The Journey of a Calling: June 2011

Evry ting criss! Those are just a few of the phrases we learned while in Jamaica. "Wah gwaan, mon" or "What's going on, man" and "Evry ting criss!" or "It's all good!" Even though we learned a lot of their phrases I think my favorite phrase was said over and over by a very sweet little boy with beautiful eyes named Ramario. Anything I asked him he responded with "yes, miss" or "no, miss" He lived fairly close to the church that we stayed at and came to hang out with us often. He had a very sweet sister, Rosie. VERY sweet children! I absolutely would've brought them home with me if I could have.

With this being my first foreign mission trip I didn't really know what to expect. Several people told me about their experiences in Jamaica and their stories of foreign mission trip they had taken. These tips were good and helpful, but I don't think they even got anywhere close to the actual experience I had. I also found that some of the things I heard about Jamaica were not completely accurate. For example every single person I talked to said that crime was really bad and people get robbed often. I'm sure this is true is some areas of Jamaica, but as far as I know we did not have one thing stolen from us...even while we were in Ocho Rios and Montego Bay. I can't say that there was ever a time that I felt really unsafe. There were a few awkward moments with random people, but nothing to be afraid of. Secondly, I was told about how beautiful the beaches and water is. This is true, but only to an extent. I found that the mountains and the people on the mountains had so much more beauty to offer than the beach. I felt at home there. I really wanted to stay another week! It was very humid and nothing ever completely dried, but that didn't really bother me. To be completely honest, I could live there. Now, I'm not saying I believe God is calling me there for an extended amount of time, but God did and is still doing some really great things there.

While we were there 40 plus people accepted Christ! PTL! There were a couple guys from our group that were praying with a young man that accepted Christ as the rest of us were on the bus ready to leave to come home. There were many "random occurrences" like this one. One of the pastors that went with us lead two people to Christ when he was taking pictures of random things on two different days. Talk about God's timing!

There were a few things that stood out to me on this trip. I want to share them with you in the next couple of paragraphs.

One was going into the schools and teaching the children Bible stories and songs. We rotated who went on what day so I only went once, but it was awesome to hear the children singing songs about Jesus to us and their teachers encouraging them to do it. That is something totally foreign in America. It blows my mind that God is encouraged in their schools while He is being taken out of ours. Another thing that I really enjoyed while in Jamaica was the taxi rides. We had the same 7 or 8 taxi drivers the whole time so we got to know some of them pretty well. Not all of them were Christians so we had the opportunity to share our faith with them. I feel like they showed us what a true Jamaican looks like.

God was definitely very faithful to us during this trip. We did not have any problems as far as flights and customs. One thing I was a little concerned about before going on this trip was getting motion sick. I prayed about it several times before we left. God was also faithful in that. I did not even get a hint of motion sickness the entire time except once when we were in a taxi and a guy blew his marijuana smoke in the window. Even then I did not get really sick. I have to give Him the glory for it! Nine times out of ten I get motion sick, but not this time. The driving was pretty scary at first,but after the first day or so I kinda liked it! It was a thrill!

I also LOVED the fruit!! I have decided to wait a little while until I eat the fruit again here in the States because I'm afraid I won't like it. Fresh mango, banana, guava, pineapple, jack fruit, and coconut- all fantastic! I think my favorite fruit was the Jamaican apple. The texture and taste was very good! Things that I didn't like so much were bread fruit, plantains and sugar cane. The bread fruit tasted like a campfire smells. Very different! It was much better cooked. The plantains were just ok. Nothing I would jump up and down about. The sugar cane tasted good, but it was just too sweet for me. The Juicy Patties were good as well. I definitely wouldn't eat them every single day, but they weren't bad. Overall I don't think I ate anything that made me want to puke, but some things I liked better than others.

When we arrived Friday evening (6/3) we ate dinner at the Jamaican pastor's house and just rested and met some of the locals. Saturday we painted the entire outside of the church that we stayed in...when it wasn't raining. Going into this trip we did not know that we were going to be there during the rainy season. It rained almost every day we were there. God still provided, though! The pastor there has 4 different churches he is the pastor of. Our group split up into 4 groups to serve at each church. Sunday morning we split into our groups and had service at our designated church. Sunday night we kicked off our revivals. Sunday night through Thursday night we had revival services at three out of the four churches. Because of the rain we were not able to have service at one of the churches. Monday through Thursday (6/6-6/9) during the day we did construction (which mostly consisted of painting) and then we had VBS at two of the churches before revival. You may ask "When did you sleep?" We didn't much.....but I wouldn't have it any other way! It was great!

The next Friday (6/10) we were treated with a day off. We traveled to Ocho Rios ate lunch, shopped at a market, got to climb Dunn's River Falls and chill on the beach. It was a very nice day and I had a blast climbing the water fall...twice! It didn't rain once on Friday while we were out. Later that night we came back to the church for the Gospel Blast which consisted of the Americans, Jamaicans, and Jamericans simply singing songs from each background and last minute worshipping before we had to leave early the next morning.

One last thing that was really neat about this trip actually happened when we got back to the States. After we went through customs and security we were waiting on part of our group that had been separated from us and we met a young white couple in their early 30s that had a baby. The baby turned and it was obvious they were not her biological parents. The lady asked us if we had been on a mission trip and we told her where we just came from and what we were doing there. We continued to talk and she told us they were bringing their baby girl home from Cambodia. She also told us their baby's name is Echo. She was a beautiful, chubby girl! It was a sweet ending to our trip and a great reminder of God's love for us and His faithfulness to us.

I want to end with this little bit of scripture and then some pictures below. "Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol Him, all peoples! For great is His steadfast love towards us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!" -Psalm 117