WOW. Today was amazing. Our team, Medical Team 4, also known as “Wandering ROCKers” and “Medical Migrators”, went to Salt Spring Baptist. We also had the pleasure of welcoming a new member, Tiffany Scott. When we arrived at the site, we were welcomed by worship songs and cheers of joy. The congregation had arrived early and organized themselves in the church “waiting room.” This was such a contrast to what we saw yesterday. Today we had patients waiting and already checked in. We just had to set up and get started. We were welcomed by Deacon Garfield and assisted by Joanna, Anne Marie and Charles. They helped keep the patients organized and made sure we had everything we needed to ensure a successful mission.
Many of the patients today needed to see Optometry. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the equipment to take care of them. Dr. Clifford made a quick call to St. John’s and a couple hours later, God sent Katie Venittelli and Ariana Valasquez. These two wonderful women made a huge difference in the lives of our patients. They brought the gift of clear site. Once again Med Team 4 worked like a well-oiled machine and saw close to 200 people! We saw everything from the common cold to scabies to bacterial and virus infections. It was a busy and frenzied day indeed.
We had a special treat today from the local Jamaicans. They brought us a wonderful lunch of fried chicken, fish, red beans and rice, and coleslaw. To wash that down, we had homemade chocolate cake and casava loaf. Yummy - a nice welcome from the PB&J, although we LOVE our PB&J made with love and prayer by the Hospitality Ministry. THANK YOU - we love you!
One of the most touching stories today was from Sean and Danielle. A 60 year-old man with one leg came to visit the clinic after we were closed. He was told, “we are sorry sir, we won’t be able to see you.” He said, “OK, no problem, I understand.” He stayed in the church for a few hours with a huge smile on his face and approached Sean and Danielle to let them know how blessed he felt that we came all this way to help the people of Jamaica. He had so much joy and couldn’t stop thanking the team for all we’ve done. He said, “You have come here just for me.” This exact quote was mentioned by Sean at the first meeting with the medical team last fall. He said that we’d meet someone who would say, “you have come here just for me.” God works in mysterious ways. Sean just knew what the Lord had in store for us.
Danielle asked the man if he had a chance to see the doctor. He said no because he came late. Here was a man who was simply happy to be part of the experience, even if he didn’t have a chance to see the doctor. After a prayer was said with him, we were able to fit him in with an appointment. Sometimes we can learn a lot about gratitude by just watching simple examples from those around us. God shows us the goodness all around, we just need to open our hearts and allow Him to do His work.
We are looking for a wonderful day tomorrow at Church on the Rock. We can’t wait to share our new experiences with you.
God bless and good night!
Love, Medical Team 4
Last night(Tuesday night) Miles ahead team did an exercise in the holy spirit. As I got on my knees I just prayed that God would give me his heart for his people and I confessed that I am open vessel, and for God to help me be more sensitive to the holy spirit. I was filled with an acheing heart and cried for quit some time. After weeping I tried to leave the main hall but again had a huge ache in my heart and just began to cry again…so I went back to my seat and wept some more. I cant really fully explain how this felt but all I can say is that it was the holy spirit for sure and that Ive never had my heart ache like that ever!!! When I felt God was finished I went out of the meeting hall and went back to my room….out on the balcony of my room- I cried yet again and read psalm 139. When I went to sleep I really didnt know what all of this meant but I knew it was the holy spirit(which is always good). Today at one of the medical clinics I was able to pray a girl into the kingdom of God! As I talked to her, I couldnt believe some of the things I was saying! As I prayed for her I felt very strongly about some of the things that were on my heart(which was the holy spirit). Wow…this girl, after praying- opened her eyes and said I feel so light right now! I praise God for his holy spirit and for letting me be sensitive to it! Later that day I met her sister and found out that she had been praying for her for years.
