God Once 'Kept in the Dark' in this Tropical Getaway, But Not Anymore

ST. JOHN, Virgin Islands – On the surface, the Virgin Islands appear postcard perfect. Ads and brochures selling dream vacations want you to see paradise about a thousand miles south of Florida.

But dive a little deeper and you'll find a much different picture. The fact is, life for locals is far from paradise.  

More than 30 percent of families with young children live below the poverty line. Overall in this territory of 100,000 people, the poverty rate is 23 percent compared to 15 percent on the mainland.

And the per capita annual income is abysmal – about 35 percent lower than that of Mississippi, the poorest state in America. 

But there is hope.

Freshwater Church

The beaches on the island of St. John are simply breathtaking, but just steps away from Hawksnest Beach, something else breathtaking is happening.

Freshwater Church is talking about Jesus, living out the Gospel, and sharing an eternal message with the locals they so desperately need.

Each Sunday you will find them here, right next to the beach praising Jesus. Pastor Terry Lansdale and his wife, Marta, are missionaries in St. John. They say God called them during their very first visit to the island.

"We walked off the people ferry and walked onto the island and God immediately spoke in a quiet voice and just simply said, 'Terry this is the place for you,'" Pastor Lansdale said.

What they found was far from paradise.

Broken and Desperate

"Our apartment became a triage for spiritually broken people," Pastor Terry recalled. "The first six months I kept inviting people over and our little place was full of people. There would be 25 to 30 people. People were desperate for answers."

Among the desperate was one man fighting an addiction the pastor says he will never forget.

"This man knocked on the door and said, 'Terry, if you don't have something positive that you can share with me, this is my last moment,'" Terry recalled before breaking into tears. 

"God intervened so I lived life with him for the next week," he said.

Amber Pinigis was living in New York City three years ago, but God kept leading her to St. John. Now, as part of Freshwater Church, she sees the brokenness of young people like she once saw in herself.

"Unfortunately, brokenness, it doesn't matter if you're in paradise," Pinigis told CBN News. "There are a lot of people down here that don't know how to deal with their brokenness. There is a lot of alcohol; there's a lot of drugs on the island."

"And that goes hand-in-hand with people who come down here seasonally, people around my age who are coming down here for a little while and enjoying their life, but they're still carrying that brokenness," she explained.

'We've Seen Lives Changed'

But Marta Lansdale says the Gospel is leading to much-needed transformation.

"We've just seen lives changed," she said. "We've seen lives saved. We've seen people that are hurt just reach out to us. And they do not know us that well at all but because God was in it and we were definitely prayed up and definitely moving forward we are blessed by being obedient."

That obedience includes sharing the Good News with poor children attending public school. 

"We can go down during their lunch recess and they allow us to play with the children," Marta Lansdale shared. "They also allow us to share the Gospel. They allow us to share Jesus stories with those little children."

That's why Freshwater Church makes ministering to people and fostering community a top priority.

"Keep the central things central," Pastor Terry recently told parishioners. "Don't worry about the things that really have nothing to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ."

"Get your arms around people and love people," he said. "Let them understand the value they have in God and you will be shocked how people will begin to respond and come out."

It's a strategy that's been working. When the church started three years ago, they had sparse attendance. Now, dozens and dozens keep flowing in.

"This church made a difference in my life. It turned my life around," St. John resident Kati Connell told CBN News.

Connell has been on the island of St. John 23 years now.

"I told God, 'If you let me live there, I'll dig ditches, I'll clean toilets. I don't care what I have to do,'" she recalled. 

"And sure enough I got here and I did clean toilets," she added, laughing.

A Valuable Lesson

Toilet cleaning turned into running four companies. Eventually life got too busy and Connell started focusing on herself. Then she learned a valuable lesson.
 
"Religion is kind of kept in the dark here," she said. "They might go to church on Sunday, but they don't talk about it during the week."

"And this was a church that was teaching me not only do you talk about it during the week, you talk about it with your employees," she continued. "You run your company that way. You do everything according to God's will."

For Pastor Terry and Marta, that's what it's all about – doing God's will even if it means being far away from their grown-up kids.

"I miss them," Marta said. "I like seeing them. I like hugging them. I miss it, but at the same time God has just blessed us so much and we will leave a legacy for our children to carry on. It's all good!"

It sure is, especially when you have Jesus and are spreading His word to the underprivileged. The church is indeed providing much needed "fresh water."

"The idea of freshwater became very real because everybody needs a drink of fresh water," Pastor Terry explained. "And we thought that was what we were bringing to people, which is the word of Jesus. Jesus said it himself: 'If you just give someone a cup of water in my name.'"