The Miles Ahead team started their day with praise, prayer, and fellowship with their new friends from Cayman. With over 40 Cayman churches involved in the Do Something World festival, the Miles Ahead team spent Sunday morning worshiping amongst some of the churches that are helping plan the festival. Even though they had just met for the first time, the Miles Ahead team was greeted with a warm smiles, hugs, and even snacks.

The highlight of the Miles Ahead team’s day was singing, praying, and getting to know the people that they will be serving alongside. They also got to hear about all the different service projects that the Caymanians have been doing for the past couple of months. Many of the volunteers found it beneficial to worship with the Caymanians before they started the week of service.

Steve Poppert, Community Projects leader for the trip shares, “It was awesome…It was a tremendous day. We enjoyed the worship, enjoyed the message and we are looking forward to spending more time with the people here at this church and the people of the Cayman Islands.”

The church visit gave the Miles Ahead team the opportunity to connect with many of the Cayman volunteers they will be working alongside the next week at their projects and the two-day festival. The Cayman volunteers shared about the spiritual needs of their country and how they have been praying for the upcoming festival. According to the Cayman Islands Government site, Christianity has played a large role in the lives of Caymanians, and there are a variety of churches. Similar to the United States, while the Cayman people attend church, they are still in need of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Pastor Randy Von Kanel of Cayman Islands Baptist Church is one of the pastors that is helping plan the Do Something World Festival. He explained the spiritual needs of the Cayman people. “Just like churches in California, there is a great need for people to know Christ and have a personal relationship … We have a strong Christian heritage on the island but over time, these last few generations, there has been a drift to more religious and less spiritual … There is a need across the island for people to know who Jesus is.”

The Miles Ahead team visited five of the 40 churches participating in the festival. Overall, it was a great way to set the spiritual foundation for the week.