Preparing the Way

 

Enjoying God's Beauty

Good day!! Our summer was filled with many wonderful mission teams coming to serve the Bahamian people in many different ways. Some places the teams served are: the Haitian communities building churches, doing VBS, painting at Preschool and working on Anna's House, the Bahamas Association for the Physically Disabled, Great Commissions Ministry (intercity soup kitchen), Children's Emergency Hostile (orphanage), All Saints Camp, and Music Ministries around the island. Many other projects were completed here at the camp and the Centre. It was very busy, hot and humid but GOD IS GOOD!! He gave us the strength and endurance to make it through.  We were able to take a month for some rest and time with family and friends in Wisconsin. It was great to be home and see everyone.

Now that we are back and things have slowed down a bit, we are preparing the way for the groups that will be coming in. There are some local groups that we will be serving in the near future. So, there is no time to waste, cleaning, maintaining, tearing down and soon building back up again. Our youth night has started back up again for the school year. The youth night has expanded to every Friday this school year. The first was slow but the second night we had over 40 students from 7th grade to 12th. The youth enjoyed song time, games, devotions, some basketball and snacks. We pray that the Lord brings the youth here that he wants us to minister to.

Game Time

With the summer ending, we are now able to serve once a week at All Saints Camp again. Helping Tim and Felicia Ryan serve lunches and work on other projects that need to be done. 

Cleaning room for a resident

 

 

 



Tearing down cabin 3 to be replaced with a bigger one with more beds



 



All gone now waiting for teams to come and build the new one

Replacing septic tank cover

 

Now some pictures of our animal friends:







 

Hen and her babies



Momma duck and her babies



Indian Crested Porcupines

 

 

Prayers

• for all the people in the Southern Bahamas that were affected by the Hurricane
• Continued success of our Friday Night Youth Ministry
• for our upcoming Young Adult Weekend (YAW)
• for our continued financial support.
• for mission teams to come and help build our new cabin by January
• for all the staff at the ALC&C as they are away from their families



Praises

• that New Providence (Nassau) was spared from the Hurricane
• all the mission teams that served and blessed the Bahamian people
• new staff that have come to serve
• for all of our friendships
• for the abilities to do what we need to do to bring glory to our Lord









 

 



 

 

 

Go into the world and preach good news to all creation.

Mark 16:15

We still cannot believe that God has brought us here to the Bahamas where it is soooo beautiful!!
The clear blue water that can wash your cares away. The Bahamians believe that the salt water will cure any ailment. As far as we are concerned it brings such peace and relaxation to be by the water. It has been about 16 months that we have been serving here and it still amazes us.

A month of so ago we had a fire in the bush behind camp property. It took about a week to put out. Thanks to the ALC staff that spent many long hours keeping the fire away from the camp grounds and buildings. All being done with backpacks with sprayer carrying 4 gallons of water and 5 gallon jugs of water.            

                  There have been many groups here to keep us busy. Below are just 2 of them.

                                                        
                                                 SoFree music group from Mobile, Alabama

                                                    Life Church from Richmond, Virginia

Many projects have been going on, some with the help of groups, to keep the camp maintained.

                                             Replacing fencing that someone hit.

Adding gravel to worn out paths.

 

Replacing rotten siding on our office building

 

There is never a dull moment at the Adventure Learning Centre and Camp.

 

Our granddaughter, Annabelle, requested pictures of animals, so here are a few that we have.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And many more.

 

And of course, our Youth Outreach has been going very well. We have a good core group of leaders and youth that are attending every other Friday night. In June we will wrap up our youth nights until school starts again in September. We are thankful for all the youth that God has brought here and pray that we can continue to reach out and bring in more in the future.

 

 Game time

Singing praises with SoFree

 

We continue to help Tim and Felicia Ryan at All Saints Camp.

The dining hall/hurricane shelter is nearing completion.

 

Tearing down old run down building to make way for a new dorm.

 

We hope that gives everyone a glimpse of what is happening in our world. God is doing great things here through the many different missions and missionaries. Who knew "that we were created for such a time as this" Ester 4:14

 

From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets,

the name of the LORD is to be praised.

Psalms 113:3

 

Prayers

 

• That we continue to listen to God's call in our lives.
• For all the seeds that have been planted in the lives of all who have passed through the gates of the Centre and Camp (foreign and local).
• For our financial support to continue.
• For the health and safety of our family back home.
• For the mission teams that will serve here through out the summer.
• For the Bahamian people to accept God into their hearts.

