St. Lucia

A few weeks ago we were able to travel to St. Lucia for the 41^st Caribbean Lectureship.

This lectureship was begun in Jamaica and has been passed around for the last 41 years among the islands of the Caribbean. We traveled to St. Lucia on Friday. We spent Saturday tromping (we walked approximately 4 miles!) about Rodney Bay area. We located the venue where the Lectureship was to be held and then headed to Pigeon Island.

Pigeon Island is on the North West tip of the island and served as a lookout point.

It was built in 1778 and was used until 1817 when a hurricane destroyed most of it. Part of it was rebuilt in 1824.

We had a grand time there! It was so beautiful!

You could see for miles and miles from the highest peak of the park to which we enjoyed a lovely hike! The water around St. Lucia is that lovely Turquoise color.

The ruins were fascinating and most of all God’s Creation is beautiful!

It was so refreshing to walk around and enjoy the time with family, talking, laughing, taking lots of pictures and sharing a beautiful view with all my best friends!

On Sunday through Wednesday we went to the Lectureship. The sweet Brethren of St. Lucia did a marvelous job of hosting!

They provided transport to and from the airport, from the hotel to the venue twice each day, food and water to weary travelers when we got in on Friday, a lovely lunch on Sunday just to name a few things! The lectureship was in the morning and the evening with a nice break in the afternoon. We spent those days spending time fellowshipping with friends new and old, a fun time with the family at the beach, and a bit of a rest to be able to soak up all the lessons. The lessons were so uplifting and helpful! I sure have a good deal to think about and do more study on in the next few weeks. The most encouraging part of it all was to look out over the crowd and see the 600+ Christians that were there! It was even more encouraging to know that so many islands were represented there! No, we are not all prefect, but we are all working toward the same thing. I met people there that I may never see again this side of heaven. But, because of the promise of heaven, I know that I will see many and hopefully all of them again!

Next year the lectureship will be in the Cayman Island and I hope that I can attend again. It will be wonderful to see my island Family again!

On the way to the airport, we passed thousands of Banana trees! We were told that the blue bags on them were to keep the rats out! It was really cool to see so many Banana tress!

A grain of sand

While I was in St. Lucia a few days ago, we spent a bit of time at the beautiful beach playing in the water. But as all trips to the sandy beach go…you must walk away in sandy shoes! No matter how hard you try, it’s nearly impossible while at the beach to get your feet AND your shoes de-sanded before the time to walk comes!

On this particular day, we had a bit of walking to do from the beach to the place to get a taxi and then more walking from the taxi drop to our hotel. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love to walk! But this day….or that time exactly, I would have preferred not to do quite so much walking!

And here is the reason why.

In my flip-flop strap there was a tiny piece of sand. It rubbed against my foot as I waked. At first it was just there…I mean my whole foot was sandy! But as I kept walking, it did not fall away as did most of the sand.

It stayed there….and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed against my foot.

I tried to shift my foot around as I walked but that did not help. So I just ignored it as best I could and enjoyed the rest of the lovely walk home. When I got home, I got all cleaned up and then noticed something. It was a tiny blister worn on the top of my foot…right where that tiny grain of sand rode home!

And then I got to thinking.

Sin.

It’s like sand.

It’s tiny.

It looks no different than all the other grains of life.

What happens when sin rubs against us? At first it makes a blister and it is avoided at all costs.

Sin is like that.

If we let that grain of sin into our lives and let it stay there, then eventually it becomes a callous, and not a painful blister. We begin to accept it as part of life and think nothing more about it.

But God cannot be happy with that!

Isaiah 59:1-2 states that sin separates us from God. We think we are fine with a callous because that is what Satan wants us to believe. But we need to step back, look at all our callouses and get rid of the bad ones! Just as I washed that tiny grain of sand off my flip-flop, so we must do with our spiritual life.

Do you have a callous that needs a good scrub?

Then open your Bible and spend time in God’s Word. He through the Bible can take that callous away!