Food distribution at church; Whitehouse, Jamaica - Day 8

We had arranged to pass out food this morning at the church.  A couple of days ago, a few of the people from the mountain village of Aldear had been told that we would be doing this and they were asked to spread the word.  Several people in the Whitehouse area had been sharing this by word of mouth, too. So, after breakfast, we loaded up the food that had been separated, sorted and packed up, and headed in to town to the church.

People were instructed to come to the church at 11:00 am for food distribution. We got to the church at about 10:15 am. We unloaded all the food and decided where each food station was going to be and started setting it up. We wanted to have a traffic pattern and assembly line so folks could check in at one door, pass by each table and pick up enough for their family, then go out through another door. They would get their hand marked with a Sharpie so that they wouldn’t go through the line more than once. We had a table with bags of rice on it, another table with bags of flour, one with cornmeal, another place where there was cans of mackerel, and outside of the exit door there were large bottles of oil.  People had been instructed to bring their own bottles to refill with oil for cooking. We also had some clothes laid out over the church pews for people to take what they needed.  We had a volunteer at each station to help distribute the food and clothes to make sure that no one took more than anyone else or more than they needed.

Just after 10:45 am, people started coming to the church. By 11:15 am, all the food had been passed out.  We met lots of people and talked with them.  We heard many stories.  Lots of people came after 11:00 am and were disappointed, scolding us because the food was gone so fast. People were mad and some got kind of ugly with us.  We had purchased and sorted 200 pounds of food.  Once it was gone, it was gone.  We finally shooed people outside and away from the church and headed off to have some lunch.

After lunch we went to the grocery store and I bought some ice cream.  I really like ice cream and some of the flavors are different than what we get in the States.  We went back to Linda’s house, took a rest, a walk around the neighborhood, and then headed for the beach.  When we got back our friend, Troy, was there.  We got out the ice cream to share.  We had ice cream and the remaining coconuts that we brought from Spring Garden days earlier.  Ice cream and coconuts.  That was our dinner.  Fine by me.


While we were eating, Troy started talking and shared his story with us.  He talked for well over an hour.  He grew up in a rough neighborhood in Kingston and said he had made some not so great choices.  But he had a talent for dancing and singing.  A woman befriended him and invited him to Montego Bay to pursue his music and attend a training school there.  He was introduced to Jesus in MoBay and was saved.  As he shared his story, both Bruce and I knew that he is really a special person and that God has big plans for this guy.  Everyone who meets him likes him instantly, and we surely know that we will see him again. 

The evening wore on and we finally decided that we needed to call it a night.  We would be leaving in the morning and needed to pack.