I’ve done a lot of crazy things on mission trips before, and I tend to get the rest of the group to follow me…but this, this is the craziest thing I have ever said, “Sure, our group will do that!” to. Today was our last day of Vacation Bible School at the Salter’s Hill School. As we neared the end of the morning, Pastor Jason and I collapsed down next to each other on the cement floor of the classroom. We heard the kids singing the words to songs about God’s great big love, we watched our high school students blessing the young, Jamaican children, and we were surrounded by our teammates passing out sandwiches and oranges and juice. And as the two of us sat back and took it all in, we looked at each other on the cement floor with hot, sweaty Jamaican children crawling all over our laps, and we cried. Our team of 27 worked as hard this week as I’ve seen any other team work before. And we did it. We accomplished our goal…this week we told at least 86 children that God loves them. We fed their hearts with God’s promises and their tummies with food.
Several powerful things happened today. For one, we finally figured out just how to manage all 86 of those children by the last day! As Jason pointed out, we let go of a lot of our organization, while they met us in the middle by going along with a little bit of our structure, and we worked it out together. The moments of peacefulness just might have outnumbered the moments of chaos today. Well, that might be an exaggeration…but it was at least a little bit calmer!
Another powerful moment came when I took some time out to visit with one of the Jamaican mothers that had been accompanying her two young children all week. She shared with me that her kids loved coming every morning, and then she thanked me. “Thank you for coming and doing this for our kids,” she told me. “They all love it,” she said, and then she pointed out to the schoolyard full of kids playing soccer. “Look at the smiles on their faces. They love it.”
When we finally sent all of the kids home, cleaned up, and turned the lights out on the classroom, we boarded a bus to take us to our shuttle to Negril. We’d been on the bus for a long time when we saw a group of the kids from the community that had come to Vacation Bible School all week. We were miles away from the school by this point. When we joined up with the second half of our group, they told us that they had given them a ride down the hill. It was then that they learned that this group of kids had been walking 2 hours each way to come to Vacation Bible School that week. Wow. How powerful. We’ve been on those roads each day and know that it was not an easy 2 hour hike that these kids repeatedly made.
I write now as we’re on a shuttle bus to the Grand Pineapple Resort in Negril. It’s a scenic hour-and-a-half drive around the island from Montego Bay to Negril. Tonight we will relax (and shower)! But tomorrow…we’re back to playing with kids again. J I’ve lined up our group to put on a fun day for about 40 or so children in the Negril area. We’re not at all sure what we’re in for…but we’ll let ya know.
Thanks for reading our blog. It’s fun to be able to bring you along with us as we see God’s beautiful country and use our hands to do God’s work. Blessings to you from Jamaica… mama lisa
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