Jamaica Mission Trip

It is Tuesday at about 9:30 p.m. So much has happened today, I don’t even know where to begin. Today at the orphanage we were greeted with many hugs… as usual. It brings so much joy to me to see so many kids super excited when our van pulls up. We did a craft, ate some snacks, danced, and sang to Justin Bieber. The kids had a blast! At game time I was wondering around looking to see if anyone needed help and I stumbled across a kid. He was outside, hidden, behind the building playing alone. So I walked over there and tried to talk to him. He was playing with a toy car, so I thought that would be a good way to start the conversation. I asked if I could play cars with him. No answer. I asked what his name was. No answer. I asked if I could just sit and watch him play. No answer. But, surprisingly I was patient. Finally, the boy whispered his name in a voice you couldn’t understand. But, eventually he said his name to where I could hear it. He started to slowly open up to me and I found out that he was seven and his favorite color was blue and red. I asked him if he would like a snack and to my surprise he took my hand and walked over with me to get him something to eat. I haven’t felt so happy for knowing I befriended this boy. Such happiness took over me, and when he was painting, I started to tear up for no reason. I gathered myself together before anyone could tell I was about to cry and went straight to Travis and asked if I could write today’s blog. Even though our conversation was little because of his shyness, I felt like it made a difference. Tomorrow will be a challenge… because saying goodbye to all those wonderful kids will be one of the hardest things to do. On to a brighter subject, I worked in the factory today and moved 146 pieces of furniture from a floor to the second floor. I don’t think I’ve ever seen myself work so hard in my life. My parents would be proud since the joke that I’m, “allergic to work.” It has been an experience here and I can’t wait to see what the rest of the week has in store. : )

Delaney Driver

Hey guys this is Dallas by the way, today was a really good day, we almost finished setting up the forms to the columns for the porch today which would have knocked out a lot of work for the next group, but it is really awesome for a guy who works construction every day to see my friends an everyone here working together so well it is really a blessing, and I really think we are getting a whole lot done this week an it seems to me that God has really been working in the lives of everyone here. I mean some of the ways I’ve seen it are like when it starts to rain everyone is still working just as hard and just as well, and you would think it would dampen the mood of people. No, everyone here seems to always have smile on, and it really is encouraging to see all this happening here, and I wish all of ya’ll could be here to see it because it’s definintly life changing, and will be a great chance to grow better relationship with everyone. We all are having a great time here and I really wish this week would never end…

Dallas Chandler

Hello everybody, this is Daniel Levell, and I am going to be talking about a few things that have been happening to us here in Jamaica over the past four days. It is Tuesday, July 20, 2010, and it is 9:08 P.M. at the moment. Today was just another day for me… well that might be a little bit of an understatement. Every day we wake up at 6:00 in the morning, get ready, and head to breakfast at 7:00. We then eat a wonderful meal provided to us, and then we divide into our two groups. One group works as the Construction Crew all day, and the other goes to an orphanage in town to do V.B.S. for half the day, and then works with the Construction Crew the other half. I am with the V.B.S. group, and today we had a blast! Today we first walked in as usual and received the abnormally, gracious amount of hugs, hand- holding, and some awesome smiles. We also made a very cool craft today… a tennis ball puppet. A very creative craft that Debbie Barker helped think up for the kids, and the kids loved them! After V.B.S., we then headed up to “The Worksite”, to begin our second half of the day working. Construction, for people who do not know much about construction, is little bit harder than expected. You eventually catch on to the idea though. After Construction, I had a little chat with Marvin, one of the deaf construction workers here. Sign Language is hard, but if you know the alphabet for it, you can learn pretty quickly. Obviously I am not fluent in it, but I am learning… slowly. We then have our usual showers after work, and then a little bit of free time. It is now 9:22 P.M. here in Jamaica, and I am now going to head back to my game of Skip-Bo… I’m losing.

Daniel Levell