TEAM JAMAICA 2007

See you Soon!

2007-06-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

We have returned from Negril to Fairhaven for a few hours before we take off. Just thought we would give you the flight information just incase you are picking us up from the airport!
We are on JamaicaAir and leave here at 4:00 Jamaica time (2:00 California time). We will arrive at home at 8:05 California time at LAX. We look forward to seeing your beautiful faces!
The weekend was an amazing time of relaxation and reflection for our team and we enjoyed the sun, beach, and each other.
We look forward to seeing you or talking to you all soon.
We love you,
Team Jamaica

Negril or bust!

2007-05-30T22:47:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone, this is Garrett once again here to update you on our day. A few announcements before I update you all on our amazing last day of official service in Jamaica. 1. We will be leaving for Negril tomorrow morning and will be staying there for the rest of our trip. Sadly we will have no internet while staying there so this seems to most likely the last blog from Team Jamaica (I am sure someone will do a wrap up blog so breathe easy readers). 2. We arrive in LAX at 8:05 on the 2nd so please remember to pick us all up. Please. (GG the team is on countdown mode until we all get to meet the woman behind the amazing blogs).

Now for the blog, as I stated earlier today was our last day and all of us were in disbelief that this amazing trip is coming to an end. We continued our routine of going to schools in the morning and singing some songs as well as performing skits for the little tykes. The two skits we performed were a nerd version of David and Goliath as well as an orange skit that represents the world’s painful toll on a person’s heart and the healing that Jesus and only Jesus brings. Both of these skits were performed to perfection due to the amount of times we have practiced and performed them and it was nice to leave it all up on stage for one last time. After the morning devotions to the school kids we headed back to our home away from home and while some chose to recharge with a nap, others elected to take advantage of the few precious moments of sunshine and head to the beach. After our afternoon break had expired we headed to the after school program we have been helping at and enjoyed exploring our artistic side through crafts, as well as play a few games (the kids favorite being heads up seven up). When the clock expired we were done and we left the after school program knowing that we had done some good in the name of someone who had done more good for us then we can ever comprehend (you know that guy, sweet beard, walked on water, and let’s not forget He died on a cross for us). Luckily for us just because our official ministry had ended that did not mean our adventure had. While driving back to Fair Haven we were forced to find an alternate route home due to the rapid rainfall that had caused former streets to become raging rivers. Luckily for us all our driver Chris is extremely talented and maneuvered through the streets/ rivers with ease and we even had some entertainment on the drive back thanks to some visiting tourists. Day turned to night and soon we found ourselves enjoying our last supper at Fair Haven that the amazing cooks had treated us to. After dinner most of us walked downtown to do some last minute shopping for ourselves as well as those we have been separated from for three weeks. Once we arrived safe and sound back at Fair Haven from our shopping spree, our leaders sat us down for a particularly unique team meeting. Instead of recapping the day like we usually do, we each shared our favorite memories of one another throughout the trip. This lasted for quite some time as we all have many great memories from these three weeks and when it finally ended each of us felt greatly appreciated by our fellow team members. So this is the end, from here our trip moves to Negril as we relax and hopefully enjoy the sun (yes it is still pouring here….for the third straight week). I think it is fair to say that we all have had an amazing time over here and will leave this country better than when we entered it. To the families and friends out there who cannot wait to see us, I assure you the feeling is mutual and we all cannot wait to enjoy your company again. As I wrap up this blog I would like to thank each of you who read and posted on this blog whether it was once or daily. To know that we are loved and supported while we are far away from both family and friends has kept us going throughout these three weeks. I ask that as always you keep us in your prayers as we enjoy our final days in Jamaica and travel home, also please continue to pray for the people of Jamaica who we have been able to get to know through this trip.
One Love,
Garrett

P.S. The beard growing has sadly ended due to Tyler and Sam electing to shave their masterpieces. Final results have been posted for your viewing pleasure.

Madre, Padre and Brookes: I cannot wait to see you all and catch up with everyone. Dad I am hoping that you will be able to drive back with me and I will call you once I am at Phin’s to see if that worked out. Love you all.
Sarah: For starters, happy belated birthday and like I said we will celebrate it when I am back. It has been great to read all of your comments and like always you never fail to make me laugh. Hope all is well and I look foreword to seeing you and catching up.
Joe: It is great to hear from you and I cannot wait until I get to see your beautiful face this summer when you visit.
Jillian: I can’t tell you what a pleasant surprise it was to get your comment and I can’t wait to see you when I am home. Hope you had a blast at Ball and that you are doing well.
Mel: Sorry I did not get the blog address to you before I left and it was great to see you managed to find it anyway. Hope you are doing well as I am sure you are and it will be great to see you when I am back.
Mrs. Tag: We were travel buddies until you forgot to take me to Hawaii…twice. But no worries they have these huge fist-sized spiders here and I made sure to capture one for you so you would have a piece of Jamaica. It was great to hear from you and I can’t wait to see you when I am back so we can continue to harass each other. Hope you are not worrying about JD too much.

