Port Maria, Jamaica

Well, I just got back from Jamaica on Saturday, and it was amazing! I just want to say thank you to everyone for your prayers and support. It wouldn't have been possible without you!

Before I get into the details of the week, I have some explaining to do. I'm doing SPAM (Spiritual Preparation And Meditation), which is basically Lent with a specific purpose: giving up unnecessary use of secular technology to spend more time with God. So I was a little bit reluctant to get on Facebook to give an update because it felt like I was breaking Lent, but I was persuaded because I needed to do it in order to keep my relationship with all of you strong and to let you know what I did and learned this past week.

More than anything this week, I brought back with me an incredible sense of community. The majority of our time in Jamaica was spent getting to know each other: at the Casa Maria hotel, on the work sites, at Dunns River Falls, on the plane and the buses, and over some delicious food and around a box of "communal Whales." We brought back with us something practical: a group of 68 friends to hang out with and to keep each other accountable in our growth in Christ.

But that's not all we did in Jamaica, not by a long shot. We also had a chance to meet several Jamaicans and make friends with them, including Mr. Eddie and Melanie, who live on the farm that we worked at; Trevor and Edwin, our bus drivers; and Jonoy, Campbell, and Ricky, as well as the children of the Galina Primary School and many others (those were just the ones that I knew). We now have friends in Jamaica to stay in contact with, brothers and sisters from a foreign country that we can pray for to keep each other strong in our faith, and that we can just talk to about life.

But there's still more. Saturday and Sunday were community building days, time to get to know everyone on the Port Maria team and to see what Jamaican churches are like. I went to Port Maria United Church, which was incredible and very different from your typical American church: when the pastor asks you to greet your neighbor, he means, "Get up out of your seat, dance across the room, and greet everyone you make eye contact with." Then Monday came. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were our work days. We worked at two churches, Galina Primary, Mr. Eddie's farm, and Ms. Beth's house. My work sites were the farm, Ms. Beth's house, and Galina Primary, in that order.

At the farm, my team dug rocks out of a creek and built a dam, made stone steps leading to the creek and through the front of the farm, and filled in potholes in the long driveway leading to Mr. Eddie's house. I spent the majority of the morning with four or five other people digging rocks out of the creek, leaving us all with an immense sense of satisfaction: we had pulled rocks out of the rock bed that were up to half our size and at least half our weight. And we didn't just dig out one or two of them; we successfully conquered at least five rocks that size, one right after the other. We accomplished much more than any normal human being would have been capable of, and it showed how God's presence can make any job possible, no matter how difficult and seemingly impossible the task. Then, after we had eaten lunch and finished our section of the road, Mr. Eddie invited us to take a tour of his farm. So he led us into the jungle in his backyard, and showed us such generosity that he made "southern hospitality" look like post 9/11 airports. Mr. Eddie personally climbed a tree to cut down star apples for us, which was an interesting food experience, and we all got to taste coconut milk, jelly coconuts, and coconut meat (the white stuff on the inside of the shell). And before we left, Melanie, who is our age, made sure to get everyone's names so she could find us on Facebook. It was amazing to me just how similar Jamaicans are to us Americans, even though they're so different. When I go out of the country, I expect to have to speak slowly and explain everything, but they already understand so much of our culture that it was an easy transition.

On Tuesday I worked at Ms. Beth's house, working with a new team to lay the foundation for a new house. While there, we met Dennis, a very enthusiastic Jamaican and a very talented singer, who helped us with our work. We spent all day mixing and pouring concrete, which was a new experience for most of us. I was already sore from lifting rocks the day before, but God gave us all the strength we needed to get through the day.

