Jamaica Mission Trip 2002

Snail Publications© presents:
Jamaica Mission Trip
July 1-12, 2002
By Nicole Logan©

Hello! I just again want to say thank you for all the support you have provided for Phillip and I. There is no way we could have gone without you. We both had an incredible life-changing time. Here is the whole story (let's just say long letters run in the family):
Before the break of dawn Monday morning, the mission team gathered at Black Forest Chapel. Most of us were still asleep except for the few that were bouncing off the walls with excitement (like Phillip. He had not slept at all the night before.). After some prayer, we all loaded into our designated vehicles and started our drive to Denver International Airport. As we entered the airport people turned their heads at the sight of 35 people in bright yellow shirts that said Jamaica Christian Mission on them. I felt like I was part of some group taking over the world--well, at least the airport. We had very few problems checking in and many people stopped us to ask us about what we were doing. Security was another story. My best friend, Mindy Walsh, and I had no problems, but the adult in charge of us, Debi Byington, was stopped and searched at every security check. I think it was because

of the metal in her hiking boots. Soon after that, we had invaded 1/3 of a plane headed for Miami International Airport. In Miami, we had a two or three hour layover so we gave Pizza Hut our business and kept ourselves entertained by playing cards. I wanted to go get stamps to mail a letter, but the only stamps they had were in the main terminal, which would mean we would get to ride the tram again. Unfortunately Debi did not want to go through security again. Hhhmmm... I wonder why? The time in the airport went quickly and soon we were boarding a plane headed for Montego Bay, Jamaica.
    We arrived in Montego Bay around 8:30 pm. After being interrogated by customs, we grabbed our baggage (nobody's was lost or damaged) and found Missionary Terry Johnson. As soon as I stepped outside, I felt like I could not breathe. The air was so thick. It was as if I was getting too much oxygen. It was hot and it was only night. Anywhere something was touching me became sticky with sweat, but it really was not as hot as I had expected, just humid. I did not like it, but it could be tolerated. Some Jamaicans from the church met us and started throwing our bags into a bus. The bags took up three-fourths of the bus! We then loaded onto another bus and a van and began our exciting hour and forty-five minute ride to Townhead, Westmorland.
    In Jamaica, everybody drives on the left side of the road like in England and a few other countries. All of the roads there are very narrow and few are paved. They were also hilly and very curvy; hardly ever were we going straight. The bus ride to Townhead Christian Church was better than most amusement rides I've been on. All of the adults thought they were going to die, but all of the kids loved every minute of it. I wish I could have been sitting in the front. So here we were going as fast as we could, tailgating with a flat-fronted bus (if there wasn’t a windshield, we could have touched the vehicle in front), the bus and the van racing each other, passing on curves, getting back into their lane just seconds before another car came speeding inches by. I think the best part was when this huge gas tanker passed the bus on a curve going around 40mph. On the back of the tanker, it said “hazardous” in big letters. If we crashed, we would all be blown to smithereens.
    Much to the surprise of many of the adults, we arrived safely in Townhead around 11pm. The bags were unloaded and we were shown to our dorms. The dorms were so small. There were six bunks shoved into the room with barely enough room for a place for two people to pass. We did not mind, we just wanted to sleep which was exactly what we did after the girls set up mosquito nets (the boys didn’t care if they got bit) and got settled.
    The next day we woke up around 6:30am to the complaining of Lacy Muth (young adult). The roosters nearby started crowing at 4:30 a.m. and woke her up. I did not hear it because I am used to it, but obviously she was not and let everyone know. Before breakfast, we watched a Jamaican man ride to work on his bike carrying a 12 foot long piece of wood balanced across his bike. Everyday he would be carrying something new, sometimes chickens or other types of building materials.

