Post VBS sickness and Baptism at St. John's!

Well, VBS finished on Thursday the 10th and the 11th, began a time of being super sick and exhausted from a very busy week!! I'm happy to report that all together, St. Mike's saw 98 children of all ages come through the doors of the church. Some of them were family to some of the congregation members. Most of them do not go to church. I have no idea if they will come back to St. Mike's for their Sunday School, but am encouraged and pleased that they came, and am confident that a seed of some sort was planted!! We'll see what God does from there!! I spent most of Friday laying around catching up on lost sleep. And Saturday I got REALLY sick. I didn't get a lot of down time on Saturday as I was on the go preparing myself to head across the Lagoon to Placencia for service.

On Friday afternoon, one of my parishioners phoned to let me know that there was going to be a baptism on Sunday. I was a bit surprised by it. I was expecting there to be one, but later on in the month. So I wrote a sermon and studied the West Indies Prayer Book to learn the service of Holy Baptism. I was a bit worried on Saturday when I arrived in Placencia as my stomach pains continued to grow worse and worse. I didn't sleep much throughout the night as I was in a lot of pain, and was really worried that I wasn't going to have enough energy to lead the service. I took some medicine, tried to sleep as much as I could. I woke up early in the morning, took my time getting ready so as to not irritate my stomach, and was able to make it through the whole service without feeling any pain. The service was wonderful. I baptized an 8 month old boy. Cutest kid ever. I was so scared that I was going to drop him. When the parents and god parents met with me the day before I asked them if I could practice holding the little guy (he was super squirmy). Thankfully he wasn't as squirmy on Sunday. After I poured water on his head, I turned to receive a purificator to dry off his head, as I turned he tilted his head back a farther as if to try and dip his head into the bowl of the font. He then got distracted by everyone who he was looking at upside down at, and just sat there. It was pretty precious. I'm still reflecting on the whole event. It was such an honour to be able to meet the family, and godparents of the little one and to baptize him and support the parents and family as they all take this next step in their journey together.

I came back over to Mango Creek, led service here, my stomach pains had disappeared. But as soon as the service was over they started up again. I was sick and in pain all day. So I took some more medicine, phoned my mom, cause it's always nice to hear a familiar voice when your sick, and tried to sleep throughout the night. I've come to the conclusion that my stomach pains are a result of working myself a lee bit too hard this past week. I woke up this morning after having a good night sleep with no pain. I'm still taking it easy, moving slowly, my stomach doesn't hurt, it's just sore from the pain of the last couple of days.

I'm heading out of town tomorrow for three days. I'm going to head down to Punta Gorda to spend a few days on my own to work on some paper work as my internship comes to a close, and to take in some of the sites down there while I have a lee bit of time. As my time here draws to a close, it's getting harder and harder for me not to fall into being a tourist. I have 17 days left before my time here is finished. My emotions are all over the place. I'm excited to be done and on my way home, and at the same time I'm sad to be leaving the families and friends that I have met here. The next couple of weeks are going to be quite difficult for me, please pray that the remainder of my time here will continue to be fulfilling and enriching and that I will continue to be blessed by the hospitality and ministry of the people here!