We got up and had breakfast at the hotel overlooking the water and with the sound of the ocean in the background. Around 9:30 am we took off for the community center to attend Word to Life International church services. On the way, we drove past Jenny’s Restaurant and I remarked that we wanted to eat there sometime this trip. We had seen it in the past but never had the opportunity to stop.
When we got to church Bruce and I jumped out of the van and ran inside. We were so excited to see our friends Pastors Richard and Nicola! They were just starting to set up so we all jumped in and helped them set up chairs, plug in the sound system, and hook up the projector. For a minute, Bruce and I just stood in the back of the room. We watched all of our kids working away, doing whatever needed to be done. We shared a proud parental moment. We are truly blessed.
Richard and Nicola’s 8 year old daughter, Micah, normally does the video and sound, but she wasn’t there yet, so since Philip was playing around with the sound system anyway, he just ended up staying in that seat for the service. Micah walked in sometime after the service had started. And you should have seen the look on her face when she saw that he had taken over her job! It was so funny!
We got to see all of our friends: Iona, Maxine, Althea, Ms. Pat, and so many others. We were so honored to be there. After church was over, Nicola, Ms. Pat and the other ladies prepared a wonderful lunch for us. They cooked it all on a hot plate! Amazing, really. We are so thankful and humbled at their gesture. And thrilled because we were all starving! We graciously ate with them and all helped to clean up. During this time, Nicola introduced us to Ms. Connie. When Ms. Connie heard that we were coming, she offered to treat us and our team to dinner one night at her restaurant. Guess which restaurant is hers? Jenny’s! We couldn’t believe it!
They have to lock everything up each week because the community center is used for lots of activities during the week, so it takes a little while to get every unhooked, rolled up, put up, packed up, and put away. After we get the place cleaned up, we took our family back to the hotel so that we can all change clothes. Then we all got back in to the van and went back to the church to pick up Richard, Nicola and Micah.
They took us down the street to a rundown hotel called the Rock Cliff to pick up Ms. Pat who we had met at the church that morning, and Mr. Allen, the owner of the place. Nicola has connected us with Ms. Pat, who is going to cook some of our evening meals this week. Ms. Pat lives at the hotel and helps take care of the owner, Mr. Allen, who also owns a piece of property that he has for sale in nearby Little London that they wanted to show us. They thought it might be a suitable place for the ministry.
But first, we take them all out to Spring Garden so that they can see what we already feel like could be the place that Journey Home Jamaica will eventually land, and where we will be working this week. Plus it’s kind of on the way. When we get there, our friends Shorty and Marvin are there to meet us. We made a few quick introductions and looked around for a just a minute. The mosquitos were biting fiercely. When we got back to the van, found that we had a flat tire! Philip - our resident one man pit crew - changed it like a champ and we were back on the road in no time, uh, flat.
Richard directed us back to Negril to drop off the tire so that it could be repaired. The tire shop was reminiscent of the tire repair place in Whitehouse that we visited a few months ago. We would have never found it if we didn’t have a guide.
When we were back on the road, we headed in the direction of Little London to see Mr. Allen’s property. All the way down the bumpy road, we followed the same car. Just as we turned a corner, the car stopped right in the middle of the road. We were a little bit concerned until our friend, Leroy, who we had met a year ago got out and started walking toward us! He had recognized us in the rearview mirror. Bruce and I jumped out of the van and ran up to give him a hug! The other eleven people in the van had no idea what was happening. When we explained to them, they were amazed that we know so many people in Jamaica! Leroy told us that the Coconuts property we had looked at before had just sold and that the new owners would be taking over in a few weeks. We were a little sad, but know that God must have another plan for us. A better plan.
We drove a little further down the road and stopped at Mr. Allen’s property. It was something like 15 acres. He used to have a whole herd of steer there. He said it used to be all cleared off, but now it was just an overgrown mess. We couldn’t walk on the actual property itself because it was all just brambles, so we asked the neighbors if we could walk along the side on their land. They agreed (and from the smell of the all of the marijuana, I think they probably would have agreed to just about anything). About halfway down the side of the yard we had to walk through a gate. On the other side of the gate were two donkeys wandering around. We waited and someone finally grabbed the ropes around their necks and tied the up so that they wouldn’t bother us. Of course, there were dogs, chickens and roosters wandering around in the yard, too. The kids got a taste of the “real” Jamaica here, for sure!
Although we knew immediately that we probably didn’t want this property, we wanted to be respectful to Mr. Allen, so we spent about 15 or 20 minutes walking around and letting him tell us about it. Finally we all piled back in to the van, and started back toward Negril. Our first stop was to pick up our tire. We were very glad to have Richard along with us, as he negotiated the price and made sure that it was fixed correctly. (By the sound of the conversation that I heard through the window, I’m sure that we most certainly would have gotten “the white man’s price”.)
Then we took Ms. Pat and Mr. Allen back to their home/hotel at Rock Cliff to drop them off. Then we dropped off our kids at Negril Escape down the road, where the kids all jumped right into the pool. It just so happens that Nicola and Janet, the owner/wife of Negril Escape, are related so Richard and Nicola stopped for a drink and we chatted a bit. Then Bruce and I got back in the van to take Richard, Nicola and Micah to their home south of town.
They live with Nicola’s mother at Green River, but are building a house next door on the same property. We met Nicola’s mother and gave them a couple of gifts that we had brought along for them. We walked around their house and saw the construction. It’s really going to be nice. Micah was so cute running around and telling us every detail about the rooms and how they will look when they are finished. They were so proud to show us around, and since we both really love that kind of thing, we had a lot of fun looking. We really wished that we had the time to come back and help them work towards their finished product.
Although they go out to do street evangelism on Sunday nights, we were tired and wanted to spend some quality time with our kids, so we bowed out for the night and went back to the hotel to play cards with our kids before bed.
We finally managed to get the kids out of the pool, ordered some dinner at the restaurant, and got out the cards. All of the sudden, Little Andrew was up on his chair. There was a crab that had come up from the ocean and was coming right toward him. He jumped down. And the crab followed him. He ran to the left. The crab chased after. He swerved to the right. The crab followed. All of us laughed and laughed as we watched Andrew try to dodge the crab. Andrew, however, wasn’t quite as amused. Finally, I put him out of his misery and chased the crab off the deck so that we could finish our cards in peace. Ha!
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