Good News From Grenada

Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:21-22
It is amazing to me how important in God’s history the assembling of a team was to carrying out God’s purposes. King David is a classic example as God gathers around him an impressive group of priests, warriors, wives, musicians, and counsellors to usher in a golden era for His people. In the New Testament Jesus spends the lion’s portion of His time training a handful of men and women of various skills and life experience to carry on His ministry when He returns to heaven. The above verse is one of His last commands and blessings to them before he departs.

In both examples the gathering of the “team” was not a painless process. Peter denies, Judas betrays, all the men run, and the women are confused and then not believed. Bad choices are made and good ones and through it all God’s team is forged. More than one leadership guru tells us what God already seems to know that truly great teams are only forged in conflict. This is not good news for those of us trying to assemble a great ministry team, but there is hope. That is because, as Jesus states above, He gathers the team, He sends them, and He qualifies them through His Spirit. In that context it is just a little less stressful to carry on this work as best we can while watching what on earth Jesus has in the plans for this next month.



Grace’s Ministry Team grew significantly this month and we are very excited about it. Pictured above on the left is Tamika Gilbert, our new office manager. For several years now we had been trying to fill this position from inside our church family with no success. It had gotten to the point where we so desperately needed someone in the office that we had to go outside of our church to hire someone. After extensive interviews Tamika was the best of several excellent candidates. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management from St. Georges University (SGU) and some impressive training in international hospitality protocol, but more than that we were impressed with her personality and passion. She has extensive experience working in church offices and is committed to being fully invested in our ministry. Since the hire she has quickly proven herself to be all we had hoped she would be. We feel that her people skills will be a blessing to both Grace church and school for years to come.

At the same time we have not given up on developing personnel from our own people. We also hired a part time bookkeeper named Nazinga “Zingi” Berrotte. Zingi is also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Business at SGU and her family have been long time members of Grace. We feel Zingi’s amazing love of numbers will be a perfect complement to Tamika. Having her on board part time from the beginning of the school will allow her to grow into the position while continuing to pursue her degree. We are so blessed to finally have our office issues addressed and the solution could not have come any later. Things were starting to pile up on Jenelle, Dei, Ellen, and I.



This brings me to our next big news… Grace Lutheran this month extended a Call to our first teacher! We are proud to announce that Ellen Soukup (picture above with Tamika) has accepted a Call from our Lord through the Grace Lutheran family to be our pre-school teacher, teacher trainer, music teacher, and most importantly our religion teacher. In our first year Ellen will be our only Lutheran certified teacher. Ellen has a Bachelor’s degree in Primary Education from Martin Luther College and over twenty years of experience teaching primary school and music. On top of this Ellen already has four years’ experience living and teaching in Grenadian culture. We are so blessed to have her. Both Ellen and Jenelle Bullen, our Development Director will play a crucial role in training our young school staff.

As students commit to our school we can begin to add teachers to our staff. The plan is for us to open with four classrooms of any combination of students from preschool through possibly third grade. As of this writing we already have over 20 students with down payments. We are also into the process of interviewing teachers and finding some very promising candidates. As we have noted in past blogs we are also committed to training future teachers from inside our Grace family. Again this has been a very challenging process as some of our trainees are thriving like Donessa Belgrave, but most of them are struggling with academics and family issues. Pray for our teacher and staff trainees Camme, Jaquelin, Patrick, and Radisha because the devil is not making it easy at all for them to commit their lives to God’s service. One final note before I leave the issue of Grace School, thanks so much to those who are so generously donating monies first to our ministry and building project but also to train our staff and to put needy kids in our new school. I can’t express to you how much you are changing young lives! Your support is emotionally overwhelming to our staff and when we celebrate you, which is often, it is usually with tears. Words are not enough, but thanks. If you feel God is calling you to support a team that is really making a difference then please contact us.



For those of you tracking the progress of our building the pictures will tell you we are making great progress! Most of the roof is now on and is so well built that we are completely safe for the rainy season to begin. We are on schedule to open school in September and God willing even move in as soon as July. We are slightly over budget but within reason. I can speak for the staff when I say that we are so tired of being limited by our one room rental space and paying ridiculous fees to rent it. It is really limiting our ministry. We know having that tool will make a major impact on our work. The good news this month is that we have been given another huge gift to make phase 2 of our building project happen. Phase on is the Assembly hall, offices, music room, and 8 classrooms. We are so grateful to those who made this happen. Phase 2 God willing will include a café/cafeteria, covered playground area for families, a small clinic, and a sports court. We received a generous donation of $60,000 and another $50,000 in matching funds to build the café and the clinic. We are currently looking for the $50,000 to match. This would allow us to keep our builders on site after phase 1 and save expenses. Please consider a donation to help us develop this ministry. Both the café and the clinic will help us in our goal to develop our people for ministry and create a self-sustaining world mission. Phase 2 will be a nice complement to our current music and school programs. If you would like to make a donation as a tax write off please channel gifts to Grace Lutheran Grenada through Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Then start planning a trip to see what you gift is doing!

We are not just preparing to open a school and building a church though. Benevolent volunteer work continues to go on through Grace. This month three WELS Kingdom Workers from the US along with Grenadian volunteers from Grace continued to rebuild the Griffith home which has been uncompleted since Hurricane Ivan seven years ago. Walls were raised as well as pillars to tie the roof to the floor and walls were plastered. We are so thankful that God allows us to continue to reach out to those who are struggling as well. Grace has a rich history in this kind of outreach and God willing we will continue in it.



Our Grenada Girls of Grace (3G) held a drug and alchohol awareness seminar with guest speaker from the US. Our youth were also invited. We are very thankful to the four ladies who run this program; Ellen Soukup, Alice Braithwaite, Eutropia Mwasha, and Bonnie Kearny. Our youth also tried to hold our annual Easter break camp out, but were rained out. Instead we had a lock in at church. The highlight of the month though had to be our annual church beach picnic. Grace Lutheran people know how to really have a picnic! We had so much good local food and laughter and games and swimming. A few of our ladies actually gave swimming lessons while others played volleyball and cricket and all kinds of water games. Our people love to laugh and visit and compete and it is infectious to be with them.



You can’t discuss this time of year without comment on Lent and Easter. God has continued to bless us with new visitors all the time and in particular I would like to mention Amika King and Andrae and Nadia Worme who have been so faithful. My guess is that you will hear these names often in regard to our ministry in the future because they among others are very excited about our message and God’s work here. During Lent we exchanged pulpits with the pastors from the other islands. This was very interesting and I believe we all learned a lot about one another. Some exciting things are going on in both St Lucia and Antiqua. One last bitter sweet issue in regard to Easter. When people come to volunteer work in our ministry they quickly become part of our family. God in his wisdom chose to call one of our family members home this Easter season; John Brown. John and Tricia have been promoting and supporting Grace Grenada for years at great personal sacrifice. John's going home was a very moving and unique parting. We know the reunion in heaven when the time comes will be even better. We love you Tricia, Emily, and Sarah. We are grieving and rejoicing with you. He is risen!

The week after Easter was the annual Caribbean Conference this time in Antigua. We discussed issues of training people for ministry in the Caribbean, working well together as ministry staffs, and issues with modern Bible translations. There are no 20 Called workers in our three congregations and that number is set to increase in the next couple of years. Our churches formed a proposal to form a Caribbean Conference of the WELS South Atlantic District. We believe this will move us forward to an even closer bond and that a continued sharing of efforts will be greatly beneficial to all our ministries.

