! I mean, everyone else got to get out and snorkel with sea turtles and see a shipwreck and stuff, but I love boats so much that I was perfectly content just to be on it for 5 hours. And they fed us amazing food and drinks and took good care of us, and then on the way back, we went through some big waves which splashed over us and it was AWESOME! I loved it. I still felt like I was on a boat as I went to sleep last night. I'm a little burned, but I'm mostly just getting dark, which is awesome.

Anyway, we're going to listen to a church sermon in a few minutes, so I should go get ready. Keep praying for all of us and commenting and being supportive. It really helps me.