The Process of Building & Growing a Family

Our final day in Jamaica consisted of a 2-hour drive through the Jamaican countryside to the southern coastline. We visited the Black River, which runs through 44 miles of the country before it empties into the Caribbean Sea. We boarded a river safari and encountered Jamaican wildlife from birds to crocodiles. A few even swam right up to our boat and the river guide discussed how they interact with them in a safe, trainable manner. Following the ride up the river, we visited a baby sanctuary where younger crocodiles are kept to avoid them getting eaten in the river by adults.

 Our afternoon concluded with a drive back to Montego Bay and our farewell dinner at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville. It was a great way to bring our week's worth of activities to a close.

Tonight's devotional was very special as it was led by our seniors: Landon Tabor, Mayla McCray, Savanna McKellar, and Grace DeBoer. Between these four students, they have been on the Jamaica mission trip for a total of 12 years!!! I have been blessed by each of them and they concluded the week of devotions with a challenge to grow our Jamaica family when we return to school.

Landon: "After 4 years of being on the Jamaica Mission Team, I have grown so close to everyone who has ever come with our team. I had an incredible 4 years leading with these 4 seniors and I love them all so much. I have told our whole team thank you tonight for making our last trip as memorable as possible. I have grown with all of guys on this trip and consider all of them to be my brothers. Lane helped me beat 2048 and for that I am eternally grateful. I love you all who have helped us with the Jamaica Mission Trip and remember, 'We never have problems, just situations'. "

Mayla: "Tonight we wanted to remind everyone that our mission team is not only a team that serves together but a family that is always there for each other. Family is not an important thing. It’s everything."

Savanna: "The seniors closed out our trip on a fun, united and light-hearted note. This was a great conclusion to a productive trip. I will definitely miss the unique bond that GACS mission teams develop and share."

Grace: "We wanted to end our trip by creating a funny reminder of our tight bond we have formed throughout this incredible week. Whether we are lifting multitudes of children onto our back or hiding in the bus from questionable men, we have stuck together through it all. To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. I have been so blessed by this group and I am happy to have spent my last year with this family in Jamaica."

Fulfillment/Achievement

Day 5 started off with a return visit to the Canaan Primary School located in the Dumfries community. We have visited this school the past two years and led a devotional/played in recess. This school serves grades 1-6, and then students head to high school. Dr. Hill shared the message about the power of words, and left a powerful challenge to the school.

After visiting the school, we met at the church to eat lunch and gather meal bags that had been packed the night before. The bags were distributed throughout the community and consisted of beans, rice, and mackerel. It was truly eye-opening for our team to get out into the hillside of Jamaica. It was estimated that our group walked 4-5 miles in the sun for about 2 hours. It was quite rewarding and fulfilling to help families provide for the upcoming week.

We then made our annual stop during visiting hours at the St. James Infirmary. We started off in the women's ward at the base of the property and finished at the men's ward at the top of the hill. Many of the faces encountered were still there from last year. There was much pain and suffering, but our group continually reminded the residents about the power of God's love.  

As you can tell in the pictures, the team received some true Jamaican sunshine today. The team devotional for the night was based on fulfillment and achievement. It was led by Austin Cushing, Damani Bailey, Emily Gilreath, and Blair Zakas. They have shared their thoughts and reflections from the day below.

Austin: “Today we visited the infirmary and it was really eye opening. We walked from house to house, visiting men and women in their late 80’s and 90’s. It’s amazing how much joy singing the first verse of “Amazing Grace” or “Lean on Me” can bring to someone’s day, especially someone living in such rough condition.“

Emily: “Today we started off playing with kids at a primary school, and then went off to deliver food in the area from the church that we packed the night before. After delivering food, we went to visit the infirmary and that really gives you a new perspective. I saw one man who was helpless and sick in bed, hardly having any ability to move. Then he began singing and when I found that he was singing a worship song, I almost broke down in tears. Seeing him having nothing, but filled with so much joy brought so much joy to my own heart and that in itself was rewarding enough to come on this missions trip.”

Damani: “When I first signed up for this trip, I did not really know most of the people on this trip. I didn’t really expect to interact with too many people. Now that I have spent time with these people, I can say that I love every single person on the team. I feel like we have grown to be a family and I have made friends that I would not have were it not for this trip. After working together to bring joy to people with so little and glorifying God, I know that this is an experience that I will never forget.”

Blair: “Today we handed out food to the citizens of Jamaica on the streets. It was very eye-opening to see their homes and how different their life-style is compared to how we live at home. We have much to be thankful for and it has been cool to see our team work together and leave a lasting impact on peoples lives.” 