JAMAICA - MILESAHEAD 2008 – Childrens Ministry
The childrens ministry went to New Haven, a home for developmentally disabled kids. When we got there, we didn’t know what to expect at all, and there didn’t seem to be anyone there to give us direction. There were 4 houses, each housed about 21 kids, and only 2 workers in each house. You could tell that the caregivers are very over worked, and at first none of them would even smile at usl You could tell also that some of our team didn’t quite know how to react to some of these kids. There were a lot of kids with cerebral palsy to varying degrees, some mental retardations, one boy with cancer, and a couple autistic kids.) We decided we couldn’t really do our lesson as planned so we all just started loving on them. I saw two boys in wheel chairs, went over to them and tried to talk to them. Neither of them would respond or even look at me. I learned from the caregiver their names were Javon and Renaldo, and that of the 83 kids there, only 5 of them have any relatives that come to see them – I knew then that these kids had to be starved for affection. So I just did what I would have done to my grandkids . I pulled their wheelchairs by my sides and started rubbing both their backs at the same time. We connected. As soon as I stopped, they both turned their heads and looked at me, and started rocking in their wheel chairs. So I continued– really we had a Touch Ministry.
Then I saw the physiotherapy room, so I ventured in and met Mrs. Cummings – this teacher was extremely loving, when I met her she was helping a little boy write a love letter. Then she introduced me to Carrie (who was severely crippled – but was very bright, and she had a beautiful voice, so I asked her if she would sing a song to me, she began singing…..”this is the day that the LORD hath made, I will be glad and rejoice in it”, that’s when I shed my first tear. After she finished we went outside and Mrs. Cummings brought the music outside, she put on a Christian kids CD, and that started the Dance Fest!!!! The kids all came over, they loved to sing and some of them could really dance, they started teaching us their moves. We had so much fun, during that time I saw tears in almost every team members eyes. When we first got there we were focused on how different these kids were from us, and then when we were all praising God, and dancing before him I realized—there is no difference — we are all God’s children - all of the same spirit! Wow, what a moment, I just felt Gods love pour out all over me. Here we were to minister to these kids, and it ended up that they ministered to us.
What an awesome God we serve!
Penny Richardson, Children’s Ministry Team
Today I met a guy name Glenrick who, I felt, love to talk about God in analogies like myself. For me relating something in the bible to things that go on in my everyday life is the only way I can understand. And so I found myself in a classroom today with Glenrick talking about our Lord. The appointment wasn’t anything short of being divine, and I am thankful I did not let this oppourtunity pass me by. That’s it, of course a lot of things happened today, but for me, that was the higlight of my day.
As I get on the bus this afternoon, I said to myself, ” I wonder what God will go with the day?” I ask Him to show me the way. As we arrived at Granville Place of Safety (GPS), I was excited. GPS is a place where girls ages 7-17 go when they are abandoned, abused, have no place to go or have gotten themselves into trouble. I thought this is right up my alley as this is the population I work with at home. I didn’t figure on meeting these three ladies. As the School Assembly team interacted with the 59 girls, I noticed three girls standing in what looked like a locked cage. When I got closer, they were indeed locked in! I came to learn that these girls were only three of five that ran away. They ran away to go to parties and have sex with men. The consequences, to be locked up. The girls didn’t talk much, and would not tell me their stories. I prayed for them. I asked them to think about staying put, not running away, to follow God and watch and wait for what for all the good He has for them.
Lisa - School Assembly Team
Hi my name is Jaz and i got the opportunity to visit a girls detention center today. I met a young girl who was 16 and 6 months pregnant there. I had the chance to pull her to the side and talk with her. She shared with me her story and i want to share it with you. Shaneka told me she grew up in a poor home with her father and brother. Her mother moved to the U.S when she was little. I asked her how was it growing up in her home. She shared with me that she was abused by both her brother and father ever since she could remember. She came to the clinic 4 months ago and was still being abused until the day she was brought to the center. Her father comitted suicide to avoid going to jail and her brother went to prison for abusing her. Her brother is the father of her uborn child. I told her she must be happy to be free from her home situation but surprisingly she told me she still loves her brother and wanted to see and be with him. She said she would rather be with him than at the center. My heart melted and i couldnt understand this. Later i learned this was normal. I could feel how hardened and numb Shanekas heart was to sharing this. I thought she would be emotionl and crying, as i was when she was sharing her story but she just shrugged her shoulders and said “Whatever”. I hugged, loved, poured into and prayed for her…and hugged, loved, poured into and prayed for her some more. I told her that she is beautifully, fearfully and wonderfully made. When we were preparing to leave, one of our youth leaders prayed over all the girls and extended an invitation for any of them to come up who were in any hurt or pain to be healed in Jesus name. For anyone who believed that Jesus loved them and if they were not saved to give thier lives to Christ. Shaneka went forward, shed tears and came to me asking me to come back and thanked me. I call this story “The Beautiful Struggle” because even though Shanekas experience was a struggle, she is still a beautiful child of god! Shaneka will overcome her hurts and pain through a God who is bigger than satans schemes to discourage and hold her down. Jesus will heal and hold this beautiful girl in His arms just as He did me in my own beautiful struggle. I managed to get her to smile with me and capture a heart that only Jesus could soften. Glory be to the Almighty. I’m crying because God is real and Shanekas soul is saved!
