Featured Stories

The energy was contagious at the two-day Do Something World Festival May 14-15, as over 8,500 people enjoyed gravity-defying stunts from skateboarders, BMX, and FMX demos. The enthusiasm continued throughout the evening as the crowd danced, jumped, and sang along to music from Papa San, MXPX, Monty G and Trip Lee. Each night, the festival concluded with lives being changed for eternity as Pastor Miles McPherson shared the Gospel with the crowd and 443 people came to Christ. Over 500 Cayman volunteers, 90 San Diego volunteers, and 45 Cayman churches partnered together to put on the Do Something World event.

“It was a distinct honor and blessing to help provide sustainable solutions to practical community needs and to touch the hearts of so many people with God’s love,” said Pastor McPherson, who noted that Miles Ahead volunteers were equally blessed by the warm reception they received as they delivered evangelistic, social and economic contributions to the country.

While thousands of Caymanians attended the two-day festival at Grand Harbor, the Do Something World Campaign began months ago for Grand Cayman and will continue to affect the island. Rather than conduct a single event, the Do Something World campaign’s goal is to establish a culture of service that will impact the country for Christ. Consequently, the Miles Ahead team meets months in advance with local leaders to establish a timeline before and after the event for service projects that directly address the country’s needs. For the Cayman Islands, these projects began in March.

On Saturday, March 24, 173 Caymanian volunteers kicked off the Do Something World campaign with a bang at the Health Services Authority/George Town Hospital. The team completed 630 hours of volunteer service. In addition to painting curbs and landscaping, the Cayman team beautified the hospital’s Healing Garden. Volunteers painted a mural and landscaped to create an environment where patients can receive treatment outside of their hospital room. One of the highlights for volunteer and Director of Medicine, Dr. Greg Hoeksema was being able to witness the Healing Garden used for a cancer patient’s chemotherapy session.

“The patient would typically have to sit in her room for hours to receive her treatment. Instead, she got to be outside, listen to the birds chirp, and enjoy the new mural that was painted. Ultimately, we hope that this area will help patients with their healing process.” said Dr. Hoeksema.

The following week, a team of 211 volunteers completed 734 hours of service at the Frances Bodden Girls home. The home serves as a refuge for girls that have been placed in the foster care system and it recently experienced a fire that caused interior damage. The team landscaped and helped with beautification projects. While each of the projects are created to enhance the community, they often have an impact that is beyond what was planned. For Kizzie, a 16-year-old that lives at the Bodden Home, the Do Something World campaign had an eternal effect.

“I did the service project the week before at the hospital and made many new friends. It meant a lot to me when those new friends showed up the following week and served at my home. I’m thankful that God gave me life so that I can share with other teens that we can change Cayman,” shared Kizzie.

The spirit of serving continued on May 7, when 90 volunteers from San Diego arrived to join the efforts of the Cayman volunteers. The group was divided into teams, Sports, Medical, Evangelism, Deaf, Prison, and Construction, each with the goal to use their skills as a platform to share Christ. They used activities, testimonies, and skits to present the Gospel. Throughout the week, the team saw over 700 people come to Christ. In addition to the outreaches, several of the San Diego volunteers equipped the Cayman leaders with principles that they have used to establish their ministries, thus helping ensure that ministry will continue long after the San Diego group is gone.

One of the highlights for the San Diego group was the Construction Team’s project at John A. Cumber school. The school was experiencing overcrowding in classrooms and was not able to do anything about it because of budget cutbacks. With the help of the Do Something World campaign, the volunteers were able to conduct a classroom expansion project worth $1.5 million (US), which extended several classrooms to create 3,500 square feet. The volunteers were able to make major headway during their week of service and the overall project will be completed in June.

The work of the Cayman volunteers and Miles Ahead team through the Do Something World campaign did not go unnoticed. Throughout the week, several Grand Cayman dignitaries including the Premier, Governor, Police Commissioner, and Minister of Education visited the different projects to see the contributions the volunteers were making. All of them were thankful for the work of the volunteers.

“I often say that the volunteer groups in this country do work that our government cannot afford to pay for. The churches do work that our government cannot afford to pay for … and I am happy that many have joined in this Do Something Cayman program,” he added, recognizing the motivating spirit of Do Something World. “Government just cannot pay for this type of goodwill,” Cayman Premier McKeeva Bush concluded.

