"Be Thankful Every Day" The Story of the All Saints Camp(short story)

                When my youth pastor, Brian Crawford, announced we were going to the Bahamas for a mission trip, I was very excited. But, I had no idea what I was in store for. All I knew was that we were going to be doing construction for the people of the All Saints Camp in Nassau and that I was going to be flying for the first time. I had no idea how life changing this trip was going to be. So, let’s get into it, shall we?

                June 18, 2011, I woke up at about 8am to get ready and be to church by 9am. I scrambled, putting the last of my things into my bag, and getting ready to leave. My dad got home from work, and then I put my bags into his van, and we were off.

                On the way, all I could think about was the trip, and how excited I was. Then, my dad’s phone rang. I answered. I was my mom. She called me from work to tell me good-bye and that she loved me. I told her I loved her and then hung up after a good-bye. I held back tears, now thinking of leaving my family for a week, with no contact. I was feeling homesick already.

                Soon we got to my church and I loaded my bags onto the bus, and then waited for the rest of the group. We were a group of 11 students and 3 adults. The adults were my youth pastor, Brian, his sister Beth, and another youth leader named Amy. The students were: myself, Tasha, Allie, Andy, Christian, Dominic, Rudy, Nick, Mikey, Malachi, and Jacob.

                Once everyone had arrived, my church gathered into a circle and prayed for all of us as we got ready to leave. When we were done praying, I gave my dad a huge hug, holding back my tears to the best of my abilities, and telling him I loved him. Next, my Uncle Al came by and, once again, I held back tears and told him I loved him. We then climbed into the bus, and then began our adventure of a lifetime.

                We drove for about two hours to the city of Flint, where Brian’s in-laws lived. Our flight was an early morning flight from Detroit, and Flint was only an hour away. So, we decided to have a hangout day before leaving.

                We got settled in and then put on our swimsuits for some fun in the pool. We laughed and hung out together, already becoming a family. At 8pm that night, we climbed into bed in preparation for waking up at 2am to fly off.

                2am came faster than we thought it would, and it was time to rise and shine. I gathered up my things, the whole time thinking about the flight ahead. By 2:30am we were on our way to the Detroit airport, and by 3:30am, we were there. We pulled our things off the bus and walked into the airport. Just ahead of us, we stood in line, and got our bags checked in, and got our plane tickets. Then we went through security, made it through without any problems, and went off to our gate.

                As we sat and waited, I had fears rolling through my head about flying, unsure of what to expect. A few minutes later, we boarded the plan and went to our seats. Once seated, I buckled myself in, popped in some gum, and then waited. When the plan started to take off, Allie, Malachi, and I all held hands and chewed our gum nervously until the plane was in the air. After  a little while I had settled down, and relaxed, and fell asleep.

                Two and a half hours later, we came down for a landing, and I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that I survived my first flight, and it wasn’t all that bad. We now were in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and how had a three hour layover ahead of us. We put our bags down by our gate, and then decided to walk around. To our dismay, our terminal was very small, and had nothing but a Dunkin’ Doughnuts and a small burger joint. We then sat back down and start to play cards, lots of cards.

                Not too much later, we went and ate some lunch at the small burger joint, and then went back to our seats play yet, more cards. Our three hour layover turned into a five hour layover, because our plane got delayed. When the layover was finally over, we boarded our plane, and spent only about another twenty minutes in the air, filling out our customs papers. Finally, we landed in Nassau, Bahamas.

                We got off the plane and walked through a long, winding hallway, and entered into the 95 plus degree heat with 100% humidity. We went through customs, and then grabbed our bags and went outside. We were greeted by three of the Next Step Ministries staff: Becca, Sydnie, and Amelia. They greeted us with warm smiles and showed us out to our bus. Then we met our bus driver, Mr. Smith. He is a little on the short side, middle-aged, and just the most insane, crazy, energetic, and happy guy you will ever meet. He helped us load up our bags and then drove us to our home for the week.

                As we drove, I saw a lot of beautiful scenery and tried to get use to the fact that we were driving on the opposite side of road. After a short time, we made it to the retreat center, and were able to get settled in. We first went into a yellow building, this was the dorms. The guys were on one side, and the girls were on the other side.

