F.O.C.U.S. Ministries
Presented
Our 1st
Singles Cruise 2006: Fellowship At Sea
February 17-20, 2006
(Presidents Day Weekend)
Featuring:
Pastor Alphod C. Sinclair, ABD, CSW (Pastor Ali)
Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventist
Our "Fellowship At Sea" X-Perience.......
Re-living our 1st Singles Cruise X-PerienceI bet UR saying, it was MORE than U thought.......... It was well worth the 6 months that went into planning this event. A Fellowship At Sea X-Perience was felt by all who attended. We were blessed Spiritually, Physically & Mentally at this spectacular event. Ask anyone who attended. We had representation from 41 people who represented 18 churches, throughout the US and abroad. There were SINGLES who came from New York (Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Long Island, Westchester), Connecticut, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri, Canada and Bermuda. They came by airplane, car & taxi to get to the Port of Miami. 60% of the cruisers were 1st time cruisers. This was the 1st F.O.C.U.S. event for 75% of the cruisers. I just personally want to "Thank" Vidal Forde, Keicha Gosling, DC, Nancy Rutledge, Pastor Ali, Dr. Barrington Brennen & the Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventist for the time and effort put into making this event a HUGE SUCCESS. Without all of them it would not have been successful. I want to say a SPECIAL THANKS to the wife of Pastor Ali: Corrine Sinclair. Thanks, for allowing your husband to assist in transforming the lives of singles everywhere.
Re-cap of our Event.......
Friday, February 17, 2006
We left on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Most of us were thawing out from the COLD weather from the Northeast. It was nice seeing our large ship in the background of the port of Miami. Carnivals Fascination was prepared to have over 2,972 folks on their cruise line. Some of the Cruisers started arriving around 12 Noon. Our Cruise Coordinator, Andrea Hicks, arrived at 1 pm. The first site of cruisers were the Mount of Blessings Singles. Nordia Byfield (Winner of the FREE cabin) was sooo X-Cited about her ocean view cabin on the ship. Newarc Travel & Tours surprised all of us by, upgrading everyones cabin. Andrea handed out our welcome packets from her spacious ocean view cabin. The Welcome Packets which included: welcome letter, colored program brochure, evaluation form and a SINGLES Retreat 2006 application. Some Singles were on the Lido Deck dining on a delicious lunch. Other singles relaxed, caught up on some needed sleep and fellowshipped with the newly arriving Cruisers. It was time to EAT again...as you know on a cruise you do a lot of this.... At 4 pm, the cruise started sailing from the scenic port of Miami towards the Bahamas. By now everyone had arrived on the cruise. The 1st time cruisers were all outside on the deck looking at the Miami skyline as the ship sailed down the Atlantic Ocean. Our scheduled dinner was served at 6:15 PM, in the Sensation Dinning Room. We had a 5-course delicious meal served at 4 tables that were full of energy and laughter. Our Seminar & Vesper service was held in the Passage to India room. Andrea Hicks welcome all the Singles and explained the itinerary for the weekend. The Roll Call for the Churches was sooo X-citing....everyone got up, shouted and clapped when their church was called. There was representation from 18 churches. Pastor Ali was introduced to the audience. He did an informative seminar on Developing a Moral/Ethical Framework. We closed the session with all the F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES in a circle holding hands singing Side by Side we Stand. We were truly blessed by Friday evenings program.