Also, a man with a cart pulled by a donkey would go by. We all loved to watch him every morning.
    We had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes and then headed to the chapel for devotions and a briefing from Terry. After our briefing, we were assigned to our jobs for the day. A few other people and I volunteered to prime rebar grate. It was fun, but very frustrating. We would think we had it all painted and then we would look underneath and see all that we had missed. We came up with a method- paint one side and then flip it over and do it again. Phillip helped paint handrail, and a few other people sanded a rusty handrail. Later we picked up the construction site and went to the Brown River—the “coolest” part of the trip. At the river there was a waterfall we could jump or slide off and there were many shells at the bottom of the river. The river became a sneaky thief throughout the week. Kristi lost two bars of soap, and quite a few people lost clothes. You would be washing your clothes in the calm part of the river and if you didn’t hang onto them they would inch away until they were caught in the current and gone forever. Mindy lost so many clothes that she had to borrow some for the last few days.

    Wednesday was another day of hard work. Paint needed to be put on the primer and there was a newly made grate that needed to be primed. The other big project was tiling the parsonage. I volunteered for that job. I had watched Dad put in tile a few years ago so I figured I was a good candidate for the job. Mark Smith, Terry's brother-in-law, was in charge of that project. We decided to start the tiling in the bathroom. The first thing we did was measure out the room. It was complicated. I could not figure out exactly what Mark was doing, but I figured I would just leave this complicated measuring to “the professional”. Before long, I was laying the tan clay tiles and cutting them with barely any help. Mark always called me Nickel because he said it took too long to say Nicole. When he was in a hurry, he would call me Nick because that was even shorter. By the end of the week everyone called me Nickel.
    That night the music team practiced in the chapel while three of the Jamaican workers: Chad, Billy, and Shane, and I played dominoes. There were a few other people hanging around watching us play. I never knew until that night that there was an art to playing dominoes. The Jamaicans knew what they were doing. They could figure out who would win by the number of dominoes each person had left and a bunch of other neat tricks that I never did catch onto. Talking to Billy, Chad, and Shane taught me a lot about their culture and language. Chad always tried so hard to talk slow and clearly so that we would understand him.
    That night everyone was in bed except for Cody—he was still trying to put up his mosquito net. All the girls could hear was duck tape ripping for about 20 minutes and then finally a “There, it’s done.” (There was a wall between the boys and girls sleeping areas, but it stopped about a foot from the ceiling.). Cody’s net was finally up and he decided to push it out of the way with his head to climb into bed. However, things did not go as planned. He must have had his mouth open as he pushed the net out of the way, because he got his braces caught. After about 10 minutes of untangling, Cody finally got in bed announcing, “Whatever you do, guys, don’t turn out like me.” Lacy, his sister, who was right by me replied, “You have no idea how true that is.” We all laughed for quite awhile after that.
    Thursday was one of my favorite days. The projects for the day were more painting, making signs to advertise Vacation Bible School and night crusades, grouting the tiled bathroom, and cleaning up the water in the church from the rain Wednesday. I wanted to finish the bathroom even though I'd never grouted before. Mark chose one other person besides me to help with the grouting. After a few minutes of Mark, Lacy, and me, bumping into each other in the bathroom I decided that grouting was a two-person job--at least in the tiny bathroom. I found another job helping Luke Kimble prime a clothes rack. After the clothes rack was done being painted, I went to help Mark again. The grouting was done. The next place to be tiled was the kitchen. The measuring process made a little bit more sense that time through.
After lunch, I took a nap. Working hard in intense heat for three days, and not getting enough sleep wears on you after awhile. I woke up to find everyone in the new church building helping mix and haul concrete.

That was the job I had been waiting for.
Kristi King, Rachel Watson, and I got private lessons from Billy, Chad, and Shane on the proper way to mix concrete and speak patois (pat-wah). They really got a kick out of us trying to speak like them. Then they would talk like us, but with a British accent. After our lesson, we joined the great bucket brigade. This is how it worked: Everyone formed two lines to the place where the concrete needed to be poured. Then there were a few people that scooped concrete into five gallon buckets. The buckets were passed from person to person and poured. Then the empty bucket was then passed through the second line to be filled again. This was done until whatever needed concrete was filled.

