Friday, May 2, 2008, 6:34 p.m. Jamaica time (Montego Bay, Jamaica) — In the VIP tent behind the main stage, a friendly athlete named Evan Kuzava (who explains below how his name is pronounced), plopped down and said hi. Turns out he is one of two Untitled Skateboard riders, which provided entertainment during the family fun time preceding the concert and Miles’ message. We invited Evan, who’s from Colorado, to post a guest blog post, and this is what he wrote:
Untitled Skateboards riders Evan Kuzava (Koo Zah Vah) and Professional Uriel (Yur-El) Luebcke (Lub-kee) have skated in 2 demos in the hot sun today alongside “Stunt Dudes” John Andrus and Mike Montgomery. These dudes threw some technical maneuvers and tricks all over the first skatepark in Jamaica built by Untitled Skateboards’ founder, Jud Heald, and the team. Right next to the skatepark was a 20 ft ramp for the “Team Faith” Motocross freestyle riders to launch across a 70-ft chasm in the field, causing a loud roar from the Jamaican locals who’ve never seen such a show live. The riders main purpose was to preach the Gospel and share much more than Extreme sports. Three of the guys spoke on the mic about their freedom from sin and death through Jesus. Radical skills, radical faith. Nuff said.
Friday, May 2, 2008, 5:44 p.m. Jamaica time (Montego Bay, Jamaica) – It’s time. We’re at Dump Up Beach in downtwn Montego Bay. The stage is set, literally. The event Miles Ahead has been working toward for months is here; the Jamaica Crusade is ready to launch.
Miles McPherson just taped his daily video blog overlooking the Dump Up Beach park in front of the stage. Thousands of families are there, enjoying an extreme bike demonstration, jump stations, juggling, face painting — all sorts of fun things.
This morning a heavy rain prompted us to pray that God would bless the festival with clear skies. Now? Let me tell you how beautiful it is here right now. The sun is low in a luminescent blue sky. Sunlight is sparkling over the bay’s crystal water — water that laps right up to the boulders rimming the park. Seriously, the festival is right on the water. A gentle sea breeze is nudging away the humidity. Did I say it was beautiful? God clearly answered our prayer for the right weather. Stay tuned! (We’ll be blogging throughout the evening…)
(Tuesday, April 29, 2008) — The sweat was dripping off David Bilodeau’s nose and running down the side of his face.
In fact, all of the dozen or so Miles Ahead crew members at Farm Primary and Junior High School in Montego Bay, Jamaica, were wet with perspiration, and splattered with paint, flecks of scraped-off plaster, and schoolyard dirt. Preparing Farm School’s girls and boys’ lavatories for renovation in 100-plus heat and humidity is like doing pushups in a sauna — for hours.
“The conditions when we got here [on Monday] were horrendous,” said Bilodeau, the Miles Ahead project manager for the site. “The smell and sanitary conditions were unbelievable.”
Bilodeau, a compact and solid dark-haired man, was so depleted the frst day of operation that the Miles Ahead medical team hooked him up to an IV of fluids last night (and ordered him to drink more water). Why were Bilodeau and his volunteer plumbers, electricians, painters and carpenters working so hard?
The answer is this: So that the 900 or so children of Farm School could have dignified facilities restrooms — with newly installed lights; with freshly painted cream-colored walls and no graffiti; with 14 new toilets that actually flush and have seats, in stalls with latching doors.
Absolutely basic stuff to American sensibilities, but for Farm School, absolutely unattainable.
Farm School is nestled in a poor section of the rolling highlands above downtown Montego Bay. Not only had its restrooms fallen into disrepair; its campus has never been secure. So while Bilodeau and his colleagues were spending three challenging days renovating the bathrooms, Miles Ahead was arranging for a 400-foot-long, 10-foot-high cement wall with razer wire on top to encircle the compound.
The public primary and junior high institution sits next to a ravine-like flood channel overgrown with folliage. There are lots of places for bad guys to lurk before sneaking past the school perimeter, and unfortunately they have. They have intruded into the school to steal lunch money from the younger children and threaten the school girls. A gang of teenagers bent on revenge burst into a classroom this month and dragged out a 14-year-old boy, attacking him wtih a machete. (The last news was that he was doing well in hospital with a large gash on his shoulder.)
“The wall was so needed,” said Ida Rhoden, the morning vice principal. (The principle, Samuel Reid, and the afternoon vice principal, Mrs. C. Eastmoore, weren’t on campus when we were visiting.) “Now the children can have more of a sense of security.”
A group of children, in crisp emerald green uniforms, clustered around the MilesAhead.tv crew visiting the construction sites on campus. Their shy wide smiles lit up their faces.
“There’s a sense of pride with these children,” said Bilodeau. “They’re amazing and curious. It’s truly been a blessing for all of us. They’re giving us as much as we’re giving them.”
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.
Steve Poppert is used to running big projects efficiently.
So when the paint for the Miles Ahead painting project at Flankers School in Montego Bay wasn’t delivered at the start of the work day, Poppert, a busy San Diego contractor, knew he could react in either of two ways. He could blow up, or look for a blessing.
He chose the latter, and here’s the blessing he found. In the five hours that went by before the paint showed up, Poppert’s 50 or so volunteers cheerfully began to look for ways to redeem the time. Without complaint, “they started to think of plans themselves,” said Poppert, a friendly barrel-chested man who looks as he’s used to working outdoors. “Somebody came up with the idea of cleaning up the school yard. They started picking up rocks and broken concrete. Someone found a broom and began to sweep. They pulled weeds. It’s neat to see.”
