Back on the Rock

Hey everyone, it has once again been too long since I've updated this! We have made it back to St. Kitts safely without any trouble at all, so thank you so much for your prayers. It has been an awesome time of reunion with the Grayson's and have had fun getting ready for another Christmas with them here in St. Kitts. We're excited to be back and see all that God has for us here in our remaining time on the island. God reminded me the day before we were leaving that we weren't coming here to simply pack up and get prepared to leave, but that we are here for the people of St. Kitts as ambassadors of Christ first and foremost, and while we are doing that we are to prepare to eventually leave. Please pray for us that we would most of all never lose sight of our highest calling in life and that is to simply let the light of Jesus shine through us to this dark, lost, hopeless world. Its amazing how in the business of life our light can be dimmed or covered so easily with the mundane routines and material things that battle for our hearts and minds. Pray that God would prepare us spiritually, physically, emotionally, and financially to leave the island as it will no doubt be one of the hardest things we've ever had to do. Thank you all who take time to read this and an even greater thanks to those who battle with us by praying for us and the souls of the people here in St. Kitts!

Vision

Now is probably a better time than any to go ahead and share the vision we are sensing the Lord has laid on our hearts for the near future. While in St. Kitts this past year, the Lord continued to stir in both mine and Jamie's hearts at the same time a burden for a calling the Lord had given a long time ago. Before going to Bible College, I had felt that God was calling me to Bible College to lay a solid foundation for later going to the Calvary Chapel School of Worship in Costa Mesa, CA. The Lord obviously burdened us deeply to serve the Grayson's and the people of St. Kitts for the past year, and it was an unbelievable time of personal growth as well as ministry experience and outreach. Through many prayers and receiving confirmation from the Lord, we know God is sadly calling us away from St. Kitts. We will be returning to St. Kitts and will be staying, Lord willing, for the next 5-6 months or so before coming back home to prepare for School of Worship. It will most definitely be the hardest thing we have ever had to do to leave not only St. Kitts and the ministry God has started there, but also to say goodbye to the Grayson family. Having said all this, we ask for your prayers; God is definitely testing our faith while we are here in the US for our visit. We have gone to the dentist and unfortunately Jamie has some serious work that needs to be done and will put us in a difficult situation to stay in St. Kitts as long as we feel the Lord wants us to. Please pray for the Lord to provide and ultimately for His will to be done in our lives. If you would like more information on any of this and would want to be more involved, please don't hesitate to email us. (jonesinstkitts@gmail.com) We are so blessed to have all of you praying for us and for St. Kitts over the past year and we will continue to covet your prayers.

Sweetness of Home

Hello friends. We have begun our furlough in Indianapolis! We got to Indy on Tuesday Oct. 23rd. We will be here visiting different churches and visiting family as well as friends. It has been an awesome time so far. The day we got back some close friends and family met us at the airport and we were able to hang out with them that afternoon. Brandon and Wendi also were able to come over and hang out with us for a few hours which was SO good to see them and our niece and nephew again, even for just a short while. Pray for them as they're back in St. Kitts and we will be joining them once again December 3rd. It is just so good to see all of our old friends and of course our families. The first week and a half here we have been able to see so many faces and catch up with so many people. Praise God! We went to church at Horizon on Wednesday night and it was great to see all of the people again from our home church. On the following Sunday we were blessed to lead worship and share about St. Kitts at Calvary Christian Fellowship. It was a great time of sharing and meeting an awesome body of believers. We visited the dentist and God is definitely testing our faith as both of us need quite a bit of dental work done and we don't have insurance. We know God will provide and we trust that He's in control of the entire situation. Your prayers are greatly appreciated! This past Friday, Luke was able to share with the Bible College students for an hour of their class and later that night he opened for the band Under The Olive Trees for a benefit concert for CCBCi's Practicum Mission Trip. We have definitely had our fill of fun fellowship as we carved jack-o-lanterns with our friends, have been eating crazy good food, and just enjoying so much fellowship. We will keep you up to date on the happenings here in Indy as well as our departure for St. Kitts on Dec. 3rd!

Two More Weeks!

Hey everyone, we know its been way too long since our last post! Things have definitely been moving slower since Brandon and Wendi have been gone for their visit to the states. The good news for us is that we only have two more weeks until we get to go home and visit everyone that we miss so dearly! We will be home from October 23rd-December 3rd.

This past month as I said has been slower, yet we have still been used by God in very cool ways and have been blessed by some of the new opportunities God brought our way. We have continued the two Bible Studies that are on Monday nights and Wednesday nights. I am continuing to grow in my ability to teach God's Word simply and it has been a blessing to study His Word and have the privilege to share it with God's people.