                All of us ladies went and claimed our beds, made them up, and got settled into the intense heat. Not too much later, the group from Georgia came in from a trip to the beach. We were then introduced to: Joel, Misty, Lindsay, Leslie, Courtney, Whitney, Seth, Adam, Steven, and Ben. The adults were Joel and Misty, and the rest of them were all college aged kids. Once we met each other, it was time for dinner.

                We walked right over to another yellow building, which was the dining hall. It was just a small room with a tile floor and a bunch of tables and chairs. Once we all sat down, we got introduced to the rest of the staff: Tre, Heather, Barak, Rhys, and Maple. Once introduced, we prayed and ate dinner.

                After we were done eating, we went outside and played a game to help us get to know each other. After that, we went into the small, blue building, with air conditioning, for our official orientation. We watched a video, were given the rules, got introduced to Tim and Felicia(the missionaries of the All Saints Camp), and then were divided into groups. My group consisted of two Next Step staff: Rhys and Becca, two people from Georgia: Leslie and Steven, and then me, Amy, Andy, and Nick from my group. We were the group that was going to be working on building walls and siding for a house for a guy named Garvin. With that information set, we became team “Stud Muffins”.  After all of that, exhaustion set in, and we all went in and crashed in our beds.

                At 7am the next morning, Barak woke us up with some guitar playing and it was time to get ready for our first day of work. We got up, got dressed, and went off to breakfast. The entire time I was eating my breakfast, I couldn’t help but think of the day ahead of me and what it was going to be like.

                As soon as I was done eating, I washed my dishes and did my morning devotions. Then I put on sunscreen and filled my water bottle full with water, grabbed my gloves, and then we all boarded the bus with Mr. Smith. This was it, we were off to the All Saints Camp.

                I looked out the window and watched as the beautiful scenery rolled by then the scenery was, slowly, getting worse. Soon we pulled up to the All Saints Camp. As we climbed out of the bus, we looked around and saw crumbling walkways, houses falling apart and rotting, trash everywhere, and people living in it. The sight of the camp was enough to break my heart, and it gave me that little spark to want to get to work.

                We separated into our work groups, grabbed all of our supplies and our tools, and then walked down the left path to find our work site. We walked, still seeing the poor conditions of the camp, and then stopped at our site. Rhys showed us that the base of the cabin was already done, so that is why we were going to be doing the walls and siding.

                It was time to get started with the work. We set down our water bottles and then set up our tools. Part of that was plugging in the extension cord, and in order to do that we had to use one of the residents’ cabins. So, I went and knocked on the door of a cabin belonging to a woman named, Sophie. I asked her if I could plug in the cord and with a heartwarming smile she said, “Go right ahead honey”. I walked in and said hi, introduced myself, and then plugged the cord in and walked out to go begin work.

                I took a quick sip of water, slid on my gloves, and grabbed a hammer and some nails. Rhys set up the first wall and penciled everything up on the wood so we would align everything correctly. Then he showed us how to get the nails hammered properly, and then he let us get to it. Rhys made it look so easy, but we found out it wasn’t that easy. We kept bending our nails and then once we got nails in, we had to pull them back out because we forgot to make sure the studs were level and that the ends were flush, or lined up perfectly.

                After a lot of figuring, we worked out a system. We got into teams of two, one person did the hammering and the other made sure the studs were level and flush and held the boards in the right position for the person hammering. With the system in place, we got to doing some serious work, and soon we had the first wall completely put together.

                We took a water break and wiped off some sweat, then we lifted the wall up and held it while Rhys got it lined up and nailed a few nails down to keep it standing. Once we knew it was secure, we all grabbed hammers and nails and nailed the wall completely down so it was completely secure. By the time lunch hit, we had one wall completely standing, and the other wall set up to be ready to put together when we were done eating.

                We then went down to the “square” or the center of the camp, filled our water bottles, grabbed our lunches, and then sat in the shade. As we ate our PB&J’s, apples, and chips, we had our lunchtime devotions. This was basically a time for us to think about some stuff together as a group that would, later, fit into our lesson for the evening.

                Once we were done eating lunch, it was time to fill our water bottles and head back to work on the next wall. On our way back, I noticed Sophie was sitting outside, and it was the first time I got a good look at her, too. She was in a wheelchair and only had half a foot. On foot was completely amputated and the other was partially amputated. This is because of Sophie’s AIDs, and she lives like that and takes care of her nearly two-year-old daughter, Asia, who also has AIDs. I smiled and said “hi” and Sophie smiled her sweet motherly smile and said, “Hey there honey”. Sophie gave me a little bit of a kick with that, so then it was back to work.

