As we had hoped, we made it to Marsh Harbour in the Abacos for Christmas. We have great Bahamian friends/family here and it was wonderful to spend the holidays with them.
Our church home here is Grace Baptist Church in Dundas Town, a settlement in 'greater' Marsh Harbour. The church was founded years ago by Clifford Henfield, who is still an overseer/bishop. The current pastor is Shawn Robins, Bishop Henfield's son-in-law, and the Henfield family is prominent in the church. We started coming to the church 3 years ago on our first visit to Marsh Harbour and our relationship has grown to where we truly call them family.
We arrived about a week before Christmas and had hoped to surprise them on the Sunday service before Christmas, but that plan quickly started to unravel as we ran into members of the family around town. I think the only one surprised at our appearance was Pastor Shawn.
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| Pastor Shawn and his wife Elder Jackie |
The services at Grace Baptist are lively and moving. Congregation participation is a must at a Bahamian church - don't come expecting to sit on your hands and 'watch' the service - you are a vital participant in the worship.
While I was at a barber/beauty shop getting a haircut, we saw three young Bahamian girls getting their braids redone over the Christmas holiday. We were amazed at how long a process this is. First the old braids must be removed. Then a 'relaxer' is applied to straighten the hair. After the relaxer is thoroughly rinsed out, the hair is conditioned. Then and only then does the braiding process begin. We understand that the whole process takes nearly a full day. The young girls looked just as 'excited' as the girl in the following painting. We later learned that the parents like the braids, because it simplifies getting ready for school in the morning.
Grace did not have a Christmas Eve or Day service so Christmas itself was a quiet day on the boat. We had our traditional Slovak Christmas Eve dinner: pirogi and sauerkraut & mushrooms.
New Years Eve was a very special night at the church with what is called a Watch Night Service. The service starts at 8 PM and runs through midnight. Our traditional New Year's Eve 'celebration' is a quiet dinner at home after which we often are not awake to see the new year in - how boring. But with the help of an afternoon nap, we made it through with no problem - it was actually easy, the service was very interesting.
A first-time experience for us was the washing of the feet. Pastor Shawn washed the men's feet and Elder Jackie washed the feet of the women and both Joyce and I both participated. It was a moving experience as Shawn and Jackie demonstrated their humbleness and a powerful reminder of Jesus' doing the same. After this we shared the Lord's Supper.
The speakers at the remainder of the service were members of the congregation, who gave testimony to the theme of the night "Our God is Greater Than That".
The Sunday after New Years featured a presentation by the church school kids. I must mention that Grace has a lot of children - it is great to see a church filled with young people. I don't normally take pictures in church, but Jackie gave explicit permission for picture-taking during the presentation - wouldn't you know that both Joyce and I did not bring our phones that day. Trust me that the kids were incredibly cute!
We have extended our stay here even a little longer, so that we can attend 'Family Day' at the church next Sunday (1/18). which features an afternoon of food and fun following the service. How could we miss it! We have started to jokingly tell folks that 'You have to TELL US to leave after Family Day or we will never leave'.
We have had some great times with Pastor Shawn and Jackie and other members of the church family outside of church, but I will save that for another post.
Tom
Docked Harbour View Marina
Marsh Harbour, Abaco
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