You say Goodbye and I say Hello

Hello everyone, we are back from Jamaica... each one of us safe and sound. This is Gail here, saying I'm so happy to be sitting on my own bed, unpacked and ready to fall asleep as I write this!

I miss the WARMTH of Jamaica already. We left and it was over 30 degrees and sunny and came back to 10 degrees and rain. But the weather is far from the most beautiful part of our trip. (Although Jamaica is a very beautiful place.) The whole 10 days was an experience that I will never forget and that will impact all of us forever. When we debriefed on Sunday night, that much was clear as we all shared the highlights for us and how God has used this trip in changing our lives.

A quick update - on Sunday we said good-bye to our friends at West Gate Hills Church. Pastor Rev. Sharpe gave us each a parting gift: two bookmarks... one with the National Jamaican Anthem which we have gotten so good at singing (from hearing it in all the schools). It is really the loveliest National Anthem I have heard... and in the last schools we visited, our team got pretty good at singing along. We were given the chance to sing the song to the whole church and a lot of Jamaicans said they were surprised at how well we sang it! Phil preached, and our team led worship - which was nice.

The people at West Gate were so loving, the whole time we have been there, and they cooked us a meal (Lunch) as a final chance to thank us and fellowship with us before we left. Saying good-bye to Pastor Sharpe (or "Pasta" Sharpe, as the Jamaicans say) was hard. He is a really amazing 75 year old. In fact, just to show the impact Dr.Sharpe has had... one of the people doing construction work to help at his church was a pastor from ANOTHER church (with an amazing testimony as well), and on Sunday night we visited his church and did a skit there and Jacinthe gave her testimony. It was such a cultural experience in Jamaican worship Sunday night. It is something that can best be explained in person only, but let's just say: They are super excited to worship God and it is reflected in the way they worship. They also overflow with thanksgiving to God and count all the blessings they have even though it is much less, materially, then what we have. Spiritually, though, they overflow with abundance. That is pretty much a wrap on Sunday.

On Monday we said good-bye to Auntie Dalley (who gave us some gifts), Auntie Rose, Auntie Gloria, and all the lovely ladies who fed us so well... we gave them gifts to thank them for being a part in making our experience in Jamaica amazing. It has been a lot of good-byes lately. On Saturday night we said good-bye to our bus driver Mike who is a really awesome Jamaican Christian who had us laughing while being thoughtful and so helpful. We have made many friends and have experienced more then we can put into this blog. On Sunday the team that went to Jamaica will try and relay more of that experience in detail, so I hope you can make it out!

After all of our good-byes we got in the air before noon and did not make it to Montreal until almost midnight. (We had a layover and a delay in Toronto.) It was a long day back today, and so it was so wonderful as we got off the plane, tired, to see all our family and friends holding up signs welcoming us back with such joy. I was so happy to hug my kids. Saying Hello is keeping me from the sadness of all the good-byes.

Sunshine and Saved Souls

Day 8 – Hey there ladies and gents! This is Daniel writing to give you a head’s up on how Saturday went. A song by Chicago comes to mind… “Saturday, in the park, think it was…” – well, it was exactly the fourth of July. We “slept in” until 8:10, which was not nearly as painful as the other mornings, as we knew that today was our day off! We decided to venture off to Negril, Jamaica, which is a little over an hour away from Auntie Dalley’s. Negril’s beach is the longest in the entire Caribbean, and it was absolutely stunning.

Upon arriving in Negril, we went to our favourite Jamaican fast food restaurant, “Juici Pattties (and so much more)” and everyone had a patty and orange juice. If you ever get a chance, ask Mark what happened to him at Juici Patties; it is quite the story. After lunch, we ventured over to a craft market. Though the girls enjoyed themselves, as a guy, I didn’t really appreciate the experience. (A) I don’t like crafts, really… and (b) with all the shop keepers calling and leading us to their separate shacks, the guys felt the need to look out for the girls. To say the least, this wasn’t the most calming start to a day off. But, I assure you, it got much much better.