                After building for a while, we stopped for a cool-down and Tre came by asking us about going to meet a couple of residents. Leslie, Andy, and I all said yes and then Tre took us to meet two of the residents. The first one we met was Miss Moxy, the woman I became closest to.

                We approached Miss Moxy’s cabin, and just a few minutes later stepped into an intense stench of urine. I looked around the room and noticed it was completely filthy and falling apart; but in the center of the tiny room was, Miss Moxy, sitting on her bed. She was thin and sickly looking, but she had the biggest smile on her face and had her arms up in the air, praising God for us coming to visit her. She just kept saying, “Amen”, “Praise God”, “thank-you Jesus”, and her most famous saying, “Sho Nuff”. All you could do was smile and join her in praising God.

                As we came in, Miss Moxy pulled out her Bible and devotional book called, Jesus Calling and told us about her having AIDS and being paralyzed from the waist down due to a hit and run accident. She just said she didn’t care because she still had life and people to care for her. We smiled and then began to read with her, and I told Miss Moxy I had the same devotional book, but I didn’t mention it was sitting on my shelf, collecting dust. She seemed happy and just handed me the book and I read it to her. As I read and she smiled, I just kept thinking to myself, “Why is she so happy? She has next to nothing and lives in awful conditions. I don’t get it.” But I kept reading until Tre told us we should move on. I said good-bye to Miss Moxy and told her I would see her the next day. Then we were off to meet another resident.

                We were brought to meet Garvin, the guy we were building the cabin for. Garvin is thirty-years-old and has cerebral palsy and is confined to his bed. He also lives in poor conditions, just like Miss Moxy. Another thing Garvin had in common with Miss Moxy, was his big, happy smile. He had a very cheerful disposition and loved God a lot, too.

                After talking with Garvin for a while, it was back to work. We continued to nail the wall together in the intense heat, taking water breaks every few minutes. Once we had the wall completely together, we decided to take a break to sit in the shade and cool down a little. When we did this, a small boy in run-down clothes came by an asked me my name. I smiled and responded. His whole face lit up and he responded, “Well hi Tori, I’m Glenroy and I’m six-years-old!” I giggled and continued to talk to him. Before I knew it, I had a new friend.

Glenroy took off when Rhys told us it was time to lift the wall, and I took one last swig of water and got up to help lift. We stood it up and nailed it down just like with the first wall. After the second wall was done, it was time to pack up. One everything was packed up, Mr. Smith arrived with the bus and we were off back to the retreat center.

Once at the retreat center, we peeled off our sweaty clothes, and took ice cold showers to help us cool down. By the time we were cleaned up and had fresh clothes on, it was time for dinner. After dinner, it was time to go to the chapel for a time of praise and worship. We started off in our work groups going over all the “God Moments” we experienced. Then we shared with everyone and then it was time to sing. We learned some fun, new songs and then Becca stood up and told us our lesson for that evening. After worship time was over, my youth group stayed in the coolness of the chapel to meet together as just us. During this time we broadened on our topic for the day, and did some of our own thing as well. When we had completed our youth group time, we were all exhausted and it was off to bed to get prepared for a new day.

The following morning came fast as we were woken up by the sound of Barak’s guitar playing, once again. We got dressed and to went breakfast. We ate, made our lunches, filled our water bottles, did morning devotions, got sunscreen on, then it was on the bus with Mr. Smith to head back to the All Saints Camp. This time, we brought a bag of toys along with us to give to the kids. So, before we began work, we handed out toys.

Glenroy came running up to me and I showed him what I had. He took two match-box cars and ran off. Then two of the little girl, Sasha, age five, and Coco, age six, each took toys as well. Both girls have AIDS but are so much and have so much to live for that you automatically fall in love with them. Once the toys were handed out, it was back to building Garvin’s cabin.

Rhys set up the wall for us, and we went to nailing it together while he went to cut up some pieces we needed for the last wall. The heat was intense, but God gave us a little bit of a spark by giving us a glorious three minute rain shower to cool us off. Then we were able to continue working and, by lunch, wall number three was up and nailed down and wall four was ready to be started on.

