Our team arrived in Kingston this afternoon while Brian, Glendon and Jon were waiting for us at the airport. Andy, our bus driver and his sidekick Alwyn were also at the airport. After enjoying Jamaican patties- our first taste of Jamaican food and culture, we hit the road for the long journey to the Nutshell Conference Center. It was about a three hour drive but we arrived safely at 5pm and got settled in. Our lovely cooks at Nutshell prepared Jamaican Jerk Chicken for our team tonight. We just finished our team meeting and worship session and we're all heading to bed, most of us got little sleep last night at the church!

Did you know there's a Mandeville, Jamaica? It's a cooler spot in the southern hills of the country where many people retire to!

We're excited for an amazing week, so far it's been great!

Wow! What a great first day!!! We enjoyed a wonderful Jamaican breakfast and took an hour bus ride to Hastings Baptist Church. We met the pastor of that church and journeyed down to the school where we started working. We pulled to the cutest kids who where all in school and were very intrigued by us. At the back of the school we came to the start of a building. There we labored until 3 o’clock leveling the foundation, mixing cement, and laying down cinder blocks. Although it was quite warm outside, we drank plenty of water and got a lot of work done. We also got to eat some Jamaican Apples and had a great Jamaican lunch! One of the coolest things was working with the locals who volunteered their time to help, as many of them were parents of the children that went to school there. God was at work among us as we got a lot accomplished and made a big difference!
In the afternoon, many of the kids came down to the church with us for our VBS. As we gathered with the preschool to 6th grade kids, we had a blast! We sang Father Abraham and many other songs. The bible lesson was on Abraham as we discussed how we are all God’s children despite our differences. We also got to play with a parachute, which was a big hit! The crafts and pecan pralines were also popular, but nothing topped the exhilarating Mardi Gras parade we had! They were so excited for the beads we had brought, and we enjoyed sharing our culture. As we said our goodbyes to the kids, tired from a long day, we knew that the next days would only get better. God is truly using us for some awesome things and is really turning us into true servants of Christ. All of the prayers being prayed are being answered! Keep crying out to God for us as we see what else he has in store!

Tuesday morning we had banana pancakes! Everyone was so excited that we were getting pancakes. After breakfast we got on the bus and headed to the ministry site. We started our work with either leveling the dirt for the school house or beginning to mix cement and lay blocks. As we worked throughout the day, we found that more of the locals who have kids at the school came out to help with the work. They showed us how to properly lay block and mix mortar. Brian took some of us on a walk to help bring people in for our after school kids program and worship service on Thursday night. Last night we had a youth fellowship service and dinner at the Hastings Baptist Church. It was a ton of fun! We played some games and Matthew shared his testimony at the church. Eric, Taylor, Brooke and others from our team also were able to play some games and have big involvement in the youth service. We're looking forward to a full day today filled with more hard work, hard play, and worshiping God our creator!

Today we laid a lot more blocks at the Hastings Primary School. Slowly but surely, we're learning the tricks of the trade. Merrick is teaching us well and Desmond is a joy to be around for the work project. Guess what we had for lunch? Yes, Chicken. The after school program went very well today, although there were a few less children. We're expecting a large turnout tomorrow for our final day. God is good and he continues to shower blessings on our team. We're excited for another full day of ministry tomorrow in Deeside.

Hey all of you blog readers. This is Annie blogging to you from Duncans, Jamaica! Yahoo! Anyways, today was our third day at the work site and tons of progress was made. Cinder block is so rewarding to work with because you can really see the progress as you go. It’s really fun to listen to all the Jamaican accents… just wait- by the time we get home we’re going to have a whole new vocabulary! (& yes, they really do say YAH MON all the time!) Another thing about Jamaica is that it’s absolutely beautiful. Unlike Louisiana, there are beautiful hills and mountains all around. We drive past the Caribbean Sea everyday and the water is breathtakingly blue! God has blessed us with beautiful scenery. It’s an incredible thing to be able to pause in your cement mixing (yes- you really can do it by hand without a truck!) or block laying or shoveling and see God’s creation all around you. Today, after working for a long while, we were seriously blessed with some Jamaican RAIN! What you don’t know is that there’s no air conditioning and the Jamaican sun is BLAZING hot. We’re all drenched in sweat after fifteen minutes of working- but we’re embracing it! We also got to eat mangoes & sugar cane today. All I can say is that we are seriously missing out on delicious natural fruit in America! The fruit is GOOD. After we finished our work at the primary school, we walked over to the local Baptist church to start the kid’s club. The Jamaican kids here are so sweet and affectionate. All they want to do is hold your hand or hug you- they all love to be close to you. And let me tell you, when one of those kids smile it lights up the whole room. They all know our names and they run up to me and scream Annie! Annie! (with a Jamaican accent). We spent all afternoon with the kids singing songs, playing games and talking about Jesus. After that, some of the local Jamaicans opened their homes for us to shower. It’s amazing how grateful you become for something as simple as a shower but it truly made a world of difference. Tonight we had a Bible study at the Hastings Baptist Church led by pastor Owen Brown. It’s inspiring to see that in this random place in Jamaica that most of us have never even heard of there are people worshiping God just like you are back home. On that note, I want to say we all love you and we thank you for your prayers. They’re working because God’s doing BIG things here in Jamaica.

Yah Mon!

Matthew hands Merrick a cross signifying our special connection with him during the trip. Merrick was our work foreman.

Our after school program on Thursday

We accomplished A LOT on the Hastings Primary School. Here we're seen with Patrick, Merrick, Desmond and fellow helpers who supported us and guided us in the work!

Hello everyone! Today was our last day in this beautiful country. We spent the first part of the day climbing the Dunns River Falls, which was so awesome and cold and exhausting. Around lunchtime we drove into Ocho Rios; a very touristy town and most had lunch at a Jamaican fast food restaurant (the first time we had cold drinks and a lunch that didn’t include rice and peas). We got to go into the markets and bargain for souvenirs and gifts and IT WAS SO AWESOME! It’s fun to argue with the vendors and bring down the prices of things. Some went snorkeling in the crystal clear Caribbean Sea and fed the fish with the sea urchins, while others played in the waves at the beach. We had a lovely dinner at a restaurant 30 minutes away from Duncans, and we came back to have a reflection of the entire week, which was so touching. It’s so sad to be leaving what has become our home for the past week, but God has done some seriously amazing things in every one of our lives. It’s been a trip that we’ll remember always! See you soon!