Antigua 2010-Day Two

We all slept great and woke up ready to enjoy a day of worship with our new friends! It was a very lovely start to a beautiful day. Larry and I enjoyed a cup of coffee on "our porch" and took in the beautiful view! Our porch, turned out to be quite the "hang out"! Each morning we had either Justin and Kari or students join us for coffee and conversation! It is a sweet memory! Here are a few pictures of the view!




Here is a picture of the whole group, waiting for the vans to pick us up. We realized very quickly we are now on "Island Time".

My first impression of the church and the members...FRIENDLY, HAPPY, JOYFUL, LOVING, OPEN and WELCOMING! It made me keenly aware of how I have fallen very short in speaking to visitors in our congregation. I am pretty sure that every person came up and introduced themselves to us! How loved we felt immediately. I sat down by a pretty young lady named Eunises and her adorable little girl. We began to visit. It was such a sweet time as I felt comfortable with her from the first moment I met her. We talked about her baby, which happened to be 10 days older than our Emma. It was fun to talk about the two little girls. Eunises is a precious mommy! The service was uplifting and the singing was AMAZING! The things that struck me were how well behaved the children were! We enjoyed our time of worship and then it was followed by an incredible potluck lunch! I have never seen so much food! Good eats! We sat around and visited and got to know our Christian friends in Antigua. Here are a few pictures, mostly of kids...you know me...kids just steal my heart!





We left the church around 3, with arms full of plates with desserts to enjoy later, the sweet ladies insisted! One thing they sent were two Fresh Coconut Pies! OH MY GOODNESS! That is now at the top of my list of ALL time favorite pies! They were so good! Hmmm...wish I had a piece right now! Sorry, I gobbled my piece(s) down to fast...forgot to take a picture! :)
When we got back to the Hotel, we decided to take some MUCH needed rest time. Everyone is pretty wasted from the very long day yesterday. So, we told everyone they could take a nap, go to the beach...whatever. Larry and I changed and headed to the beach...which is what just about everyone choose to do! It was a VERY fun and relaxing afternoon. I had promised Owen and Clay that I would bring them home some seashells, so I spent my time walking along the seashore picking up shells and enjoying the crashing of the waves. The beach is beautiful. The water was probably the prettiest color I have ever seen! It was such a wonderful afternoon...it gave us all time to get to know each other better and relax. We all know our week is going to be busy so it was a perfect time to recharge our batteries!
Here are some of my favorite shots:



The "men" headed back to the church around 7 to meet with the elders of Villa to discuss our plans for the week. The girls invited Kari and I to their rooms as they were all cooking supper together. It was a fun evening of laughter! It was a great time to get to know the girls better and oh my, I don't know when ever I have laughed so hard! After the men returned, we all met on the girls porch for a sunset devo and time to talk about the day and about the plans for the week. We have a VERY full week of service projects, etc. We all went to bed excited about the opportunity to serve!