I signed up for the School Assemblies Team assuming that our days here in Jamaica would involve spending long periods of time with students in various schools and really being able to form close friendships while we were there. Shortly into our first day on the field, I learned that our time would actually be very short at each school. We would be lucky if we were allowed to spend more than a half hour total between our assembly and getting to interact with the kids. Discouragement began to set in as we would arrive to a school to find so many children in need, just to have to turn around and load right back on the bus to head off to our next scheduled school. My heart would break each time I would have to walk away from a child who seemed so eager to get to know me. However, yesturday God sent me a little boy who showed me that five minutes of my time was more than enough to touch him. We were at our second school of the day and were told to go out into the court yard and stand amongst the students while the rest of our team put on an assembly for them. As I walked toward the students I saw two older boys beating up a much smaller boy. He was probably about 6 years old and was being thrown to the ground as I came to his rescue. I yelled at the boys to stop and they laughed and ran when they saw a “white girl” coming after them angrily. I scooped up the small boy into my arms as tears flowed down his face. I just held him for a couple minutes before asking him what had happened. Because he was so worked up and because of his thick Jamaican accent, I was not able to understand what he was saying but I was able to see in his eyes just how grateful he was that i had come to his aid. Moments after I met him, I was forced again to leave with the rest of my group but I gave him a huge hug and told him that Jesus loves him and that he will always be there to protect him. He gave a very subtle “Thank you Miss” and I walked away with tears in my eyes. For the next 20 minutes I cried and prayed for this young boy and God gave me an overwhelming peace knowing that he would always be there to protect this boy. That my five minutes with this student was more than enough to show him God’s love and that is exactly why i’m here. ~Bryanna Corrao
Jamaica’s stunning geography — a strip of coast lapping the feet of lush tropical highlands — does not lend itself to straight and level roads. Need to get somewhere? Fasten your seatbelt.
What ratchets up the adventure further are the roads themselves. They’re narrow, curving, pot-holed — and full of Jamaican drivers! For the last two days our MilesAhead.tv crew put our lives in the hands of Noel, our van driver, who somehow managed to avoid the goats and children wandering the lanes while dodging the speeding compacts weaving around stopped vehicles alongside streetside shops and shacks. Most of us couldn’t watch.
While at a project site, waiting to depart for our next location, I mentioned to Noel that I didn’t think I could do what he did for a living, and that it must take a lot of courage to drive all day.
He smiled and nodded. “Yes,” he said. “I am very brave.”
We thank God that all the Miles Ahead teams have moved around Montego Bay safely so far, much to the credit of drivers like Noel.
Glasset Davis wants to be a journalist. She doesn’t like math very much, and tolerates science, but she loves to write. “My teacher says I am a good writer,” she says, shyly. Her round brown face lights up.
Glasset is a 14-year-old student at Farm Primary and Junior High School in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Her crisp school uniform is as emerald green as the tropical highlands her poor neighborhood nestles in. I met her today while visiting the school to gather information on the Miles Ahead project to build a 400-foot-long wall around the institution, which has been threatened by young gang members, sexual predators and thieves. The volunteers also are renovating the school’s dark and dank concrete-block lavatories, whose toilets are waterless and broken.
She asked me what she should do to reach her goal. Of course I told her to practice, practice, practice; and to read and read. But I was thinking. Around us swarmed some of the 900 or so other children who attend Farm School. They mostly come from desperately poor families who barely subsist. What will they grow up to be? Only God knows.
But I do know that God knows Glasset’s dream. Glasset’s favorite scripture is Psalm 36. “Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens,/your faithfulness to the skies. / Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, / your justice like the great deep. / O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. ”
I believe God’s love and faithfulness can reach past Jamaica’s lush mountains and prepare Glasset’s way.