Stefene's Birthday, Devotions, and Rainmakers

2007-05-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends! This is Lindsey bringing you today’s update. It is getting closer and closer to our final day here in Jamaica and I think that it is beginning to hit some of us that we are almost done here (at least for now) and just a few days from now we will be heading home. We have started calling Fairhaven home and feel as though we have become a surrogate family to each other throughout our time here. We have shared many laughs, hugs, some tears, challenging times, encouraging times, and so much more together. It is going to be a shock no longer waking up each day to these 9 beautiful faces that I get to see each morning and each night before I go to sleep. Sam is amazing (he has added this in when I was taking a break from working at the computer and hoped that I would not proof read before I posted… Oh Sam). We are looking forward to these last few days together. Okay, enough of that, it is finally time to fill you in on our day.
This morning we started bright and early with our team devotions here at home at 7:00am. We left at 7:45 to head back to Catherine Hall to do a devotion for the crazy 5th graders there. We once again did our skit about sin and how easy it is to get caught up in it. The kids seemed very interested, and once again enjoyed the songs. As soon as we finished there, we headed over to a prep school in Flankers. The prep school is similar to our pre-school age kids in the US. They were small and precious (see picture).
We headed back home after our second devotion and spent a little time at the beach before heading in to prepare for the rest of the day. On our way home we were driving through Chris’ neighborhood when he saw “Mama Celeste.” We picked her up to drive her into town on our way home and learned that she is the oldest lady in the neighborhood and helped raise Chris and many of his school buddies. She was set on having her picture taken with Jen, so here is one of the many.
After a few hours at home, Chris took us to a little jerk stand for lunch on our way up to the Peace and Justice center in Flankers. It was a tiny little place and we definitely were the only non-Jamaicans there.
The community center was a little different for us today than yesterday. We had 11 kids yesterday, so we were excited to head to back to hang out with them, but as we opened the door into the room we could barely fit inside. I counted 29 kids today by the time they all arrived. We make some rainmakers/shakers, which were fun to create with the kids, but we quickly learned that beans could easily sneak out of the rainmakers (especially when they were used to hit other kids) and end up all over the floor. We once again sang some songs with the kids and played a few games of hangman. During the time that we were in the community center, it began to pour and we had to take a different route home because the roads were flooded (apparently the rainmakers actually worked). The rain continued throughout the rest of the afternoon and we were sad because we had met a Rasta Man, Scratchy, last night who told us that he wanted to learn more about our Jesus today at the beach. The rain kept coming down and kept us from heading out to look for him.
This afternoon we spent most of our time preparing for Stef’s birthday. We decorated while she took a nap and came up with our surprise plan for her. We woke her up and told her to get dressed up because we were going to be taking a team picture, and then we all headed down the “hip strip” and surprised her by going to the Chinese restaurant that she has been eyeing since we arrived in the Jamaica. After dinner we headed home real quick to get out cake that the amazing ladies (Leoni and Sonya, who work at Fairhaven) made for Stef. We brought Stef into the room and shared with her all of our wonderful homemade birthday signs as well as giving her our team card and gift. We provided some music for a dance party in the family room and played some card games before we took off for that night swim that she has been waiting for. We are all so thankful for the amazing girl that she is and we are so incredibly lucky that we have gotten to spend this time with her as well as spending her 21st birthday with her!
Tomorrow is sadly our last day of scheduled ministry here in Jamaica. We are looking forward to the day and all that it will bring. Please pray that tomorrow we will be as excited and willing as we were on our very first day here. I know that we say it each day, but the support and love from each one of you does mean so much to us and we are so lucky to have each of you in our lives.

Mom, Dad, Shannon, and Kev: See you or talk to you all very soon! Hope that everything is going well and I miss you all! I love you very much.
Joey: Hope your class finished well…I think it’s over now? I am looking forward to lunch on Monday! I miss you lots! I will talk to you soon. smooches! (the team has started using that, and I love it!)
Audrey, Kristin, Mari: Thanks for the love girls! I will talk to you all soon. (Most likely on Sunday on my drive up north). Love you all!
Everyone else: Thanks so much for all the comments and love.

Love,

Team Jamaica

Songs, Fish & Markets

2007-05-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hello, family and friends. This is Stefene bringing you the latest news of your beloved Team Jamaica. Thank you so much for all your love and support, it brings so much joy to our team to receive all of your encouraging comments. When I was asked to write the blog tonight, I decided to write it in my own style. So here it goes. . .

What a glorious morning
Lindsey and Kristin waking us up
With heavy eyes, we roll out of bed
Breakfast time, grab a plate and a cup
Cinnamon rolls, bananas, cereal and more
Some eggs, some bacon, and orange juice galore
Wash those dishes, and onto the bus
I got the bug spray, so don’t you fuss
We were off to lead devotions
Teach kids songs and all these silly motions
We shared a skit about getting caught up in sin
The only way to be free is to let Jesus in
Then Garrett came up and explained it all
He shared that we all mistakes and sometimes we fall
But the person we should look to is our Lord and Savior
He will help us stand firm in righteous behavior
Then off we went again, with our bus driver Chris
We had errands to run, lunch being the top of our list
Some good Jamaican cocoa bread
Beef and chicken patties
We ate till we were full,
Don’t worry we’re not turning into fatties
We then went to a community center for local youth
We sang songs of love, and God's truth
We danced around and then it was craft time
We made beautiful fish, that glittered and shined
We ended our time with a fun little game
called heads up seven up, it was anything but lame

We were sad to leave, but promised to returnWith more games and songs and some time to learn
Then off we went to go souvenir shopping
At the Jamaican craft market where there is lots of bargaining
We bought some cool stuff
And made some great friends
And vendors would call to us
And vow they were the only one with the latest trends
With the lowest prices, or so we thought
We learned quickly, to look around before we bought
You would be proud to see the skills we gained
To buy what we wanted without our pockets being pained
Sam and Garrett found a unique little shop
That didn’t look like any others, out of all it was top
The girls buying jewelry, the boys buying who knows what
We all had fun going from little hut to hut
Everyone selling just about the same stuff
A couple hours and we all had enough
Listening to our tummy’s we decided to go
It was close to dinner time and we were running low on dough
So we drove back home for some amazing food
Beef stew, corn and buttered fish to put us in a better mood
Once dinner was done we were off again
A walk into town to run into old friends
To talk about Christ or just hang out
We run into those who sing, scream and shout
Available and willing to be God’s tools Knowing that every person we run into are His precious jewels
People we run into are always saying
How we are different, we are so friendly
We met a man named Scratchy who came up to us
He wanted to hang out and learn something about Jesus
What a wonderful night, we all headed back
So tired and exhausted it was time to hit the sack
Praise God for these opportunities, these moments
He is our strength and guide despite our weakness
Doing His work brings joy to the heart Struggles and laughter, they all play a part
So be confident to know that God is so real in us

Stretching and pulling, we’re stepping out and learning to trust
Everyone encouraging each other and growing lasting bonds
Our team is doing well and it won’t be long
Until we come home to you all
So for now we must go where God has called

Ps:
To GG from Jen- GG, Jen brought the Glass Castle and she just finished it. . . she said that it was AMAZING and can’t wait to see you at the airport!