The days have usually been filled with simple things like helping our Bible study attendees out with transportation to their jobs, to their schools as well as grocery store visits. Its been neat to get to know some of them even better as we spend a lot of time talking when driving around. Another project we have worked on is a broken swing set at a local primary school. We tried to fix it when the Horizon Youth were here but the chain we put on it must have been bad quality. I went out and got some new chain and hung up the swings! They look pretty awesome if I do say so myself!  ; )

The last thing I've been able to get involved with is a youth basketball clinic. The other Saturday as I was driving by the courts near our house, I saw a bunch of youth and what looked like some coaches doing some basketball drills. I thought to myself I'll go check it out next Saturday! So I did and it turned out to be our manager from the Bird Rock basketball team that we played for. His name is Wendell and he has been holding this youth basketball clinic for awhile now and so I asked if he needed help and he said of course I can use all the help I can get with these kids! So from 10-12 on Saturdays now I will be helping coach and train young kids from the ages of 7-13 in basketball. Praise the Lord for opening doors!

Island Life

We realize it can be tough to picture what island life is like from just our descriptions. We've compiled a few random photos just for fun for you to look through! Enjoy!

Catching Our Breath

Over this past summer we have been super busy with two mission teams coming on our behalf as well as two other mission teams coming on behalf of another missionary couple on the island named Sean and Mandi Miller. They are here with an organization called Child Evangelism Fellowship. (http://amomentwiththemillers.com) We recently just said goodbye to the last of the teams. This team was from Seattle, Washington. They were a blast to be around. They had great hearts to serve the Lord and were even a huge blessing to us by taking us all out to eat. We helped them with their three VBS's that they did. Brandon and I were able to take some of the older kids that showed up and show them some Christian Hip/Hop music videos and share the gospel with them. They were super attentive and seemed to really enjoy it.

We recently had our last AWANA night of the season and will be resuming the club in January. We had many kids pass their books and earn awards which they will receive next year. We have many great ideas to expand and better the AWANA program for next year so definitely keep that in your prayers. We decided for the last night to go to the sea and pick up shells and weathered glass for the kids to use for their crafts at the upcoming VBS with the team from Seattle. It was a great night and a great way to end a fruitful year of AWANA. 

Last, but not least, Brandon and I have been playing basketball for the Bird Rock Uprisers team in the A Division of the St. Kitts Amateur Basketball Association. Our team was undefeated heading into the tournament and we just recently won the championship without losing a single game! It was a great time to be with the guys and we can only pray that Jesus light shone through us as we played a silly game of basketball. God can be glorified through basketball AMEN! 

With all this said, the season is definitely slowing down and we are finally able to catch our breaths after an amazing summer. The Grayson family will be leaving us to visit Indiana for 6 weeks. Jamie and I will be staying to hold down the fort. While they are gone I will fill in for Brandon teaching the Monday night Bible Study, the Wednesday night Bible Study, as well as Teaching CCF on one or two Sundays. Pray for me (Luke) as I teach God's Word to the Kittitian's and students here on the island. Pray that God's Word will go forth in power and the Spirit will rest upon my lips as I proclaim HIS truth! We want to thank all who support what God is doing here through prayers and finances. We cannot express how thankful we are! 

Video Update!

Over the past two weeks we helped co host a mission team from our home church's youth group. The Horizon Youth were an incredible group this year and was quite possibly the best mission trip we've ever been involved with! There were so many neat opportunities such as doing a VBS for over 230 kids in Cayon, doing another VBS in Fig Tree, painting the children's home boys room, putting up swings, and buying lunch for people in the community and talking with them about Christ. Of course they were able to make it to the beach a few times and the guys went on the volcano hike and got to go into the crater! I've posted 6 videos on our youtube channel. Just click here to see the videos and get a little taste of how awesome the trip was! Thanks for all of your prayers for this trip! God met us in an amazing way!

Fast Pace

We just wanted to give a quick update on whats been happening recently! The past week we hosted one of my best friends Zach Booher for about 10 days. It was awesome to have him visit and have fun together here on the island. We played some tennis and he even treated me to golf at the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club! (What a friend right?!) It was sad to see him leave but we will see him again when we visit in October. 

The day before Zach left, Brandon, Zach and I had the opportunity to go into the St. Kitts prison and play some 3 on 3 basketball with the inmates. A couple of our Bird Rock Uprisers teammates came with us, Shyeed and Iain. It was pretty surreal to be honest. We walked in and there was a small court outside in the middle of the complex and all around the whole court were probably a couple hundred inmates. It almost felt like a movie or something! It was an amazing time to say the least, it was very aggressive as you can imagine but everyone was having a lot of fun. At the end Brandon got to share about forgiveness and the gospel with all of them. They were all attentive and we can't wait to get back in there and play again! 