So we ate lunch, did devotions, and then went back to work. About halfway through working on the last wall, we all decided to sit in the shade and take a water break. So, I took the opportunity to visit Miss Moxy and read with her again. Glenroy also came to me and we raced his new match-box cars for a while. He beat every stinking time! Soon it was time to get back to work, and I got back in time to hammer a couple more nails and then help lift the wall and get it nailed into place. Once the wall was secure, we were done for the day and cleaned up our supplies and loaded back up with Mr. Smith.

Back at the retreat center we did just what we did the night before: showers, dinner, praise and worship, youth group time, and then off to bed for some much needed sleep. The next morning was the same old morning routine of breakfast, getting ready, doing devotions, and then heading out.

At the camp, we had to haul the big pieces of siding down to the cabin. They were really heavy, so we had to haul them one at a time. After many trips back and forth, I took a water break and raced cars with Glenroy a couple of times, and then it was time to nail the siding to the walls. The sound of hammers hitting nails rang through the camp as we pounded away, making sure the siding would stay.

By the time lunch rolled around, we had siding completely up on one of the walls. We went to our usual shady spot and ate our lunches while doing devotions. When we were done eating, we filled our water bottles and went back to work. In the middle of working, I made sure to take a break to go and visit Miss Moxy for a while, but then went right back to work.

At the end of the workday, we were surprised with a trip to the beach. We just went to a small, local beach to swim and relax after a long day of work. When we got there, I was amazed. The sand was as white as snow and the water a perfect, crystal clear, blue. It was also very refreshing to just jump in. We swam, laughed, and joked together in the water, taking in every little bit of God’s beauty. We also watched a stingray swim by and found a starfish.

After spending a couple of hours at the beach, it was back to the retreat center for dinner and praise and worship time. But on this night we did something different, we did a time of foot washing and praying for each other. During this time, I definitely felt a sense of Emanuel or “God with us”. The stars were shining bright and it was a still, warm night. And for a few short minutes, there was a down poor of rain, as if God was washing us clean just as we were washing each other. When we had finished the foot washing, just my youth group went back into the chapel and we talked together. Each of us students took a turn telling the one sin in our lives that keeps us from God the most. After we had told the sin, Brian gave us advice on how to change things for the better and get our focus back on God.

Now, I am not going to confess what I had said in this story because that is between me, God, and my youth group. But, I will say that Brian had told me that I am a strong, beautiful woman made in God’s image that is surrounded by people who love me. He also said that I needed to spend serious time in prayer with God for me to see that in myself and get my focus off of me and back on Him.

That night, I prayed and spent a lot of time tossing and turning over the things I was told. The next morning came fast and had gotten little sleep, but I was ready to finish off the work we had been doing all week and head back to the camp. So, after the usual morning routine, it was back to the All Saints Camp to finish putting the siding on Garvin’s house.

My work group started pounding away to get the siding put on as soon as we got there. We had stopped for a ten minute breather and water break when Glenroy came around with his cars and we raced together one last time. Then, Felicia, a missionary who works at the camp regularly, came by to ask for help in making sandwiches for the residents. I volunteered along with Amy and Andy to do that since we kind of wanted a break from hammering.

We went off to a little mission house right next to the camp where we made tuna sandwiches and cut up some water melon to give to the residents for lunch. When they were ready, we went to walk around the camp to hand out lunch to those residents who wanted it. This was a good way for us to see everything and meet everybody. Once the residents got their lunch, then we got to eat our lunch and do lunch devotions. When we were done eating it was back to Garvin’s house we went.

After working on Garvin’s house for a while, I stopped for a water break and checked to see what time it was. I realized we only had a couple hours left at the camp, and decided I wanted to spend the time visiting with those residents I became close to and saying goodbye to them. I asked if anyone wanted to walk around and say goodbye with me, and it was Allie who joined me.

Our first stop was to, obviously, visit with Miss Moxy. I walked into Miss Moxy’s small cabin and the first thing she did was throw her hands in the air and praise God for me and Allie visiting her. I gave her a hug and started to ask her about her devotions, but before I could say anything, she had her Jesus Calling book and her Bible out and ready for me to read. I sat beside her and read to her, and listened to her repeating the words “Yes Lord”, “Amen”, and “Sho-nuff” as I read. After we read her devotions and the Bible verses that went with it, she opened up to a couple more of her favorite Bible passages and had me read them to her. Again I sat and took in her joy as I read to her and praised God with her.