Praises







 

• For all the projects completed.
• For the mission teams that have served here.
• For all the prayers and support.
• For our health and safety.
• For all the continued blessings God has put in our lives.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                 

Long overdue post

      Hello everyone,
We didn't realize it had been so long since we made a post so we will do our best to update you on what's been happening here.
      It has been a nice cool winter here so far this year, with the temp's in the mid 70's during the day and dropping into the 60's at night. I know our Wisconsinite followers feel really bad for us having to deal with the hardship of winter here, but I promise I won't rub it in too much!!
      So much has happened since our last post it's hard to know where to start. Our primary duties here still include serving mission teams, that come here to serve the Bahamian people at Adventure Learning Centre and Camp. Our duties include, but certainly are not limited to, providing transportation to  and from the airport, transportation to mission work sites, camp style housing with meals provided by a wonderful camp cook (Judi). Camp cleaning and maintenance and just about anything else that may need doing. We also have set aside one day per week that Judi and I serve at All Saints Camp, alongside Tim and Felicia Ryan.
     We have had the privilege of serving mission teams from all over the United States and Canada and have developed some great friendships with a wide variety of  fellow Christians to be the hands and feet for the Lord in the Bahamas. We have the privilege of serving along side a wonderful, caring and loving staff that make it a true joy serving here.


      As time goes on here and we get to know the Bahamian people and the wide range of needs here, Tim, our camp director, has been expanding our work site's for the mission teams to serve at, so we may better serve the people here. Some of our work sites we serve at with mission teams or on our own through our local Methodist church (Global Village) are All Saints Camp, Great commission Ministries, Children's Emergency Hostel( orphanage), Nazareth Center(orphanage), Anna's house, Primary school programs, Christmas lights drive through, Easter fun day at the Centre, Friday night youth outreach at Camp just to name a few.






      As of Jan. 1st 2015 the Bahamas has started a new VAT (value added tax) We ask for you prayers for the Bahamian people and our financial support. The government added a 7.5%  tax on to the cost of everything. This makes it very difficult for the Bahamian people and ourselves to provide for every day essentials that are already very expensive compared to other parts of the world.






























 Some of the specific things to pray for are;

• We ask for your continued prayers for our ministry here.
• Continued relationships with our work sites.
• Our development of the youth night here at camp.
• The Bahamian people that we may continue to humbly serve them.
• Gods continued protection over us and this ministry.
• Our continued financial support

   Sorry, we were going to post some pictures but are having difficulty doing that.  We will try a new blog for just some update pictures.
   We are praying for everyone back in the states.
God Bless!!
Bob and Judi

New outreach ministry!!

All is well here in the Bahamas. It has been a very hot and humid summer and its finally starting to cool off a little bit.
  We are very excited to announce a new outreach ministry here at Adventure Learning Centre Camp. Friday night youth night!!  The Adventure Learning Centre Camp was originally founded by Jack and Audrey as Joy Bible Camp. Jack and Audrey had to discontinue the camp do to health reasons and returned to Canada. About twenty years ago it was taken over by Adventure Learning Centre. Unfortunately at that time the camp was not continued as it had been until now!! With the help and cooperation of former Joy Bible Camp campers and staff the vision to revitalize the camp is becoming reality!  After several planning and organizing meetings we decided to start with a Joy Bible camp reunion and a Friday night youth night. We had a great turnout for both events and consider it a huge success!!! We ask for your continued prayers and support as we move forward to continue and expand this ministry.

 

 This is a few of the former Joy Bible camp team members that were a huge part of getting this ministry revitalized to serve the children of the Bahamas.

 

We had 38 youth from grades 7 through 12 at our first youth night!!

 

 

Tim and Mindy Seeley started the evening off with a welcome and introductions.

 

 

Uncle Teddy delivering the message for the evening.

 

 

Fun was had by all during game time

 

Please continue to pray for us;

  Gods guidance in our ministry, prayers for Gods will to be accomplished through us and this ministry. Our care and safety as we serve him.

   Thank you for all your prayers and support.

 May God bless you, Bob & Judi Balson  

Welcome to our first blog post!! Finally!!

So many things have happened in the last six months, it will be difficult to catch up with everything that has happened. Sorry it has taken so long to get our blog up and running but we have been very busy. This is the first time we have done anything like this so bare with us as we figure this out .

 Finally!!!  Something we have been waiting for a very long time. Sixteen month to be exact. Our work permits have finally come through from immigration YAY!!! I guess that means we can stay for a while now.
We will try and post on our blog on a regular basis and hopefully catch everyone up with some of the things that have happened in the last six months.

Stay tuned.... God Bless
Bob and Judi