When I turned 75 and was the next month diagnosed with a rare cancer, I was pretty much thrown face-to-face with some questions I had never addresses before, or at least not with the same intensity. As a Franciscan, it wasn’t about asking God for some cure or healing but rather a challenge to attempt to go deeper into the healing that I believe is already available, present and life giving, no matter what outcome. I didn’t make any bargains around getting better if God effects a cure but I did make some promises to myself, with my wife Sarah, to try each day to live more fully in faith and hope, and engage with the “fullness of life” more deeply, or at least try.
So, sometime later, when I received a “random” email from someone I had never heard of describing an opportunity to serve the Church on a small island that I had never heard of, in an Anglican Diocese I had never heard of, well, I was, not exactly ready to jump in and engage in this “fullness” without a lot of questions being addressed... Oh well…
Over time, Sarah and I made the decision to jump in, and have faith that all will be well even though we continued to have many, many unaddressed concerns.
What goes around comes around. My first mission was in the Philippines on the tiny island of Biliran, where I was ordained a Deacon. Now, literally on the other side of the world from there, I, and this time with Sarah, am back on an even tinier island.
Saba is a municipality of the Netherlands. 5 sq. miles with about 1,500 permanent residents. Its prides include having two Dutch National Parks, one, the highest point in the Netherlands, a rainforest atop Mt. Scenery and the other, the pristine coral reefs which surround the island. Temperatures are between 73-83 every day, all year round. The first same sex marriage in the Caribbean was conducted here. And, what do you know, childcare, healthcare, education for all! There is one main road across the island that joins the port to the airport (boasting the shortest commercial runway in the world). The official name of the road is “The Road.” Dutch architects in the early 40’s said a road could not be built so the Sabans built it anyway and it opened in ’47, just around the day I, and my Sr. Warden were born!
We have two Anglican/Episcopal Churches, Christ Church in the Bottom and Holy Trinity in Windwardside. Christ Church was built in 1777 with Holy Trinity completed just a few years later! They are lovely, with a depth of real beauty that cannot be duplicated. While presiding and preaching I look down the mountain and out over the emerald blue Caribbean. Things are very simple here. Folks are incredibly warm and engaging. And though we may have 40 in the congregation (almost a full house) they sing and pray like we are 200!
God’s glorious creation is “in your face” and for that matter in all your senses all around all day! Sarah and I are limited to three months by visas but it is certainly an adventure that will be remembered. (Any of you clergy out there who might want to enjoy a peaceful time and be awakened each morning by the roosters, it’s worth consideration. Give me a call.)
A blessed 2026 to all!
Br Bob Flick
