Vacation Bible School at Quail Springs Baptist occurred in June. This month, a QSBC missions team will conduct a VBS in the West Indies. The 15-member team, led by QSBC’s childrens’ minister Dixie Swezey, is making its second trip to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“God sent our small group last year to a place we had never really heard of–the island of St. Vincent in the West Indies” said Swezey. “We fell in love with the children and the people of this beautiful island.”
QSBC’s Dixie Swezey teaches children at a VBS in St. Vincent in the Grenadines in 2009.
Only five Baptist churches exist on the six islands that make up St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“We were able to distribute Bibles to people who had never owned one before,” Dixie said. “We taught Bible skills to children. About 120 children came to our one-room Vacation Bible School at Glen Baptist Church. Nineteen of those children made decisions to ask Jesus into their hearts.”
Much of the VBS had to be conducted outdoors since the church could not hold all the children. The Bibles distributed on St. Vincent were purchased by the children of QSBC through the VBS offering. Ten members of QSBC went to the West Indies at the request of IMB missionaries John and Barbara Randolph in 2009. The Randolphs are responsible for several far-flung island groups but are based on St. Vincent.
They are trying to establish partnerships between Baptist churches in the islands and Baptist congregations in the U.S. to carry on mission work when their tour ends in about a year. Many on St. Vincent live in borderline poverty, since there is no industry on the island, although some work raising bananas. Team member and QSBC librarian Donna Murrah said, “the island is a study in contrasts. You have this beautiful island and ocean but most of the people don’t have decent housing.” Unemployment is very high and many people leave the island to find work.
This year’s team will be working with Pastor Sylvester King and members of Glen Baptist Church again, training children’s workers but also doing other mission work. More Bibles will be offered this year, as well as curriculum for children and retired QSBC sound equipment for the church. Training church leaders in the area also will be done.
The team also will be conducting sports camps for children from 12 to 18 years of age, in an effort to reach more people on the island. The sports camps will focus on soccer (football to Vincentians) and basketball. Members of Glen Baptist Church are excited about this new outreach and are already publicizing the camps and pre-registering students.
At the request of the Randolphs and Pastor King, two members of QSBC’s Media Ministry on the mission trip will be conducting AV/Media seminars for pastors and other church volunteers on St. Vincent and other nearby islands.
“Churches in the area want to use radio and TV to reach people for Christ,” Media Ministry member Keith Swezey said. “They also have Internet access but have not used it as an outreach and are particularly interested in putting their services on the web as a way to reach new members.”
Dixie requests this: “Please pray for our group and for the pastor and church family at Glen Baptist Church as they work with almost no resources to bring the Good News to their island.”
Story content and photo provided by Keith Swezey.
Fast facts about St. Vincent and the Grenadines:
• The people of St. Vincent and the Grenadines are called Vincentians, or “Vincys.”
• Saint Vincent is a volcanic island in the West Indies. It is the largest island of the chain called Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The Atlantic and the Caribbean meet just of the coast of St. Vincent. The islands that make up St. Vincent and the Grenadines are located about 200 miles off the coast of Venezuela.
• Approximately 120,000 people live on the island. Kingstown, with a population of 19,300 is the principal town and seat of government. The rest of the population resides in small villages up and down the island. St. Vincent and the Grenadines is a parliamentary democracy and constitutional monarchy within the Commonwealth of Nations with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. They gained their independence in 1979.
