In 1988, The Sweet Expressions made their first trip to Trinidad when the church in San Juan had just 70 members. Since then, that congregation has grown to over 350 members and has urged us to visit them again. The last campaign manned by US volunteers was several years ago, so the church there has been needing a shot in the arm from such an endeavor. Our main purpose was to encourage and build up the members and at the same time to reach out to the community of San Juan as much as possible during our short visit.

Those making the trip were: Runay Chance, Ed Carrell and Doyle Thomas of the Round Rock Church of Christ; Verbenia Delashaw and husband Jim of the Westover Hills Church of Christ in Austin; Diann Sloan, Cindy Dodson, Dan Merrell and Hugh Morgan of the Brentwood Oaks Church of Christ in Austin; Donna McCulloch and James Tackett of the Hyde Park Church of Christ in Austin; and Fuston Tackett from the Church of Christ in Troup, Texas.

San Juan is a suburb of Port of Spain, the capital city of the nation of Trinidad and Tobago. While Port of Spain has residents from all economical classes, residents of San Juan are from the medium and lower economical classes, but it is the San Juan congregation that has grown more than the other 36 congregations in Trinidad and Tobago. Membership has grown to over 350 with average attendance over 200.

The congregation has a great deal of maturity among its members. There are several good song and prayer leaders and several attended to the announcement chore. When there was a response to the invitation, it would be one of these men who would meet that person down front and take their confession and who would later baptize them. Mahase Bissoondath (minister for the church in San Juan) has done a good job of training both the men and the women of the congregation in the responsibilities of the church so a "one man show" will not be necessary. David Mutu serves as the assistant minister but is no longer full time.

The congregational singing was lively with a heavy American influence but with an English accent. Few members can read music so there is little part singing.

Mahase is one of the best preachers any of us have heard and we will never forget his sermon entitled "One More Night with the Frogs" taken from Exodus 7:8-10. His sermons are well thought out, effective, to the point and show a great deal of study. His style is his own, being self-trained but influenced by the many mission workers that have frequented Trinidad in past years.

On Saturday, June 4th, 1999, The Sweet Expressions, along with two others left Austin for Trinidad in the West Indies. We were taken to Austin Bergstrom International Airport by Ray McCulloch who drove a van furnished by the Hyde Park congregation. The trip through Dallas and Miami went without a hitch. After waiting in long lines at Customs we were met at the Port of Spain airport by Mahase and Dennis who were driving vehicles we had rented and John who was driving his own van to carry our luggage. Most everyone had checked two large suitcases that were filled with Bibles, song books, class supplies such as scissors, crayons, glues, markers, puppets, etc. and our own personnel belongings. We arrived at the Kapok Hotel in Port of Spain about 10PM that evening, ready for a good nights rest.

The welcome we received Sunday morning was nothing short of heartwarming. This was Doyle's 20th trip there and the second for the Delashaws and James. The rest were not left out as they too were greeted as old friends.

On both Sundays, we attended regular Sunday morning classes which started at 9AM. Services started at 10AM and would be typical for most churches in the US. After services on the first Sunday, we set up their equipment for a sound check. After a meal at the building, we retired to the Kapok at about 3 PM for practice, rest and clean up in a cool environment.

The evening events started at 7 PM with our concert followed by their regular Sunday evening services at 8PM. On our last Sunday evening there, 589 were in attendance to hear us sing and to hear Mahase preach. This was their largest crowd and they were a great audience. All the members of this congregation are wonderful examples of Gods love.

Each morning we were picked up by Mahase and Dennis, who along with his wife Shereeza, taxied us around all week. Each day started out with a 20 to 30 minute drive to the church building in San Juan and after a short devotional we split up to either hand out invitations house to house or attend home studies. We noticed someone home at nearly every house, usually an older parent or grandparent. Our trip was ill timed in one way, school was not yet out for the summer and the children were in the middle of tests to advance to the next grade. Several home studies and correspondence courses were set up while handing out invitations. The members of the San Juan congregation will do the follow up on these.

Our noon meals were furnished by the members at San Juan and we either found the food good or interesting, depending on what your likes and nose told you. No one went hungry however.

After eating our noon meal about 1:30 PM, we went back to the Kapok and rehearsed for the evening concert and took time to rest in a cool room and clean up a bit. The Kapok was a welcome shelter from the tropical heat that was present everyday, everywhere. Only large commercial buildings are air-conditioned in Trinidad. The church building has many windows that remained open to the constant breeze and the fact that it is built on a hillside multiplies its effectiveness. All homes are built to take advantage of this breeze to help cool the sweltering occupants as much as possible.

On two afternoons, our trip back to the hotel took us to homes where we sang for parents and grandparents who were not members of the church. These two homes were very different. One was in a nice middle class neighborhood east of San Juan. The other was reached by a narrow alleyway between existing homes facing the street in a poorer part of San Juan. Both living rooms were small. The second home was open to where the occupants of the many neighboring shacks could hear us and several came closer as we sang of the Amazing Grace of our Lord and the New Life we find in him. On one afternoon, Doyle and James accompanied Mahase to the radio station to record the next Know Your Bible program. Songs by The Sweet Expressions are heard often on Trinidad radio because of the weekly program.