Pss: Andrew! Happy birthday!!! I really wish I was there to celebrate with you, I hope that it was a blast! I love you bud! See you in just a few days! -Tyler

Psss:
Dad, Mom, Sarah, Josiah, Jacob, Sheri, Shayna, Sianna, Samara, Jared and baby Shanen-I miss you and love each of you and can’t wait to come home and share with you all the things God is doing and has done in me. You are in my thoughts and prayers everyday and I know I am in yours as well. Did you guys get my car? How’s all that going? Well, I love you and waiting anxiously for your comments:)
Tommy-one word for you: RIDICULOUS:), thank you for the gifts. They get more and more interesting each day. I really can’t wait for you to explain each of them to me, they have been an encouragement to me:)hope to hear from you soon-miss you!; Chelse-I miss you and love you and I will see you when I come back in like four days!

Church Day!

2007-05-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! This is Kristin. Today was our last Sunday in Jamaica. We spent our last two church services, in the morning and evening, at Faith Baptist Church in Flankers. The pastor of this church, Delroy Campbell, has been the person in charge of organizing the local school devotions that we have been a part of these past few weeks. It was fun for the team to be able to attend Pastor Campbell’s church since they have had the opportunity to get to know him in the last two weeks, and it was exciting for Lindsey and me to see a few familiar faces from our visit to his church last year. Pastor Campbell is a very entertaining guy and he loves to tell jokes. He has such a great heart and all of the kids at the schools love him!

Rolling out of bed at 8am this morning seemed to come way too soon after our late night out dancing! As the team slowly and groggily made it out to breakfast, Lindsey and I were wondering if our decision to keep the team out late was the best thing, especially on the night before church. :) But everyone agreed that our entertaining evening out was well worth the lack of sleep. Our morning started like every other Sunday morning with a wonderful breakfast of baked oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, and fruit: a breakfast that we have all come to love and I am sad to say that it was our last Sunday morning breakfast here at Fairhaven. :( After our bodies were nourished, we headed off to church and participated in the Sunday school hour with songs and a skit. Today was missionary Sunday at Faith Baptist and we were happy to be a part of it and serve the congregation with a testimony from Stefene and two special music songs, one sung beautifully by Samantha and the other by Tyler and myself. If you remember from a few nights ago, we met a guy named Michael while walking along the “hip strip” in Montego Bay and invited him to church. We were not sure if he was going to come, but he ended up showing up this morning. It was encouraging for us to see that we made an impression on him. He did tell me that he enjoyed being around us and appreciated that we are real and genuine. God can use us to show Christ’s love by simply making ourselves available to have conversations with people we meet. My hope and prayer is that this is just the beginning for Michael and he will continue to pursue and seek out his interest in God and the Christian faith.

After church we came home to have a late lunch and we spent the afternoon playing some more Phase 10 (my new favorite card game), napping, and getting ready for the evening service as well as our day tomorrow.

We headed back to Faith Baptist Church this evening for another service in which Grace, Tyler, Stefene, and Jen sang a song and Katie and Sam shared short testimonies of what God has been teaching them while here in Jamaica. Tonight was Jen’s first time singing in front of a group of people and she sounded great, and Sam and Katie were an encouragement to us all! During church, while trying to avoid being eaten by all the bugs, we were also being entertained by our new friend O’Brian as some of us attempted to sign to him. O'Brian is a deaf child to one of the woman at the church. In the group picture we took at church tonight, you can see O’Brian being silly in the front with Stef and Grace as well as with Tyler in another picture.

After the service, we came home and had a late dinner of quesadillas with rice and beans. It is our nightly ritual to sit down each evening and read the blog and the comments, so once again we read all of your comments. Thank you for your support and encouragement! It is so comforting to know that all of our loved ones are thinking of us and praying for us back in the states. We love you all! As we begin our last week in Jamaica, I would ask that you pray for continued strength and endurance to finish strong for these last three days of ministry. We are all tired and many of us are beginning to feel weary, emotionally and spiritually. May our anxiousness to be home to see our family and friends not keep us from the plans God has for us during this last week!

Much love and blessings to you all!

A few last things:

Sami’s mom: Your precious daughter is doing great! Her thumb is feeling much better and she is no longer in the brace. We’re taking good care of her!
Jen’s mom: Jen and the rest of us are all wondering if you would please bring GG to the airport. We are growing quite fond of her through her comments and are dying to meet her!

To my family: I miss you all! I’m excited to move home when I get back. Sissy, I’m excited to spend the summer with you! I’ll see you all soon!
Kip: You should be nervous, because my tan is looking good. I hope you are working on yours too! :) There’s too much to say….I miss you…I’ll talk to you in 6 days, see you in 8! :-) more than you know
Levi: Thank you for all of your comments! I hope you aren’t too lonely with all of us gone. Thanks for your letter, it was a great surprise! Keep trusting and depending on Him!