The Do Something World campaign is not meant to be a stand-alone event. Rather, it is to establish a spirit of community service that impacts individuals and the community for Christ. Miles Ahead is committed to not only enhancing the quality of life in Cayman, but also sustaining the volunteer efforts well after the US staff and volunteers are gone. There are two more service projects that have already been planned for May 22 at John A. Cumber School and May 29 at George Town School. Miles Ahead’s Do Something World Director will continue to work alongside Cayman leadership to oversee and document these initiatives. Hopefully, the energy that was at the Do Something World festival will continue to spur the people of Grand Cayman to continue to serve each other and their country for Christ.

Whether you’re a novice or a pro, the Black Pearl Skate Park is considered one of the best in the world and it’s every rider’s dream to ride there. From the pool to the wall, this park has it all and it was the scene for the afternoon events for the Do Something World Festival skate and bike demo. Hundreds of onlookers watched in awe as the demo team, comprised of professional skaters and bikers from all over the country performed aerial feats and gravity-defying stunts.

Pro BMX rider, Jon Greer said, “This is an amazing park and an amazing opportunity to share Christ with the crowd through our demos and testimonies. We were so excited to be a part of the Do Something World event.”

Read and Post Comments

Collin Anglin is Cayman’s acting Director of Sports under the Ministry of Health, Environment, Youth, Sports and Culture, and recipient of the Young Caymanian Leadership Award.

John A. Cumber Primary School has been the site for two of the Miles Ahead teams this week. Both the Community Projects team and Medical team have been helping the students and faculty on the outside and inside.

Whether it’s the United States or the Cayman Islands, schools often face the problem of overcrowded classrooms. At John A. Cumber, the Miles Ahead team is helping to alleviate their overcrowding problem with a classroom expansion. The renovation will include building 12 new classrooms, which will add 3,500 square feet of classroom space. The team is also creating a 40-ft mural that will serve as the backdrop for their school play this year. This project will save the local government $1.2 million.

Rolston Anglin, the Cayman Islands Government’s Minister of Education visited John A. Cumber with Pastor Miles to observe the volunteers’ efforts. Said Anglin, “It is of great value to the community, to the school, but more importantly to the Ministry of Education. This will allow us to do is forgo a project we would have to undertaken because a lot these classrooms are much smaller and were built for a time that we have completely overgrown…increased square footage will allow the government to forgo having to completely demolish this classroom block.

In addition to renovating the outside, the Medical team is helping the students on the students on the inside by doing health education. The San Diego contingent included a team of medical professionals who provided a series of health education seminars to more than 500 children, ages 5-11.

“Improving the quality of life for the Cayman people is at the heart of the medical team’s outreach,” said Joshua Kirby, an Emergency Medical Technician from the community of 4S Ranch, in San Diego

The medical team presented several seminars featuring information on diabetes prevention, diet, hypertension and healthy lifestyle choices. They chose these topics because data released by the Cayman Islands Health Services Authority (HSA) last September showed that childhood obesity is a growing problem in the Cayman Islands. In fact, the findings showed that one in every five children ages 11-14 are overweight.

Kirby said the seminars included a diabetes expert who presented blood glucose sticks, showed the John A. Cumber Primary School has been the site for two of the Miles Ahead teams this week. Both the Community Projects team and Medical team have been helping the students and faculty on the outside and inside.

With just two days until the festival, all of the Miles Ahead teams are gearing up for the historical two-day event.

Video posted Mon, May 10th 2010, 19:10 (Grand Cayman – CITN) – (Copyright 2010 CITN. All Rights Reserved).

Growing up, Tim watched his dad steal to support his drug habit. While his dad made money from stealing, he would spend it all on drugs. In order to make ends meet, his mom would take the kids stand outside the grocery store and beg.

“I saw my dad’s arms full of sores from doing drugs and I didn’t understand where all his money was going and why he was always broke.”

Read and Post Comments

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.

Read and Post Comments

Energy and anticipation filled the air as the Miles Ahead group from San Diego arrived in Cayman. In spite of a day of traveling, the 90 volunteers were eager to find out the details of the week. The volunteers were greeted by familiar faces and friendly smiles from members of the Miles Ahead team. After settling into their rooms, the group gathered for a briefing of what adventures were in store for them.

Throughout the week, the group will be divided into teams that will focus on specific projects. These projects range from Prison Ministry, Evangelism, Sports Ministry, School Assemblies Team, Deaf Ministry, and Medical Ministry. The vision behind the Do Something World campaign is to not only leverage resources to complete service projects that will benefit the Cayman community, but also to equip ministry and community leaders so that the Do Something World campaign will continue to do similar projects in the future.

Read and Post Comments

Local artist Luelan Bodden has been tasked with creating a unique sculpture for Cayman’s “Do Something” campaign. It will serve as a symbol for the volunteer drive and when complete, will be placed the Cayman Islands Hospital.

(Copyright 2010 CITN. All Rights Reserved).