Thursday, February 25, 2010
I am blessed
The love of these kids blows me away when I stop to think about it.
- Last night Daphawn, our youngest, was curled up on my lap asleep during Wednesday night chapel, and I simply had to ponder how blessed I am. An hour earlier we were kicking a soccer ball and throwing a frisbee. The whole time he's either trying to catch my eye to get my approval (usually a thumbs up and a smile) after a kick or trying to get my attention because one of the boys hasn't given him a chance to participate (he's not patient, he hasn't touched the ball in all of like five seconds). He's 4. So with that comes lots of complaining. He's also the smallest boy, so he feels like everything is unfair. But then he does get his chance to kick or throw or catch, and he looks up at me with these big ol' eyes and flexes his muscles and giggles and I just have to laugh and love him more.
- The boys head to the dorms to shower and clean up for chapel, so I walk over to the basketball court where the little girls are playing some imaginary game where they are swimming around (these kids learn to entertain themselves with nothing....humbling for any american who always needed one more toy). I sit down on a concrete block and Kimberly (5), our youngest girl, comes up to me, full of attitude as always. She squeezes my cheeks to make a fish face, which never fails to make her laugh. Then Shadia (7), one of our newest students, comes up and for the 1,000th time tells me I have a really big nose. Kera, also 7, asks me for the 5,000th time what's wrong with my throat (these kids are in awe of my adam's apple). Then Tissy-Ann starts playing with my hair (which I love) and informs me I have a white hair. She gets excited and calls Shavel and Tissania. Together the three of them explore for more white hairs, and they claim to find more. I do not believe them. Kimberly is getting jealous of all the other girls now getting my attention and squirms her way through them and onto my lap, giving me the eye that indicates she's not very happy. So I squeeze her and make another fish face and she giggles.
- These kids just want to love and be loved. Pray for them that as they grow up their hearts will understand that God loves them so much more than I do, and He wants their love even more than they can understand.
- Last night Daphawn, our youngest, was curled up on my lap asleep during Wednesday night chapel, and I simply had to ponder how blessed I am. An hour earlier we were kicking a soccer ball and throwing a frisbee. The whole time he's either trying to catch my eye to get my approval (usually a thumbs up and a smile) after a kick or trying to get my attention because one of the boys hasn't given him a chance to participate (he's not patient, he hasn't touched the ball in all of like five seconds). He's 4. So with that comes lots of complaining. He's also the smallest boy, so he feels like everything is unfair. But then he does get his chance to kick or throw or catch, and he looks up at me with these big ol' eyes and flexes his muscles and giggles and I just have to laugh and love him more.
- The boys head to the dorms to shower and clean up for chapel, so I walk over to the basketball court where the little girls are playing some imaginary game where they are swimming around (these kids learn to entertain themselves with nothing....humbling for any american who always needed one more toy). I sit down on a concrete block and Kimberly (5), our youngest girl, comes up to me, full of attitude as always. She squeezes my cheeks to make a fish face, which never fails to make her laugh. Then Shadia (7), one of our newest students, comes up and for the 1,000th time tells me I have a really big nose. Kera, also 7, asks me for the 5,000th time what's wrong with my throat (these kids are in awe of my adam's apple). Then Tissy-Ann starts playing with my hair (which I love) and informs me I have a white hair. She gets excited and calls Shavel and Tissania. Together the three of them explore for more white hairs, and they claim to find more. I do not believe them. Kimberly is getting jealous of all the other girls now getting my attention and squirms her way through them and onto my lap, giving me the eye that indicates she's not very happy. So I squeeze her and make another fish face and she giggles.
- These kids just want to love and be loved. Pray for them that as they grow up their hearts will understand that God loves them so much more than I do, and He wants their love even more than they can understand.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Deaf Service on the Logos Hope Bookship
The Logos Hope is a ministry ship operated by OM that travels around the world, providing at-cost books, evangelism, community outreach, health clinics, etc to the many ports it visits. It has been docked in Montego Bay for about 6 weeks and on Wednesday they hosted around 250 deaf visitors for a worship service and to hear the Gospel message.
My good friend from high school and college, Hannah Young, first introduced me to this ministry when she went full-time with them this summer aboard the Duolos, one of their other ships.