Today is Tuesday, April 29 and Medical Team 4 is sharing our experiences from today at Webster Church. We started out with no patients and by the end of the day, we served over 150 people! We were first met by a bright smile from a 7 year old boy named Nicholas. He loved to help us all day and had a chance to see the doctor with his mother, Genieve. Thank the Lord they are both healthy! Our next two local Jamaican helpers were Otis and his girlfriend, Odiesha. Otis helped us get our first patients by driving around the neighborhood with hand-made signs taped to his car advertising our medical clinic. He shared with Sean Burgess that he and his mother were in a fight this morning. Otis stormed out of the house and began walking down the street when he came upon Webster Church and the Pastor. Suddenly he was overcome with a feeling of conviction and said “I want to serve today.” From that point on he became part of Medical Team 4. We are looking forward to seeing Otis tomorrow at our new site, Salt Spring Baptist and helping him to continue his walk with the Lord.
Joining us in the afternoon was a man from Kingston named Gawayne. He helped our triage techs, Brian and Justin with translating Pitua (local Jamaican spoken language). From triage, patients went to see Aubrey for vitals. Aubrey can now take blood pressure in her sleep! Way to go Aubrey.
Once the Team got into the groove, we met lots of God’s children, both young and old. Millicent came for pain in her hands. As Millicent and Pascale got to know each other, they prayed for her recent job interview and the pain in her hands so she can continue her passion - cooking. (May God continue to bless her and her husband so she can carry out the Lord’s plan for her and continue to provide nourishment for her family.)
During the visit with Millicent, Grandville School for all ages came for a visit. We met LOTS of smiling faces and many who loved capturing those faces on camera (see the photo link!). Christina, Jade, Regina, Shanice and Fenisha like apples, net ball, Disney TV, the color yellow and their favorite subjects are math and languages. They also enjoy braiding hair - Pascale and Danielle walked away with new hairstyles! Ya mon! These children are amazing! They are obedient and very polite and always say “Yes Miss” and ” Yes Sir.” I think we can learn a lot from them - we need to have the same attitude and obedience with God.
All the children especially enjoyed when the Deaf Ministry came to join us. Jesse and Michelle entertained them with songs and stories from the Bible - many of which they already knew! They especially enjoyed the children’s vitamins administered by Nancy and prescribed by Dr. Javier Rodriguez. Michelle was able to assist us with a deaf patient who desperately needed medical attention. Through her patience and communication, Dr. John Clifford was able to diagnose the problem and source of pain. The patient’s knee was drained and the pain went away.
While all of this was going on, Dr. Clifford’s wife, Nanci was performing miracles of her own. A man came to the clinic who could not walk. His legs were stiff and rigid. Nanci laid her hands on him and began to pray. She administered some physical therapy and shortly thereafter, the man was able to get up and take a few steps! Praise the Lord!
After a “fuel not flavor” lunch of PB&J (thank you Hospitality Ministry for staying up until 1:00 am to make these!), a young mother came to see Dr. Camille Tabor. She was in so much pain from two abscesses under her arm and unable to move. Dr. Tabor was able to make an incision, drain the fluid and take away the pain.
As the day grew longer and our bodies grew hot and tired, we heard a wonderful and uplifting voice. It was Desmond singing a song about Christ to Petra. Desmond came in with complaints of lower abdominal pain. He saw the doctor and finished with powerful prayer with Petra. This prayer was so blessed from the purist form. Both Petra and Desmond felt Jesus with them and began to cry tears of joy. Petra encouraged him to share Jesus with someone everyday. He asked, “how?” Divine intervention took over and he began to sing. At the same time, a group of school girls were also inspired to sing. Petra knew right away that this was how Desmond would share his faith with others. Desmond agrees.
As our day came to an end and it grew close to 6:00 pm, our last patient, a 6 year old boy, grew very nervous and anxious. We wondered why and he told us that everyday after 6:00 pm, he hears gun shots and every week someone dies. He was afraid that if he didn’t walk home soon, he might be killed. Dr. Sonia Miranda prayed for the child and his family and created peace, calm and a place for God to guide them safely home.
I can’t imagine how this child could live with this intense feeling of fear. We pray that he will find peace with Jesus Chris and that God will protect him always. This day has been amazing and we are truly blessed. These memories will be with us forever and we can’t wait until tomorrow to see what the Lord has in store for us.
To our new brothers and sisters of Jamaica - we love you in the Lord and pray for your safety and continued faith in the Holy Spirit. We look forward to seeing you again at the Crusade this weekend!
Good night and God bless!
Medical Team 4