Work/Play/Burn Day

2007-05-26T23:51:00.000-07:00

Hello family and friends! This is Katie, happy to bring you another update from Jamaica! So today is Saturday, which means we will be home in exactly one week! Which is good news for all you parents out there who are missing your children, but bad news for many of our “tans” which we bragged about before leaving home (more on that later). I can’t believe we are already 2/3 of the way done with this trip, time is truly flying. But we still have an exciting week ahead of morning devotions in elementary schools, after school programs, and of course our trip to Negril on Thursday! I know that we are all looking forward to lounging on the beach, playing on water trampolines, and wrapping up all that has happened this trip. Alright, now on to the good stuff.
Our day today started later then usual, I woke up at 9am to find all the other girls already awake and doing productive things, like cleaning or sorting dirty laundry. Today was our “work day” at our current home, Fairhaven, so we were all expecting to get right to work in the morning. However, when we woke up to see the beautiful (but fleeting) sunshine, our wonderful host, Mary, said that we should go to the beach before it rained. And trust me, she didn’t have to tell us twice! As soon as we finished breakfast we all got into our swimsuits and rushed down to the beach. As you may have seen from pictures, the water here is a beautiful aqua blue and also happens to be just the right temperature. When we got down to “the cove”, our favorite spot to swim, some of us jumped right into the water, while a few stayed on the beach to tan. Eventually, 9 of us made our way into the water and decided to play a game of ultimate Frisbee: boys verses girls. Now you may notice that I said 9 of us, when in-fact, our team has 10 members. This is because Kristin opted out of the game and decided to tan instead (which actually really ended up paying off for her). Anyway, the game ended up being much more intense, and tiring, then anticipated. Each team even started making up their own touchdown dances (for some reason the boys always “killed” each other in their dances…go figure) and talking a little smack to the other team. Playing in the water proved to be much more fun than on dry land – every one was leaping in every direction to make catches, or block the other teams pass. The boys may have had the height advantage, but us girls had the strategy. It was so fun to get to goof off and play with the team, and watch everyone get into it. I would love to tell you that we silenced the boys trash talking and won….but unfortunately we lost…barely. It was 13-11 to be exact. We are planning a rematch ASAP.
After our game, we headed back to Fairhaven at about noon to start on our work, and do laundry (which trust me, was a huge blessing). We were all assigned different jobs – Stefene and Jen washed windows, Sami, Grace and I cleaned the kitchen, Lindsey (aka Lynette) and Kristen cleaned and organized a closet, and the boys touched up some painting on the outside of the building. As we were working it started to rain, yet again, and we were all very thankful that we went to the beach in the morningJ. Throughout the afternoon, we all began to notice that out skin was looking a little pinker then usual. It was not long before we were looking at each other and laughing at how red we were. There were only a lucky few who did not get fried today. Now I know that if other parents are like my parents, you are probably shaking your heads at us right now for getting so burnt. But to be fair, we were only out there for about an hour and a half, and it was before noon, so none of us were expecting to get much of a tan, let alone a burn. We have all been coating ourselves with lotion, and plan on those burns turning into tans very soon. So back to the work day….well basically we did some work. It was cool to get to help Mary out; she does SO much for us without complaint, so I am glad that we got the opportunity to do something for her.
After we all finished our jobs, us girls played a couple intense rounds of Phase 10 before dinner, while the Sam, Tyler, and Garrett wrote in their journals and relaxed. There was also some time for some of our team to go over the music they will be doing in church tomorrow. I feel so lucky to be a part of such a talented team…seriously…I think I may be the only person who doesn’t have musical skills, haha. Right now, as I sit on the couch, I can hear Tyler playing guitar and Kristin singing in the other room – our worship team always sounds so beautiful.
You may be wondering why I am posting the blog so late tonight, well, I promise, it is not just because I am lazy. After dinner, our leaders sat us down to have our usual team meeting, but tonight they had a surprise for us. They told us to get ready because we were going out to immerse ourselves in more Jamaican culture…a live music performance and dancing. We were all really surprised and excited to get to go have some fun, and experience something new. The live band was really good – my favorite was when they did a Backstreet Boys song - with a reggae twist. I would have to say that the highlight of the night was the last song that we were there for (Lindsey’s theme song, and apparently Jamaica’s favorite song, because they play it all the time here) “Don’t Matter” by Akon. I think it is safe to say that we all had a really fun time listening to the music, dancing around, and once again getting to do something fun together as a team. When we got home and checked the blog, we were shocked to read the post from the woman who randomly met Jen’s parents in Starbucks, and now is going to donate to the orphanage we worked at, Blossom Gardens. I can’t even tell you how encouraging that was to hear – it gave many of us the chills to read. We have all been struggling with the fact that we can only do so much – never did I think that our trip would affect people we have never met. God works in such amazing ways, sometimes it just takes my breath away. Thank you so much to all family and friends for your support, encouraging words, and constant comments. Knowing that we have people praying for us at home is such a comfort to us all. Like I mentioned before, tomorrow we are going to church. Stefene is going to be giving her testimony, the worship team will be going a couple songs, and we will also be leading Sunday school. Please especially lift up Stef and the worship team tomorrow as they participate in a new church service. Much love to everyone – these blog comments really make me want to meet everyone’s parents and friends – you are all so great. One Love.

Mom, Dad, and Kristina – thanks for the comments! I miss you guys, and I’m excited to see you and share my stories! Kristina – how did you and Jenny do in the science fair? I know you guys are mad at me for getting sun burnt – I’m sorry. But I’m doing great besides that, so you don’t need to worry. Love you lots.
Jenise – I miss you so much. I get so happy when I see a new comment from you. I so wish I could call you when funny things happen – there have been so many times that I have wished you were here. I can’t believe you are still in school….muhahaha. See you June 15th. I love you. Ps – tell your sister and Shanae that I really appreciate all their comments…..not.
Malcolm – Sorry I didn’t give you one of these before. You know I love you my little bumpkin. I can’t wait to get home so we can hang out everyday!! Wahoo! Love and miss you.
Linds and Jess – I hope you guys don’t get offended by the joint thing. I think about you both everyday, and you continue to be in my prayers. I can’t even tell you how much I miss you guys. And I’m still tripping out that there are TWO Frannies….what the heck?! Jess, I got your support letter a couple days ago, I loved it, and it made me miss you even more. Thank you so much for doing that. And tell Hefner that if I go 3 weeks with no comment on this from her, she will face serious consequences. You both requested by birthday off of work, riiiight??I love and miss you both so much.

