Another View for March 3, 2005
By Karen Anne Vassar
In January I was given the opportunity to leave the country for the first time in my life. I traveled with students from the College of William and Mary and Virginia Tech to Freeport, Grand Bahamas.
When I first heard that a group from our Baptist Student Union was going to the Bahamas, I was thrilled. All I could imagine was the beautiful ocean, the wind blowing in my hair and sunshine everyday, with some added “mission work” thrown into the side. It wasn't hard for me to realize that my motives for going on the trip were not exactly what they should be, so I prayed about the trip and looked to find more information about the work that needed to be done in the Bahamas.
As time progressed, I saw that God was calling me to this experience. I didn't care what we did as long as we were doing God's work and helping the Bahamian people in need. The responses that I got upon telling others were not as positive as I was hoping for them to be. Many people told me in a sarcastic manner, “I see. So the Bahamas. Really suffering for Jesus, huh?”
My experience in the Bahamas was not what the postcards show. I saw houses that once overlooked a beautiful ocean turned into a pile of concrete, churches completely emptied, homes with water damage to the ceiling, and roofs torn away by heavy winds. The experience in the Bahamas was not the sunshine and carefree mission trip that I originally expected. My eyes were opened to a completely different world of people and living that I had not encountered here in the United States.
We worked on two churches and three houses. We put a roof on St. Peter's Baptist Church. The roof was steep, high and hot as we worked to replace the shingles, but I found great comfort in looking 50 feet in front of the church and seeing a vast ocean, stretching for miles on end. When I nailed the last cap in, I thought to myself, “This is the closest to heaven that I've ever been.” I saw a piece of God's magnificence through the work he allowed me to do and the beauty of his creation he allowed me to see.
We also put a roof on a woman's home about a mile from the church. During lunch we sat and spoke with the owner of the house. She told us what it was like to be the victim of a natural disaster. She said that the first storm knocked out the electricity and water. While they were recovering from the damage, the world was watching to see if a second hurricane would hit the Bahamas, yet she and the majority of her neighbors were unaware that another storm was quickly approaching.
She had been waiting for two months to have her house fixed because she couldn't hire anyone to help her. Also all supplies were limited because there was so much demand for them; it took three tries for her to finally receive the order of shingles for her roof. I couldn't help but think of Luke 10:2: “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” We were the laborers sent by God to aid the needs of the Bahamian people.
Our final day we worked at a house that in America would have been condemned by the health department. We stepped into the house and it smelled so strongly of mildew and mold that we could hardly take deep breaths. The walls were all torn down to the studs. The owner's living room, bedroom, kitchen and porch had all become the same room because she was unable to live in the rest of her house.
That day we fixed three rooms of her home and stabilized the walls that were poorly put together. She had hardly any possessions left after the hurricane, but she made us straw purses and gave us Bahamas shirts as a sign of her appreciation. While we worked inside her house, some of her family members also came and worked with us to see how much we could accomplish that afternoon. Working alongside them really enhanced a sense of community between the Americans and Bahamians.
Originally we thought that after working each day, we would shower and rest. Instead, we were informed that we would be leading winter Bible study for children. We were sore and tired and didn't know how prepared we were to be leading children, but we found the energy to give piggy-back rides, color, pray, teach Bible verses with motions, read Bible stories and sing songs about God's love for everyone. God took our reluctance and turned it into energy and joy so that the images of their smiles and laughter will remain with us for a long time.
I learned so many things because of this mission experience. The people of the Bahamas showed me what a true body of Christ looks like. Zion Baptist Church took care of the group's needs without our doing any work for them. All they asked was that we help as many others as we could. They provided us with food, while we fed the community with hammers, nails and part of the love that Zion displayed to us.
I will never forget the attitude of the men and women who though they lost everything to the hurricanes were more giving of their few possessions than many of us are when we have an abundance of items. Their “things” didn't hold great value to them because they were thankful for just being alive and having each other.
I no longer will complain when I lose power for three hours, because I have met people who have been without electricity for over three months. Whenever I see blue nail polish I will think of the second grade girls who showed me that, “We should show love … by what we do” (1 John 3:18). When I hear the word Freeport, I'll think of a city filled with loving people hundreds of miles away who work together in order to help their neighbors next door or on the opposite side of the island. I learned that God can use me, wherever I am, regardless of the labels that I put on people or places. He can use me even when others initially perceive my work as a vacation instead of a mission opportunity.
God can use me, so now all I need to ask is where will God take me next?
Special to the Herald
Karen Anne Vassar is a student at the College of William and Mary and a member of Kedron Baptist Church in Gladys.