After the craft market fiasco, we headed to Rick’s Café, a resto-bar set on cliffs overlooking the bright blue ocean. This is where I overcame my fear of heights… or at least tried to. At Rick’s, there was a beautiful little cove with a diameter of about 40 feet and different landings for (you guessed it) cliff jumping. The highest landing that anyone jumped off of was roughly 35 feet high, but I didn’t dare trying it out. Sadly, I made a deal with Caitlin that if she jumped off the 28 foot landing, I would follow soon after. It took her a few minutes to muster up the courage but, sure enough, she stepped off the ledge and, screaming, plunged into the blue. Without giving myself time to think, I walked down the stairs to the landing and walked off. What a RUSH! About two hours later, we all headed to the beach. It was exceptionally beautiful, and we enjoyed the sun, sand and swimming; and of course our growing relationships with each other.

We headed back to Mo-Bay in our church clothes and ate some Pizza Hut pizza which we thought was funny all week (Every time we passed by: “Hey, Matteo! It’s a Pizza Hut” “And LOOK, a KFC! Get out…”). Let’s just say… that got very annoying for everyone all week three times a day. After dinner, we headed to our home away from home, Westgate Hills Baptist Church, and had a block party! Many kids from all over the local community came and played games, made crafts and just hung out with the weird people from Canada. We enjoyed lots of laughter with way too many cute kids. After a few songs, a skit we had performed on Thursday at the girl’s home, a testimony from Gail, and a story from Phil, there was a call for the children to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. Although everyone was told to put their heads down, I cheated, and saw 30 kids put their hand up, claiming they accepted Jesus into their hearts. We are praying that these commitments were genuine, as should you. We were blessed with rest and relaxation and dozed off after a day of fun in the sun and playing with energy high kids, leading to our last full day on this beautiful island of Jamaica!

Jesus Loves the Little Children

Day 7 - Friday, in beautiful Montego Bay, Jamaica! This is Chris blogging to let you know how our seventh day went! The day started off pretty early, getting up at "unreal" hours for a common teen! After a mad rush of getting out of bed, dressed and a quick bite for breakfast, we grabbed our equipment we needed for the day, and headed for the bus.

Mike, our incredibly funny bus driver, never fails to crack a joke! Yesterday morning, he "punished" me and put me in a corner for sleep walking onto the bus and made me wait in order to wake up! After every one boarded the bus, we headed for Eber Prep. All the students stood behind a closed gate and our team started off with two worship songs , followed by Audrey's testimony, Followed by a story by me... wait, What? I, Chris Ciccarelli, spoke in front of a crowd?! I did!!! I overcame my fear, even though I did not want to speak in front of a crowd and told the students the story of Jesus walking on water!

We continued our day helping YWAM (Youth With A Mission) at their base in Montego Bay! YWAM has the most beautiful grounds, with the most amazing view of the island/beach. Even though we were at this beautiful place, we had pretty hard work to do! They added a 400 yard water pipe and our job was to fill the 1ft. trench with sand and earth. The job sounded pretty easy, but, digging hard clay into the trench at 40 degree temperatures was probably the hardest construction job we have faced to date! Luckily, we got the job done and had it all done in about 3 hours. The staff was incredibly happy because a job like that one could have taken them weeks! Later in the afternoon, we headed off to Robin's Nest orphanage, about 1 hour drive from Auntie Dalley's. We drove through the jungle and up a rocky mountain to a beautiful house on top of the mountain with a gorgeous view of the jungle! Robins Nest has 33 kids, aging from babies less than a year old to teens about 13 years old. They are one of only two orphanages on the entire Island that has special needs children in their care (and the foster homes here for the most part don't take kids with disabilities). After a quick tour of the grounds, we were encouraged to go around and play with the children. I visited the toddler area and picked up a crying baby called Dwight and played with him until he had a smile again on his face! However, when I put him down, he started to cry again; so the nurse in charge allowed me to take him around with me! Other members of our team enjoyed a dip in the pool, helping children with severe disabilities (like Cerebral Palsy) to have some time in the water too by assisting them to swim because some could not go in the water unassisted. Others played board games or simply ran around the house chasing the little boys and girls.