Peace, Love and Blossom Gardens!

2007-05-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

The rain finally subsided enough for all of us to bring the children back onto the porch. The newly found freedom from the indoors must have done something to the children’s spirits because suddenly there was chaos surrounding me. In the corner, a child screamed and winced in pain as a nurse attempted to comb through his coarse hair. Two children fought loudly over one of the few toys found in a room full of children. The older, mentally handicapped kids were running around getting into trouble because of a lack of anything else to do, and a lack of anyone who could really understand them. There were fifteen children unattended and without toys to play with, not including the four that lay bed-ridden and forgotten in their cribs. I lay there on the mat as young Ava, fully equipped with her soccer ball, climbed all over me energetically pressing on my full bladder. “Jesus loves you, this I know…” I began singing quietly, as she rested the ball on the floor and her head on my chest. “For the bible tells me so…” She looked deeply into my eyes. “Little ones to him belong, they are weak but He is strong…” Her gaze shifted from my eyes as she watched my lips form every word of the song. “Yes, Jesus loves you, yes, Jesus loves you…” My voice trailed off as I noticed how captivated she was by the melody. It was as if, at that age—the tender age of two—she completely understood the message behind the melody. As she lay there quietly studying my face, perhaps reflecting, I looked around at the room I had just known as chaotic. In the corner, where there once was a child screaming in pain, a nurse sat alone. With his hair freshly done, and his cheeks stained with tears, he was laughing hysterically at a silly face that Jen was making. The two children, instead of fighting over a toy, were instead taking turns getting thrown on the mat by Sam. Each of the teammates had at least two children under their care, and each child’s face, whether or not it was smiling, was beaming. I turned my head to the right, and saw Samantha playing with one of the older mentally challenged girls in her lap—the same girl that was deemed ‘difficult’ by the staff because of the ignorance of her condition. I soon learned that Tyler and Stefene were in the toddler’s dormitory showing love and care to those precious bed-ridden youngsters.

For the past two weeks, our team has struggled with fleeting thoughts of insignificance. Why are we here? What are we really doing? Now, in retrospect, I see it; we see it. This is what we’re here for. We’re here to do the best thing we can for these kids—show them the love of Christ. Many of these tiny bodies have gone through so much in their short lives; many of these wounded souls have never seen or felt true love through their inexperienced eyes, or have only received limited doses from the paid staff of the orphanage or from their unprepared parents. Today was our last day at an orphanage. Next week we’re ministering at different schools, and we may or may not have the time to visit Blossom Gardens one last time. It’s really hard to leave each orphanage knowing that we may never see the fruits of our labor. But, I think the Lord is finally showing us that while some of us (including me) may have come to Jamaica with our own version of this ‘mission to the orphans’, God had His plan. He had (and has) a plan that is far more reaching and longer lasting than any of us could have imagined—a plan with everlasting results. “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you” (James 1:27 NLT) <-- courtesy of Tyler’s devotion this morning…

Later on this evening, we went out again for street ministry. We encountered some we had previously met, and we met some new ones. En route we got some ice cream at a gelato place, we were entertained by a country-singing Rastafarian man, and we moseyed our way down a private beach, singing songs into the midnight sky. We returned to our ‘home away

from home’, Fairhaven, for worship and team reflection time, and ended the night with the reading of last night’s blog and the wonderful comments all you supporters leave daily. I hope you’re all doing well; it’s hard to believe that we’re going to see you all in just about a week! ♥

Shout out time: Dad, Mom and Angel I love and miss you all soooo much. Mom, thanks for showin so much love on the blog comments. Dad, I should tell you that the camera is amaaaazing. It’s pretty much become the “team camera”—many of the pictures you see on the blog and the hundreds of others you will see come from that great generosity you showed before we left . Angel, you should really start getting in shape now so that when we start training together you’ll be ahead of me (cuz I’m not really running that much.) Oh, and I can’t wait to kiss your soft, chubby cheeks.

Ruuuuth, Bundie, Rachbbgirl and my Homie Leigh: Where my girls at, from the front to back?? Haha…you girls are great and I love all the love you show us. Oh and I love you guys too but keep the comments coming!........or else

For anyone else I certainly didn’t forget, but I may not have mentioned, I’ve got nothing but love for all of you!

Last day at West Haven...