    Towards the end of the concrete session, things got a little crazy. It all started when Mindy dumped a bucket of water on Ryan Seal. From there it turned into a full-blown water fight. Nobody was safe or to remain dry. By the end of the water fight both Chad and Shane had been put feet first into a fifty-five gallon oil drum full of water. We were told by one of the other Jamaican workers that next time we should put Shane in headfirst. We tried to also get Billy, TV, and Dijob, but they avoided us at all costs—jumping through windows, knocking over our buckets of water, or hiding in a safe zone. Later in the day we finally got Dijob with a glass of ice water.
    The water fight was really a good thing because the concrete needed to be washed off our clothes. Those who didn't get all of the concrete off were sprayed down with a hose. We were then loaded up into the vans to go to the river to clean up. We weren't even allowed to go into the dorms to get our swimsuits on. Swimming in our clothes was uncomfortable, but we didn’t care.
    Sometime during that day Cody entertained us all again with his great “skill.” He tried jumping through a door that was now two feet shorter and sliced his head open. Lacy shaved the area and cleaned the wound with peroxide and Cody was restricted to a chair for the rest of the day. Some of the people that helped with the concrete didn’t wear socks and paid dearly for it. The concrete ate away at their feet. They also were attacked daily by “nurse peroxide” as Lacy became known, and were restricted to certain jobs.
    That evening the music team practiced again. This time they had the amps cranked up. Jamaicans just started walking in off the street to see what all of the music was about. The Jamaicans crowded around the windows peering in. We invited them in but most of them preferred to stand outside. I think they felt that since they were not Christians they shouldn’t be in the church. We didn’t really understand this, but accepted the fact that they didn’t want to come in. Loud music is a very important part of their culture. If you want Jamaicans to come to a social event, you play loud music.        Nobody will come until they hear the music. That evening everyone had a great time praising God through music.
The next day there was more painting, window screens to be made, tile to be laid, and concrete walls to be knocked down to make way for the new stage. I volunteered to knock down concrete walls. After all, who wouldn't want to knock down concrete walls with a sledge hammer? Terry wouldn’t let us start until he took the wiring off the walls. While that was being done a few other people and I went around picking up all of the broken concrete blocks to use as filler for the new stage. It was hard work, but fun.
    Smashing down the walls was great. Everyone wanted a turn, and everyone got one. The concrete was a lot harder than many people expected. It took quite a while to knock down the walls. Soon after the wall was down and breaking up of the old stage was started, the girls were dragged away kicking and screaming because it was "a boy's job". I do not know about the other girls, but I was not happy. Reluctantly I went to find another job. Somehow, I ended up cutting tile again.
    Friday evening was the weekly youth night. All of the teenagers in the village came to play games, sing, and learn about God. Also, all of the neighbor kids: Jessica, Cleon, Morlon, Jermain, and a few others came. They were allowed to stay and watch, but not join in the games. Again many people stood outside the church peeking through the shutters.
    Our group started out the night with praise and worship. When we were done, the Jamaicans took over. They sang some of their folk songs for us. After music, Bill White (our new youth pastor) gave a message. We were so pleased that everyone stayed during the message because if the Jamaicans don’t like something they just get up and leave. After that the fun began. The first game we played was between the Jamaicans and the Americans. The game was to see who could eat these huge cinnamon buns the fastest. The outcome was quite surprising... the Jamaicans won. The next game was similar to musical chairs. A bunch of people lined up and stuck out one elbow. The first person stuck out their left elbow the next person their right, the following person their left and so on. Then a bunch more people went around the outside of the line. When the music stopped, the people circling would link arms with one of the people in the line. In the end, two girls would be fighting over a guy or two guys would be fighting over a girl. After that, we played musical chairs. Billy was trying to explain to me how it worked, but of course, I already knew. The final game was the rock game. Only the Jamaican guys played it. How it works is all of the guys sat in a circle and passed huge rocks from one person to another, except you could not just pass them, you slammed them down. Every time they went by you slammed harder and faster. The object of the game was not to get your fingers smashed. The game ended when the rocks were all broken and there was nothing left to smash. They also had a song that went with it. It went like this: pass them one by one girl and boy, pass them two by two girl and boy, fingers smash no cry girl and boy…
    Saturday was our last workday and we were not too happy about it. We all wanted to work more. The things to be done that day were putting up window screens, grouting the kitchen, and a bunch of other stuff that I don't remember. I did tile. I wanted to finish the job that I started. After the work was all done we finally had the chance to walk down the street to an ice cream shop. All of the prices were in Jamaican money. It took us a while to figure out the conversion. When we did we paid with American money and got change in Jamaican money. Later in the evening Cody decided that he might as well shave the rest of his head.