After an afternoon of fun, the hardest part came: saying good-bye to the children. Most of the kids in an orphanage do not get the attention and love and care that children need. So, after an afternoon of playing, holding and feeding Dwight, I brought him back to his crib and put him down. After saying good-bye I started to walk away and he started to cry. Broken hearted , I turned back and picked him up and played with him a bit more. Finally, after a long drive home, we headed to West Gate Hills Baptist Church for Friday Night's Youth service. We began the service with a few songs, then a few people shared what God had been doing in their lives and finally Phil spoke about the mission of Youth Ministry!

After a great, but somewhat challenging day, we headed home to Auntie Dalley's to meditate on the day we had and to get some rest!

Day 6. Glorify the Lord

Hi Everyone. Anika here to give you an update on Day 6 (Thursday). Sorry we are a few days behind, we've been quite busy. So as you've already heard day 6 started off with an early morning swim and Audrey being stung by a jelly fish. It was an interesting experience. Thankfully no one else got stung and Audrey recovered by the afternoon. Praise God within a few hours there was not even a sign of where she had gotten stung!
Like the other days we were able once again to go into a school (Supreme Preparatory School). It's a private school and much smaller than the others we visited. I was reminded of the blessing of being able to go into schools and present the message of God. What would Canada be like if we could have devotions every morning and go into schools and share God's word. After we had lead the devotion some of the student sang a song for us. The lyrics were only a few lines "We will glory, glorify, We will glorify the Lord. We will glory, glorify we will glorify the Lord.. Yes Lord for the rest of our days." So many of the songs here are short and simple but so powerful. This one a reminder that everything we do should be for the glory of God. Not just in Jamaica but always, for the rest of our days.


We then went to the church to finish painting the kitchen and finish chipping the cement off the roof. There were a few kids so we pulled out some crafts. One little boy had a horrible cut on his foot from stepping on a piece of steel the week before. I was able to clean it and bandage it but that was the best I could do. Things as simple as disinfectant, polysporin and bandages are a "luxury" here that many don't have. Things considered so basic to us and yet they can make all the difference.
We had a delicious lunch made by the ladies at the church and then came back to Aunty Dalley's before heading to the Granville Girls Home of Safety. On the way we stopped for some real Jamaican patties! I must say eating Jamaican patties IN Jamaica beats eating them in Canada. Once at the girls home we lead a devotional again, with some worship, testimonies and a skit, and then we were able to spend some time just hanging out, talking, crafts and playing games with the girls. Many of the girls opened up and told us their stories after talking for only a short time. The youngest girls were about 10. Some were there doing time for crimes others had been abandoned by parents, still others were there because they were abused at home and there was no where else to go. It was a mix of a detention centre and foster home. It was heartbreaking yet at the same time encouraging to see the faith of some of these girls. I won't go into any more details. All of us have stories about the girls we spent time with. It was yet another reminder of how blessed we are to live in Canada and have family's\people that love us.
Well that concludes day 6. Hope everyone back home is doing well and we'll see you soon! Tomorrow in fact!
God bless

Wednesday's Rainbow after the Storm

Hello!! I am going to give you a small update on what we have been up to on Wednesday. We have been very busy these past nights and haven't had the time to get on the computer.