2007-05-25T00:32:00.000-07:00

Mmmmm... Pancakes, bacon, fresh pineapple, mango, and papaya... not too bad of a breakfast to wake up to don't you think? Oh and did i mention what we saw when we looked out our window? (See glorious pictures to right) Sorry, I had rub in the fact that we are still in Jamaica in case you have forgotten... (This is Tyler by the way, but I'm some of you could already tell due to my over usage of ( )'s) :-)
But anyway, before said breakfast we had our team devotions led by Garrett, which was great of course due to his God-gifted speaking talent! And after the usual morning shenanigans we headed to our final day at West Haven disabled children's home. Our feelings were quite different on the drive today than yesterday, nervousness and uncertainty were replaced by excitement and liveliness. Grace and Sam even had a little dance session in our bus (preparation for later... you'll know what I'm talking about in a couple minutes) while the leaders and some of our team were in the grocery store this morning. Fun fact: I guess they can pick up US radio stations here, pretty crazy huh? Anyway it is way late (midnight) and I need to stop procrastinating and get back to the story of our day... So I'm going to try and describe our day with pictures, so I'll be referring to them on the right so be ready to play along! As we walked though the gate we were greeted by many kids, (Kevin and Jen on right above) but one that is always there is Michael. Now if you look to the right you can see him greeting Lindsey with one of the best hugs I'm sure most of us have ever had, it even comes with a little drool sometimes, but hey, who doesn't like drool? We delayed no time jumping in to play with the 80+ children today since we knew it was the last time we would get to see their smiling, laugh-contagious, young faces. The morning was beautiful and sunny (as you saw in the first picture) so everyone was playing outside. I played cricket and got the honor to pitch to a girl named Marleen (the twin of Marlon, the only non-mentally handicapped kid at West Haven) and let me tell you she had a heck of a swing! (her beautiful follow through to the right) On one of these glorious hits of hers (I'm laughing just writing about it) she really got a hold of it and pelted a line drive. The funny thing is that there was something at the receiving end of the hit. If you look to your right you can see Kristen holding one of the cute kids... doesn't Kristen look happy and pain-free? Well that is because she is. Then five minutes passed and she was crossing the field at the wrong time and got NAILED with a cricket ball right in the face! It was her left cheek to be exact. But don't worry Kip and fellow Kristen lovers, she is totally fine! She took it like a champ and just shook it off. It was probably the funniest thing I have seen all trip! And of course I gave Marleen a huge high five for great hit after making sure Kristen was ok... well I think it was in that order... ;-)
Anyway as the morning went on the clouds started rolling in like most days here in Jamaica, and what do you know, it started raining. Pretty much everyone headed for shelter except for my friend Kevin and me. I tried to convince him that we should head in and play with everyone else in the dry areas, but he wasn't about to budge from his prime spot on the jungle gym so he taught me how to avoid the rain by creating a sweet rain outfit. I was pretty excited about his creation as you can see on the right. But I guess these rain outfits only last a short while before you have to head inside, so that is what we did. We had multiple choices on what dry activities to do. We walked by a little covered area where most some of the girls, some older ladies, and the kids were singing worship songs, but Kevin wanted to pass on that so we moved on and found a card game to join in to. You can see us on the right playing this intense game of Go Fish and Sam dominating, although Marlon (in the red shirt) gave him a run for his money! Other activities that were going on during this rainy day were some reading with funny accents (look for Stef on the right) and some good old handholding and snuggling with Katie (and yup, you guessed it, on the right). There was also a "happening" dance party going on to some great worship songs turned kiddy-pop. This went on for quite some time too, I remember hearing the music playing almost the entire last two hours of our time there. On the right is a picture of Lindsey, Grace, and Sammy teaching the kids some off the hook moves... haha.
Now, joking aside, today and yesterday have been a whole lot of fun and a good change from the heaviness of Blossom Gardens. But after the rain let up I ventured into one the houses on the premise I hadn't been into yet and found a room full of beds, which all the houses had, but with this house there were still kids on these beds in the middle of the day. And with most of these kids it didn't matter what time of the day it was. It reminded me a lot of the four precious kids at Blossom Gardens Sam talked about a couple days ago. But one good thing is that these kids are getting taken care of better here at West Haven, but it still is absolutely heartbreaking to see. It was definitely a blessing to have been able to come here and have some goofy fun with the kids of West Haven for our entire team, but when I walked into that room I knew I had to stay and love on these kids in much need, like a few of my teammates were already doing. You can see Garrett with 19 year old Rackelle on the right, and no, 19 is not a typo. This just opened my eyes to the fact that these kids are not an extreme rarity. It was brutal to see the kids at Blossom Gardens, but for some reason I told myself that those four were the only suffering kids like that. Then I came into this room at West Haven and there were much more, and all these kids are only from two orphanages in the little country of Jamaica. It definitely was overwhelming for me and my teammates. I'm sorry I don't really know where I'm going with this, I just wanted to share some of my feelings of the day...
Most of our team, though, never walked into that room and were out shaking their groove thing at the dance party or just hanging out and sharing God's love with the kids. The general mood for today was definitely a happy one, it was just extremely hard for me to see those kids at the end of the day today.
After a nap-filled drive home we.... honestly I don't know what the others did since i continued my nap till dinner, haha. But I'm sure they had a lot of fun before dinner, maybe swimming or something. Then we had dinner and goof around for a while before team time and bed time. Some of this goofing around included a pretty crazy pillow fight after Sam caught Stef and Grace trying to steal his mattress. They did a great job defending themselves from him, but with his rock hard temprapedic pillow they decided to call a truce (see photo on right).
Tomorrow is our last day at an orphanage so please pray that we just have a great last burst of energy and love for the kids at Blossom Gardens. Also please pray for the team's continued good health and safety of course! We love all your guys and are excited for a fresh batch of comments tomorrow night! Lets break some records huh? I'm gonna say aim for 30, I know you guys have it in you! :-D

To all my homies: Molls - Congrats on the job!!! That is so cool! I hope the first day was a lot of fun too! Will you do me a favor? Keep your schedule clear for the 4th of June? :-) Thanks cutie! When I look to the sky... Miss you mucho! Mr. and Mrs. Lambert and Sheesh - Thank you guys so much for your support and prayers! They mean a ton! And I'm so incredibly excited to get to hang with the Lambert's once again real soon! :-) Dad - thanks so much for the continued love and support you give. I'm missing you but am really excited for our trip once I get back, yea baby! Love you! Bails - I love you sis, I'm excited to see you and hang out with you this summer! Mama - I'm really wishing I could be home for all this... We are still praying for you every day. I love you. And about Kristen... :-( Cate, Amy, and whoever else reads this in my family, I'm sorry guys. She was a beautiful soul and always graced us with her presence but I guess God wanted her company a little more... Send my love to the Hauges please...

