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
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
So after our first day of visiting some of the high schools around Montego Bay, part of the School Assembly team went to help out the community projects team at Flankers Middle School. We seriously hit the ground running! We teamed up with our paint brushes, buckets of paints and scrappers to get to work. The members of the community team were sooo grateful for our presences. They told us about how they had waited hours and hours before even getting any supplies to begin working on the school, so they felt behind schedule in some ways.
We had no problem jumping in to things and trying our best to paint, sweep and clean as much as we get them caught up. But here’s the thing! The Sunday before most of us from our school assembly team went to church and learned a song by a young boy, about eight year’s old and his even younger sister. The song simply included the lyrics…”I’m walkin’ n talkin’ with my minddd…SET ON JESUS!” y this young boy sang this song with some much pride and joy and absolute conviction that it reminded us that any and all things we do should be done with our mind’s SET ON JESUS!
So while we were out in the blazing heating, working and working and working some more we found is necessary to start singing “We’re painting and sweating with our mind…SET ON JESUS!” and doing this seriously just lifted every one’s spirit’s and made working and sweating a joy! Sounds crazy, yes I know, but just in everything you do…do it with your mind….SET ON JESUS!
Blessings!
Kaye (School Asembly GROUP BEEEEE!!!!!!! (B) )
Hello. I’m Kaitlyn. I’m about to be 17 and this is my first missions trip. We went to an all girl’s school today and there were 300+ girls. It was scary, nerve racking yet, AMAZING! We did our skit called “Lifehouse Skit” and they loved it. I was also asked to share my testimony, which I’ve never done in front of a group larger then like, 3 people. . so it was quite scary. I gave just a snip it of my testimony and just wanted to let the girls know that no matter what has happened in their life, no matter what might happen, and the things that God has in store for them; GOD WILL ALWAYS LOVE & FORGIVE THEM NO MATTER WHAT!!! and I feel that that is the the message God has put on my heart to tell the kids of Jamaica. So today alone, made this entire trip worth it.
Pastor D began to give a mini-message and it went into the same thing I was saying. He began to tell them how God has a plan for each and everyone of them and how God created them to be a masterpiece. He said Boys might tell us young ladies that we’re not a masterpiece and the only way we can be is if we sleep with them, but Pastor D had all of us hold our hands out and say “pahhhh-leease!” We are masterpieces of Christ Jesus. It was even a good lesson for us on the team to hear as well because it reminds us that we are virtuous women as well. Praise God!
Kaitlyn Kohn. [School Assemblies _ team B! ]
PS : THIS IS ONLY ONE STORY & ITS ONLY TUESDAY
Last week, my husband & I kept checking the weather in Jamaica. Every time we saw the chance of T-Storms get higher. “But we are painting a school next week, Lord,” I kept saying. But I can’t control the weather, but God can. So we told everyone we spoke to, to pray for the rain to stay away even if it was just over the school we were painting. And our community projects team was praying too.
Well, yesterday was completly dry. Which was such a blessing as we started the day a little behind schedule as our painting supplies arrived hours late. Today, I kept getting calls from other teams saying it was raining where they were at. But it was not raining at our school, Flankers. It finally rained at 4:30 today. While a couple areas on some murals got a little runny–overall, the delay in rain helped us get the majority of the painting done. Rain during the day could have ruined the project or at least greatly delayed us. Amen! God answered our prayers. Tomorrow, we should finish the project on time.
How can you capture the events of the first 2 days of this outreach in one entry?
The entire children’s ministry team arrived by Saturday, April 26, 2008. Though most of the faces appeared to be deshoveled, everyone was eager to partake in the week’s agenda. One of the first treats of the week was a visit to The Meeting Place, a church not too far away from Rosehall Resort. As soon as the team stepped off the bus, ushers greeted everyone with smiles, hugs and kisses. What a welcome. What a difference from American culture. After church, the team was free to enjoy the rest of the afternoon and prepare for Monday.
The children’s team of 27 was split up into two groups in order to reach more schools each day. Hosanna Preperatory was one of the first schools visited. Prior to arrival, we were told to expect approximately 30-some children. Clearly, we were in for a surprise and an experience that would show us all the more that God is in control. As the principal stepped out of the school house, something resembling an unfinished brick building “about 120 children” was the response given when asked how many children attended the school. A complete reorder and prep for that many bodies was in order. When everyone came together and the children settled down before us, we proceeded to talk about how Jesus is our friend forever, the children’s ministry team’s theme for the outreach. We quickly noticed that although the children knew the Bible very well, probably better than most of us, the concept of having a relationship with Christ was not entirely understood. “Talking to Jesus like you talk to your friends or family members” was an idea presented to the children. Once again, it was to emphasize that Jesus wants to be our friend forever and we can talk to him just like we talk to our friends to help build that relationship.