I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. Psalm 63:4-8

I dreamt last night of the childhood of my youth. It wasn’t so much the specifics of the home where I grew, but the smells, the sounds, and the feelings I had but never paused to ponder. I remember the smell of brown sugar beans and ground beef bubbling and M&M cookies baking. I remember the smell of lemon wax polish and fresh washed laundry. There we fought our play battles, hit our home runs, and raced our cars. We argued whose turn it was and proclaimed proudly each new thing we learned. We laughed in our love and cried when we hurt. The right and wrong were clear and things were so much fairer than I had imagined at the time. It was a safe place in which I grew and a part of me longs to go back, but everything has changed. The world is so much larger and more dangerous and I cannot hide from what I know. There are so few safe places and too many do not grow up in them. I feel grateful to my parents, what they did I did not understand. I feel better that in the floundering we did as parents, we at least made a safe place. And I want my children to understand that it is no small thing to make a safe place. It is one of the greatest things you can do in life. For it is just a bit of heaven on earth. This is perhaps the real reason why we long for a safe place because it is so much like heaven. I am pretty sure that God still has more for me to do in this life, at least he keeps throwing things at me, but one day, maybe soon, I would like to know again what a really safe place is like. Mom and Dad, thanks, now I understand.



Grenada is another one of those places in a sinful world where it is sometimes hard to find a safe place. Over the last several months I have had the chance to sit in on a number of meetings of the leaders of women’s rights issues in our country. There is a rising outcry against incest, rape, teenage pregnancy, child abuse, and battered wives. I have found from my experience among the people over the past four years that laws are often not enforced regarding these issues and men guilty of such things are too often warned and let loose to commit the crimes again. As a result too many women and girls silently endure the abuse and the emotional and physical scars are considerable. A child with a father at home and supporting his family is a rare and significant blessing. As we begin a new school in September we are sure to have even more families among us who are dealing with these things. Thank God that our school is also already attracting stable families and strong fathers to be an example for our people. It is one of our main objectives here at Grace Lutheran to provide a safe environment for those to whom we minister. Studies show that a child’s learning increases dramatically if she perceives she is in a safe place.



We continued this month to interview for teachers and office staff for our new facility. We need office staff almost immediately and teachers in September when we open school. The number of teachers we will need depends on the number of students enroll, but already we have 18 students who have put down enrollment fees and gotten on our waiting list. At most we will need four teachers and two assistants. We have been so impressed with the quality of applicants so far and are excited about what they will add to our ministry team. One teacher has an MLC degree and we are taking steps to call her. What we are looking for most in our staff is not necessarily qualifications, although all our teachers will have more than the Grenadian education requirement for teachers, we are especially looking for the right people. We are looking for self-disciplined, self-starters, who are team players and have shown a determination to continue growing. We are looking for people who are willing to become fully invested in what we are doing. We believe our staff is what will make our school special. In the coming months it will be my pleasure to introduce these new members of our team. Pray that God give us wisdom to make the right choices. Some of these are going to be very difficult decisions.



As you can see things are moving along very nicely on our facility. The roof is actually going on the classrooms and the third floor meeting room walls are now going up. The walls on the hall are also going up. We are so far slightly ahead of schedule and under budget. Praise goes to a gracious God and outstanding Grenadian builders. Quinn Company has been an impressive organization to work with from top to bottom. We spent a lot of time this month putting together orders for chairs for the worship hall and office and classroom furniture. We continue to make arrangements for curriculum materials to come and classroom equipment needs. We spent generously on our curriculum knowing that in our early years we were going to have to make some adjustments as we train teachers to adapt to new teaching styles and our new government student assessment system. We are so looking forward to having the teaching tools and space for every aspect of our ministry.



This month we took a large group of our people out to the site for an inspection. Many of our people had not been at the site since the ground breaking as the builders have fenced and locked the property to prevent theft and vandalism. I wish you could have seen the excited faces. “We are going to worship in here?!?” “This is my classroom!” “I thought the kitchen was small, it’s bigger than mine!” “This is where the drums go right?” “Look how big the lawn will be!” “I love the view from the upper room!” “Are we going to plant trees here?” What a day. When you think about how long we have been doing our entire ministry including worship and storage in a small office space you begin to understand how we feel. Right Dei, Jenelle, Ellen, and I are a bit frazzled and overworked, but it makes things so much easier when you can see such amazing progress on almost everything you are doing. It makes your bible classes, music lessons, tutoring sessions, on line classes, interviews, budget planning, promotions, meeting with prospective parents, and sermon preparation that much more joyful.



This time of year is also special for Grace Lutheran's support of volleyball on the island. One of our strongest supporters Jerry and Kay Fischer help us sponsor the island wide Secondary School Volleyball tournament. The above picture is the boys champion Grenada Boys Secondary School with our own Marinus Countain. As we began Lent we held an evening Ash Wednesday worship service and began a preacher rotation among the islands. It will be good to see how things are going in St Lucia and Antigua. I began a new Bible Basics class on Sunday. And we continued to make plans to partner with Wels Kingdom Worker volunteers with plans to rebuild Belinda and Harry Griffith’s home. The picture is of their temporary home of six years. God willing, we will help her family to find another little bit of a safe place on earth. God bless your families!

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
“It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.” Ephesians 4:11

When I served as a pastor in the US I would often get parents or youth who would ask, “Why doesn’t our church do mission trips like the mega church down the block? They are always traveling to mission countries and coming back changed and on fire for God’s work.” My first answer was “That is a lot of work and expense! I wouldn’t know where to begin something like that.” To be honest it was all I could do to stay on top of the things God put on my plate much less take on more. Once I wrote to our church body mission leaders asking for help with this issue. They told that it just wasn’t feasible for churches to send groups into our mission fields and that it would be more work and expense than it was worth. But the questions continued and more than a few of our people went on mission trips with other churches and indeed came home changed and on fire.



So when God called me to the Caribbean it began to occur to me that this would be an ideal place to send mission groups from churches and schools. It’s a gorgeous tropical island, there isn’t a language barrier, and there were already a few groups coming from New London, Wisconsin and Wisconsin Lutheran College. So for the first two years I watched and pondered. Was it really worth the effort? Would it take away from our work or add to it? Would people who came go back and be of even greater benefit to God’s work at home? It became quickly clear that the answer to all those questions was overwhelmingly positive. There is no amount of annual mission festivals and LWMS presentations that could even come close to what was going on in the lives of people who came. And when they went back it wasn’t just one missionary stumping for our mission, suddenly we had an army of on fire ambassadors who had been here, perspired here, laughed here, and cried.



But wasn’t it a lot of extra work? There is no doubt. But isn’t that what God’s work is all about, getting His people involved in His work? Notice in the passages above that God gives all kinds of gifts to all his people and that all of them can be used for ministry. We reject completely the idea that only pastors or teachers are the ones doing real ministry. In fact the Ephesians passage specifically states that pastors and teachers are to prepare God’s people for service, NOT just do it themselves. We found that hosting visiting mission groups not only got volunteers involved in ministry using their gifts, but it got our people working along with them and being gracious hosts. The connections between the US people and our own changed their perspective about service in ministry and opened up all kinds of dreams about what could be in their lives.

Over the last two years we expanded our efforts to bring in groups and strengthened partnerships with volunteer organizations like WELS Kingdom Workers (WKW). We tried to not just match volunteers with specific projects as has so often been the way WKW worked in the past but rather try to let God dictate what our ministry would look like by the spiritual gifts and interests in the volunteers that came. This past summer while we were in the US on furlough we appealed to people not just to give to the Grenada mission, but to come and serve.



This last month was definitely the culmination of those efforts. Some might call it an experiment blowing up in our faces. We hosted almost 30 volunteers from three different WELS churches and Wisconsin Lutheran College. We now publicly vow never to take on so many volunteers at once. But wow, did God ever work in the past month! We felt like we were riding a tiger on the loose. We had volunteers of all ages working together with our people. Some worked on our new building waterproofing outer walls and building concrete forms for the second floor. Our builder said they moved us weeks ahead of schedule.