Sabbath, February 18, 2006
Some of us woke up at 5:30 am, to a dark, warm misty morning. Now it was time for our Prayer Walk, on the jogging track on the top deck. We read devotion from Courage and Conflict, the 2006 devotional book. The sun started to display in a bright orange as it rose from the Atlantic Ocean for another beautiful day. We closed our Prayer Walk with prayer. Now its time to....you guessed it......to EAT!!! Breakfast was soooo delicious. Our ship arrived in Nassau-Bahamas at 8 am on a sunny & warm Sabbath morning. It was now time for us to meet our Event Coordinator from the Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Dr. Barrington Brennen. All the cruisers met outside the Welcome Center, at 9 am. As several of us walked out the Welcome Center we were approached by many aggressive taxi drivers. They all said, Happy Sabbath to us. I asked, how did you know we were Seventh-day Adventist? They all answered you are all dressed up with bibles in your hands. Its a blessing to always try and represent Christ in all that you do. Well, Dr. Brennen was joyfully awaiting our arrival. As we walked towards the gate, Dr. Brennen was standing there with a huge smile on his face. Andrea, our cruise coordinator has been in dialog with him for the past 6 months. It was nice to finally meeting him. Dr. Brennen had 2 nice luxury air conditioned buses waiting for us. Most of the cruisers boarded the buses. As we were getting ready to pull off, several cruisers in high heels and suits started running down the street. They just made it.whew!!! At that time we had 41 cruisers on the 2 buses. Now were on our way to the Grants Town Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nassau-Bahamas. It was only a 15 minute ride to the church. Upon our arrival the entire Board of Elders and several church members were waiting outside the church to greet us. When we got off the bus they shook all of our hands and welcomed us to their church. Boy, did we feel GOOD! Several of the F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES were acquiring photos of this. Our Photographer Nancy Rutledge captured the entire scene. Sabbath School was in progress when we entered the sanctuary. The Sabbath School Lesson was on fire. Each class was breaking down the Royal Love Song. The Sabbath School Teachers had everyones attention and all the classes were inactive. At the end of Sabbath School the church audience was introduced to President Leonard Johnson of the Bahamas Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. He introduced a well know face from New York, Dr. Alanzo Smith from the Greater New York Conference of Seventh-day Adventist. They were promoting the first night of the Family Enrichment Series. Dr. Smith will be the Evangelist for the entire 1 month long series. Pastor Ali, F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES and several church members handed our colorful flyers to the folks in the neighborhood, inviting them to tonights crusade. Now it was time for Divine Worship Service. F.O.C.U.S. Ministries was being represented on the program. Pastor Ali, Andrea Hicks, Kathleen Prince, Makeda Jones, Cherie Lock, Terry-Ann Walters & Yvette Meade represented F.O.C.U.S. Ministries. Dr. Brennen introduced Andrea Hicks to the audience. She introduced F.O.C.U.S. Ministries ministry to the audience and the importance of singles ministry in the local church. Dr. Brennen asked all the SINGLES from the Bahamas then he asked F.O.C.U.S. Ministries to stand. He invited all the SINGLES to come back at 5 pm to fellowship with F.O.C.U.S. Ministries. Pastor Ali preached a energized sermon on Jacob. Here is a write up about our X-Citing service and a sound byte of the sermon (click link) http://www.bahamasconference.org/newsforfebruary2006.htm#focus Dr. Brennen had made an announcement to provide lunch for us after the Divine Worship Hour. The concept was, to have a family take each one of us to their private homes and bring us back to the church by 5 pm, was introduced to us. F.O.C.U.S. Ministries was asked to come to the front of the church. Each family taking us home came to the front of the church. The 1st Elder coordinated how many SINGLES would be going to each home. 14 homes were provided for us to attend. Actually, there were more volunteers than needed. My God is a good GOD! Each cruiser was able to X-Perience the Bahamian lifestyle (food, fellowship & family). There were a lot of wonderful testimonies from this X-Perience. This concept gave the F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES a chance to meet each other and to meet some of the folks from the congregation. Then we...... yes.......we ATE again.....Lunch. After lunch, some of us met back at the Grants Town Seventh-day Adventist Church. Some of us arrived later than 5 pm (having too much fun at the individual homes). When we all arrived we had a Rap Session with the Bahamas SINGLES