caribbean: different ways to give

Finding funds to run student activities is not always easy. The student executive committee of InterSchool & InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the IFES movement in Trinidad and Tobago, decided to raise funds themselves for the ongoing ministry. They looked for sponsors among local businesses, they talked to individuals and churches, and they sold things. In all, they raised about US$ 4,000 between September 2009 and March 2010.

This amount was far beyond what they had expected to raise. So they decided that, because God had been so good to them, they would give back by donating some of the money to a person or area of need within the CARIFES (IFES in the Caribbean) family.

Their staff worker suggested they support someone who had no funds to attend the upcoming Caribbean Staff Education and Training programme (CASET) in Trinidad.

Trinidad and Tobago was not the only movement involved in helping make CASET a success. For the second time in a row, the event was funded entirely from within the region. Two CARIFES graduates (husband and wife) paid for all the meals as well as for the airplane tickets for two staff from Haiti.

During CASET, students from the different islands of the Caribbean studying in Trinidad were invited to a special dinner where they heard staff workers talk about the student ministry in their respective islands. Khara, a medical student from Barbados, was there. At Urbana09, the North American Missions Conference in the USA, she had sensed God calling her to full-time Christian ministry. As Khara listened to the needs in the Barbadian movement, she felt this was a confirmation from God and decided to give one year to the movement in Barbados as a volunteer.

We give thanks for the great spirit of generosity we see in the Caribbean – the fundraising initiative taken by the students in Trinidad and Tobago that resulted in an over-flow of kindness, the donations from around the region that enabled the staff training event to be fully funded, and the gifts of service as Khara and others volunteer their time and talents as staff. How might God be calling you to share the resources he has given you?

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