"What are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name." Acts 22:16

Here they are! RCF has made such a big difference in many people's lives in Dominica! I'm very thankful for RCF and for all of our friends there.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" 2 Cor 5:17

And here's Jamie - I know - I was holding the camera sideways! In all the excitement, I forgot to turn my camera. You can still see it, though! I get chill bumps everytime I watch. :) Seriously, it's like a science experiment...everytime I watch it!

"Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." Ps. 51:7

Here they are sharing their stories (how they came to know Christ, why they have decided to get baptized, etc.).

This is Jamie (bible study friend).

"Here am I, Lord, send me!"

The Pearman's left at noon on Monday and I headed straight to school to have lunch with Ryan. After lunch I came home and it was the first time I had been by myself in 9 days. I realized that I was exhausted, so I took a 2 hour deep-sleep nap! We had SO MUCH fun with our company, but we had stayed very busy the entire time. We really want them to come for another visit and we want all of you to come for the first time! We are very excited that Julie will be coming in May!

So, Monday afternoon my life went back to normal - I was baking bread and blogging. :) Tuesday night we had our last women's bible study. :( Three of the girls are leaving the island in April to go to Miami so we are sad! We are going to have a dinner this Wednesday night to hang out one last time because I leave the island on FRIDAY! Can you believe it? This semester has flown by for me! Basically, we decided last weekend that I was going to go on a mission trip starting Friday, April 4th! Elizabeth (Kitrell) Williams invited me to join their mission team in St. Martin and so I decided this was definitely the perfect way to spend my time down here! I'm very excited! St. Martin is less than 1 hr flying time from Dominica, but of course you cannot take a direct flight. We have 2 airlines here: American & LIAT. If if took American I would have to spend the night on another island. How dumb! I'm taking LIAT and I will have to take a 30 min (probably less) flight to Antigua, hang out there for about 3.5 hours and then take a 30 min flight to St. Martin. Please pray that the mission trip goes well and that much good will be done in St. Martin! I feel a little guilty because Dad just got back from a mission trip in the jungle where he slept in a tent and I'm going on a mission trip to St. Martin where I will be staying in a hotel. :) I don't think it's a fancy one, though. Hey, people everywhere need to know about God's love! I get back to Dominica on April 9th (have to leave the trip early) and then leave Dominica to head to Tennessee on April 10th!!! I literally only have 5 days left on Dominica this semester! Ryan gets home on April 25th. He has 9 tests during the last 2 weeks of school, so we bought my plane tickets to come home early. Now he has decided he doesn't want me to leave early, but there are no other flights available! We leave to come back to the island on May 9th. Home for a month! =) Put it on your calendars because we want to see everybody!

On Tuesday night Ryan was going to give Adam a haircut and I asked if he could give me one, too. And he did!!! I talked him through it and he did a great job. He was very careful and took his time and even layered the hair around my face a little (after I showed him how)! He probably only cut about half an inch. I have an apt. with Martha Lynn for the first week I'm back in town so I knew she could fix it if he messed up. I was just tired of my dead ends.

The rest of the week flew by. Friday night they showed I Am Legend on campus. Well, it wasn't the kind of movie I generally like. It held my interest, but I was really disappointed with the ending. That night I was telling Ryan about it and realized that a lot of things did not make sense and were not consistent. Anyway, not a movie I ever want to see again. Last night we went to dinner with Adam's mom & stepdad. Today after church we had 4 baptisms! I'll post pictures of those next. One of the girls who got baptized, Jamie, has been in my bible study the past 2 semesters. Our preacher gave each person a chance to share their story and when Jamie started talking she got emotional and I was standing next to Ralna and we both just started crying! I usually cry at baptisms because I feel so moved, but add that with the fact that I'm a sympathy crier and you've got a mess! :) Happy crying, of course!

Since I didn't have any pictures to go with this post, I'm adding a random one. It's from a couple of weeks ago at a game night. We were playing Cranium and Andrea and I won! :)

Day 3 with the Pearmans: Easter

RCF had a sunrise service on the beach on Easter. I really wanted to go, but knew that Ryan needed his sleep and that his parents were probably really tired from all of the traveling and hiking we had been doing. I set my alarm and decided I was going to go bymyself. Well, when my alarm went off at 5:15 and it was completely dark outside, I just turned it off and decided I'd wait for the 11:00 service! Church was wonderful. There was so much excitement and emotion in the singing because the thought of Jesus conquering death was at the front of everyone's mind. The student who led the service read lyrics from a song by Phil Keaggy called Maker of the Universe. It talks about how God created everything that would one day be used to kill his Son. Here are the lyrics (of course I cried):
The Maker of the universe,
As Man for man was made a curse.
The claims of Law which He had made,
Unto the uttermost He paid.
His holy fingers made the bough,
Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.
The nails that pierced His hands were mined
In secret places He designed.
He made the forest whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung.
He died upon a cross of wood,
Yet made the hill on which it stood.
The sky that darkened o'er His head,
By Him above the earth was spread.
The sun that hid from Him it's face
By His decree was poised in space.
The spear which spilled His precious blood
Was tempered in the fires of God.
The grave in which His form was laid
Was hewn in rocks His hands had made.
The throne on which He now appears
Was His for everlasting years.
But a new glory crowns His brow
And every knee to Him shall bow.

Isn't that beautiful? But also unbearable to think about?
After church we had Easter lunch at Subway. :) Craig, Ralna, William, Sophia, John Walker, Greg, and a few other friends joined us. The top picture is of William and Sophia. You can't tell in this picture, but William had chocolate all over his white sweater vest!



After lunch Ryan went to the library to study and the rest of us went home to change clothes and then off to Purple Turtle Beach. There were a ton of locals at the beach, which is really unusual. We knew that Monday was going to be a beach holiday in Dominica, but apparently they got started on Sunday. This is a picture of us eating Gooseberries. They had been rolled in cinnamon, sugar and nutmeg and baked a little bit. I didn't like them, so I fed mine to Sophia & John Walker. I literally fed them because I had to bite the big seed out of the middle before I could give it to them. We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours and just walked up and down the beach, went about halfway into the water, laid out and just soaked up the sun!


This is a picture of the cake I made for Easter. It is a mandarin orange and pineapple cake and the recipe is on another blog I'm part of - ourfoodnetwork.blogspot.com

Oh, and before I forget, thanks for the Peeps, Nana! I hid them from Ryan until Easter morning and he was excited! :) Thanks to my mom and Ryan's parents who brought us suitcases full of treats! Thanks to Theresa who sent me 2 really cute dresses from H&M! :)

Day 2 with the Pearmans: Middleham Falls & Titou Gorge

Somewhere over the rainbow...

After Middleham Falls we went to Titou Gorge (see blog from when Mom was here). I decided not to get back into the unbearably cold water. Once a week is enough for me! Victor (our guide) took Charlie & Beverly down to a spring with warm water that they could put their feet in. Ryan and I hiked up to the top and peeped over the side to see the waterfall. We stopped by Brizee's on our way home and got ice cream. We got home around 6:00 and were worn out! Everyone took showers and we decided to order food to be delivered. After spending time to decide what everyone wanted, I called in the order only to find out they did not have a delivery guy that night and they also did not have half the food we wanted. We had to regroup and call a different place. This is not unusual here! There are only 3 places I know of that will deliver, so it was a good thing that that the 2nd place we called worked out. After dinner we watched a little March Madness and the went to bed pretty early. It had been an exhausting day with all the hiking and riding in the transport.