Some mission days you play games with children. Some days you pick up a paintbrush. Midway through our final voyage of summer 2026, our teens spent a day that they, and the church family they served, will remember for a very long time.
The site was the new building for New Life Antigua Church and its youth centre, a project we have watched rise over several trips. When our teens arrived that morning there was no paint on the walls at all. They spent the day sanding and rolling on the primer, working alongside the local youth-group boys they had befriended at church, and by the time they downed tools the entire base coat was finished. It is the sort of tangible, visible thing that a young person can point to for the rest of their life and say: I helped build that.
What made it possible was not just the sweat of one afternoon. Across trip after trip this summer, our teens had been fundraising back home for the paint that made the day happen, and the pastors had asked specifically for that support. So before they left, the crew gathered to write prayers and Bible verses directly onto the building, blessings for everyone who will one day walk through its doors. Then, tired and thoroughly speckled with primer, they raised the sails and crossed Deep Bay as the sun went down, bringing the boat to anchor in the dark.
Our partnership with New Life runs through everything we do on the island. The Sunday before, the crew had worshipped with the church in Spanish and English, helped lead kids’ church, and been individually prayed over and prophesied for by Pastor Billy, who called each teen up to introduce themselves. It was during that service that Noah, usually so shy, felt called to preach at the youth group later in the week. A few days after the church build, he did exactly that, his first ever sermon, and it was extraordinary.
This is what we mean when we say the mission is the point. A coat of paint, a shared prayer, a first sermon preached by a boy who had never spoken in public: these are the things that outlast the tan and the certificate. The sailing brings us to the island. The church family is why we keep coming back.
See the projects we support, or find out about Teen Summer Camp.