Harold Kluender led a team building of shelving and cabinets for our new school using a member’s workshop. Pete Schlosser and a group of WLC volunteers formed up, bent steel, and poured the floor for Belinda’s house. Belinda and her family have been living in a shack with rain water running through for years. The house was only begun, but it took skilled labour and hard work. We pray future volunteers will come finish that project.

Pat Schlosser one of the founders of the WELS Nursing Association (http://www.welsnurses.net/) returned to lead both a children’s health fair and an adult health fair. We had almost a hundred people at both events and made all kinds of amazing connections for our church and school. Pat originally got involved with us through WKW and Kluenders were at one of our presentations this summer for WKW. Lois Kluender happened to be a retired counselor so we put her to work and boy did our people respond to her in a positive way. There is no doubt that God seems to be leading us to make a home for medical mission volunteer work in Grenada. God willing we will continue to get volunteers to train Grenadians to work in our ministry in the medical and counseling field and the facility and funding to make it happen.



Finally a group of WLC volunteers held a number of music camps in secondary schools on the island (Westerhall & Westmorland) and at our church. We have long been using music to make connections with people and to improve our own people’s musical skills for ministry. These volunteers helped these goals, but also grew considerably themselves in learning to teach and work with another culture. I could tell you how all these people felt about their time with us, but it wouldn’t be the same as if they told you. Many of them you can connect with on our Facebook page at Grace Lutheran – Grenada. From our perspective, by the end of the month, we were exhausted, but we felt like we were lying victorious on some athletic field basking in amazement at what God had just done.

Two more volunteers are coming again next month. What skills will they bring? Will they be athletes? Handymen? Techies? Medical people? Artists? Actors? Businessmen? We don’t know yet, but we will do our best to allow them to serve as God directs. And I bet they will also enjoy a few sunsets on our beaches while their friends freeze back in the States.



As if that were not enough there were all kinds of other things going on at Grace this month. The new building continues to progress. You can see pictures on our web site… http://gracelutherangrenada.com/ . You can also use the web site to get all kinds of useful information on our programs including our school. We began taking applications for students and potential teachers. Our media campaign included our health fair, fliers, radio and TV (We got on the local news at GBN!), shirts, stickers, Facebook, and we hope to expand that in the future. The number of students we get will determine the number of teachers we can hire. We have begun interviewing teacher candidates. We also began the process of extending a call for a teaching position to have someone to train our Grenadian teachers and students spiritually. Jenelle Bullen, our Development Director, began taking synod certification courses on line. It is so exciting to be getting applications and each week more arrive. As usual we are looking for people who want to invest financially in the lives of Grenadians who could not otherwise afford to come to our school. Let us know if you would like to sponsor a child.

With all our visitors worship attendance swelled to overflow in our small office area. But we continue to get each week a number of Grenadian visitors as well. Word is getting out that Grace is on the move and people are coming to find out what it is all about. Many are coming back. It is so nice to have a row of cars in the car park on Sunday morning. Buses bring most of our people.



Of special note this month is the approval of a new program after an experimental phase. The Grenada Girls of Grace (3G) is like a girls Lutheran Pioneer or Scout program for girls 8-18. This program is led by Ellen Soukup and Alice Braithwaite and a few other prominent ladies in our church. It began as an effort to reach out to girls and has been a huge success as both personal growth and as an outreach. We are very excited about where God seems to be taking this program. It is not just for outside volunteers that we want to provide a place for freedom to serve God in the way He gifts them. These ladies saw a need, had a passion, and stepped out on a limb to serve. What a joy to work shoulder to shoulder with such people. Well, that is enough for this month, say a prayer of thanks for us if you would. God has been really, really good.

PS. This is my 50th Grenada blog entry… where has the time gone? For those thinking about coming… our US volunteers highly recommend reading past blogs to get a feel for what they will be getting into.

Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May your deeds be shown to your servants, your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands. Psalm 90:14-17

Every year at Christmas people in the US used to send out letters listing all that happened in the last year with their families. It was nice to catch up on people that you hadn’t heard from in a while. These letters had kind of a bad rap because for some they were pretty much brag sheets. “My wife lost 60 pounds and is modeling swimwear. I got promoted at work and make six figures. The kids have been accepted at Harvard.” You know what I mean. I think personally though that letters like this can be most rewarding to the person who writes them because Holidays are timeline milestones and it is a good thing to reflect on what happened and give thanks to God for it. I don’t do that enough, just too much to do. But when I do pause to reflect I always discover again things I forgot and am usually overwhelmed by the volume of blessings.



I think Moses was doing that in the Psalm above. It is the only Psalm that we know of written by Moses, but if you think about his life, there was a guy who saw an awful lot. There is an old illustration about two guys who make it to heaven’s gate. One comes trudging up to the gate clearly exhausted and worn. He barely wheezes “thanks” as Peter welcomes him home. The second guy comes flying up the stairway to heaven on a Harley and slides sideways into the gate in a cloud of dust. He gets up brushing himself off and there is a big smile on his scared and worn face. As Peter welcomes him home to heaven you can hear exclaim, “What a ride that was, what a ride!” May we all enter heaven’s gate that way.

So as I write a review of 2011 please don’t take this as a brag sheet, but as someone who recognizes that “God’s deeds have been shown to his servants and His splendor to their children”. Part of what makes all this so glorious is that we who are watching God do all this have no idea how it is all happening and have just been scratching our heads in amazement and trying desperately to keep up with all that is going on.



When 2011 started we owned half of four acres of jungle bush. This in itself is no small thing because we have been paying over $3,000 EC a month in rent for a tiny office space to worship in since way before we came here four years ago. This room is also an office, music studio, storage room, and classroom. On half our Sundays we have people standing in the back for worship next to stacked storage tubs. In 2011 we completely paid for and dedicated the property and began to convert our jungle into a first class home for God’s work in Grenada. We always say in our circles that the church is not a building, but the people and the God who leads them and this is so true. But buildings say some important things. Buildings express roots, commitment to be in place long into the future. They say something about how you feel about the God you worship and they are tools to better display the gifts and skills God gives and to develop God’s amazing people. We give thanks to God for the generous donors that have made it possible to put down roots this way and given us the tools we need. By the time 2011 finished we had built roads, car park, laid foundations, and walls were going up on a new church and school.

Having said all that, we still feel our people are our greatest blessing. We believe very strongly that the right people and the right attitudes make a ministry and as we add workers to our staff and leadership we are going out of our way to recruit and develop these in our people. What kind of attitudes are the right ones? Well, for us we are looking for humility and yet a strong commitment to God and his work. We are looking for self-disciplined, creative, loving, flexible people who work together with a team, and are constantly growing. I have noticed that a lot of churches and schools say these things, but do not always walk the talk and I am sure there will be times when we fail too. But I believe that we have already shown that we will be different and that we are very serious that the right people will best reflect the mission Jesus wants for us. In this I rejoice in what God is doing with myself, Deighton Sylvester (Business Manager), Jenelle Bullen (hired as Development Director), and a number of very promising young people who are likely to staff our ministry (Donella Belgrave, Patrick Roach, Crystal Ross, Donessa Belgrave, Radisha Celestine, and others). 2011 also saw the reformation of our Grace commission. (Dei, Patrick, Marinus Coutain, Alice Braithwaite, Heather Sylvester, Belinda Griffith) We have all experienced some amazing highs and some really, really nail biting lows in the past year (for instance Jenelle’s back surgery), but even in the lows I see God’s hand shaping us and strengthening us in ways that will be needed in the future. In fact, I may be as bold as saying that it was the lows that shaped us the most. As Moses wrote in the Psalm above, “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble.”