Wednesday was a little different for me. After spending two days doing heavy manual labor, I got to mix some more concrete to help build a wall. But what was different about it was that we were building the wall for Galina Primary, which meant that we had time to spend with the kids during their recess. We started the day off by doing a devotional for the kids, and they especially enjoyed the "Tootietah" song, which they learned from the group that went on Monday. After the devotional, we immediately set to work on the wall. Then, after lunch we got to play with the kids, although it would probably be more accurate to say that they played with us. The girls played with everyone's hair, and the boys all fought for a ride on the guys' backs. I grew especially attached to Christopher, a very shy twelve-year-old, and Alex, an eight-year-old who just couldn't get his fill of piggyback rides. I was told later that the Wesley Foundation might be setting up some way to sponsor some of the Galina kids, so I would really like to sponsor Christopher and Alex, if possible.

Thursday was different for everyone. Instead of doing physically taxing work, we spent the morning at an infirmary, which was much more emotionally taxing for most people. It was sad because all the men and women there had been left there to die, but it was amazing to see the joy that they had despite that fact. Two men stuck out to me the most: Lloyd and Richard. Lloyd seemed, to me, to be one of the very few in his right mind. His hope was fully in the Lord, knowing that whatever happened, God would take care of him; and he was confident that healing is in His hands. But then I met Richard. Jon, a member of the Freshley, Wesley, and Watkinsville First Baptist praise bands, had his guitar with him, so he started playing, and Richard eagerly joined in singing and listening. He was so joyful to hear Jon play and sing along with a handful of other guys on the trip, and it was incredible to see the effect he had, directly and indirectly through us, on the others in the infirmary. After laying hands on him to pray, he closed us out with a powerful prayer—not powerful because of the words he was saying, but because of the passion in his words, despite his frailty. Then, after our oddly joyful goodbyes, we left for Port Maria United Church for some more prayer time. We stayed at the church for a couple hours just worshiping and praying, singing to God and interceding for the Jamaicans, Mr. Eddie and Melanie, Ms. Beth, Trevor, the kids at Galina Primary, and both churches. We prayed God's blessings on the island and that He would reveal His glory all over Jamaica. It was a very spiritually heavy day. So we finished off the day with a talent show to lighten the mood. After all, God does want us to have fun, even when we're praising Him. The show was hilarious, and Bob, the main speaker of the Wesley Foundation, said that it was hands down the best Jamaica talent show with no close second.

Then came Friday. We spent the morning in a Jamaican market, which was interesting because there was a lot of haggling going on, not something I'm used to. While we were there, we ran into all our friends from the other trips, the groups from Saint Anns and Montego Bay, and had a great reunion. But the real reunion was when we got to Dunns River, where we got to hang out on the beach and climb the falls. Friday was a good day, but in a very different way from the rest of the week. It was another community-centered day, much like last Saturday and Sunday, but in many ways, it was very different from Saturday and Sunday. For one thing, we all know each other on the PoMo trip now. And for another, we were preparing to leave Jamaica rather than preparing to be there for a week. We all had an intense longing to be able to stay in Jamaica longer, and in some ways, we got what we asked for: a handful of us stayed up all night, even though the hours dragged by and we felt like it would be impossible to stay awake. Of course, we all slept on the bus to the airport and on the plane back home. But those sleepless hours were just what we needed to get to know each other even better before returning home to Athens.
Jamaica depression started off a little rough. We got back to the airport in Atlanta, and we found out that half of our luggage had to be shipped on the next flight because of a conveyor belt malfunction. So we were stuck in the airport for another hour or so before we finally decided to leave and have them ship our bags to our houses. But at least we got to spend more time with each other, and a piece of us got to stay in Jamaica a little longer—just not the piece we would have liked (although our flight was delayed by about 15 minutes because of the malfunction before they decided to take off and send our luggage after us).

Anyway, now I'm back in Athens. I have about 50 new friends, including a couple Jamaicans, and 68 stronger friendships. I have a new understanding of service and hope, and a new joy in the Lord. I have more to share about what I learned this past week, but that will have to wait until later. Right now, I'm off to bed and looking forward to a new day in my walk with God, with my PoMo friends to keep me going strong.