Wow, has it
ever been a time of rapid change! We left on March 13, when everyone was in
school, work, church, going out to restaurants. When we returned 7 days later,
none of that was true. Though the spread if the virus affected us somewhat in
Jamaica (things were closed, including the school where we planned to teach), we didn’t feel it as much
as when we got back. In fact, we learned that they were going to close the
airport only one day after we left. Praise God!
I was able to take my two 12 year old granddaughters along, and their descriptions of the trip follow mine. It was my 6th trip to Jamaica, and Wanda's first. Though it was different than we expected, God showed up and we had a wonderful time.
I was very
proud of Abi and Aryn. They spent time each day preparing their Bible lessons
for the children, the story and the crafts. I think their confidence level went
up over the 6 days that they taught. It was a beautiful sight to behold. If
there had not been a coronavirus, they would have had too many children to
handle, as it was they had between 15-20 kids.
Both the
girls did a devotional for the group each day, and we had wonderful times of
prayer together. Abi and Aryn got baptized in the Holy Spirit down there too.
Wanda and I
taught the adults who were staff and administrators at the school. I taught on
encouragement, trauma, woundedness and how to heal from it, anxiety, and
boundaries. Wanda taught on Spiritual and Emotional intelligence, and some
other pertinent things from Scripture. The talks were well-received, and they
thanked us profusely for coming down in the midst of a pandemic to teach them.
Randy, the
school head, took us to the ocean the last day, and the girls really enjoyed
it. We had a sweet time having supper (take out) in a park before leaving the
next day.
Thanks again
for your prayers for the trip! God really showed up in amazing ways, and we are
still rejoicing over what He did in the one week we were gone.
Here in
Abi’s and Aryn’s own words are paragraphs describing it:
My Time in Jamaica
By Abigail Gill
Being
in Jamaica was super fun! Every day, at 3:00 PM, my Nana, her friend Wanda, my
cousin, and I would go out to the picnic tables underneath a big tree right
outside our place. All the kids would gather there. My cousin Aryn and I would
stand up on one of the picnic tables and tell a Bible story to the kids. Some
of the Bible stories we told were Saul/Paul, the Creation story, Moses and the
Ten Plagues, and we told them about when Jesus comes back. After we told the
story, we’d give them a craft to do. Some of the crafts we did were maracas
they could color, T-shirts and little bags they could decorate, a coloring
sheet of Jesus with children, and a sticker sheet of Paul writing parts of the
Bible in jail.
Kid’s club lasted from
three to five so we had a lot of free time. I played a lot of card games with
Aryn, and sometimes we went and visited the village doctor who is also from
Minnesota, Dr. Gail. The day before we left, we swam in the ocean! It was
really salty but the giant waves were super awesome. We shopped for souvenirs
in a market where everyone was saying that their stuff was better than the
others and they had better prices.
I had an amazing
trip to Jamaica, I am super thankful that my Nana let me go along!
My Jamaica trip
By Aryn Gill
We got to Jamaica late,
and I tried my first Jamaican food at 10:30 at night. It was a good spicy fish
sandwich with fries. When we got to the mission the first thing I noticed was a
twin sized bed with orange sheets that was really comfortable, I booked it
towards the bed and fell asleep. The next day we had our first kids club. We
told Bible stories then did crafts. During that time me and Abi met some girls
who were very sweet and we played basketball with them. We remained in contact
with them for the rest of the week.
The tiny shops there
were interesting, you didn't walk into it and look around you stood at a corner
and peered through a window and had to decide what you wanted. The main food
that we ate in Jamaica was chicken and fries, but on some occasions we would go
to an air conditioned restaurant called Juici patties, where Abi’s and my
favorites were the beef pattie. When we
went out for lunch once at Juici patties, there was a food market across the
street. We tried some new fruits there. To pass the time Abi and I filled up an
entire journal writing in igpa atinla (Pig Latin). We would play cards
and walk around the mission. On our last day at Spring Village we gave away the
gifts to the kids. It was so funny, even if they were 10 year old boys they
would beg for the small little pink shoes. 😊 (a famous line was:“ I’m not greedy I just
want lots of money to make me happy.”) The kids were fun to hang out with and
do crafts with.
On the last day a nice
man named Randy, who is in charge of the mission, drove us through mountains to
the beach where we swam in the ocean. We went tourist shopping, where I got my
family gifts and got my birthday present from Nana which was a beautiful
handmade purse. Then we stayed at a hotel for the night, and in the morning we
flew home.
Going to Jamaica was a
great experience, and I would love to go on another one soon.
Again, we’d like to say thank you for all your support, prayers,
encouragement! When all gather around the throne in that final day, and there
are people from every tribe, nation, and language, we will rejoice with them.
And YOU will also be with us, receiving appreciation as well.
Warmly,
Cynthia, Abi, and Aryn
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