Mindy found some clippers and began hacking away. She decided that since there was already a circle on the top of his head we should make it into a bull’s-eye. It didn’t exactly work so Mindy ended up shaving it all off. Some of the other guys wanted their heads shaved too, but Pastor James wouldn’t let them. He didn’t want us “all to look like a bunch of skin heads.”
    Sunday was a much-needed day of rest. We got to wake up a little bit later than normal because Sunday school did not start until after 10:00 a.m. It was definitely my kind of schedule. The little kids started to trickle into the sanctuary in their Sunday's best. All of the little girls had their hair in twists and braids, banded by brightly colored barrettes. The boys were in collared shirts and slacks. I was surprised at what nice clothes they had because whenever we saw the kids they were in cut-off jeans and shirts that were practically falling apart.
    The first thing that happened was the children's time of praise. All of the children went and sat in the front rows and sang songs that they knew. Every single child was singing and clapping their hands. When they were done singing, the kids were dismissed to Sunday school. Pastor Harris taught the adult Sunday school. I was disappointed that he didn't teach it in Patois, even though I wouldn't have been able to understand it. I guess all of the Jamaicans can speak Patois, but speak in English during sermons and public speeches. Sunday school ended and church began. By that time, everyone was cooking in the sun. All of the adults had their little handheld fans, but it didn't make to much difference. Pastor James Seal gave the sermon that morning. Church lasted until around one or two in the afternoon.
    The rest of the afternoon and the beginning of the evening were spent just relaxing. We weren’t allowed away from the area without an escort so we talked Billy and Chad to take us around the neighborhood. We thought we would all go crazy if we didn’t allow Maegan to pass out tracts soon. I was surprised at how people reacted to us passing out tracts. I thought they would either refuse to accept one, or take it and not read it. Instead every person we gave one to, read it and were very appreciative, even the Rastafarians. We later found out we weren’t allowed to wander around because there were fields and fields of marijuana in the hills behind the church.
    After we got back from our walk it started raining. Luke and Kyle were outside and refused to come in so we closed the grate doors and “locked” them out. We offered to give them some soap so that they could use the situation to their advantage, but they didn’t want any.
In the evening was our first night crusade. We were going to have it at Crossroads, the intersection of two main roads a few miles from the church, but we didn't want to chance getting the sound equipment ruined in case it rained again. Instead, we had the crusade in the church. Not alot of people came that night. The people that did come were people that went to the church. The night went like this: Jamaican's did music, we did music, we did a skit, Pastor James gave a message, and Terry did an alter call. After the service was over, Mindy and I met Jessica Jackson's mother. Mrs. Jackson wanted Mindy and I to sing for her, but Mindy and I weren't prepared for that. We told Mrs. Jackson we'd sing for her the next time we saw her. Unfortunately we never saw her again.
    Monday was our first day of Vacation Bible School. The morning was spent preparing for that and figuring out where we would put all of the classes. Around 9 a.m., a few kids started coming in. There weren't very many. I think our group was a little worried that that was all of the kids that would come. Boy, were we wrong! More and more kids kept coming. It was a never-ending flow from all around. Things started to get out of hand. We had large beach balls for the kids to throw around, but the balls kept hitting the little kids in the head. We sort of got everyone to sit down and be quiet during the puppet show. Most of the kids had never seen puppets. The kids were under control until Sampson, the puppet in the show that loves his hair, lost his hair. It just randomly fell off. Everyone was laughing, even our group.
    After the orientation, the children were split up into their proper classes. Melva and I had over twenty-five three to five-year-olds. We were trying to get nametags with n