...love love love...
Team Jamaica

West Haven: Day 1

2007-05-23T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family, this is Jen!! I’m writing to you as most of the team is sound asleep taking naps, because it is raining once again. It has pretty much been rainy throughout our time here. The last two days have been hot and rain-free, so the rain today is actually not so bad…(however that tan that I bragged about before leaving may take a little work once back in the states. I’m sure you’ll all enjoy rubbing that in haha!)…back to naps though! We have discovered that a few of our team members have quite peculiar sleeping habits. Garrett (who is really good looking)for example, sleeps like he is in a coffin…arms crossed and partially sitting up…kinda creepy hehe. Tyler on the other hand twitches all the time. We think he may be practicing guitar in his sleep. Lucky Samuel, gets the pleasure of sleeping between these two. Stefene pretty much sleeps with her eyes open and Samantha sprawls out like she’s still in her King size bed from home. The rest of us are perfect little sleeping beauties…haha we wish! Anyways…let me get to our day today.

Our day started a little later than usual, and we began with a devotional led by Kristin. (You may have already noticed, but we do devotionals every morning, which are led by anyone who would like to volunteer.) As you know, today was our first day at West Haven Children’s Home. We were all a little nervous and apprehensive, as we were unsure of what to expect and how we were going to interact with these kids. Our leaders, Lindsey and Kristen, spent one day at West Haven on their trip last year, and knew that this would be a challenge for our team. Their words of wisdom were to just have fun during the day, and be prepared to share many laughs as a team. Throughout our time at the past two orphanages, we have come across a few disabled children, but West Haven is solely devoted to taking care of children with special needs. We arrived this morning, after a beautiful drive through the hills on yet another narrow and windy road. Every day I am amazed by the physical beauty of Jamaica. On our drives, there is an abundance of green in every direction, only broken up by clusters of colorful homes throughout the countryside. We even passed a beautiful river today with bamboo rafts that can be taken down the river for miles. Our wonderful bus driver Chris points out all these things which we would never notice without him, and we are so lucky to have him. The rest of Jamaica seems to love him as well, since he pretty much honks at every 10th person we see. They are all his schoolmates, neighbors, racing buddies, etc. Sami likes to guess who it is every time, along with mimicking Chris’ Jamaican accent. It sounds more like Russian and Spanish than anything else. Okay I’m off on a tangent again, so back to our day.

We arrived at West Haven, had a little tour, and were introduced to some of the children who approached us right away. Immediately they were holding our hands, hugging us, and even giving us some kisses. We soon found out that there are currently 86 “children” at West Haven, who range from 4 to 31 and have a variety of both physical and mental disabilities. There is only one boy at the facility without a mental handicap. He loved hanging out with our boys, especially Sam. They played Frisbee, football, and even scaled some monstrous trees for Ethiopian apples, with a bunch of the other young boys. There were four different cottages on the property which housed the different age groups and genders. We each made our way around getting to know the different kids…actually “made our way around” isn’t really an accurate description. It was more like the kids grabbed our hands and led us around the property. They were all so friendly and loving, and we definitely had a wonderful time hanging out with them today. There were a few scary and unsure moments, but our team is always there for each other. We had wheelchair races, sang worship songs, danced, and helped to feed the kids lunch. A women’s league from the community also came to sing for them and bring treats, so we helped out there and lent our beautiful singing voices he he. Overall, we had both a fun and challenging time at West Haven. As usual, it was different then I expected, but I think we were all glad to be stretched and pushed outside our comfort zone.

After our day at West Haven, we headed back to Fair Haven for naps, dinner, and some swimming. As you all know today is Labor Day so the beach in front of our house is full of the locals enjoying their free time, and the music from the hotel/club next door is extra loud. None of us are expecting to get much sleep tonight, but hopefully well rest up somehow for another day tomorrow at West Haven.

Also...today was the official half way point through our trip. We got to read the Barnabas letters from those of you who sent them. Thanks so much, it felt like you were here with us!

Now for my personal hellos!!! Mom, Dad, and Ally I love you all so much and am glad to hear that things are going well on the home front. Too bad I missed out on that Marine night! I know you would all love the kids here, I hope you get the chance to do something like this. Thanks for all the love and prayers, keep them coming! Ally, unfortunately I think that cooking gene just isn’t in our family! GG…you are so funny, we all love reading the comments that you leave. I’m a little confused about that whole “bobcat/moth” situation, but you can explain when I get home…and GG, I don’t think you get to call yourself my pool buddy until you actually go to the pool with me haha! Uncle Larry and Aunt Sue I love hearing from you guys as well. I hope everything is good, tell Maxie I say hi. Love you and miss you both! Pigs-in-a-blanket when I get back? Oh Rachel…you make me laugh…not that that’s anything new. I love you and miss you. You are gonna LOVE me when you see the present I got for you, I know you’ll love it! BP, I think you’re in China right now, so I hope that it's going well. I’m sure you are doing amazing things. Thanks for the comments before! Joe…thanks for the blog comments! I really appreciate you volunteering me for Garrett’s massage request haha! Hope your summer is going well and the cabin is looking fabulous. I’m sure my mom has the vacation planned already. Love to all of you!

