This morning we went to church at The Meeting Place, the same one as last week. The pastor promised a short sermon today. It was two hours long. So the service was 3 hours long total. Then we walked back to Fairhaven, which was about a two mile walk. After a quick lunch we went to Doctor's Cave beach with the people from Robin's Nest. It was so fun to see all of the kids again. It started raining and we had to walk back in the rain, but we still had a lot of fun. We had supper at Fairhaven tonight, and it was delicious! Then we went across the street to watch the sunset over the ocean. It never gets old. A team of 24 people from Georgia arrived at Fairhaven today, and they are nice to have around.

This morning we went shopping on the Hip Strip, which is the touristy area near Fairhaven. We found some good deals and got "discounts" because of us being "missionaries." Another team of 18 people from Nashville came to Fairhaven today. It was hard to see them taking over "our " territory and our driver Mikey. But it's also exciting to have more people here and see the place a little more alive. This afternoon we went to Melody House Girls Home for the afternoon and played games and chatted with some of the girls. For supper we went to a restaurant called The Pelican. The food was delicious! We tried lots of new things including chicken curry, curried goat, mango chutney, and also had some wonderful milk shakes. The food didn't really agree with our stomachs, but it was still worth it.
Prayer Requests:
*One of the girls from the California team, Megan, is having trouble with her eyes and is in a lot of pain from them. Pray that they heal quickly and she can enjoy the rest of the time.
*Pray for the rest of our time spent here at SOS Children's Village and Blossom Gardens, which are both orphanages.
*Pray for continued strength as we are starting to feel tired and somewhat drained.
*Praise God for all the ways we've seen him work and for the wonderful people we've met.

ants in your pants...NOT just a game

Today was our last day at JCSD. We did devotions as one of the teachers interpreted. It was very entertaining to watch even though we didn't really understand what he was saying. Then we planted some flowers, which was interesting considering none of us knowing anything about gardening. Hopefully they grow. We all felt like we had ants crawling everyhwere after being in the dirt and sitting on the benches there. We hung up some new clothesline for them and did some laundry as well as working in the classrooms. We handed out lunch to the kids that stayed for the weekend. Since it's a boarding school, most of the kids go home for the weekend. It was hard to say goodbye to them all. After lunch we did some more laundry and then came back to Fairhaven. Four of us went swimming and snorkeling at the beach across the street. Megan and Amy saw some beautiful fish as well as a huge puffer fish that refused to blow up. It was a lot of fun as well as a little scary because of the abundance of sea urchins. We made pancakes for supper and ate with our driver Mikey.

Day 10 already! We can't believe it and we aren't quite sure if we're going to want to come back to the U.S. either. We went to the deaf school again today and did devotions and worked in the classrooms. It was hard to watch the students struggle in their academics. The teachers do a good job, but they have difficult tasks in teaching the students, some of whom are not only deaf but also have learning disabilities. It broke our hearts to watch twelve and thirteen year olds not be able to say their alphabet. Despite the sadness of it all, we are still loving working with the kids there and learning a lot of sign language. We also got to participate in the P.E. class where they were learning a dance. It was fun to watch the students and get a little taste of Jamaican culture. After JCSD, we went to the beach and relaxed. Then we moved from our third floor rooms to our much smaller first floor room where we will be staying for the remainder of our trip. Although our kitchen is larger, we only have one bathroom for seven girls, no air conditioning, and much smaller rooms. We are learning to make do with what we have though. Suitcases under the beds, deoderant in the windowsills, bedposts as closets. We also have a lovely view of someone else's bathroom from Amy's bunkbed. But Jamaica is so wonderful that we don't mind too much and we can handle the living situation if it means getting to stay in this beautiful country.

We returned to the Jamaican Christian School for the Deaf today. We did devotions with all of the students, which consisited of Emily reading a story and a teacher interpreting, doing a memory verse, singing a few songs, and praying. Then we helped out in the classrooms. Susan was in a level 3 class, Emily in a classroom of older children, and Amy in the special education class. We all learned a lot of sign language and had a lot of fun. We are slowly learning everyone's sign names and not having to ask quite as many times to "fingerspell slow again please!" After school was done, we tried to find somewhere to buy seeds to plant in the garden at JCSD, but our adventure around Montego Bay left us seedless. After some quick showers, we went out to eat at a restaurant called Island Grill with our driver Mikey. We tried lots of new foods and liked most of them. We had jerk chicken, callaloo rice, festival, bammy wedges, and lots of different kinds of pop (or soda for any weird Wisconsins reading this). We recently discovered that we have a fourth roommate in our room. Please pray as he is currently missing his tail. IT'S A LIZARD! We don't know where he is and we are quite paranoid about finding him in our beds. Also, we will be moving out of our room tomorrow night and staying in a room on the first floor instead as there is a large group coming to stay at Fairhaven. We are still loving it down here and are sad that we only have 13 days to go.