We are now getting ready for the Youth Group from Indianapolis to come down on Saturday for their two week mission trip! We are so excited to see old friends and to see how God wants to move through them while they're here! Definitely keep them in your prayers throughout their time here in St. Kitts! 

Finances

As much as we didn't want to post about this subject, we are sensing that it is a necessary one. It's always an uncomfortable topic, yet we know it is a reality of life. We know there is definitely a fine balance between trusting the Lord will provide and at the same time making our needs known to His people. While much of our support goes towards our living costs, a lot of it is also used for ministry such as a lot of giving people rides around town and serving in other ways. We know and trust that God will provide all of our needs. He has never failed us yet and we know He will never fail us moving forward. Many missionaries are backed and funded by missions organizations however we are supported by churches, family and friends from back home. If you feel like God is leading you to find out more, please visit our "Support" tab and all of our financial information is right there. If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to ask us! Email us at jonesinstkitts@gmail.com. Thank you to all who are already a part of what God is doing here through prayer and financial support!

Awesome Opportunity!

Hey everyone! We just wanted to post a quick update about and amazing opportunity we had to share at Grace Gospel Hall's anniversary worship service. The evening we went was a night of worship and they were celebrating their anniversary as being a church the next day. Mavis Huggins, a woman who has helped get us involved with many ministries including the AWANA program which is held at this same church, invited us to come and share for a little bit before they started the service about worship and what true worship is. Worship isn't about when, where or any of the physical details. Throughout scripture we see that God is looking for our hearts. It is our hearts that He desires for us to offer, not empty voices and songs. Here are a few pictures and a video clip. There were well over a hundred people there! It was amazing! Praise the Lord for opening doors to share His Word.

Updates!

It's been a few weeks and I realize it is yet again time to update you folks on the happenings here in St. Kitts! Over the past couple weeks we have been keeping busy with the usual stuff as well as some other events that are not so usual. This past weekend we were privileged to be a part of CVM's Real Life/Real Impact weekend. CVM is Christian Vet Missions and they go around to all the Universities in the US to put on a seminar that teaches Veterinarian students how to incorporate God into their daily lives and their future Vet medical careers. It was a neat weekend and I (Luke) got to be the Audio/Visual go-to-guy. I helped lead the worship and setup the sound, develop slide shows and run them for the seminar. It was a lot of fun and it was awesome being able to meet Veterinarians who love Jesus and spread the gospel of Christ through their various practices.

Basketball has been keeping us plenty busy with games and practices every week. Currently the Junior team Brandon and I coach are doing well and have only lost a few games. The A team we play for is undefeated! Go Bird Rock! We are still doing both Bible Studies in Fig Tree and in Bird Rock at the Grayson's. We recently had visitors from Denver, CO who found the Grayson's blog and was vacationing here and brought down some basketballs and soccer balls for us. They also came to the Bible Study as well. It was neat to see a family take a vacation and yet through their vacation continue to serve and be a part of what God is doing around the world. We recently had our second AWANA store nights and the kids were thrilled to be able to spend their hard earned AWANA dollars on cool prizes. I realize it would be awesome to get some pictures of these different things so I will try harder to get pictures for the blog. We are still gathering with Cayon Gospel Hall's youth group on Friday nights. We will be having a meeting with the leaders here soon to talk about the transition for them to begin leading it and taking ownership of it. Pray that the transition would go smoothly. Thanks to all who pray for us so diligently and pray for God's work here in St. Kitts! 

Pressing On

The last post we wrote, the Bible College team was here and things were super busy. The team was here for close to three weeks and sadly departed from us last Thursday. We were so blessed by this dynamic group that desired to serve and see Jesus lifted up. They were involved in many work projects at Fig Tree (see last post), the Grayson's house, going to the Children's Orphanage, helping at AWANA and both Bible Studies. The three weeks blew by and we had a blast with them. As they leave it is definitely bitter sweet because you get to have a taste of that fellowship for 3 weeks and then its just gone all of the sudden. The Lord is showing us that all we can do is continue pushing forward, continue serving, ministering to people and showing them the love of Christ. Thank you CCBCi for a great three weeks!

During the team's visit, we also were blessed to have Wendi and Jamie's mother, Kathy, and their Grandmother, Jan visit. A long time family friend of theirs named Tammy also joined them for her own personal type of mission trip. They just recently left as well so you can imagine how crazy it was having all these visitors at the same time and then almost all at once they're gone! Once again the Lord is showing us to rely on Him and allow Him to give us the strength to press on and fight the good fight.

