Friday, April 22, 2011

To There and Back Again, A Missionary's Tale

Last Saturday, the 16th, we took a ferry boat to a little island called Carriacou that is part of the nation of Grenada. We have some members over there that we wanted to meet, particularly a young man who is a returned missionary. His name is Davidson Stewart and he served in the Marshall Islands Mission on a little island called Kiribati where they speak their own unique language. His great aunt, Angelina McIntosh is the only other active member on the island that we know of. They hold Sunday meetings together in her home with only three in attendance, counting Sister McIntosh's non member sister who lives with her. Her home is a big beautiful brick veneer home with hardwood floors and a living room converted into a chapel with a podium and church chairs to accomodate about ten people. We left for just a day trip on the Osprey Ferry which cost $61.00 U.S. per person for round trip passage. The picture below is from the ferry boat as it is leaving St. George's Harbor, a natural deep harbor made by a volcanic crater. The largest cruise ships can sail right in with no trouble. The photo below is as we are passing the town of Gouyave (pronounced like guava only without the "a") where we have two Elders working and a little dependent church group. They only hold Sunday School and Sacrament Meeting. We try to go up to their meetings once a month just to give support and fellowship to the few members they have. On our way to Carriacou we passed many tiny islets poking up from the water. This one looked like a pyramid floating on the sea. This is the view of the 13 square mile island of Carriacou as we are coming in to the dock. In spite of it's size, it still has many beautiful white sand beaches. They have about 5,000 residents. It is said that anyone living on Carriacou will have a relative in Bristol, England. These people love to go to England and Canada to live. It is easy to do since they are still part of the Brittish commonwealth. All their money has the queen on it. We were met at the dock by Davidson who took us to meet his great aunt Angelina. After a visit with them at her beautiful home, we went to lunch with Sister McIntosh's friend Lucita who has a car. We had a lot of fun going out to see their "International Airport", one of the sights as Lucita drove us around. All the way out there they kept telling us how busy it is and how crowded, all in fun of course. This is the largest passenger plane that comes in. It's a nine seater. Here we are, about to board the ferry for our return trip, with Lucita, Sister McIntosh's friend who drove us around the island, Davidson, and his great aunt Angelina. These are wonderful members and we feel bad that they are so isolated. It is wonderful that they are still keeping the faith as best they can.


2 comments:

Unknown said...

Glad you got to visit with them. I hope you get to go back.

macfan said...

True modern-day pioneers!