The last voyage of the summer began the way every voyage does, with a gleaming boat and a nervous, excited crew of teenagers eating their first breakfast together, this one made by Micah. Within a couple of days Addison and Kayla, who arrived a little later than the rest, had helmed their first sail, taught the ropes by teens who had learned them only days before. That is how it works on these trips: yesterday’s beginner is today’s teacher.
This crew got the full range of what the Caribbean can throw at a sailor. They snorkelled the Deep Bay shipwreck and learned to drive the tender. They hit 13.5 knots on the fastest sail any of us can remember, ripping across the water in a stiff wind, grinning like maniacs. And a few days later they rode out a genuine storm, Addison steering steadily through high winds and high waves on an early start to outrun the worst of it. Between the extremes there were sugar-mill hikes, monopoly on the deck, worship led by Micah on his guitar, and devotions that ranged from gratitude to identity to a whiteboard chart of “kingdom transcendence” that had the teens drawing their own pyramids.
Then came the day that these trips are really about. Midway through, our teens spent a full day on the construction site of New Life Antigua Church, sanding and painting the primer of the new youth centre. They started with bare walls and finished with the entire base coat done, working shoulder to shoulder with the local youth-group boys, and by the end there were rather more painted teenagers than painted walls. They signed off by writing prayers and Bible verses onto the building for everyone who will one day use it, then sailed home into a golden sunset, taking the sails down and anchoring in the dark, which is a hard thing to do even for seasoned crews.
The mission climax was in Barbuda. After an eight-hour sail to reach it, the teens hosted a kids’ Bible camp and 75 children turned up. Games, memory verses, Bible trivia, prayer, the last of the summer’s donations handed out, and an evening around a bonfire under the stars and the pink sand, praying for an island still rebuilding after the hurricane. Then the longest sail of the trip, ten hours back to Green Island, Kayla, Annabelle and Addison sharing the skipper’s seat leg by leg, now unmistakably real sailors.
And the final day brought the breakthrough this whole summer points toward. Two of our teens were baptised in the turquoise shallows. Noah, a shy boy who had never spoken in public before this trip, preached his first ever sermon at the New Life youth group that evening, while another teen led worship and the rest ran a prophetic art session and prayed one-on-one with local young people. It was, quite simply, one of the most powerful nights any of us have been part of.
That is a wrap on summer 2026: three voyages, two months, and a boat full of changed lives, ours very much included. The route: Antigua, Barbuda, Green Island, and home to Antigua. Find out more about Teen Summer Camp, or follow the whole journey.