ames on everybody. Eventually we just gave up with the names and just put the nametags on them to mark which kids were ours since there were two 3-5 year old classes. The entire two hours was complete chaos. I was kneeling down helping a kid string beads onto his necklace, another kid wanted some help, another kid needed to go to the bathroom, and two of the girls were playing with my hair. Somewhere in the middle of all of the chaos, I was informed that the total of all children for the day was 222. I think a few more kids might have come after that. Before I knew it, the time was up. We attempted to get all of the children back to the sanctuary for the closing ceremony. Unfortunately, we lost a few on the way (This is no big deal in Jamaica. The kids’ older siblings would find them later if they weren’t already with them.). After the closing, all of the kids went home in a whirlwind. The Americans just sat around for a while just trying to figure out what just happened. Later we had a meeting on how to make things less chaotic the next day. The rest of the day it rained. The night crusade was canceled due to that.
    The next day VBS was slightly less chaotic. We got microphones for the puppets, we made sure that the little kids got to play with the balls and bubbles without the bigger kids taking them away, and everyone generally had some clue of the schedule for the day. During the opening and closing I sat with the kids. They all wanted to be sitting in my lap or toughing me. It was around 100 degrees and the last thing I wanted was for someone to be touching me, but even though the kids were making me hot I didn’t really care. It was neat that they all wanted to be with me.
    The second day was the complete opposite of the first. We had too much time. Melva and I did our best to keep the kids entertained and learning. We went over the Bible story three times. We even had the kids act it out which was somewhat a disaster. First, all of the kids wanted to be the king, Paul, or Silas. Second, the children did not really get the concept of acting out a story. Melva and I did our best to shuffle them around to get them to understand what we wanted them to do, but it was hopeless. Later we sang songs and played Simon Says. Simon Says was the only game that they really liked. We used it to our advantage by saying Simon says sit down.        When that didn’t work I would try to talk like them, “no, no, no, seat down, seat down.” For crafts, we had them color pictures. Unfortunately, we did not have enough crayons for every child to have one of each color. We had to split them up. Of course, there were fights over who wanted what colors and the Jamaican children started to push and hit each other because they did not have enough room on the bench to put their paper. Melva and I did our best to keep the fights to a minimum and to make sure everyone had paper to draw on. After what seemed like an eternity, it was time for closing ceremony. That day Melva and I got all of our 3-5 year olds to the sanctuary without losing any. The head count for the day was around 250.
    That night we were able to do the crusade at Crossroads. It was the first crusade ever to be at Crossroads. First, we had to load up a truck with all of the pews, amplifiers, and instruments. Phillip and some of the other guys helped to load up and unload. Later everyone was driven over to Crossroads in the buss

es. After all of the lights and sound equipment was set up, the service began. It took place it the normal order: Jamaicans did worship, and then the Americans did music. After the music, the Americans did a skit. It was called, "Impressing God." A group of people see God and want to impress Him with their skills; unfortunately God is not impressed with their self-righteous acts. The group keeps on sending out another person with different talents to impress God. Phillip was a super strong guy and I was a beautiful super model. The play ends when God sees a girl humbled and crying at his feet. God takes the girl and walks with her, leaving the group of people still trying to impress Him. Humbleness is what impressed God.
Phillip and I had a great time acting out the skit. I felt so ridiculous doing a runway walk and Miss America wave, but the older women from the church were rolling with laughter. The skit was followed by a short sermon on humbleness that Ryan Seal (Pastor Seal's son) gave. The night was really great, and a lot more people came. I think God planted some seeds that night.
Wednesday was the last day of VBS. It went a little smoother than the day before… organized chaos. Still, Melva and I had too much time and too many kids (I think we had 30-35 kids). Our main objective was to keep all of the children in the area and to help them to understand the salvation story and that Jesus loves them. We sang songs and played a few games, especially “Simon Says”. Then we had snacks, which kept getting spilled, and colored crosses.
Back at the closing ceremony kids were wanting to sit on my lap and touch my hair and cling to me. It was uncomfortable in almost 100-degree weather with humidity and the sun shining, but I did not really care. That would probably be the last time I would get to be covered by loving Jamaican children. After the closing,

