Jamaica Recap Pt. 1 of 5

Thank you to all of those who prayed and supported our team to Jamaica this June 20-27!

For those of you who didn't get to go or even know this was going on, I want to break this into 2 or 3 posts to give you an update because there is just too much to share! But i want to start by recapping what we did, the cultural things i saw, and then what God did over the three posts even though this will only scratch the surface.

This was not my first time on a missions trip, but definitely my first time to Jamaica.
We flew into Montego Bay(the top dot) and stayed in Whithouse (the bottom dot) which was about an hour drive through mainly mountains.

If you look at the first picture below you will see that I am not in it. I missed the flight when my passport fell on the floor of the car that dropped me off and then i got stuck in Orlando when i was on standby and didn't make the flight so I arrived two days late. but God is a God of impeccable timing. I don't know exactly the reasons for the mix up, but I had a good time of rest and rejuvenation and was ready to go when i arrived.

There were 21 of us between the 2 teams (11 connected to Faith church and 10 from North Carolina)

I missed the first two days which consisted of visiting the hospital and nursing home and digging an outhouse hole, playing with kids, and leveling a dirt floor the second day. I know that these two days were pretty eye opening for a lot of the group.

The team gave me a group hug when i finally arrived Wednesday evening which was huge to me feeling included even though i was late.
So the first full day after i arrived, was actually our one play day at YS Water Falls where we swam, played on a rope swing, and rode the zipline.

The other days consisted of:
Carrying water to houses without plumbing
and playing with kids and giving them toys.


Also helping out with construction projects where we could and putting up two walls on a one room house.
A Community Sports day with over 700 adults/teens/kids from the community... (yeah purple team)

And we had the privilege of leading a church service where their older pastor had just passed away the previous week. That was fun to help lead the music and share our hearts.

The house we stayed in was a 3 minute walk from the water,
so some of us did try and make sure to get out by the water for some God time and snorkeling in our very limited free time

It was fun to test some new foods like the flesh on the outside of an almond, mango straight from the tree, sugar cane, and chicken foot soup.

Yes, my one guilty pleasure buys was this hat and dreads. I have a feeling it will get its use.

A few of us would go for a run in the morning and Every night we would have a time of worship, debriefing the day, and then share our personal testimonies. There were some huge breakthroughs, God moments, changed lives, and prayers that happened in these night meetings!

God was good. I can't wait to share with you more indepth over the next two posts, but this post is already long enough and we have youth group tonight here, so until tomorrow...