A Whole New World

 This weekend I took a break from the crazed dogs, my tiny apartment, and my solitude and went to stay with David and Vicki Allen. They are the couple who have been inviting Marleen and I over on Sunday evenings for a Bible study, and they said last weekend, "Ben, why don't you come over to our house and relax and rest here." So I packed a little weekend bag and  rode ol' Sweet'n Smooth the 8 miles out to the Allen's home.

They have a beautiful house on the water...the kind of house in movies where people go when they make millions and retire on the beach.

I spent hours this weekend gazing out at the ocean. I read a little, took naps, and flipped through picture books I found on shelves around the house.

But the best part was spending time with the Allens. Vicki teaches English at the College of the Bahamas, and loves to talk about literature and ideas. She was good friends with Marni Keyes (a L'Abri worker in Boston) back in the olden days, and loves the intellectual life. She took me to a Shakespeare reading at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas on Friday, which was fabulous, and then to a musical drama on Sunday night at the same local theater I was at earlier in the week for a Midsummer Night's Dream. Vicki was so generous and pleasant to spend time with. She had hours of marking papers that she would disappear into her study to work on while I napped.

And David is a GREAT person. He's like a Christian Pablo Neruda...enjoying everything and everyone. He carries this aura of joy and pleasantness inside of him. He took me out to this little breakfast place on the beach where he treated me to a 'real Bahamian breakfast': boiled fish, grapefruit juice, 'johnny cake' (which is a kind of cornbread), and grits. He kept telling me how much he liked me and enjoyed me. Sometimes we would be talking to someone and then all of the sudden he would pick up his phone and call someone and after talking with them for a while he would hand me the phone and have me talk to the person. Then he get the phone back and he'd ask them if they knew any single girls that are looking for a handsome man. It was rather ridiculous. "You've got to find some Bahamian love man!" He would tell me.

A few times through the weekend David would sit me down overlooking the sea and we'd crack a beer and chat about all sorts of stuff. He kept saying, "Oh man, Ben, you Anglican priests sure know how to live! You're living well!" Then we would have a long laugh. "Ben, I had a professor at Yale, a Jesuit priest, Fr. Aden. Man, he would ride this big Cadillac around and smoke cigars. He'd tell me, 'David, when life is well: live well'. Ha ha ha, he'd say, 'When life is well: live well." David would then keep chuckling and slapping his knee.

David also teaches a Sunday school class at the 'emerging church' on the island, and does a top rate job. He used to teach Sunday school in Washington DC at 4th Presbyterian and packed it out. But here for some reason, people aren't as interested. It tops out at about 12 people. But I really appreciate how he facilitates the discussion and uncovers things in Scripture. He's always weaving quotes from different theologians or thinkers in whatever he's talking about. One morning we had a devotions together, which was beautiful. Reading, praying, and meditating on the Word on his waterfront patio.

David living life well on his boat.

This weekend I also got to meet 'young David', David and Vicki's son. He lives a couple minutes away from his parents with his wife and baby boy in a quaint little neighborhood (Sandyport) filled with ex-pats.  Canals twist through the homes, giving residents all a little plot of waterfront to tie up their boats. It was quite a remarkable place. 'Young David' is about 34, has a small law practice, and teaches at a public school. He loves ideas and talking about theology, but doesn't have many people on the island to talk to. So we had a wonderful time following various intellectual rabbit trails. I think we're both excited to spend more time together and strike up a friendship.   On Monday we had a holiday for Columbus Day (or what they call 'Discovery Day') and had the day off from school. I offered to clean the Allen's boat so that we could take it out later in the day. I spent that morning with a scrub brush and a hose cleaning the Lady Victoria.

We then took the boat out for a little excursion and anchored in the shallows where we swam and dove. The water was like turquoise crystal, but there weren't any fish or coral to look at. It was just SO good to be out on the water...'messing about in boats' as Ratty would say.

Needless to say I've returned to my apartment and school routine greatly refreshed!

Breakfast with David and Vicki on the patio