The “God moment” is why he volunteers on a regular basis. “I love watching people become empowered by these situations. You have people who have never gotten into this sort of work, and it pulls them out of their comfort zone.”
He was pulled out of his comfort zone many years ago, and now regularly “gives back what the Lord has given him. God wants us to be the body together,” he said. In fact, he has a construction operation that donates time and materials for needy projects. “I see a light switch come on in them. They suddenly get it.”
The principal said the event was “like Christmas in April.”
Mr. Hugh Miller, who has led Flankers Primary and Junior High School in Montego Bay for 20 years, shook his head today as he stood in the school’s weed-filled yard. The gray and coral paint on the institution’s exterior was chipped and faded. Its metal railings were rusty; its foundation and steps were crumbling.
“We are in very much need of a face lift,” said Mr. Miller, whose dark hair was sprinkled with gray, “and we couldn’t do it ourselves.”
Fifty paintbrush-wielding volunteers from Miles Ahead began lifting Flankers School’s “face,” as well as the spirits of its 746 primary and junior high students and teachers.
The crews are scheduled to work at the school for three days, April 28-30. Steve Poppert, a general contractor in San Diego who was volunteering as the project’s site coordinator, estimated that the Miles Ahead helpers were prepping, sanding and painting 20,000 square feet of wall surface, plus hand and guard rails – a job that would take a typical paint crew a month and a half and use 20 to 30 gallons of paint.
A dozen artistically inclined volunteers worked to restore five faded murals on the school’s exterior walls. Some of the wall paintings were simple animals, birds or flowers. The students’ favorite mural was of Jamaica’s seven national heroes and a map of the country, which Mr. Miller said helped build national pride in the children.
Volunteers also had plans to repaint the school’s motto of “Ambition – Performance – Success.” Steve said they had been given permission to add some scripture to the motto, to inspire the students.
Flankers School is a public school in an area of Montego Bay where many families struggle to make ends meet. For many of its students, Flankers is the most stable element of their lives — a home away from home.
Today the young girls in royal blue jumpers and boys in khaki swarmed over the volunteers, smiling shyly and asking questions. Amanda Ogden didn’t know what to expect when she and her fellow volunteers arrived at the school. When about 20 kids climbed all over her in greeting, her apprehension disappeared.
Amanda thought the children would be more reserved. “I was surprised at how friendly the kids are,” she said.
As the day progressed, the paint arrived and the painting went quickly. In fact, some of the proposed tasks that Steve had set aside — such as painting the interior of a large classroom — were put back on the to-do list. “These people are fired up,” he said. “Their spirits are so great. It’s been wonderful seeing what God has done through them.”
Mr. Miller stood for a moment in the warm tropical sunlight, his dark blue shirt gently flapping in the ocean breeze. Looking up into the residential hills facing the school’s barricaded entrance, he said, “The school is influential in the community. They see what happens here. They notice. It affects the entire neighborhood of Flankers.”
“We are very pleased.”
Miles Ahead volunteer teams piled into buses Sunday morning to worship God with Jamaican Christians brothers and sisters in local churches all over Montego Bay.
The volunteers were warmly welcomed at Green Heights Assembly of God, Fresh Bread Ministries International, St. John’s, the Church on the Rock, the New Testament Church of God, Faith Temple, and the international Worship Center and Faith Ministries.
At one of the churches, the sports team, led by Zack Jones, a former NBA pro and senior director of Rock Sports, participated in joyful praise at the International Worship Center. Pastor Frank Rosewelt and his wife, Hope, preached passionately about living victoriously in the power of God. The congregation has been constructing its still-unfinished building for four years, and graciously welcomed its visitors on unfinished slab under partly painted walls. There was nothing incomplete about the commitment to Jesus Christ, though, as worshipers — Jamaicans and Americans both — clapped, swayed and danced to the music.
The construction team visited Green Heights Assembly of God, a congregation of about 100 led by Loran Conrad. After a generous time of greeting and welcome, the worshippers prayed for the Miles Ahead volunteers and led them in lively out-of-your-seat worship.
It was a blessed start to the Miles Ahead week in Montego Bay.
We came to Jamaica in waves, some of us arriving Thursday, Friday or Saturday, flying through the day and through the night until we reached the beautiful Caribbean island of Jamaica. We all got here safe and sound — praise God!
And no doubt about it! Jamaica is stunning. We all feel blessed, and buzzed, and ready to serve!
MilesAhead’s photographers captured some of the ups and downs travel moments (and there were many of both!). They’re maintaining agallery of selected shots, so check out http://www.therockphotographers.com/.
We are only days away from sharing the love of Christ with thousands across Montego Bay, Jamaica, during the Best Dressed 50 Fest and Ministry Week April 25-May 4. God has opened this door for us and we are trusting God for a wonderful week of ministry where thousands of young lives will be transformed. He has blessed us with 280 volunteers who are giving of their time and talent to join us in Montego Bay.
During the week of April 28, Medical Clinic teams will touch people’s lives physically and spiritually; School Assembly teams will reach out to kids in their classrooms; Street Evangelism teams will minister to people where they are; Construction teams will improve kids’ lives by cleaning up two schools and replacing toilets; Sports teams will bring talent and fun with a message; and Childrens’ teams will have the chance to share the gospel with thousands of kids.
Stay tuned in this week for up-to-date news and information. We are excited about what God is about to do, and can’t wait to tell you about it.
If you want to help our efforts in Jamaica please pray for us and/or donate to Miles Ahead Ministries.
