Serving at the church in Trinidad and Tobago

Here we now find ourselves living on the hot and sunny Caribbean Island of Trinidad! Sounds idealistic eh? On the picture perfect postcard front yes we have to admit its beautiful, but daily local life is hard for many of the people here in this developing nation. Here in Trinidad the church has given us an appartment to live in and share with another family, at the back of the church which although not the quietest at times, is a great location for being able to serve in the church here. In terms of physical living conditions things are a challenge, as we only receive a very small allowance for food and live in an apartment where there are no windows and no natural daylight (though to be fair this is because the former windows have been taken up by airconditioning units of which we are grateful on very hot days!!). The church is found on the main high street of the 2nd largest town in Trinidad where we are. It is opposite the market, where every Saturday morning the church is able to witness and hold gospel outreach meetings, for people passing on the street below(the church has an over-looking balcony). Sunday morning meetings are also broadcast to the outside world in the market and nearby street as well as on the internet!

Daniel has had the opportunity to preach on both Saturday outreach meetings as well as to the church congregation on a Sunday when his message was entitled 'unconditional love, conditional blessings', challenging and reminding us all of the importance to keep a close walk with God daily.Rhoda and Daniel both take active participation in weekly early morning Saturday prayer meetings, and a mid-week Bible training course, covering how to lead and conduct many aspects of church life for example communion, baptism, dedication etc. A course on excellence in ministry as well effective street and work place evangelism was also studied. In the centre above Daniel is pictured praying with Patrick, who was the prayer ministry leader. Rhoda is alongside Abigail, the worship leader. Every Sunday morning Daniel sings in the worship team and Rhoda plays her violin in the worship band. Days of the week are spent mostly in the church, which we have unlimited access too, living onsite. Here we pray and interceed for many aspects of church life, including its vision to build its new mother church and 30 sister churches throughout the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. Times of 'throne room prayer' flat out on our faces praying to the Lord for multiple hours at a time have been the normal routine within our days here. We have also had the time to read many different Christian books, on a variety of topics by lots of authors, including 'The Power of Vision' by Miles Monroe, and 'Heaven' by E.M.Bounds. Within the 3 months in Trinidad we read over 20 theological and testimony-type christian books !! The man on the right with Daniel is Rawl, he managed the sound desk for the church, and was also the head of the family who we lived with in the appartment upstairs.

Here on the left is Daniel down at the waters edge just outside the town where we lived. He is with Tom who was the youth leader at the church. Thankyou Tom and Tom's mum for all the yummy Trinidadian food and support!!

On the right above Daniel is tucked in between Tom and Linel, who was an elder in the church and husband of Abigail.

We have had the view from our time of arrival here at the church to stay on permanently in Trinidad, however due to changing circumstances beyond our control at the church we are serving at, it is no longer financially viable for us to be able to remain here at the current time. Church manse accomodation that the church had planned to grant unto us as a couple alone also didnt go as planned, another family needed to stay there and so we ended up living with them. This was a shock however, as we had been told we would be living in the church manse alone, and yet upon arrival with no advance warning, we found we had to live sharing with a family of 4 people!! In life things often don't turn out as we plan, so we have made the most of it here, and sought to pray and be a blessing to the family in prayer support and other ways as much as possible. They had an application to get their own home, and we prayed for them for their sakes as well as for ours that they would get it. Rather than just run from Trinidad, because things had not turned out as we hoped, we decided to stay in prayer and patience. After several months however the situation was unchanged, we just have to allow the Lord to mould and change us through such things. The church is seeking to build its own building but at present is only renting the premises it is in, where just since our arrival the rent has doubled for them. In this time of economic hardship in the country especially in the cost and even availabilty of food, the church is unfortunately unable to sustain us. The missionary permits we have only enable us to work within the church and we cannot therefore take other work to fund ourselves. We have decided at this time that although it has been a difficult, but great experience to serve in the church here the past 3 months, it is time to move back to the United Kingdom once again and take up a more permanent role, hopefully within a church. We have thoroughly enjoyed living through the experiences and challenges we have faced in the past 2 years, in 10 months in Belize,including some time witnessing in nearby Mexico and 10 months in Spanish speaking Ecuador. Also now 3 months in Trinidad. They are all very different nations of the world to what we had previously lived in before moving abroad from the United Kingdom in July 2006. God has taught us so much and we return now with much more fully enriched lives, realising that the world we live in has so many people of many different cultures and colours yet all of them and us in need of Jesus, who is everywhere our eternal saviour and Lord. We learn new things and will always be learning from God who uses us one from and to another continually everyday whever we are. We look forward to moving into what God has now next for us.

The following internet link is for Word of Life Faith Centre church, where we attended and supported for the full 3 months of our time in Trinidad.

http://www.wordoflifefaithcentre.com/