We made it to Saba!



Canyon loves airplanes!

We traveled from St. Martin by cargo ship...to cheap to fly:)

Sometimes just getting to where you are going turns out to be an adventure in itself.  Though this time it helped to make it clear to us that Jehovah wanted us to come to Saba.  Every obstacle just fell to the wayside with a prayer and a day of patience.  See, we had wrote to several branches and Mexico assigned us a congregation to go to help out.  We contacted the brother in the congregation there and he excitedly started helping us to make plans to go in January.  Unexpectedly, the congregation in Mexico got dissolved!  How disappointing.  We had
 already started making our plans.  That 

The trip was beautiful and nobody got sea sick!  It gave us a
to get to know some the local Sabans.

 Sunday we walked into the Spanish meeting excited to welcome back the McKinney family from there recent trip to serving in Saba.  Rather than tell us about their trip, they immediately started asking us where we were going this winter.  We told them of our disappointing news about Mexico to which they smiled and asked us to consider going to Saba.  Here it turns out that there weren't going to be any servants in Saba to do the meetings for the months of November and December.  We weren't planning on going until January.  So we said we would go home and give it some thought.  There was no way we could go in November, but what was there to think about...we had to offer to go in December even though we knew we would be pushing it to get things in order.  Now...lodging...WAY expensive!  What are we to do?  Pray!  The next day a cottage fell into our laps for a good deal(thanks Grimsleys!) Next flights...only ones that we could get with our air miles were from JFK, yuck! How would we get there?  Pray!  Next day at meeting Messermans offered to take us(thanks Dan and Jan!)  I still felt horrible to make them take us, there has to be another way...they are so busy...yep...Pray!  I remembered Cindy got married and moved up there...maybe she has some advice.  Can you believe, her kids were going to be down our way visiting grandparents and they needed a ride home when we needed a place up there to stay and park our truck.  PERFECT! We gave her kids a ride and she gave us a place to stay and park our truck(thanks Mike and Cindy!) A flight and a ferry ride later and here we are!

The view from Maggie's Cottage where we are staying. 

 So, here is our home away from home.  We are

Maggie's Cottage

 renting it from a brother that comes here six months of the year to help out.  Saba is literally a mountain coming straight out of the water.  The only flat spots are those semi leveled for a house.  The house may be small, but the view is breathtaking!  We thought we would have to take a taxi from the ferry, but some of the friends were there to greet us and give us a ride.  As we had got up at 3am, didn't get off the ferry until about 7pm, AND we had no idea where the cottage was, we were very thankful(thanks Bennet, Aleida, and Consuelo)!  The next night was Clint's first meeting in Spanglish.  We spent

The view from above the cottage.  You can see St. Eustatius
in the distance. Behind it is St. Kitts, Nevis, and Montserrat.
Turn your head to the left to see St. Martin & St. Barts.

 the next day busily unpacking, getting things running in the house(it had been closed up), getting talks out, and doing school.  So for those of you that said, "Have a great vacation", HAHA!  Of course, Clint did a great job with his first meeting.  The wonderful friends helped every step of the way.  Some parts and comments were translated...into English if they were given in Spanish and vice versa.  The singing was in both languages.  Everyone gave their comments and talks in whatever language they were comfortable with...sometimes it was a mix of both.  Everyone, all 11, made us feel very welcomed.  Oh, I almost forgot.  Remember how there weren't going to be any brothers here to do meetings the month of November?  We were told that a brother had left the day before we arrived.  "What brother?", we asked.  We had been told they had no one for November.  They obviously had Jehovah looking out for them.  A brother just happened to 'randomly' come here for the month of November on vacation and decided to go to meetings while he was here.  Imagine his surprise when he went to his first meeting and got asked to help the sisters do meetings that month!!!  He did his best to encourage them and they were very appreciative!  The timing was far to exact for it to be a coincidence(thanks Jehovah!)

The Kingdom Hall is very nice!

 Candy and her daughter, Esmeralda invited us out in the ministry right away.  We had a list of names of those who liked to study, but no idea where they were located.  Esmeralda happily spent the morning helping us make contact with some of them.  The first one I went to said she was excited to resume her study, asked for all the magazines she had missed, and told me she wanted to get baptized!  There are more that want to study than the local sisters can keep up with even though it is a small island.  They are all doing their best and seem to have studies at all times of the day/week.  It is refreshing to see  
such an interest in studying the Bible!  By the time the day was over, we had 6 studies scheduled for Tuesday and 1 for Monday...and we haven't even gotten through half of the names on the list!  All were eager to resume their studies.  We are anxious to work the territory.  Informal witnessing has been going great.  Canyon is having fun placing tracts anytime we are out and about getting groceries, etc.  Lots of people ask us why we are here, so that lends itself to some terrific conversations.  I stopped in a shop to pick up a map of the island and was chatting with clerk.  It turns out her family is
 here because her husband is a medical student.  He was raised as a witness, but left as a teen.  They now have a kid, so she said he is taking life more seriously and going back to medical school to be a doctor.  She happily took the latest magazines...you never know what else he may take more seriously now!  You can see by the maps that every house on the island is mapped out.  We think we are #8.  One of the maps has the names of all the homeowners on it!  Small island, indeed. 

Making a truffala tree forest...crafting.

I also included the picture of the school schedule we received to show you how busy meetings will be.  You can see we all have parts every week.  Almost everyone does until you account for demonstrations.  Actually, I am glad I just looked at it.  I was helping Canyon work on his Bible reading and forgot I have a talk!   

 After school on Thursday, we finally made it to a little beach.  It is a man made area for the kids since the coastline is mostly steep cliffs plunging into the ocean.  It just so happens it is on our side of the island...YEAH!  The sand is a bit deceiving.  It is so hard that Canyon broke his shovel trying to make a road.  The water was a perfect temperature and clear.  We will have to come back with our snorkel gear. 

 

Canyon misses his kitties and hamster, but he is always good at finding new fun creatures to enjoy!  He caught a lot of
anoles so far.  The top one was on the window over my bed and the one below was in the Kingdom Hall. 



The peak is Mt. Scenery.  It is 2,877ft to the top.  We will be hiking up there!