After a short swim in the ocean (for the most adventurous ones) and a delicious breakfast prepared by our faithful cooks, we went to Howard Cooke Primary School for devotions. Since we had arrived a bit early, we've all had the chance to play and talk with some children as were waiting to be able to enter the school. On my part, I've had the chance to chat and sing with a couple girls in grade 4. I also danced a bit with them and made them spin, some boys joined as well. To me it had just been an amazing opportunity to get closer to those kids and show them how us, missionaries, we're no different from them loving to play and have a good time together. What was particularly encouraging to me is that while I was giving my testimony that morning during devotion, I could see the kids I had spoke and danced with listening more carefully than most of the others because they knew me a bit. I stressed out how God's undying love is so great that He promises in His Word to never leave us nor forsake which give us hope because we are never alone. I was moved because things had gone so well. What was also great is that the setting of the school was way more adapted to our needs than Catherine's Hall because all the children were in the shade watching us in the middle of the indoor yard singing, acting and speaking to them. They also interacted very well answering questions while Rachel was telling them a story which gave us all the sense they were getting something out of this and understanding what we were trying to communicate to them.

Afterwards, we went back to the church to do more construction. That day, we decided to separate the team in two so that a part of us would continue to bring sand, stones and bricks wherever needed by the workers and the part would paint the kitchen in a nice bright yellow. We didn't have time to finish everything by lunch time so we came back to Aunti Dalley's to eat and then went back to the church to continue working! We had a great time, the kitchen was done and we started taking off a layer of cement on the top of it so that the workers could put a new one (when we go to the second floor, we arrive directly on the roof of the kitchen and then can enter the building). Phil was working hard and sweating A LOT! He even said he had his own ecosystem going haha! But we were so bad and not that efficient at taking the cement off that the workers finished up that job for us in no time. Just shows us how even though we are the people coming here to help them, they are the ones that know how it all works and that are helping us to help them. At that moment, we got caught by the rain and it was HUGE! It rained really hard for a long time, Shimako, one of the children from the valley that had come to play was scared and was stressed because she wasn't allowed to be out while it is raining. When the rained calmed down a bit, she's been able to leave, but it had been a while. Most of the team was playing soccer and it had rained so hard that Mike had even drove the bus in the church for us, I thought it was great, the situation ended up being rather funny. There was a beautiful rainbow in the sky when the sun came out.

At Auntie Dalley's, we changed and had diner and all, and were getting ready to go to the Bible Study at WestGate Hill's, but because of the rain, we were told that nobody would show up. It was a disappointment since we were so eager to meet our fellow brothers and sisters from WestGate Hill's. But God had been able to use that for His glory anyway. Everybody took 45 minutes alone in silence and we all had a small quiet time. I think to stop for a minute and just talk with God about everything happening was relieving because when we live 17 people all together, it's harder to find some time alone to speak with our Lord and Savior since we are always being interrupted by others or shouts all around the rooms. After our quiet time, we went to the beach to discuss our day and what God was teaching us. It was a deep and emotional time. Everyone shared experiences they had and was sharing how troubled their heart had been these past few days by what we were witnessing. We've been able to glorify God just like the women and men from the infirmary. I think that is something none of us will ever forget, how people in situations we can't even imagine praise God all day and love Him so sincerely.

Wednesday had been a more quiet day during which we had mostly worked at the church, and had had some quality time with our God. And that is something that God has taught me, how He is with us through the entire process and by our side when we think we don't have the strength to go on. I guess before arriving to Jamaica, I was under the misleading impression that God was going to dump us here and say "See you in 10 days! Work hard!", but that is absolutely not what God does and I am so thankful for it.

Just to keep your curiosity going, I'll let you know that Thursday is a very exciting day... for various reasons. During the morning swim, I got stung by jelly fish poison in the face around the left eye. Praise God I was wearing goggles! And that by the end of the day, I had no scars nor anything! God has been good, I was scared and in pain all morning, and drained of all energy, but the Lord was faithful and blessed me greatly.