Tomorrow is our final day in Jamaica, and we will be traveling for our culture day. There hasn't been much change to our return flight home on Friday. Information is listed below and I will update again on Thursday.

Delta 304

Depart Jamaica 3:02pm

Arrive Atlanta (International Terminal) 6:59pm

Perseverance: Being Steadfast in Something Despite Difficulty

Day 4 started off with a visit to the Martha Brae Basic School. We visited this community last year to work on the house of the Riverside Baptist pastor. This schools is a lot smaller than ones we have visited in the past, and is located on a pretty busy street in this town. Our group went into the one-room school and led praise songs with the students. The stories of David & Goliath plus Jonah were told to the little kids. Then all the GAC kids paired up with little kids to color with the books and crayons that we brought to donate. The principal/teacher was a friendly lady who was extremely grateful for us spending some time with them today!

The rest of the afternoon was spent at Chukka Adventures. This was a new activity that we tried out this year and it didn't disappoint. We began with an adventure challenge course that involved harnesses, platforms, and cargo nets/swinging. The next activity involved ATV's and a scenic tour of the Jamaica hillside. After a relaxing lunch in the shade, we loaded back up in the harnesses and completed 2 MASSIVE ziplines. We took a bus ride up to a Great House and ziplines from the balcony back down to the Chukka property. It was approximately 1,400 feet in the air with a nice breeze blowing in our faces. The second zip went through the canopy and took us over the Martha Brae river. We then worked our way into tubes, went down a slipslide, and finished with a relaxing float as a group on the river. Our afternoon was such a unique experience and a great time was had by all. Happy to report that no injuries occurred while at Chukka Chukka Choo Choo!!! We also had great tour guides who really looked after and took care of our group.

After getting back to the house, the group worked as an assembly line to pack food bags for the community in Dumfries. The bags consist of beans, rice, and mackerel. Pictures will follow of those bags being distributed on Wednesday.

The devotional theme for tonight was perseverance and was led by Taylor Wright, Parker Stevens, Rachel Gilreath, and Njisane Adesegun. They wrote more about their preparation, so I'll just allow their comments below to give you an idea of tonight's devo.

Taylor: "Today was another reminder of how our team is not just a team, but a family. No matter what we are doing we are always encouraging each other. Perseverance is something that is constantly needed in Jamaica. The weather is hot and the kids we work with constantly want to keep going. We have to think about their needs before ours in order to accomplish what we came here to do."

Parker: "Each person has God given talents, but we need to learn to step out of our comfort zones to express God’s love for others and ourselves.  We need to persevere through the good and bad times to be able to fulfill the talents we have been blessed with."

Rachel: "In our devotional, we talked about persevering through hard times, even though some times may be awkward and out of our comfort zone, we still need God’s strength so we are able to persevere.  I read a verse (Isaiah 12:2) that talked about how we need God’s strength to do anything and to be able to get through hard times because without God’s strength, we can’t do anything."
Njisane: "In Philippians 4:13 the verse talks about putting your faith and trust in God during bad times. In life we are going have to face hardship. God wants us to turn to him and keep pushing through. In the rope obstacle course today, we had to go through a series of difficult challenges. To some people the obstacle course was easy, to others it was difficult but both of them had to face and complete the challenge." 

TeamWork: Many Hands Working Together with a Purpose

Day 3 began earlier than before as the group departed for Mount Olive Basic School. In Jamaica, children go to Kindergarten until they are 5 years old. The school had 3 classes of boys and girls who were either 3, 4, or 5 years old. There was a small field where we led recess, consisting of the parachute, jump ropes, swings, and shoulder races. Afterwards, the students went into their school room and showed our kids around their classroom. 

After spending the morning at the Basic School, the group departed for a beach break. Our trip to the infirmary was delayed for another day because of visiting hour limits. Doctor's Cove was not too crowded today and the water was beautiful as always. It is a unique spot because airplanes fly in right overhead to land at Sangster Airport. Additionally, while taking our group photos, a family of stingrays swam right by us in shallow water; they were a sight to see!

Senior Leaders

The evening activity of soccer or basketball was delayed because both organizations didn't get back to us in the afternoon, so we took the students to a great spot for souvenir shopping. We then walked around a nice little area to take in the Jamaican evening. There was a DJ playing in a strip mall and a 1+ hour group dance session broke out. It was an awesome way to work off some of dinner and bond together as a group. We even had some Jamaicans looking on and joining in our dance circle.