We are also thankful for the people God has blessed through our ministry and have become a part of our work. 2011 saw Adica Slinger’s and Marlon McIntosh’s baptism and Marvin, Mooshie, Delon, and Radisha confirmed. We were blessed to have Jay and Bonnie, Kisher, Rosanne, Orchid, Dwayne, and their families involved in our work for the first time this year. We also had some longtime members make agonizing choices to drift away from our ministry in spite of encouragement. These are often the hardest things for a church family especially when some of those leaving were former leaders, but again God uses this to shape the team He wants to do his work. In spite of these losses God has blessed us with modest positive growth in almost every area of ministry including membership, worship attendance, and offerings. 2011 was the year of the wedding, something all too rare in Grenada; Kelvin & Fiona, Andrew & Nellie Ann, Marlon & Camme.

2011 was also the year we developed a number of technical ministries including our web site ( http://gracelutherangrenada.com/ ) and our Facebook page (Grace Lutheran – Grenada) both of which have been a blessing to our young people and advertising for our ministry. If you check us out on Facebook you might consider “liking” us and helping us expand the number of people we reach. Both of these are updated weekly with information and pictures. They help our people and supporters keep in touch with what is going on in our ministry and are at times teaching tools. Our technology helps us add a very personal touch with those who support us and those to which we minister. We also had volunteers from the US helping train office staff to better use our technology for ministry. This year we redid our logo which has been very popular among our people and visitors. Finally we began using technology to train our teachers with both Ellen Soukup and Jenelle Bullen enrolling in on line classes. We know this will be a standard practice in our future.



In 2011 Grace brought a record number of ministry volunteers to Grenada serving in a creative variety of ways. We met Pat & Peter Schlosser for the first time and won powerful advocates for our work. Pat is a nurse and Peter a Photographer/Professor for UW Stout. These two have made all kinds of connections for us and as I type they are here again a second time building houses and cabinets for our school and anchoring our annual health fair. Other first timers are Tom and Renee Schloesser and Ron and Julie Wingate. Currently here are Also Harold and Lois Kluendner. We also further solidified our strong relationship with Wisconsin Lutheran College adding Professor Dan Eastman to our Grenada Ministry Board and continuing to host student ministry groups on benevolent and marine biology missions. We have also begun the process of strengthening our ties using WLC programs to help us train our teachers and staff.

Sometimes people ask me if all these visitors don’t detract from important ministry that should be done on the island. There is no doubt that when volunteers arrive to help it takes a lot to support them. The bottom line is that these personal connections are worth far more to us and them than the effort it takes to host them. For years I had members in Seattle come to me and say, “Why can’t our people go on mission trips like the mega church down the block, they are going all the time and their spiritual lives are deeply changed.” And I would answer I don’t know and seek answers from our boards and consistently got “no”, “we’ve never done it that way”, “we are not social ministry”, or “they will only get in the way of real ministry”. How interesting that God put me right smack in an ideal field to offer such mission trips to our people. Ask any of them that come, lives are being changed and people set on fire for God’s work like never before. Not only are they ministering to us, but without exception they find that God is ministering to them through us.



This leads nicely into something I wanted to say about our purpose and goals as a ministry. For the first number of years here I felt it would be wise to kind of maintain things and just watch and analyze our culture and national needs. As a young pastor I spent way too much time trying to be like the best WELS churches or worse the big mega church up the road. Or I spent my time just trying to make the members we had happy. What I should have done more was analyzing what the people we were trying to reach wanted most and how to make a connection between that and the gospel. Here, I think that is teaching and training, whether it is spiritually, musically, or academically. I am confident that we can become the best at that in Grenada. I think this will go a long way to helping us become financially self-supporting and I think we can and are pulling together a team that is passionate to make this happen.

So teaching is what we did in 2011 more than ever before. On Sunday mornings in worship I taught a series Characteristics of Godly Leaders, on Luke’s gospel, on the life of the Prophet Elijah, and finished with Issues that Divide the Church. In Bible Class I taught a series on the books of 1 & 2 Corinthians, Family Issues, the Life of the Prophet Samuel, and Religions of the World. I taught confirmation and Bible Basics. For the first time, without US volunteers, we put on our own VBS. Every day during the week I or members taught guitar, drums, and keyboards after school. Visiting volunteers taught seminars on a variety of subject from Lutheran History to Photography and Computer Accounting. It is extremely rewarding to see God’s blessings in this. “Establish the work of our hands, Lord; establish the work of our hands.”

This already has been the longest blog I have ever written and you are probably all asleep by now. Consider this my version of a year-end report. They can sometimes be tedious. As a personal note our youngest son Sam moved out of the house and back to the US to go to Wisconsin Lutheran High School. We miss him, but are so proud of him. I think God keeps us busy so we don’t all fall apart with the empty nest thing. My Dad continued his almost 20 year war with cancer losing a few more battles than he used to. When I was 20 I was convinced my Dad was invincible, well someday he will be, but God willing that be awhile yet. Finally Ellen and I celebrated 25 years in the ministry. I name both of us because it has been both of us and the emotions I feel looking back on those years are so powerful that I can’t express them as yet. So I will use Moses’ words… Lord you have “Satisfied us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.” What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun? Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever. The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises… All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again. All things are wearisome, more than one can say. Ecclesiastes 1:2-8 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength… Ephesians 1:18



When you live and work in a developing nation like Grenada you encounter some very subtle attitudes that develop among people who feel “trapped” by their circumstances. Even so called “developed” nations of course have their share of struggling peoples, but I guess I have never thought about how constant, on-going struggle with no end in sight effects how people begin to think and react to life. For example people who feel trapped in bad circumstances tend to live only day to day. They don’t often think ahead. They tend to take as much as you will allow and struggle with thankfulness. They tend to be apathetic and only do what they need to get by. They say things like, “Why complain, no one ever listens anyway.” These are characteristics of people who have gotten their hopes up only to be disappointed time after time. They are not going to give hope again easily, if at all. Obviously wise Solomon in our first reading above understands what this feels like. I see a lot of hopelessness in our world today and it isn’t just economic desperation, sometimes it is health desperation, or struggling relationship desperation.

So, I have been thinking a lot lately about hope and what it does to our hearts and how Jesus brings us hope and really what that means for us. The longer I think about this the more I think I could write a whole sermon series on this subject, but for the sake of this reflection I am just going to touch on a few items. First, I find great hope in knowing as God tells me, that I am never alone, even when I am going through one of those shadowy valleys Psalm 23 talks about, He is with me. Unfortunately I think this has become cliché to Christians. Of course, he is always with me, but do we practice His presence? I can tell you in my case, not enough, but when I do, suddenly the sun comes out from behind the clouds.



Then there is this whole idea of something better waiting for me in the future. Jesus tells me I have a guaranteed inheritance in His house forever. No agonizing if I am worthy enough for this, He promises, take it to the bank. I don’t know about you but tunnels are a lot less scary for me if you can see the escape.

The last thought I want to share before I get into what is going on at Grace is reliability. Grenada is littered with the carcases of dreams, signs of businesses that boasted so much and now long gone, once beautiful homes that no one repaired after Hurricane Ivan, land planned for spectacular resorts still valleys of bush, children from failed relationships that once held so much promise. It is just the nature of this sinful world to crush dreams. How rare that Jesus never fails a promise. When Jesus says He will be born as a human baby to take our sufferings on His own back, it happens, sure as rain and sun in Grenada. Whether we are experiencing blessing or challenges it is always Jesus who gives us hope in our lives.



So, how is God blessing us? Well, He has again allowed us to make some huge steps toward getting into our own building. Even as I write cement is being poured, blocks are being laid, and steel bent in building fashion typical of the Caribbean. Already the walls are going up on the four downstairs classrooms. The best way to keep up on the progress is to view the regular construction posts on our Facebook page… Grace Lutheran – Grenada or we did all kinds of updating on our web site... http://gracelutherangrenada.com/. We had to decrease the size of almost all our plans in order to fit into our building budget, but we are confident our contractor, Quinn Construction and our architects at COCOA, will find a way to complete our project on time and on budget.



