New Things in Jamaica

We have gone on many trips to many countries. Many of the experiences are familiar. Packing, wrestling with suitcases, travel to the airport, checking in, going through security, flying, layovers, customs and immigration are all things that we expect.

Our team

Yet our trip to Jamaica had some things we had not experienced in a long time, and it even had some new experiences for us.

This was the first time to travel with people from our church and to be under the leadership of our pastor. It was a good experience. We enjoyed getting to know each of these people better. It's one thing to show up on Sunday and Wednesday to worship and pray together. It is even better to spend an entire week with them and get to know them on a 24-hour basis. It was especially good to spend more time with the three teenagers who were on our team.

This was also the first time we went to Jamaica on a mission trip. Charlie visited there years ago when he was serving with the Navy, but I had never been there. It was good to get to know the Jamaican people and to experience a little of what it means to be a Jamaican Christian. We were invited by the pastor to return, so maybe we will go back.

Street evangelism

Only once before (in Guatemala) were we invited to speak in a public school. We were given our assignments: the teens would lead in singing and I would give a devotional. I had 12 minutes. That is not enough time to develop a story, so I decided to teach from a verse in Isaiah. Then the day before we found out that we would be divided into four teams. Charlie and I were one team. So I taught and he played along, driving home the various points. Afterward, the lead teacher asked me for the reference so that she could go home and teach it to her children.

There were other firsts:

• We passed out candy packages with tracts in them. The children eagerly grabbed them, but some of the teenagers refused.  
• We approached some men sitting outside a bar playing dominoes to give them tracts and they turned down the music so they could hear what we said. As soon as we walked away, the music blared again.
• We took shelter under a tree, hoping that the rain would pass. It didn't, so we returned soaking wet to the compound after passing out tracts on the street.
• Charlie spent more time resting. His stamina has not yet returned since his stroke, and he needed more time between activities.
• We invited a person who was smoking weed to church.

Every trip has firsts. This was no different. A major difference, however, was that this was the first trip we took after Charlie's stroke. How grateful we are that God still has work for him to do.