A 4 member team arrived in Jamaica last fall to set up all the activities for the Logos Hope once it arrived in January. They met up with us at the MoBay campus and had the idea for hosting a Deaf worship service on board the boat. They got connected with Pastor Damian (from CCCD and the Deaf Village) and went from there. After students shared songs, testimonies, and drama, Damian offered a message on the brevity of life and the urgency to accept Jesus now and turn to him in repentance. He shared the joy a life in Christ offers and the excitement of what heaven will be like.
The program was student led for singing and drama.
My good friend from high school and college, Hannah Young, first introduced me to this ministry when she went full-time with them this summer aboard the Duolos, one of their other ships.
Hannah and I at Purdue back in May saying goodbye as we both left for the mission field.
A 4 member team arrived in Jamaica last fall to set up all the activities for the Logos Hope once it arrived in January. They met up with us at the MoBay campus and had the idea for hosting a Deaf worship service on board the boat. They got connected with Pastor Damian (from CCCD and the Deaf Village) and went from there. After students shared songs, testimonies, and drama, Damian offered a message on the brevity of life and the urgency to accept Jesus now and turn to him in repentance. He shared the joy a life in Christ offers and the excitement of what heaven will be like.
Pastor Damian preaching.
Haide Burgos was our contact back in the fall, and she hosted us on Wednesday. It was a pretty crazy day though, with thousands of visitors on board the ship, along with our Deaf service, so we left shortly after the service was over. On Thursday, however, Haide invited us back for a tour of the ship, along with dinner :)
Some of the deck crew at work.
One of the captain guys (I think...)
The dining hall that accommodates up to 600 crew members.
Saturday, February 06, 2010
please send more rain
We haven't had city water here at the school for several days. Our reserves have run out and we have tried calling water trucks but so far no one has come. Kingston has been dry for a few months now and the city is running out of water, so they cut off supply. Most of our kids have been sent home but we still have 28 this weekend that live too far or parents just haven't come. Please pray that we can provide for them and that water will "soon come."
Traditional jamaican gospel song:
"It is raining, all around me. I can feel it, its a lot of rain. So call on Jesus, please send more rain.
Until we are wet, until we are soaked in a lot of rain. Wet, wet, wet, wet. Soak, soak, soak, soak. It is raining, all around me. Until we are wet, until we are soaked in a lot of rain."
Traditional jamaican gospel song:
"It is raining, all around me. I can feel it, its a lot of rain. So call on Jesus, please send more rain.
Until we are wet, until we are soaked in a lot of rain. Wet, wet, wet, wet. Soak, soak, soak, soak. It is raining, all around me. Until we are wet, until we are soaked in a lot of rain."
Monday, February 01, 2010
The Gift of Music
Thursday I was blessed with an opportunity to not only visit the Salvation Army School for the Blind in Kingston, but also to see the joy that is experienced when blessing someone with a gift.
Sanjay Reid, Sarah Klapak and Jade Morgan with their new guitar
This fall Sarah (pictured above) volunteered for 3 months at the School for the Blind, but with her passion being in deaf education, she also looked into schools for the deaf when she arrived in October. After finding out about our Kingston campus, she got connected with our principal, Maria Lawrence, and was able to spend two days a week working with our teen class at CCCD. She came back last week to visit both schools, and I was able to go with her to see the blind school for the first time. I was impressed with its size. They have not only the school for the blind, but also an orphanage, retirement area, and homes for the infirmed. I'm hoping for an opportunity to get involved at the school for the blind, possibly doing after school tutoring. Anyways, back to the story I got sidetracked from....when she was here this fall, Sarah taught two musically gifted boys how to play basic chords on a guitar. They "picked" (i am so funny with puns, don't you agree momma?) it up quickly and were making a lot of progress, but that all ended when Sarah left in December and took her sister's guitar with her back to Canada (oh yeah, I forgot to mention that although Sarah is pretty cool, she is Canadian and talks funny). So, coming back last week was in large part because she wanted to get the boys a guitar. We checked out a couple stores here in Kingston before we found a shop that had the perfect guitar, at a great price, and a great store owner that even threw in some free stuff once we told him what we were doing with the guitar. The boys were SO excited and appreciative to have a guitar ALL FOR THEIR OWN! I was blessed to see the joy in all three of them, and Lord willing I may get to know these boys even better.