the kids did not leave as fast as they did the last two days. They were having too much fun. The count for the day was over 300. Some of the kids hung around. Honestly we couldn’t get rid of them. They just wouldn’t go home. Jessica was still there so I let her comb my hair. She must have played with it for an hour. She kept trying to put it up in styles that her mom did hers in, but it just wouldn’t work. It was perplexing to her why she couldn’t do the stuff with my hair that she could do with hers.
That night was the last night crusade. Once again, the boys loaded up the pews and sound equipment to haul over to Crossroads. While everything was being set up, most of the girls and a few guys that weren't helping, played games with the Jamaican kids that were there. The kids taught us a slapping game that had a patois song that went with it. We also played what the children called Dog Pen. It is very similar to Red Rover. Everyone joins hands and forms a circle. One person goes into the center of the circle and tries to break out. As soon as the person breaks out everyone chases after them. So what you would see is a circle of people and then all of a sudden a body comes streaking through a break in the circle. The circle would break apart and form a mob of kids that would chase after that body. It was the funniest thing in the world to watch.
This crusade, I think, was our best one yet. Tons of people were standing along the street just watching us Americans. Our youth pastor, Bill White, spoke that night. All of the teenage Jamaicans gave Bill their full attention and respect. Pastor James and Ryan did not get that the times before. Nobody ever did come down front for the altar call. Even though we did not get to see anyone get saved, we knew that God used us to impact lives.

    Our last day in Jamaica was our fun day. We loaded up on the bus early to head to the beach. On the way we stopped at a bank to exchange some of our American money for Jamaican money (I never did use it). Next, we headed to the beach. Phillip and I had not been to a beach for many years. It was really strange. The water was warm and I could float. The only thing I did not like was that the salt water burned my eyes. Before everyone was ready, we were loaded into glass-bottomed boats to head farther out to sea to snorkel. I was surprised at how bland the colors of the coral were. I guess I was expecting red corral or something like that. We were not that far out to sea when we stopped to snorkel. I thought we'd have to go farther out than we did to see fish. It took me awhile to convince myself that I could breath underwater with the snorkel on, but once I did I only came up to pour the water out of my goggles that kept leaking in.
    After about an hour of snorkeling we went to shore for a jerk chicken lunch and relaxing on the beach. Some people stayed on the beach and talked, others went parasailing, and Lee, Kristi, and I went beach combing. Our next stop for the day was the market. We went in and out of the shops finding what we wanted and then haggling over the price. I thought of all of the tourists that went through the market not knowing that they could haggle over the prices. The Jamaicans probably made a lot of money off them. We didn’t get as much time as we needed to shop in the market, but we all wanted to go cliff diving.
    The cliffs were at a resort called Rick’s Café. There were two cliffs—a low one and a high one. I don’t remember how high the low cliff was above the water, but the high one was 33 feet. It doesn’t sound that high, but when you are standing up there it seems like two or three hundred feet. Phillip refused to jump off even the low cliff so he was designated the camera man. I jumped off the 33 foot cliff three times trying to get my friends to jump. The first jump didn’t scare me, but the second and third did… I guess I knew what was coming. For the next week my ribs were bruised from the impact of hitting the water.
    When everyone was done jumping, we all went to the outdoor showers to wash our hair. There were two showers and Pastor James and Nathan were washing. Nathan got done so I figured I might as well wash my hair. After that everyone was teasing me about taking a shower with Pastor James (of course we still had our swimsuits on). We watched the sun set and headed back to the beach for supper.
For supper I had curried conch. It was pretty good considering I don’t like seafood. Phillip had a cheeseburger (Mr. Creative), but he tried some conch. After we had all eaten we ran around the beach in the dark. Mark kept coming around with the video camera and blinding everyone with the light. Kyle got back in the water with his clothes on (we told him he would regret it later). He was lying on his belly trying to be camouflaged with the seaweed. Luke eventually joined him. Every time someone walked by on the beach they would sneak up on shore and try to grab them and pull them in (I guess they were being alligators). Later they had a seaweed fight. Before we headed home we rounded everyone up for a group photo. Actually we were trying to set up Dijob and TV for a group hug. They knew that we were up to something and were hesitant to cooperate. Eventually we convinced them to stand in the middle of the group because if they were on the edge they would blend in with the background. Then we attacked them with a famous Black Forest Chapel group hug. They didn’t know what had hit them. I think they almost panicked—who wouldn’t being smothered by over a dozen teenagers and their over-zealous hugging. After that we all loaded up on the bus for another exciting ride home. I was glad to be going back to Townhead. Even though the day was fun I didn’t want to be around any more American tourists—they were so rude and fake. I wanted to be with the Jamaicans. They were so sincere and honest. I think a lot of us felt that way.
    We didn’t make it very far before the bus blew a tire. We had to all unload and stand on the sidewalk while Terry and Dijob changed the tire and went to fill it with air. Phillip says that we ran over a white ghost crab (I think someone was pulling his leg). While we waited for the tire to be changed Maegan was told that this was not the time to do door to door evangelism. She was mockingly disappointed.
The next day was filled with tears as we loaded up to go back to the airport. Nobody wanted to leave our new family. That week we never did see anyone come to the Lord. We were the planters and waterers, someone else would reap the harvest, and a few months later that harvest was reaped—around twenty people became Christians. Since we left, the church has been completed and filled with people. Another church has been built. God continues his work through Jamaica Christian Mission.