All kinds of things are going on behind the scenes in preparing for the opening of our new school on our new site. For instance, we created a new logo and are using it in everything from letter head to fliers to business cards to school uniforms. We wanted to keep aspects of our old fish and cross logo but make it more modern and Caribbean while emphasizing the rich meaning of our name “Grace”. With the cross in the letter G and the three fish in the shape of banana leaves we think we did just that. Thanks for the help we got from Belinda Baumgartner and her B.Media Creative Design company. We are very excited about our new look. But we are also excited about progress in obtaining important things like curriculum and teacher training materials. We are trying to combine the best of Grenadian and US teaching technique and materials. We are confident these two things will help give our school a big advantage in recruiting and giving one of the best educations in Grenada to our students. Talking about education... as promised last month four of our young people were confirmed. Congrats to Radisha Celestine, Delon John, Desmond Plenty, and Marvin Christopher all pictured below.



This month also saw the renewal of our relationship with WELS Kingdom Workers, a volunteer Lutheran organization from the US. Tom and Renee Schloesser from Resurrection Lutheran Church in Verona, Wisconsin spent a week and a half in Grenada training our people in various computer skills. They helped us set up our accounts for our new school. They trained our office staff in Quickbooks, Word, Publisher, Filemaker, Powerpoint, and Excell. By the end of the week they were making fliers, calendars, business spread sheets, and student profile forms. Tom and Renee also got plenty of walks on our amazing beaches and hiked our rain forest while their Spiritual brothers and sisters in Verona froze in late November sleet. Tell them where we are guys, ok? And thanks so much, you guys made some lifelong friends. Do not be strangers.



There is so much going on and from month to month I try to give you highlights but also ordinary things that go on. Camme Roberts and Marlon McIntosh got married. What a beautiful bride and groom, and their kids. Camme is one of our people who will possibly be working for our new school. We continue to get new visitors on Sundays. This month we especially enjoyed Kisher and Rosanne and their families who have been back every Sunday since. We did a food collection as usual on the anniversary of our beginning and helped several needy families. Continue to pray for jobs and for relationships for our people. Our Bible Class focused on Religions of Grenada and our sermon themes were on issues that divide the Christ’s church.



A real highlight for some of our musicians was the 2011 Gospel Challenge singing contest. Two of our singers entered the contest and Dwayne Williams actually took 5th place prizes. Praise God for his gifts. The other contestants held a weekly practice at our “studio”. Our worship band, Not of This World, was honoured to make a special guest appearance on GBN TV for the final program. There were truly some very talented people in this contest from all over the island and we rejoice that an old friend of ours, Kevon Paul, won the contest. As was noted so often during that night, we weren’t there to win, Jesus already won for all of us, we are just marching in His victory parade. “I climbed up to the highest mountain, looked all around, couldn’t find nobody, went down into the deepest valley, looked all around down there couldn’t find nobody… nobody greater, nobody greater than YOU, Jesus.” Now that is a reason for hope, eh?

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:23-26



Like Mary and Martha’s family tragedy struck our spiritual family in Grenada this week. Chris Joseph, son of one of our people, Nellie Ann Joseph/Brown drowned in Grand Anse bay. Circumstances regarding his death are not certain. Speculation is that Chris suffered from some kind of neural condition that caused a type of seizure and he was not able to keep his head above water. Chris was 16 and a friend of many of our young people. His death sent a shock wave across the island. Chris’ father and family were from the North end of the island in the country town of River Salle. Grenadian funerals are almost always a big deal. The two memorial services for Chris and the events of his internment in River Salle covered an entire day. A Quartet of our men sang for one of the services these comforting words… “And I will rise when He calls my name, No more sorrow, no more pain, I will rise on eagles' wings, before my God fall on my knees, and rise, I will rise.” A Grenadian funeral is an amazing combination of grief, community, celebration, and ceremony. We grieve with Nellie Ann and her family. It was only several months ago that we celebrated her marriage to Andrew Brown. The Lord gives and the Lord takes… Nellie is still blessing the name of the Lord. What an amazing woman, what an amazing Lord who gives us life even in death.



This month wasn’t all grief though, WE GOT OUR BUILDING PERMIT!!! We are really rejoicing because NAWASA, the water and sewage sector of our government, finally passed our drainage and sewer system. The delay was nerve wracking but our builders and architect tell us we can still meet our deadline of September 2012 to open our new school. As you can see from the pictures most of the site infrastructure is nearly complete. We have entry road, roundabout, car park, retaining walls, drainage, water, and electricity. Jerry and Lynn Zimpleman, our construction supervisor and his wife were here for a week to see the progress and push things along. We are thankful for their help and for the persistent work of Trevor Bullen, one of our Grace family and our architect. If you are Grenadian, we hope you check out the progress happening on the hill side behind “On the Spot” Hardware in the Woodlands.



The building isn’t the only effort making progress. Development Director Jenelle Bullen and Ellen Soukup have done wonders in the last couple months getting ready to open school in 2012. They have done a ton of work on curriculum, handbook, teacher contracts, schedules, student progress report formats, tuition scale, enrolment forms, logo, school uniforms and colours, ordering teacher training materials, work with Dei Sylvester on getting Grenada government and legal certification, work with Wisconsin Lutheran College to organize teacher training and student interns, tutoring Grace Scholarship students training for teaching degrees, training office personnel, organizing projects for visiting groups to promote Grace Lutheran school and ministry, and tutoring potential teachers to obtain CXC requirements to teach. So much is going on behind the scenes in preparation and we are so blessed to have these ladies and those with whom they are working. Ellen Soukup is also currently taking a class in Special Education on line, preparing herself to handle a variety of students. The picture below is Ellen and I with Jerry and Lynn Zimpleman.



Early this month, God willing, we will confirm a hand full of young people. A number of our youth are preparing for the public examination on November 13th. On track so far are Delon John, Desmond Plenty, Radisha Celestine, and Marvin Christopher. God be with our young people in their efforts to take on a greater role in our church. I spend a lot of time working, mentoring, and even having fun with our young people. Sometimes I wonder if it is the best time investment. And yet when we have activities, classes, and even worship, they are the ones that most consistently come. When I see sometimes how some of them are maturing and what God is doing in their lives it is very encouraging. The frustrating thing is that so many of them still make mistakes young people make and don’t take things very seriously. I find the best lessons are learned in teachable moments that come in the course of activities and not in a formal teacher/student setting.



There are few churches where so many young people play such major roles in almost every aspect of our work from worship and outreach to instruction and fellowship activities. There are even several youths on our commission. I am praying that this bodes well for our future, but we have a long way to go and only God knows what will happen in the future. I thank God for those mature people in our congregation who are so patiently mentoring and training so many young people. It is not easy work and it is not always blessed.

“Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve—designating them apostles, that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder)…” Mark 4:13



“Mooshie, Dat good for yuh, fou fou Jumbie, nah!?!” cried one of the boys after getting revenge for one of Mooshie’s constant pranks. (Translated basically as far as I can tell “That’s what you get, you foolish cursed ghost!”) Mooshie got his nickname from me. Mooshing is the kind of prank where one puts shaving cream in the hand of a sleeping victim and then tickles his nose. Mooshie earned this when he managed to moosh almost all of us at a youth camp out. Of course the next morning when he put on his shoes he found them completely full of tooth paste. To some it might seem that the nicknames, the bantering insults, and practical jokes are very immature and disrespectful. Perhaps, but I think there is something more to it that is really something very different. I think it is a sign of intimate friendship, love, acceptance, and even respect.