As we boarded the bus to head to the next school, New Haven Children’s Home, sad faces followed us out and waved goodbye. If another moment could have been spared to spend just a few more minutes with these children, we would have. However, nothing could have prepared us for what was waiting at New Haven. Little information was given about this home and it seemed the bus driver and local guide knew exactly where we were heading. As we pulled up to the gate and drove into the driveway, we began to see who lived there. The children of this home suffered from every possible illness and more. Team members found it difficult to hold back tears as they stepped off the bus and began to immerse themselves in the environment these children live in. One of the most memorable highlights of this visit was that the children of this home knew modern praise songs. As soon as the radio turned on, everyone, the team and nurses included began to dance and sing alongside the kids. What was supposed to be 20 minutes turned into 3 hours and lunch. It was a complete blessing that more time (definitely not enough) was given. We didn’t have to scramble for more supplies because these children just wanted to be held, touched, played with and loved. They were so simple and impacted our lives in more ways than one.
Our last stop of the day was the Safety House, a juvenile boys’ home. The age of these boys ranged from 4 to 18. As soon as the boys turned 18, they were found jobs and sent out to live on their own. We were a little concerned with the general demographics of these boys, but once again to our surprise they were completely receptive to our presence. We had a lot of fun singing praise songs, playing games and spreading the gospel through a couple who teaches using balloons. Even though these boys have experienced much in their young lives, they too just wanted to be loved. Many were curious of our home and asked questions regarding the week’s events and the crusade. Hopefully, their confinement to the compounds will be loosened so they, too can hear more of the gospel at Pastor Miles’ crusade on Friday and Saturday.
It has been an incredible first two days. The rest of the week still stands before us with many more humbling moments. Why we were called to come out here to this particular outreach, we will never know. However, God continues to show us more of who He is through our teamwork and through these children who have one major thing in common with us: the love of Jesus Christ.
Today I was blessed with the opportunity to go to an orphanage for children with severe mental and physical disabilities. While there I stumbled upon several young boys who were bedridden for several different reasons. I found myself filled with frustration as I could not imagine why God would allow these poor children to have to live like this. I was praying over a young man named Marlin. Marlin is a 17 year old boy who is dying of cancer. His nurse told me of a beautiful young man who used to love to run, jump, and play, but over the past year his health has declined, and recently he has not been able to move from his bed due to his advanced cancer. At this point they are just waiting for Marlin to pass. I spent majority of my time sitting by Marlin’s bed holding his hands and praying for him. I talked to him about Jesus and told him about the mansion that the Lord has waiting for him and how the angels that will meet him and how he is going to have a new body, no pain, and be reunited with his friends and family, and one day I will meet him there again too. I stopped talking to him for a while so that he could rest. I finally asked, “Marlin, are you trying to sleep?” He lifted his finger and waved it back and forth to say, “No”. I had to laugh to myself as it was like a mother shaking her finger to say “no, no, no, my child” Then I asked him, do you want me to talk to you, if yes, squeeze my hand.” He squeezed my hand. So I started to talk to him some more. I told him how blessed I was to be here and meet him. I told him that I was from California and that my friends and family made it possible for me to be here. I said, “isn’t that cool?” and he shook his head as to say yes. I was racking my brain for questions to ask him. Marlin is a twin so I started to talk to him about his twin sister. All of the sudden he started to talk to me. He started answering questions I asked, and then asked me to rub his back. I felt so honored that after all this time of a group of us praying over him and the other boys that he choose to talk to ME, but he wanted me to rub his back?! Normally, rubbing someone’s back would not be an issue, but I have to say I was caught of gaurd and even scared to rub Marlin’s back as he has a huge tumor growing in his lower back and on his neck. I think more than anything I was scared to hurt him or his incredibly fragile body (he was literal “skin and bones” where the cancer had not grown in a mass form). I sat on my knees rubbing Marlin’s back for a while, to the point that my legs were in pain. As I felt the pain in my legs all I could do was pray and thank God that I had know idea what TRUE pain is. From what Marlin’s nurse says, he is in intense pain, which I can only imagine. Throughout my time with Marlin I was completely redused to tears. There were times when I could not even talk to him because I could not stop crying long enough. My heart just broke for him. I wanted to touch him like one of Jesus’ diciples and heal him on his bed. Ultimately, I had to realize that all I could do is hold him and pray for him. I gave him my Jamaica bracelet before I left. I explained to him that I have been wearing it for the past few months to remind me and my friends to pray for the people/country of Jamaica. I explained that the other side of the bracelet said “Miles Ahead” and that was who I was here with and that it could remind him of me. I figured it would be a good reminder for each of us to pray for each other. While I my heart still breaks for Marlin and all of these bedridden and disabled children, I have now come to realize that one reason God allows these children to experience life in this way to help humble me, and others who have come before, and who will come behind me. I sit here tonight completely humble, never wanting to complain about pain again, while axiously await the day I get to see Marlin in Heaven sitting on Jesus lap wraped in His arms of love.