Allie then told me that she wanted to take a picture with Miss Moxy before we left, and went to get her camera. As I watched Allie walk out the door, I looked up at Miss Moxy’s doorway and saw a sign, just above it that read, “Be thankful every day”. When I saw that and then looked back down at Miss Moxy, it hit me. And by “it” I mean what it was I needed to really do to turn my life around. I realized at that moment, that if someone who lives in terrible conditions and has next to nothing, like Miss Moxy does, can be happy and praise God at all times for every little thing, then why can’t I? I realized that if I wanted to make things better, I had to become closer to God and actually feel close to him. I also realized that I need to be thankful for everything in my life, every single day and that I needed to praise God at all times. I also realized I had to learn to put my trust in God and go to him in prayer for everything and just talk with Him.

After realizing all this, Allie came back with her camera, Miss Moxy and I took a picture together, and then I turned to her and gave her another big hug and thanked her. Miss Moxy responded, “No. Thank-you, I did nothing.” I smiled and giggled a little, knowing that Miss Moxy did so much more for me than she even realized. After a couple more pictures and a good-bye, Allie and I were off to do some more visiting.

When we left Miss Moxy, we noticed Garvin was out in his wheel chair by the cabin we were working on for him. We went to say hi to him and he had the biggest grin on his face and kept saying “Thank-you” over and over again. We knew that he was happy with the house; it made us feel good to know we were playing such a huge part in his life.

After saying good-bye to Garvin, Malachi came up to me and Allie and said he wanted to introduce us to a resident named, James. So Allie and I followed Malachi to James’s cabin and found him sitting outside on his porch just hanging out. James is a middle aged man who has AIDS and also has some mental issues that come and go. While we were there, his mental issues were not present. James, like many of the other residents, had a passion for God. He also loved to talk about anything and everything. So that is what we did, we talked to him.

After talking to James for a long time and getting to know him, and letting him get to me, it was time for us to say goodbye so we could go help pack things up and leave. But before we left, James stopped me, held onto my hands, and said “Tori, you are an amazing young woman and I believe God has big plans for you”. It took every little bit of will power I had to not start crying, and I thanked him and told him I appreciated it. He then told me we needed to be “prayer pen-pals” which to him meant I would pray for him and he would pray for me. I told him I was more than willing to do that and then we said our good-byes and went to help pack up.

I went back to the cabin we were building for Garvin, helped with putting in the last couple of nails, and then helped pack everything up. On my way to the tool shed to bring some tools back, I said good-bye to Sophie and Asia and Asia gave me a big hug and Sophie thanked for all the work I did on the camp to make it a better place. I told her it was nothing and then said my final goodbye and brought the tools down to the tool shed. We then all piled onto the bus, leaving the All Saints Camp for the last time. But, we left knowing we made a difference in the lives on the residents. We gave them 43 feet of newly paved walkway, and 2 new cabins with walls and siding completed. We felt very accomplished and couldn’t have been happier with all of the work we did.

Back at the retreat center we did our usual nightly routine and did one final praise and worship time together. This time, we chipped pieces of wood off of a log and laid them before the cross, as a symbol of giving our burdens to Jesus. This was a powerful moment as it topped off an amazing four days of discovering myself as a Christian and finally just giving everything to Jesus and making the decision to follow him even closer and stronger than I ever had before. We ended the night singing a few songs and then went off to bed.

The next day was our fun day. We went to the straw market to do some shopping and then we went to the Atlantis resort where we swam at the beach and walked around the resort to see it and just spend a day having fun. After our fun day was done, we went back to the retreat center and went to bed. We left the following day, saying goodbye to a beautiful place and a lot of beautiful people that we became so close to. But, we left as new people who changed their lives forever.

Today, my Jesus Calling book is no longer collecting dust. I read it every day and also open up my Bible every day. I also spend a little time in prayer every single day and just talk with God. I also am thankful every day and live to glorify and praise God every day. I also have learned to trust God with everything in life and just put it all in his hands. I am now closer to God than I ever was before and wouldn’t change any of it for the world. That trip to Nassau, Bahamas was a life changing trip and I don’t think I will ever go on another trip as wonderful as that one was.