In the above passage we are told that Jesus gave three of his disciples sarcastic nicknames. Peter “The Rock” who was anything but a rock in the end and the overconfident, ambitious “Sons of Thunder” or maybe “Thunder” was the nickname for James & John’s mother or father? It isn’t like Jesus to mock people, but it is like him to have an affectionate banter with those he loves. What an incredible thought that the Son of God was so close to his loved ones that he could banter with them. I learned a lot of this kind of banter in sporting locker rooms especially among teammates who were close. Grenadians I find are especially adept at this kind of banter. There is something infectious about a group of them bantering with each other in loud voices, big smiles, and lots of handshakes and hugs. It is a kind of strange language that says, “You belong here, you are secure, we know you’re not perfect and we like you anyway.” Sometimes the affectionate teasing goes too far, but most of the time it is their way of making each other welcome. I find in Grenada, when you walk into a place and everyone ignores you, that is when you should feel disrespected.



Which was anything but the case for Ellen and I this month. Our people pulled a surprise party for me celebrating the 25th Anniversary of my ordination into the ministry. There were letters read, a skit, special music, and of course a potluck feast. Walking into a Grace potluck may seem like utter chaos to some, but there is so much positive love and energy in this group that it is just astonishing. As a pastor this kind of fellowship means so much to me. Jesus said people will know we are disciples if we love one another. And when there is love in group people want to be there. When there is gossip, jealousy, judgmental attitudes, and petty politics then you can cut the tension in the room with a knife. People can’t avoid that fast enough. I got a very nice commemorative plaque, a plant, lots of honor, great memories, and great food, but the best gift last Sunday, was the love of God’s people. Thanks! 25 years is not about me, it has always been about God’s graciousness in spite of my fumbling and the surprising gifts and opportunities he has consistently dumped on me. What an adventure it has been!



What an adventure it continues to be here at Grace. There are so many areas where we continue to see progress God is allowing in our plans. We have a number of people again striving to complete classes and memory work for confirmation. Little Marlon Malachi Roberts Jr., son of Marlon Sr. and Camme, was baptized. Jenelle Bullen continues to make tremendous progress in her huge task of putting together a school program by next September. She and her team are working though all kinds of evaluation and summary on tuition, curriculum, policies, ordering materials, and training our staff. Our three scholarship students now get weekly tutoring in their subjects and study habits. Crystal Ross and Donella Belgrave continue to do training for office work in learning to do computer evaluations for individual students and putting together communication tools like a school calendar, phone lists, etc. They have also been taking webinar classes on school discipline and student interaction at St. Georges University. It is so exciting to see these young Grenadians develop and it means so much for their future and Grace’s.



The church and school are not the only Grace programs that are on the grow. This past month saw significant growth in our music program. First, we have several new teachers. Patrick Roach is now teaching drums and although he is new at it is finding he has a gift for working with kids. Our number of drum students has doubled since he began. Desmond Plenty has also reached a stage where he has begun teaching beginner guitar lesson in my place. It has been my job as a pastor to work myself out of these jobs so I can move on to others. I praise God that he has increased the skill of our musicians to the point where they can confidently lead worship songs without Ellen or I, but I praise Him even more when they get to the point after only three years where they have begun sharing their gifts with others. They need the income and the satisfaction of being an active, important part of their church’s ministry. Our musicians continue to show much progress both in worship and in outreach. This month they played for a charity concert for the Grenada Kidney Foundation and helped raise funds for those in need. The connections they are making and the people who are getting involved with Grace because of the music program are priceless.



We are also making steady progress on our building site. The entrance road and round about is almost completely finished as well as some of the drainage and power and poles have now been run into the site. Workers are now progressing with the car park areas. We are on the very edge of receiving a permit for our building plans; there is just one small area that needs to sign off. We are really hoping we can get approval next week. The site is prepped to begin building at once. Thanks to Jerry Zimplemann who is overseeing our project and Trevor Bullen, our architect, who is doing so much work trying to get our permits through.



It would be less than honest to tell you only the things that are going well here in Grenada. Like so many other places in the world the poor economy is hitting our people very badly. Although the tourist season started this week the news is that several of the big Cruise ship companies are cutting back on their trips. All over shops and restaurants are closing. A number of our people are desperately looking for work. Several of our families are also struggling in their relationships, particularly with their men who are not supporting their families. Finally we have several people who are losing a battle with addiction. These issues can be crippling to families and almost always are harmful to spiritual growth.



In closing I want to again say thank you to a number of people who have been so supportive. First thanks to all our financial sponsors! Since we came back from the States there has been a steady flow of gifts to building and scholarship funds. You are dropping stones in our pond and the ripples are changing the lives of the people you touch. Well done good and faithful servants! Secondly, we want to say thanks for support we get monthly from our Grenada Board who work on anything from Tax Status and pay roles to budgeting building expenses. Finally, thanks to the staff at Wisconsin Lutheran College who have been so helpful with anything from ordering curriculum materials to consulting regarding staff training. You are our “Rock” and “Sons of Thunder”, meant in the most affectionate way!

"Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” Numbers 3:15
I once asked a friend of mine who was a potter, what kind of clay she used. With a big grin on her face she said, “soft clay”. For sure! Can you imagine trying to make something out of rock hard clay? The same principle applies to our relationship with God. The Bible often calls Him a Potter and his people clay, but it also describes how sometimes we can be “hard hearted”. When that occurs God usually proceeds with a plan to soften the clay so He can shape it. All kinds of Bible characters experienced this… Moses, Jacob, Elijah, Joseph are great examples. It is possible for our hearts to be tender toward God for a season but then when God speaks to us about an issue, choose not to humble ourselves, but harden our hearts. It’s not a good place for us to be. The Bible says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

So, what causes our heart to be hard? One way is to allow ourselves to be poisoned by negative talk. When God’s people are bitter, critical, dissatisfied, and contentious it hardens their heart and those around them. Another way is to have an elevated view of ourselves. Because the Potter makes us so wonderful and useful we sometimes forget that we are just clay and that the Potter makes all kinds of other amazing pots as well. Or we can just flat out rebel. “Hell will freeze over before I go along with that!” One only has to look at stories like Jonah, Peter, Saul, or Paul to see what happens with that kind of heart. I think as a Pastor this is a prayer I pray most often for God’s people… “Soften our hearts, Lord. Keep us alert to pride and open to your wisdom even if it is not what we want to hear. Give us discernment in who we listen too and what we say. Give us courage to say, “I was wrong, forgive me.” Help me in that prayer this month, ok?

Last month marked our annual furlough to the states to see family, restock supplies, and catch up on doctor’s appointments. For me this event marks the passing of time and I find myself thinking about where we were in our ministry at this time last year and all God allowed us to accomplish. What a year! We made huge progress in developing leaders in our church. We got our Grace commission up and playing a valuable role. Many of our young men continued to grow in learning, spiritual maturity, and involvement. We added Jenelle Bullen to our staff. We welcomed a number of new families that promise to be a huge influence on the future of God’s work here. We broke ground after over a decade of ministry in rental space and began to develop the land God gave us (see picture above as entrance is poured). We have aggressive plans to expand our ministry with a school to open next year and begun to train staff to man it.

Just before we left on furlough we awarded two new scholarships to TAMCC, Grenada’s junior college, to Radisha Celestine and Patrick Roach, who will study to be teachers in our school and it’s supporting programs. Radisha was awarded for academic excellence. She achieved high honours in both Spanish and French. Patrick was awarded for proven dedication to our ministry and obvious talent and passion for God’s work at Grace. Patrick is the leader of our worship team and a gifted musician. We are so thankful to financial sponsors in the States that make their training possible. Without their support these young people would not have these opportunities. Lives are being changed. All those awarded scholarships by Grace sign a contract agreeing to certain conditions among which is a commitment to work for Grace for a number of years in accordance to the financial commitment we make to them. Congratulations Radisha and Patrick!!! As wonderful as it will be to have a new facility, it will be the people God gives us that make our ministry a blessing.

