Jamaica Mission Trip

Hello from Jamaica, mon!!

So the weather has been rather rainy since we came but we are still having a really great time! Today (this morning) all of us girls and a handful of the guys went to the Manchester Orphanage where we spent time with the little boys and girls. When our vans pulled up, the children literally started jumping up and down, and when we climbed out of the vans, they ran up to meet us. They were truly the sweetest, most loving kids and wanted nothing more than to be loved on. One particular girl, Natoya, clung to me and held on to me the whole time. We started with some singing and dancing just to get them warmed up to us. Then myself, Holly Robertson, Hannah McMullen, and Will Patrick put on our “Christmas Miracle” puppet play. After that we did crafts where we took their pictures and they decorated frames to put them in. We then ate snacks and played games outside (in the rain). When it was time to go all of us had a hard time saying goodbye to such precious children but we reassured them that we would be back again tomorrow!

Going to the orphanage really opened my heart and widened my perspective on how much we truly have in our lives. Seeing those children so happy and filled with joy when they saw us when many of them don’t have parents taught me to appreciate the things and the people I have in my life. I’m so grateful for God to have provided me with this awesome experience and I really can’t wait until tomorrow when we go back to see the children!

God Bless!

Katy Broadwell

Today at the deaf village we had a lot of interesting events occur. It all started at about midnight last night when we had a surprising rainstorm hit us when we were sleeping out under the patio. Some of us stayed outside and toughed it out and others decided to go inside.

Today was the very first day of VBS and construction. I heard that vbs went very well. Construction was very productive also. In the morning crew we accomplished a lot, we tore down the cistern, and built up two columns and got them poured. Garrett and I also had and interesting day on the work site, we beat the ceilings with a hammer to make divots everywhere so that the morder would stick, talk about an upper-body work out. Throughout the whole day we had off and on rain showers, but that didn’t slow us down.

The afternoon work crew was a little bit better, except for Matt Brasseaux and I. We had more people on the work cite so we were able to get the other columns poured. But for matt and I we had an impossible task. We had to take a screen door off, sand the bottom, and then put it back up. It sounds easy but it wasn’t, we walked up and down the hill getting tools to attempt getting the stripped screws out. We finally got some help and got the job done after four hours of working. When we got done we headed back to the dinning hall to play a hundred more rounds of cards!!! Even though it was a challenging and rainy day, it was great to see how God helps us through tough times.

Clayton Shaw