After this time of refreshing, our rides would again take us over the rough paved and crowded roads and streets back to the church building for our classes and the evening service. Mahase had asked us to teach several classes starting at 6PM. Dan and Cindy taught the 3 - 6 year olds while Donna and Ed taught 1 - 6 graders. Each of those classes had about 5 children each night. The small attendance was due to the fact that the children were still in school and most parents did not have time to pick them up and get them to the building in time for classes. Diann taught the teen and single ladies class and had about 12 attend. She learned from them that they have no planned intra or inter-congregational youth fellowships and therefore they tend to run with their own worldly friends. We strongly and repeatedly recommended fellowship for young people in the church and talked to those who could probably start and lead them. Verbenia, Jim and Runay taught the married ladies class and had some 15 or so to attend. Fuston and Hugh held forth in the men's class that started with 2 men and grew to 12 by Friday evening. James started a class for song leaders but ended up teaching a singing class for both men and women. This was the training he felt they needed most. Everyone adapted their material as the week progressed. There were many good compliments about the classes.

The classes were followed by our concert at 7PM. The songs were well received with many good responses from the members and the many visitors from denominations who attended. One such visitor was the worship director for a Pentecostal church who stated that he now realized guitars were not necessary to have great singing and said he would be back. We will never know the full impact of our singing, but since many visitors from the community and distant towns came, we felt our presence helped attendance. The fliers we printed and sent down before our arrival were delivered to churches in Trinidad and were put up in local businesses. Mahase had invited the community to hear us sing on his radio and TV programs. All of this was done in the preceding weeks before we arrived.

Congregational singing starting about 7:45 PM, then Mahase would preach for some 45 - 60 minutes, except for Wednesday evening when Parker Henderson from the preacher's school in San Fernando delivered the sermon. Tuesday evening was different due to the television camera and lights set up to video our concert and the sermon for later broadcast on TV and radio. Tuesday was also Fuston Tackett's eighty-third birthday and the ladies of San Juan made sure everyone celebrated the event with a birthday cake and song at the end of services.

After evening activities, we would make our way back to the Kapok. On a couple of occasions we stopped off for an evening meal. Twice, the ladies of the congregation provided us with sandwiches before our trip back. Other times we took advantage of the restaurant on the patio of the hotel for a late night BLT and/or coconut ice-cream before putting our tired aging bodies to bed. The rooms were cool, quiet, clean and comfortable.

As with any endeavor of this nature, results can be measured in many ways. There were three baptisms and two restorations. But the real impact of our visit will probably be measured in a different way. Mahase has called to tell Doyle that there is a renewed determination to serve the Lord in San Juan and to get the Word out. He said our visit was just the thing they needed. If that is what has happened as a result of our trip, then we accomplished our purpose, thanks to Gods help.

Our trip back to Austin was uneventful with no problem going through US Customs in Miami. At least our bags were much lighter this time, having left all those song books and Bibles in Trinidad. We were met at Austin Bergstrom by several of the spouses and a nice welcome home.

The long ride back gave us time to reflect on the trip and all of us, to a person, felt we had gained more from the people in Trinidad than they had gained from us. We would like to make this trip every year but know that is out of the question. Once every three years seems about right. The Lord has seen to it that we learned lessons of love as we shared in the grace with which He so richly blesses us. We give Him praise and the credit for the good that was done and thank Him for the opportunity afforded us to serve.

One matter remains for our attention. Mahase and the church in San Juan are losing much of the support they have been receiving from congregations here in the states. One Central Texas congregation has cut their sizable contribution to the work in Trinidad by half and plan to end all support by the end of this year. The reason for this change, as we understand it, is that the ones who are now in charge of that congregation have not been to Trinidad, have no personal interest in the people there as the past leaders and minister did. This needs to be turned around by convincing that congregation of the good their funds have been providing in Trinidad. David Mutu, the assistant minister in San Juan, was forced to obtain full time employment as a result. This keeps him from many of the home Bible studies that used to occupy much of his time. To complicate things, Mahase has been offered a very good position in Canada, filling the pulpit for a congregation that is willing to pay him four times the amount he scrapes together in Trinidad. He is tempted, not by the salary so much as the opportunity it will afford his children in Canada. For the sake of the church in Trinidad, it is our desire that he stay there. It is due to his godly efforts and the talents that the Lord has blessed him with, that the church has grown the way it has over the last fifteen years. We feel that if he leaves, it will leave a hole that can not be filled and the church will suffer because of it. We pray that this will not be the case. Also, other funds need to be found.

Moneys left over from our trip after all bills are paid will be going to the church in San Juan for them to use as they see need. This was our intention from the first as stated in introduction letters when we contacted you and your congregation for funds. This will help them in the near future to some extent. You can reference the finance statement for an estimate of that amount.

It is our desire to contact our home congregations and others about making up the amount of funds needed by the San Juan church. The property and building are paid for so all funds go to either salaries, utilities and upkeep or evangelism in one form or another. Please consider helping maintain the greatest fortress for the gospel we have in that part of the world.

Yours in Christ,