The first couple weeks of our furlough were not much of a vacation. Ellen and I committed to doing more promotion for Grace while we are in the States. It is our hope to not only increase awareness of our mission field, but to encourage lay people to become personally involved in our work, coming to Grenada on mission trips with their churches and school. Ours is an ideal place for this as we serve on a tropical, English speaking island and yet there is much work for us to do. We are also trying to encourage our brothers and sisters in the States to sponsor the training of our young people for work in our church and down the road to sponsor under privileged member’s children who wish to attend our school. We have been able to speak in Wausaw, Watertown, Cudahay (Pastor Marshall above), and two different churches in Madison (Eastside & University Chapel) this year. God really blessed our efforts. We received several substantial gifts for scholarship including the Kuntz family who want to sponsor an annual “Melanie Kuntz Scholarship” to Grenadians studying for church work. Melanie, their daughter, was killed in a tragic car accident at the age of 16. Sixteen year old Radisha was the first recipient of the Melanie Kuntz Scholarship. We are so thankful to the Kuntz family and know that God will make you a great blessing to the lives of the people you are changing. Since setting up this scholarship the Kuntz have suffered another tragic loss with the death of their son Jeremy. We grieve with you and know that as long as we are here we serve God. One day we will all rest and celebrate together. If you are interested in helping with scholarships to help talented young people have an opportunity to change their future write me at sspadre@juno.com.

Not all was roses this month though. Jenelle Bullen went through disk replacement surgery and endured much pain and a month laid up, before surgery. She is recovering very nicely and chomping at the bit to get at putting together a school for 2012. Our first task once back was Vacation Bible School, which we held in our office space. Because of limited space we decided to focus primarily on younger aged children that would be candidates for our school next year. As you can see by the picture, it was great fun and we made a bunch of great people connections. For weekly updates on what is going on in our ministry check out our facebook page under Grace Lutheran – Grenada. God bless your end of summer!

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” “Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” Exodus 3:4

With these words God announces that He is about to do what Moses himself failed utterly to do forty years previously; free His people from slavery and lead them to a promised land flowing with milk and honey. Moses was terrified, but God reassured him by reminding Moses of who He was and how often God had been there for Moses’ people in the past. I can’t tell you how reassuring stories like this are for me. Too often I feel like Moses, totally inadequate, totally over my head, and completely out on a very shaky branch. I shouldn’t feel that way, because God is awesome and He has been there so many times for me in the past, but then, well, I think you know how I feel to be facing a nearly impossible task.

What task am I talking about? Building a Lutheran Ministry in Grenada. This month God lit up another burning bush so to speak and moved us forward on His project. On June 19th we broke ground on our new property and as I write, the site work has begun. The Ground breaking service was very special. We rented a tent and chairs and in spite of a monsoon rain the night previously consecrated the rich soggy soil to God’s presence and work. Memorable moments in the service were Marinus keeping the cross standing on the altar through the wind, the acoustic guitars leading worship, Dei’s responsive reading from Genesis on Jacob’s ladder, Jack Bullen leading his sister out into the mud behind the altar, the closing hymn “We are standing on Holy Ground”, the ladies laughter as they served sandwiches and juice, the youth who camped out all night in the rain to guard our stuff from thieves, all of the helpful people that pitched in to move equipment and prepare food, and the crushed choral ground pack that saved us from a complete mud bath.

We rejoice that God has moved our government to approve our plans and now work will begin in full on the site infrastructure and later on our Assembly Hall and classroom facility. The challenge will be getting what we need in our budget. We have a limited amount of budgeted for this project and we can’t go over. On the other hand we have a minimum amount of space we need for our program and the two will be very hard to match up. Unfortunately buildings are always more expensive than you expect. We may have to build the structure and rely on volunteer groups to do much of the finish work down the line. Fortunately we have had so many blessings already from church and school groups wanting to come and help and more coming on board regularly. If your church, group, or school is interested in a foreign mission project to come and do some tiling, finish, or handy work for us without the hassle of US building codes, do we have an ideal place for you to come! Drop us a line.

Jenelle Bullen is set to begin working for Grace full time on July 1st to develop our school and associated ministries. Unfortunately she has been diagnosed with a deteriorated disk and is facing disc fusion surgery. Worse in her mind is that she is in the US separated from her young family here in Grenada. The surgery might also delay her synod certification process at MLC scheduled to begin in July. Ellen Soukup starts on line classes in September pursuing an advanced degree in Special Education. Donessa Belgrace successfully completed the first year of her two year associates degree at TAMCC our local community college. Donessa is training to be one of our future teachers with help from scholarship gifts from people like you. We are so greatful for her sponsors. You are changing lives.

Jenelle, Ellen and I are putting on a VBS in August when we get back. We will focus on younger kids and use it to prepare our local staff for school opening. Camme (future teacher) will have a baby any day. Donella Belgrave started doing clerical training this week for Jenelle in association with the SGU preschool. WELS Kingdom Workers is sending volunteers to train a group of our people to do clerical work that will be needed to run our school and ministry office. This will take place in July. We are looking forward to the help these volunteers will bring.

Ellen and I held our first Grace music recital for guitar, keyboards, vocals, and drums. A dozen students participated and a group of about 50 friends and family totally enjoyed the evening. The students learned valuable lessons about performing in public and mastering specific pieces of music for that purpose. Students were also inspired by each other.
The ladies group (Lutheran Women for Christ) held a third annual ladies tea. Worship attendance has been up and down while offerings have been slightly up. Jay & Bonnie Kerney are an exciting new couple that has been visiting and expressing great interest in being involved with our ministry and getting to know us better. As usual some of our people continue to grow spiritually and others struggle in their relationships. As the world economy continues to struggle things here grow even worse and the joblessness is fuelling unrest and discontent. It is a challenge to grow a church when so many people are just trying to survive and physical needs are so great.

We have a number of our young people graduating from Secondary school this month, many of whom have been very involved in our ministries. Patrick Roach and Daryel Slocumb from Wesley College are in the picture above. Patrick is our band leader and member of our commission, Marinus Countain, a youth leader and member of our commission and graduating from Grenada Boys Secondary School, Radisha Celestine who has been very involved with our youth and drama programs and graduating from Boca Secondary, Theresa Charles has also been involved with our youth and drama program and is graduating from Westerhall Secondary. Then, of course there is our own son Sam, who will be finishing school here at Westmoreland and then returning to the states to finish High School at WISCO in Milwaukee. We have a very young congregation and these maturing young adults are so important to our future. For more pictures on these and other events check out the Grace Lutheran – Grenada Facebook page and don't forget to click "like".

Ellen and I are set to return to the US the middle of July for our annual month in the states. This year we have a full schedule of speaking opportunities to raise funds for scholarships for students and future church workers and to get word out that we are open to volunteer groups from churches and schools who want to come for mission trips. As usual we are scheduled for all kinds of doctor visits which work best for our insurance to do in the States. It will be a very busy trip this time. We are in good health and spirits although sometimes it is so frustrating when things do not go right in our people’s lives. It is always an unpredictable challenge working with so many teens as much as I do. But mostly God is very good and we are blessed even more now that we are standing on Holy Ground. Before I close, just let me ask for prayers for a very special servant of Christ who has led so many mission trips down to Grenada from one of our sister churches in New London. Jack Vande Guchte had a heart attack and bypass surgery. He will have a long recovery but we are so thankful that God is not yet finished using Jack in this world. Get well soon Jack!

This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. Jeremiah 23:10
This is such a popular verse with schools, baptisms, and confirmations because it is a reassurance that God does not forget us in hard times and that in fact He uses the hard times to prepare us for blessings of some kind down the line. This is definitely the case here at Grace, not only because we just celebrated Jesus victory on Easter and our assurance of a heavenly home, but also for reassurance he is giving us at Grace. We have been through hard times and we are facing huge challenges, but there are some strong signs that God is preparing to prosper us in some very special ways.