and the F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES. This went over very well; people really got to express themselves. Nancy Rutledge got everyone together outside to acquire our "Group Shot". We took a really nice group photo in front of the church right before sunset. Then we went back into the church. This was one of the highlights of the Weekend. The AYS Leader of the church led us out in a rousing song service. Then we closed the Sabbath with all the F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES listening to a powerful devotional thought by Pastor Ali. Then 1 bus load of cruisers went to the first night of the Family Enrichment Series. This was the largest tent I had ever seen, it was about a block long. The tent was crowed. There were 1,600 folks under the tent and several hundred standing outside the tent, as per Dr. Brennen. Dr. Alanzo Smith gave an inspiration sermon on No Respect. We were all inspired. You can hear the sermon by clicking on Family Enrichment Series Now it was time for our Group Tour of Nassau. Their were 20 F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES who went on this tour. We even went to the Atlantis in Paradise Island-Bahamas. You had to be there, to see the largest aquarium I have every seen. Normally, there is a $29.99 p. person fee to see the entire aquarium. We were all able to X-Perience this for FREE. My God is Good all the TIME! We have come to the end of Our Adventist X-Perience in Nassau-Bahamas. Our driver and his wife were sooo gracious to take us all around all day. We took another Group Photo in front of the bus before boarding the ship. Now it was time to spend the rest of our "Saturday Night early Sunday morning. Most of us changed into something more relaxing and started to X-Perience the amenities on the ship. The 1st thing we did was..you guess it! EAT! Then some of us went to the top deck and played shuffle board until the wee hours of the morning. Others just fellowshipped and had some fun. What an X-citing time we had. Some people still wanted to continue hanging out....and..... were up until 3:00 am.
Sunday, February 19, 2006
Another beautiful sunny morning. Breakfast was servedand was soooo delicious. .... Our morning Devotion service was held in the Passage to India room. Some Singles gave their testimony of their Adventist X-Perience in Nassau-Bahamas. Everyone had a different interesting X-Perience. After the service everyone had a FREE day to do whatever activities they wanted. Some went swimming, sat in the Jacuzzi, played miniature golf, shuffle board, basketball, read a book, slept, got their tan on or just relaxed. Then we all came back together to....you guessed it again......to eat. We decided to all get dressed up for our own Formal Night. Unfortunately most of us missed the official Formal/Captains Night, held on Saturday evening. The Photography Coordinator, Nancy took photos of everyone at dinner. Everyone was dressed sooo nice. The guys looked dapper and the ladies were classy. The Matrad greeted everyone as they entered into the Sensation Dining Room. The Dining Room was so elegant. Well, Andrea had a SURPRISE for everyone who arrived at dinner. She had made arrangements with the Cruise Group Coordinator. This is something that does not normally occur. God is Good all the TIME! We have had soo much FAVOR during this entire event. Ok, I dont want to keep you in suspense. We were able to meet with the Captain of the cruise. He was willing to come to meet us, even though the Captains night was on Saturday. He took photos at each of our 4 tables. This was such a nice gesture. The F.O.C.U.S. SINGLES were sooo SURPRISED everyone took out their cameras and lights were flashing everywhere. What a way to end dinner. Afterwards some of us had to start packing and other went to Karaoke. A fun time was held by all. The fellowship continued until 3 am. No one wanted the day to come to an end.
Monday, February 20, 2006
This was our last day.... Another beautiful sunny morning. We all ATE our last meal breakfast. Now we are at the end of a most wonderful spiritually uplifting weekend. Over these last days....there was a lot of networking, friendships & reconnecting. A GREAT time was had by all.
In Closing
If you MISSED this cruise its still early for you to join us for Singles Retreat 2006. For details go to our website: www.focusnyc.org We would like all SINGLES to take back the information you learned to your local church. Then we will have more Singles who are ready for the next step........this step is a decision that only YOU can make.
I know everyone returned home a different way than they came. If this was "MORE than you thought". Tell someone about YOUR X-Perience. May this X-Perience stay with you for a long time......
For those of you who were not there, you really shoulda...been...there.....
Still X-Cited......
Andrea D. Hicks
Singles Cruise 2006 Coordinator