down and dirty

Today was our first day at Jamaica Christian School for the Deaf. It was an early morning since we left Fairhaven by 7 am. We spent the morning working in a garden to remove "the smelly plants" which we soon discovered were huge marigolds. We did more gardening as well and may have pulled out some "weeds" that we later discovered were actually plants. We also hauled rocks to even out some land near the clotheslines. After lunch we waited to see if they had any more jobs for us to do. They didn't really have anything else for us to do, so we were just going to wait for our driver to come get us and then go get seeds to plant in the garden tomorrow. However, our driver did not show up and after much confusion, we finally got picked up after 5:00. So we ended up sitting around doing a bunch of nothing for about 5 hours. We did get to practice our (for the most part very poor) sign language skills with the kids after school was out though, which was fun. Then on our way home when we were very hungry, there was a huge traffic jam and it took forever to get back to Fairhaven. But we survived and got our macaroni and cheese for supper. Most of us got sunburned today as well as some of us getting rashes from the soil that we worked with. But life is still good here in Jamaica and we all have kids we want to take home with us. We were able to hear the stories of some of the children at JCSD and they broke our hearts. We're excited to go back and work in the classrooms, do devotions, and continue gardening tomorrow.

Yesterday, we went to church at The Meeting Place with the people from Robin's Nest. It was certainly an experience with all of the wonderful singing, the looooong service, and the yelling. We sang for over an hour, and the service was over two and a half hours long. After church, we came back to Fairhaven and had lunch before heading to the beach with the people from Robin's Nest. The kids had a blast playing in the water and sand with us. It started to rain, so we had to run back in the pouring rain and we got completely soaked.
Today, we went to Robin's Nest for the last time. We spent the morning picking up toys, doing laundry, ironing, and playing with the kids. This afternoon, we played with the kids while they swam and played games. It was hard to say goodbye to them. One of the little boys asked Amy to take him home with her, which made it even harder to leave. We hope to see them at church or at the beach again before we leave. We can't believe it's almost been a week already. Time is going too quickly! We have been so blessed by the children and the people of Jamaica as well as with the company of the California half of the team, who we have grown extremely close to in the short amount of time that we have been here.

steaming hot

Even though today is Saturday, we didn't get the whole day off. We went to the market this morning, which was quite the experience. The people there all tried to get us to come in their shop and buy from them. They would say, "Pretty girls, come in our shops. We give you a good deal." We did find some good deals and enjoyed experiencing a little more of Jamaican culture. After the market, we were escorted to a park by security so that we were safe. We were supposed to meet the children from Robin's Nest at the park, but they never showed up, so we ended up enjoying our lunch in the ocean. We also got sunburned in the middle of a thunderstorm, which was something new. After the park, we walked back to Fairhaven and got some cold water and stood in front of the air conditioners and we were literally steaming hot. Steam was pouring off of us as we stood there...SICK! Then, we headed out for Melody House Girls Home, which is a home where 15 girls ranging from 12 to 18 years old. We played games and hung out with the girls there and had a wonderful time. Tomorrow we will be attending church and going to the beach with the children from Robin's Nest.

Exhausted. That's how we feel. Today was very tiring but still fun for us. We did a VBS with the kids at the preschool again, but there were only children from Robin's Nest there today, so we had 7 children instead of 18. After lunch, we were all assigned a partner at Robin's Nest to play with for the afternoon. It was very difficult to keep them entertained for four hours, but we survived with the help of some Jolly Ranchers, which we gave to them as rewards for helping with chores. They called them "sweeties" and constantly asked for more of them. At the preschool, the kids loved singing with us. We taught them a few songs, and they taught us some as well. One of our new favorites is "Makin' Melody in my Heart." There is a dance that goes with it, and we all look absolutely ridiculous doing it, but it's fun doing it with the kids and watching their smiles. They know a ton of songs and loved to sing them for us. We actually were full after supper tonight, which was a good change. Our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at lunch don't quite fill us up like they used to when we were five. We're excited to work through the weekend with the kids!