The biggest news this month has to be the signing of Jenelle Bullen (above) as our development director for Grace Lutheran School and associated ministries. Although Jenelle has been working behind the scenes for us for some time as a member she will officially begin as part of our staff on July 1st. Jenelle has been working as a teacher trainer in Grenada since 1994 when she came here as a peace corps volunteer. She has a Bachelor of Science, Education, and Child and Family Studies from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She has a Master’s degree in Education, Curriculum and Teaching from the University of Columbia in New York. Currently she is working as the assistant director of St Georges University Preschool program and has been an advocate/trainer for education in Grenada for over a decade. She is married to Grenadian architect Trevor Bullen and is the mother of Jack and Eloise. What are the odds of having such a talented and experienced teacher trainer in your congregation in a foreign mission field? It only happens in God’s plan. Jenelle has been accepted at Martin Luther College to complete a WELS certification process. She will be taking both summer and online courses over the next several years. Even more important than her credentials is Jenelle’s personality and heart. We feel very strongly that teamwork and the Godly attitude of our staff is crucial to our ministry and Jenelle fits perfectly. Jenelle will be working with my wife Ellen to set up our school program by the fall of 2012. They will have their hands full, but we are confident God will bless their efforts and we are so thrilled to have their energy, wisdom, and experience as the cornerstone of our children’s and family ministry.

I also want to highlight the work of our Grace Commission (Council), especially the excellent leadership of Mr Deighton Sylvester (above) our business manager and lone Trustee. Dei has been a great blessing in almost every aspect of our ministry from family counselling to paying the bills to logistics for visiting groups. He has helped us time and again wade through the mysteries of cultural adjustment. He has been a strong advocate for Grace with our people, our government, our supporters, and just about any organization involved with Grace. Like Jenelle, Dei is more than qualified and experienced for the work he is doing for us. He has a sharp mind and canny insight and above all he is fanatically dedicated to the study of scripture and to the work of Grace, Grenada. He and his wife Heather have been involved with Grace from the beginning. They are the longest tenured founding Fathers and Grace would not exist without their efforts. We are so thankful for them and thrilled they are part of our team.

The rest of our commission is made up of Young men and ladies who are active in the various parts of our ministry. We do not have many men in our congregation, but we are also thankful for the variety of perspectives God has given our group of counsellors. They are Belinda Griffith (school), Alice Braithwaite (ladies group), Marinus Countain (Youth group), Patrick Roach (Worship). (Marinus is right behind Patrick in the above picture from one of our worship services.) This group (including Heather Sylvester) not only advises our staff (Dei, Jenelle, and I) on congregation issues, but they are also serving as congregation advisors for our building project. They are the beginning of a leadership team that we are confident will grow and develop as training continues. We are very thankful for the unity and character of our Commission.

I started with our people because people are the church and not the buildings. You can have the most amazing facility in the world but if your staff is contrary, divided, selfish, and inflexible even God's organization will struggle. We always want to put a priority on our leadership and our people. Having said that for too long now our rental facility has been holding back our program. Plans to fix that continue to progress. Above and below are pictures of our latest preliminary facility and site plans. They are changing almost weekly right now in our drive to begin site work by June and building by September of this year. If our government will cooperate with us (and we are very encouraged so far) that will give us a year to complete our project for school to open in the fall of 2012. As mentioned in a previous blog Jerry Zimpleman is our project overseer, Mike Quinn construction (a local company) is our contractor, and Trevor Bullen is our architect working with our contractor in a design/build process. Pray for us, we will need God’s help to accomplish this significant deadline.

As long as I am focusing on plans this month let me also say that things are progressing in our relationship with the Jason Roberts Foundation to build a football field on our property and also with Wisconsin Lutheran College/WELS Kingdom Workers (WKW) to build a Cafe/playground on our site. WKW has also agreed to send a team to help us train members as office administrators to run our school and associated ministry programs. We are thrilled these partnerships are moving forward and you can be sure you will hear more about them and how they are playing a significant role in helping us develop God’s ministry here in Grenada. God bless your month!

A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Proverbs 31:10

Ok it is way past time after two and half years doing mission work in Grenada and almost 25 years in ministry to give some credit to the second biggest reason for any success we have ever experienced. The biggest reason, of course, is the God we serve. The second is the amazing life partner He has given me. There is no law that says a pastor’s wife needs to be involved in his ministry and frankly way too many Christians have very unrealistic expectations. Being a pastor’s wife is a tough job. What they say about living in a glass house is so true. It’s a little like being a movie star without the pay or the fame. At the same time I have been in this long enough to see that a pastor’s wife can be amazing blessing to a ministry or a major stumbling block. I really have no clue how it happened because I married her for her beauty, but in the bargain God gave me an amazing life and ministry partner. Unfortunately I do not tell her this enough.

We gave up so much coming to Grenada. She left a great job she dearly loved, close friends, being close to some of our family, and her home and most of our possessions. She has been wholeheartedly behind me from the start and so supportive. We have been through so much and she is truly my best friend. Our breakfasts together and devotions on the porch, our beach walks, our lunch dates, and quiet evenings with a good book are highlights of our days. I can honestly say that I would have quit the ministry and self destructed long ago without her. She is not perfect... she is Irish after all, but she is truly worth, as Solomon says, more than rubies, a lot of them.

So what exactly does a missionary’s wife do and why is mine so valuable? Ellen is foremost a great mom to our last remaining at home son, Sam. As most moms of teens do she makes sure he is prepared for school and a hundred activities. She is the family (and church) bus driver. She is the chef, household manager, laundry, tutor, shopper, and all the other hundred job moms do. Being a teenager in a foreign country is no easy deal and mom and Sam have adapted wonderfully. This will be Sam’s last year on the island as this summer he returns to the US to go to finish High School at Wisco in Milwaukee. The empty nest will be a huge adjustment, but two other sons have already helped us to adjust to that. As parents we still play important roles in the lives of our two married sons. Being so far away makes this very challenging. Ellen is so much better at this than I and the kids so appreciate her.

The empty nest will not mean a retired wife though. I can hardly keep up with her schedule. She works out at the gym and has coffee with a group of ladies several times a week. She has developed close friendships and great connections for ministry. She leads Bible Study and activities with our ladies group. She is a very creative primary Sunday School teacher. She teaches music at the University’s preschool. She teaches piano lessons to prospects and developing organists. She leads our gospel choir. She is our best organist by far with amazing talent and weekly makes our worship special. The way we work together with just a look between us is scary. She is our church web site master, a task if you told me she would be doing three years ago I would have laughed. My girl is flexible and constantly learning.

Ellen has as her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Martin Luther College and a decade of experience teaching in a parochial school. This fall she is taking online courses in Special Education. In the fall of 2012 Grace will be opening a primary school and Ellen will be one of our teachers and one of our teacher trainers. She will be busily working with Mrs. Jenelle Bullen our school Development Director to pull together our program and staff in a very short time. These two ladies are the cornerstone to what will be one of the best schools on the island and we are so blessed to have them.

Finally, one of the things that just amazes me about Ellen is her gift of hospitality. It fits right into our ministry as we have so many visiting groups coming to do work here or just on vacation. She has a knack of making people feel so welcome and she finds so much joy in doing it. This past week she was a delightful host for Peter and Patricia Schlosser and students who were here doing exploratory work for the new WELS nurses association and WELS Kingdom Workers. Peter took most of the pictures in this blog. Much thanks to both Peter and Pat for all they did.

Ellen is a great conversationalist. She always sees things I miss. She has a wacky, goofy sense of humour like my Dad and her smile is infectious. She loves to banter with the ladies in Bible class and her personality fits so well with the friendly, very vocal Grenadian people. I really don’t care for the brag letters people send out about their family at Christmas each year and I am hoping this didn’t sound too much like one of those. But I think it is important to celebrate our blessings and to praise. We need to praise more; God first, but also the amazing things He gives us. So, sweetheart, this is a little praise, way too late and not nearly enough.