Teamwork was the devotional theme for this evening, and was led by Sydney Foxworthy, Lane Langston, Cosette Doctor, and Isaac Na. The group began by playing a game of Human Knot and then the leaders shared some thoughts following the activity. It was interesting to watch the students try to untangle the knot with their eyes closed, by remaining silent, and then finally being able to communicate with each other.

Cosette: "Our devotional covered teamwork and trust. We played human knot and the team had to work together to achieve the goal of untangling the knot. Teamwork and trust is essential to our team this week to achieve all of the goals set for us."

Sydney: "The theme of our devo tonight was teamwork and trust. I can already tell that this team is going to have a great week. We get along really well and we are great dancers:)"

Isaac: "One of the themes of our devo is that it isn’t enough to just talk about yourself and your own problems, and it isn’t enough to just watch others struggles and stay silent as a bystander. Being aware of other people’s circumstances and doing something about it will benefit everyone since we are all connected."

Lane: "Tonight, we talked about trusting others and working together as a team. I think that we already applied this idea well in our volleyball match against the Jamaicans yesterday, and I think that through that our team has grown closer together."

Stay tuned for Tuesday's exciting news! Hope to have great pictures from our afternoon at Chukka!!! And we only had 2 students who felt the pain of some sea urchins in the ocean...they are using vinegar and tweezers to remove all the spines. No worries!!!! Check back with us tomorrow!

Community: The Art of Togetherness

Day 2 in Jamaica started with a 6:45am sunrise. The group enjoyed breakfast and began hydrating for the long day ahead. Church service began at 11am in Dumfries at Bethel Baptist Church. The first hour was mostly praise and worship, with the second hour containing the message. The pastor emphasized the sacrifice of the Lord and the forgiveness of sins. One of the activities during the service was welcoming of the group, and that began a five-minute handshake processional around the building. The service ended around 1pm, and sandwich lunches were enjoyed on the bus.

After lunch, the team suited up for our yearly volleyball competition. The competition was decked out in uniforms that had been donated by an American group. The competition was fierce, as the Americans won several games. The Jamaicans fought back and won some as well, including the final game (which they were considering the championship). All in all, it was a greatly community experience through athletics and a few Jamaican afternoon rain showers.  

The evening concluded with the nightly devotional. The theme of community was prepared by Rachel Chupp, Will Kenworthy, and Emeritus Morris. They wanted the team to get to know each other on deeper levels by creating questions that each team member had to answer and then share with their smaller groups. Then points were awarded by correctly answering questions. The game was followed by a reading from Romans 12 and a story was shared by Emeritus about his first encounters with the Jamaica community. It was a great start to the week of student-led devotionals.

Will: "After long hours of tedious planning, we put our two family feud teams to the test. After many challenges and ups and downs for both teams, we discovered we in the end can all come together as a group of individuals with different ideas to make one big family."

Rachel: "Tonight our devotional was centered around community. I realized tonight that we were part of a community today at the church we went to. The Jamaicans welcomed us with open arms and made us feel like we were a part of their community."

E: "Today was a great day from start to finish. I honestly was worn out more by the kids than the actual volleyball game. A long planned and thought out devotional game went well (with a few unexpected but quickly fixed hiccups) and the community feels as strong as ever."

P.S. We are already low on Kool-Aide :(

Stay tuned for our Monday update!

The Family Has Returned to Jamaica

After some minor delays leaving Atlanta, the team arrived in Jamaica this afternoon with a cool, Caribbean rain. The team headed to MegaMart to stock up on snacks and treats, and had a chance to interact with Jamaicans through the exchange of currency. We arrived at the house to enjoy dinner together followed by some relaxation in the pool and got settled into rooms.

The first devotional for the trip was led by Dr. Hill and Coach Martin, and focused on the theme of FAMILY. Dr. Hill began by sharing about the characteristics associated with being a part of a family, compared heavenly/earthly families, and shared a personal insight into his absence from last year's trip. Scripture from Ephesians emphasized how God's grace, unmerited favor, is something that we qualify for as members of God's family and all we have to do is receive it.  It is truly good to be a part of the great things that God is doing through us and for us and we serve the people of Jamaica!

The students then were read to from Matthew about the Last Supper and the importance of those who joined in the Lord's final meal. The students then took communion as a group, and shared their goals for the upcoming week. It was pretty awesome to hear their goals of not only impacting the Jamaicans but also developing new, meaningful friendships within the group. As a leader, that is truly amazing to hear these students ready to serve with their hearts and hands.

Thank you for the prayers in our journey to the island today. We have a busy Sunday planned with church services in multiple communities and a continuation of our volleyball series with the town of Dumfries. No sunburns yet!!!