sunshine on a cloudy day

I think we've found our new home. All of us falling in love with Jamaica and the children here. They have stolen our hearts! Today we went back to Robin's Nest Children's Home and also to the preschool near the home. We did a VBS with the children at the preschool and then also with five of the children at Robin's Nest who are in a special education classroom. We were able to interact with the children a lot more today and we had a wonderful time. It was rainy almost all day. But the smiles of the all the children were our sunshine on this cloudy day. Because of the rain, the roads were even worse today, so the trip back was longer and more dangerous with the roads being flooded partially. It got sunny by the time we returned to Fairhaven, so we got to see the gorgeous sunset over the ocean from the balcony outside our third floor room.

Today was our first full day in Jamaica. We went to Robin's Nest Children's Home, which is a privately run children's home about an hour away from where we are staying in Montego Bay. There are 33 children currently living at Robin's Nest. It is up on a mountain, and the roads to it were awful. Thank goodness our driver Mikey is so wonderful. At Robin's Nest, the children have pod mothers so that they can bond to a few adults rather than having many different adults in and out. Therefore, we are there to take care of other things, such as laundry and cleaning, so that the pod mothers can spend time with the children. We hung up, folded, and put away a lot of laundry, hauled rocks, helped at a preschool, fed babies, got thrown up on, wiped noses, cut and carried rebar, sweated a lot, got a little sunburned, and gave a lot of hugs. It was a wonderful day! We're excited to go back to Robin's Nest for the next few days where we'll be doing some VBS stuff with the kids at the preschool and possibly at the children's home with the special education classroom as well.
Prayer Requests:
*Pray for the preparations for our VBS as we are unsure of exactly what we're expected to do.
*Pray for the children of Robin's Nest as well as the staff, as they have exhausting jobs.
*Praise God for the wonderful start we have had to our trip.

WE MADE IT!

We are typing this message from Montego Bay, Jamaica! WOOHOO!
We left Montevideo last night and spent the night in St. Paul then got up at 4:23 am in order to get to the airport in time. Besides having to rearrange some luggage to stay under the weight limits and getting a jar of peanut butter taken away, everything with our flights to Miami and Montego Bay went well. We spent the day getting to know the California team, hanging out at the beach, having orientation, and grocery shopping. It still does not quite seem real to us that we're actually here. However, a few more hours in this hot and humid weather may make it a reality for us. Here are a few more prayer requests:
*Pray for the children that we will be interacting with for the next few days at Robin's Nest.
*Pray for unity in our team and the California team.
*Pray for our team's safety as the driving here is quite scary. Praise God for our wonderful driver, Mikey.
Thanks for your prayers! We will hopefully be able to write again soon!

Itinerary!

So about 24 hours after I wrote that we wouldn't find out exactly where we would be working, we found out where we will be working. We will spend 5 days at Robin's Nest Children's Home, which is the place that originally drew us to Jamaica. For 4 days we will work at the Jamaica Christian School for the Deaf, where we will be doing devotions, assisting in the classroom, and heping with a gardening project. We will work at SOS Children's Home for 3 days, and we will be assisting in the basic school and doing arts and crafts projects with the children. We will spend one day at Blossom Gardens, which is an orphanage. Also, we will spend some time at the Melody House Girls Home. We are very excited to see how God is going to work on this trip. We are 8 days from our departure, and final details are falling into place. Thanks for all of your prayers!

it's coming!

16 DAYS! We cannot believe how fast the days are going. As our departure draws nearer, we are realizing just how hard it is to plan out the details of our trip while finishing up our last projects, papers, and exams. From figuring out which foods all of us like to planning a vacation Bible school, we are discovering just how many things we have left to figure out. It's teaching us to trust God to work everything out though. We will likely not find out our exact placement until we go down there since they will put us where there is need at that time.

As always, we appreciate your prayers for our team and the people we will be in contact with in Jamaica. Here are some prayer requests.

*Praise God for the generous financial support of our family and friends. Pray that the support would keep coming in, as some of us have not reached our goals yet.

*Pray for our plans, especially the Vacation Bible School, as we are very unsure of what to expect with it.

*Praise God for technology that will allow us to stay in contact with everyone back home while we are gone.

*Pray for the hearts of those we will come in contact with on our trip and that God would be preparing them to hear His Word and see His love.

*Pray that all of us would be open to being used by God on the trip in whatever way that He wants to.