Ministry Related News-
The two bible studies in Fig Tree and in Bird Rock at the Grayson house are still going strong and we look forward to continuing them. While the Bible College team was here, we started helping the Cayon Gospel Hall church do their youth group. It's been really neat to be in a youth group atmosphere here and be a part of a church trying to raise up a youth group again. There have been around 20 youth each night and they attentively listen to the Word of God being taught in a verse by verse manner. This is most likely something new to them and we're glad to be a part of it. Caribbean Christian Fellowship has started back again and the fellowship continues to grow. We have been diligently working to enhance and better the experience at CCF by putting up a website (click here), organizing car pools, and exploring ideas of how to get the word out about CCF to new students and locals alike. Basketball is in full swing now with usually 2 games a week along with practices here and there. It's definitely easy to get worn down with our schedule so pray the Lord would give us strength and a passion for everything we do. Pray that we would never get a mundane attitude about doing the Lord's work. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support.

CCBCi Arrives

So we've been talking about the Bible College team coming down here for awhile now and the time has finally arrived! They arrived in St. Kitts on Tuesday and brought a great deal of goodies with them. As always with a Bible College group, they are always willing to help, eager to serve and ready to minister the gospel. It is encouraging to see new faces and have some new people to interact with for the next few weeks. We would like to send a huge THANK YOU to Horizon, our home church, and anyone else who was involved in bringing all sorts of donations. One thing in particular that I am so thankful for is our new cajon! This drum will help in our ministry at CCF as we have had many people asking if we had some sort of percussion instrument for them to play.  We are so thankful!

The first night that the group was here, we were invited by our basketball team manager, who works in the Ministry of Tourism, to go to a free concert on a cruise ship! We had never been on a ship here in St. Kitts and thought it might be a cool way to kick this trip off. The concert was pretty cool, the ship was state of the art, but there was something a little bit off about the whole thing... Come to find out, this ship is a Scientology owned and run vessel. This ship will be coming to St. Kitts throughout the summer and putting on free concerts and movie nights for the community of St. Kitts. They say its for no purpose other than helping fellow human beings, but there is no doubt they have their own agenda. Pray for the people of St. Kitts protection from being deceived by the false teachings of Scientology.

The next day, Brandon and I took the group on a prayer walk around the island. We took them to some of the places where ministry goes on here as well as some places like the government building and cemetery. The students enjoyed being able to see the island and experience some of the culture. They really enjoy Ting, a local grapefruit soda bottled right here in St. Kitts. 

Yesterday, we took the group to Fig Tree to work at the Youth Center that needs a lot of attention. The main thing they will be doing is clearing land that has overgrown. If you have ever cleared land with nothing but shovels and machetes, then you understand how hard of work this is! The group worked really hard in the hot sun for over 4 hours! We have a few more days planned there and we have already made a huge difference. Overall the group is alive and well and looking to serve Jesus, so we're excited to see what God wants to do through them.

Better Late Than Never!

Sorry this update is a little late, but better late than never! We have many things to be thankful for over this past Easter.  The church we attend and are in leadership at on Sundays, Caribbean Christian Fellowship, had a Good Friday worship service on the beach! It was the perfect way to remember what Jesus did and it was just an amazing experience worshiping Him in the midst of His glorious creation. We also had the privilege of being a part of two baptisms of our good friends Brent and Kendra. We had communion and had an extended time of worship. The Lord truly blessed our time together that evening. 

To go along with Good Friday, of course the Resurrection came on Sunday! We had a packed house at the Frigate Bay Resort Conference Room where we meet on Sunday's. We had a blessed time of worship and Brandon got to teach his first Easter Sunday service which went really well. Later in the day, another missionary couple invited us over for Easter lunch and to swim at their pool. It was a blast! 

Basketball is still demanding a lot of time and its still an awesome opportunity to share Jesus with all of these guys. Please pray that our focus and attention would be continually focused on being lights and examples to everyone we would meet through this avenue God has provided. It is easy to get caught up in the basketball aspect of it all and forget the reason we are there! 

We are still doing the two Bible studies throughout the week and the Word is still going forth and touching hearts and changing lives! Pray God would have His way in both of these Bible Studies and in the hearts of those who come.

AWANA is making a change. We have been having around 75 kids every week coming to AWANA which is amazing, but at the same time with only about 10 leaders on average every week, this can get pretty crazy! We decided to have the younger kids and older kids alternate weeks so that we could really focus on the quality of the ministry as opposed to the quantity. 

Lastly, we are getting really excited about the Bible College group that is coming in a week and a half! Be in prayer for these guys and gals and for their trip. Pray that the Lord would work great and awesome things while they're here in St. Kitts!