Jul 06 2006
blogging from the island of jamaica
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Well this is the first chance I’ve had to blog from our mission trip to Jamaica. We have 19 people (14 adults and 5 kids from 5-17) staying at hte Immaculate Conception Convent. Hostel. It has been about 86-95 degrees here every day. At least that’s what it feels like and they use celcius so I haven’t been good with the conversion. But we have a pool we can use in the evening to cool off.
So far wehave had four busy days. Scapring and painting the local primary school, day care and vocational traingin center connected with my homechurch North Street United. We also have spent ime wih the kids at the day school running recesss on Mon. They were thrilled with the soccer balls and other sports goods we brought for them.
Seeing hte burn out shell of the building for \the first time was really hard. It will never be the same again. But sometimes change is good even whenit comes through hardship. The people here are as commetted as ever and they are in the middle of a week of crusade (outdoor revival style wworship aimed at connecting with the neighborhood. Their new pastor is a good guy and had a great message on Sunday about the woman at the well. "Come see a man"
Our group has worked hard but they have also connected with the people here and this will definately not be the last time we come to serve. There are many glocal connections being made. Everyone has been very open to trying new foods and new experiences. Some of hte folks had an eye opening experience at the open air food market today. Yesterday we went to the craft market in Kingston Harbour and bought souvenirs. Tues night we ate at an outdoor resturant in the historic village of Port Royal ( think Pirates of the Caribbean). No injuries so far and the hardest part for me was the drive from Montego Bay to Kingston partiall at night over some hairy roads, though today I think I awas dehydrated.. I have to make the trip again Saturday when we return to MoBay for a couple days R+R before we fly home.
Now that I have found the computer with internet at the convent I will post again tomorrow and try to post form MoBay when we get there.
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Andre… Thanks for the update. Looking forward to being with your community tomorrow. I’ll be praying for you and I’m eager to connect when you get back. Peace, my brother- Steve
Good to hear things are going well out there
I was on a mission trip to Jamaica back in 1996. We weren’t in the tourist parts either - it was a little akward for us because many of the people where we were had never met an American - but I think we were able to adapt well after a few days. I think it went very well but the problem was that we only spent a week out there. Looking back on the experience, I realized that it would’ve been much better if we had been able to stay longer and really interact with the culture more deeply.
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