Day 1 Monday: Trip there, Very long and boring. It was my first time in an airplane. It was fun…

Day 2 Tuesday: We were briefed by Terry Johnson about the rules, and then we unloaded all the food. Then we started painting everything that was metal. We then went the river to swim and bathe. We did this every night except when it rained.

Day 3 Wednesday: More painting of metal grates, railings….

Day 4 Thursday: More Painting! My friend Cody tried to jump through a door that was now 2 feet shorter then the day before, he cut a 2 inch gash in the top of his head. His sister, Lacy, the med tech, used lots of Hydrogen Peroxide to clean it out because they did not want to take him to the local hospital.

Day 5 Friday: I helped do cement by standing by the ladder, handing up the bucket of cement to the next person, who handed it to the worker on top of the ladder. I participated in the weekly youth night.

Day 6 Saturday: Last work day, helped do construction by handing cinder blocks and mortar up to the workers on the scaffolding.

Day 7 Sunday: Sunday Service—to hot to do anything—rested up.

Day 8 Monday: VBS – Was a runner to deliver snacks and supplies to the teachers. Night Crusades at the church, because it was raining that evening.

Day 9 Tuesday: VBS – Again a runner. Night Crusades at the “Crossroads”, loaded the pews, sound equipment, then unloaded, then loaded, then unloaded…

Day 10 Wednesday: VBS – Again a runner. Justin and I had to keep moving all morning to keep the Jamaican “High School” age girls from flirting with us. Helped with Night Crusades at the “Crossroads”, loaded the pews, sound equipment, then unloaded, then loaded, then unloaded…

Day 11 Thursday: Fun Day at the Beach, Snorkeled, ate “Jerked Chicken” which is very hot and spicy. We went to the local market to get gifts. We went back to the beach for supper. Then we started back to the mission. The buses “dodged” the white ghost crabs on the way back. The big bus we were on had a flat on the way back. We had get out while they changed the tire, then they left to fill the tire up with air and came back to get us.

Day 12 Friday: Trip Home, slept home most of the way. Most of us were sunburned from the Fun Day.