Meet Me by the River

Yesterday, our first stop was at St. Catherine Hall School. We were given the opportunity to witness to the children there during their morning devotion. We used the 30 minutes we had to sing a few songs like "Lord I lift your name on High" , present a short skit and I had the chance to give a short testimony. Phil and pastor Sharpe then closed with a few words and a prayers and we were off to our next engagement. We went back to the Westgate Hills construction site and moved the work along a bit. After a few hours of work, we headed back to Auntie Dally's to rest and wash up before going to our most challenging engagement. Our destination was St. James infirmary, an establishment devoted to taking care of the most sick and diseased.

The prospect of having to look at misery in the face was daunting but we were glad for the opportunity we would get. Once there, it was tough to deal with the state of the health of a lot of the people we saw. But no matter how troubling their physical ailments, it never took away from the fact that they were human beings just like us who needed affection and the love of Jesus. Christ helped us to see beyond the physical veil that the world sets up to push us away from the afflicted. So we mingled with the people laying on the beds or sitting o the benches outside with them. We talked to them, read verses to them and sang with them all while praying that what we did would impact their souls in some way.

It was during that time that I realized how simple it was to show Jesus' love to people. Many of us all have this sort of missionary fantasy about how our work should have a spectacular impact on the people we encounter but that isn't true. We were there for an hour or two. How could we expect to do in a short period of time what God takes a lifetime to do? We couldn't. Rather, by the small actions of love we made, we partook in the greater work of salvation that Christ was doing.

At night, as we debriefed on the beach, we worshipped together and we discussed the day. For most of us, visiting the sick had a profound impact on teaching us to love others.
I'll leave you with an encouraging conversation I had with a man at the infirmary. After having played a song for him he looked at me and said: Have you heard of the song "Shall we gather at the River", referring to the old hymn calling Christians to meet in heaven. I said I knew of it to which he replied with a big smile: "I'll meet you by the river."

Amazing Grace !!

Hi everyone, Jacinthe here to update you on what we did yesterday, but before I get to that I had to finish off telling you about the rest of our day on Sunday. Our Sunday night was beautiful and inspiring. After the morning church service with Dr.Sharp, we went swimming at the beautiful beach, but a BIG rain fall quickly cut our time short, it was raining cats and dogs. When we headed back and went to church again at night, it was the most powerful time for me so far that I could feel the Gospel so much and Gods Spirit, that I had a natural smile coming out and an aura of joy floating around us! John even said at the end of the night that it was the first time that he really got connected with the Jamaicans' through our common faith. We have the same God and are one family in the Lord. He wasn't the only one, we all got so into it that on our way back to Auntie Dalleys we were all praising the Lord together on the bus. First, before others arrived Dr. Sharp shared with us the story of the church, and all the amazing things God has done to lead him to the place where Westgate is at right now, and we were briefed on our schedule over the week. After that was when the people started to show up and we sang song with the Jamaicans who have so much talent putting emotions into worship. After the songs, we listened to the testimonies of some of the Jamaican brothers and sisters present and after that some of us felt at ease, and some of us shared what God has been doing in us. It was an incredible emotional night of having true believers being with believers, just having a time enjoying themselves giving glory to the Lord. Even though they were Jamaican and we are Canadian we are still all one family in the Lord as we follow Him and that united us all together. Just to show how God can bring people of any nation together. All the walls fell down that night, surrounded by the Spirit.

The day after (a summary of our day yesterday), it was less emotional, and more physical. We did constructions from 8 to 3 under the powerful sun and got a lot of work done as a team. I have to congratulate everybody for their hard work because they all did a really great job. I can't wait to put up some before and after pictures to show you all the wonderful work that was accomplished. It was surprising and amazing (so cool) to see us all lined up as a chain at one point. All morning and afternoon long, it was so neat to see everyone working together, with such energy and passion for the good of others.

The word that always comes in my mind about this missions trip to explain things is that EVERYTHING IS AMAZING!
The whole experience to me so far has been amazing.

Thank you for your prayers... Keep it up!

see ya,
Jacinthe