The Gardens Day 2

2007-05-22T21:56:00.000-07:00

Our team awoke today early as usual. But I on the other hand was woken up even earlier then the rest by Grace who forced me to protect her by accompanying her this morning on a run. Since Grace also needs more time to get ready since she is a girl, I had to much time between the time I returned and breakfast. Not enough time to go back to sleep, but to much time to sit in a calm, quiet, boring, sleeping household. After breakfast and devotion led by Stephanie we boarded our bus and headed to a new school to give their morning devotions. I sometimes feel like a rock star because we travel to a new school every morning, and kids swarm our nice bus as we enter the parking lot. Kids bang on the windows as the bus comes to a stop, and as soon as our feet hit the pavement kids just want to touch you. It is also funny that each school we have been to has been bigger than the one the day before. Anyways, like always, we did well to put it modestly. But to be honest.... we dominated.
Next we were off to our second day at Blossoms Gardens Orphanage. No chores were needed again today, only to play with the children so that the ladies working there could now spend their time dedicated to helping elsewhere. Though after seeing them throughout the day, it seemed as if we were just giving them a break instead because their new free time was not used to provide any special attention or work for the children. We play with all the children on a gated porch that is connected to a big room where it seems a majority of the children sleep due to the rows of beds and cradles. In the back of the room against a dark wall are four cribs that seems to be set apart from the rest of the room. As the course of the day went on different team members curiosity led them to the back of the room to those cribs to encounter kids we have never had to see before. Kids we have never even imagined existed in this kind of condition. Kids so heart wrenching for our teammates from the pain they were in, that the image of their faces and moans of their breathing will never be forgotten. One child was brand new, around 5 years old we are guessing (since he has no identification papers), laid in his cradle so starved that he looked like a corpse. I hate to refer to it like that, but that is literally how bad it was. Another child laid crippled from God knows what just struggling for air. Each breath this child took looked so painful that you had to look away every so often. The worst part about the siuation is nothing can be done for these children. Money is not available to help provide treatement, and care is only offered by maids who only do as much as they can for what they are paid. Yet we still did our best by doing all that we could which was just LOVE. Love ALL the children. Another interesting thing that happened was when we were returning from lunch, three ladies tried to come in with us when the gate was unlocked. we didn't think anything of it until a staff member ran out from the building telling them they were not allowed on the property. From their conversation we came to realize that one of them was a mother to a child in the orpahanage. The ladies waited outside still after being locked out and told to leave. I was shocked by the situation. It's not a everyday thing to see someone telling a mother that she is not allowed to see her child. You wonder what kind of cruelty took place in order for someone to take her own offspring away from her.
After we left the orphanage, we all took a relaxing swim which was encouraged by the sun being out. :)
Tonight we went back in town to talk with people and hopefully visit with the friends we made last night. Michael and Rocky were again extremely friendly and open about their lives and very happy to share with us. Yet me, Grace, Jenn, and Sami unfortunetly had encounter a intoxicated Joshua down the road who only wanted to argue and eventually turn dissrespectful. Not such a good way to end the night. But I keep telling myself that I came here not for a easy vacation, but for a hard, eye opening experience that I will take with me forever.
Tomorrow we are are all nervous for Westhaven.

Mom, hi. I'd appreciate if my brother would show some love and ask if he got my happy birthday message I sent him. Also, I would really like you to teach grandpa this blog thing because I could really use some of his wise words to help me out here. Thanks.

First day at Blossom Gardens!

2007-05-21T21:25:00.000-07:00

Wuagwan!? (“What’s happening” in potwa) This is Lindsey with today’s update for our team. We started early again this morning with devotions at 7:00 am. Jen shared with us and we talked about Jeremiah 29:11-13 and how we know that God gave each one of us a heart for Jamaica and that is why we came, but we must continue seeking Him as we are here to continue learning what he has in store for each one of us throughout our time here.
We headed out at 7:45 to Bouge Hill School for devotions. When we arrived we were immediately met coming off the bus by many of the students. (Oh yeah, we finally have a picture of our bus driver, Chris, for you all!)

We had about 150 kids this morning between the ages of 7-15, but it was a fun crowd! We taught them a few songs, performed a skit for them, and then talked a little bit after about what exactly the skit meant. It was a great experience for us and our team stepped up and did a great job! Pastor Campbell, who sets up our devotions for us, always finishes off our time with the kids by reciting Psalm 23 and each of the children know it so well! After devotions we headed off to our first day at Blossom Gardens!
It was an exciting day today because it was a brand new experience for each and every one of us! Kristin and I had not been to Blossom Gardens before either, so none of us really knew what to expect. As you will see, there are no pictures with the children at the orphanage because we are not allowed to put pictures of the kids on the internet at all. Most of the children have been taken out of their homes due to abusive situations, and because of that, we are not allowed to put any pictures online or in any type of media due to the circumstances of each kid (some may be hidden from their parents or guardians). Don’t worry, we did take plenty of pictures, but we will have to show them to you when we get home!
As we first walked into the orphanage we knew that it would be very different from Robin’s Nest. We were taken immediately to the bathroom so that we could each wash our hands and then we got a very quick tour of the place, finishing the tour out on the porch with the babies and toddlers, which is where we spent the rest of our day. It was a very different experience for us compared to being at Robin’s Nest. There are 44 children at Blossom Gardens all under the age of 8 and the environment was almost completely opposite of Robin’s Nest. It seems like it is a place where kids go in between their homes and being place in foster homes or other orphanages. Kids are constantly coming in and out and just today a police car showed up and took one of the little girls away. The first part of the day, our team was adjusting to our new surroundings but as the day continued everyone became more and more comfortable and we are really looking forward to returning!
We headed home a little after three today and took a quick swim in the ocean (it has been our first day in Jamaica without rain since we have arrived!!!). We ate a delicious dinner and then headed downtown to look around the shops (see the amazing hats that we all tried on) and enjoy the beautiful weather. As we were heading back to Fairhaven we ran into a few different locals on the way, and had some amazing conversations about their lives and what it means to truly be a Christian. It was such a great time for us to sit and listen to their life stories, and to be willing to talk things through instead of arguing our point and walking away. I was so proud of the way that our team handled themselves in this situation. We are looking forward to heading back down tomorrow night hopefully to meet up with Joshua, Oral “Michael”, and Rocky. The conversations that we had greatly impacted some of our team members and we are all looking forward to heading back out to continue building those relationships as well as making a few new ones hopefully!
After our adventures downtown we had a short time of worship before we shared together about our day. It has been such an amazing time of sharing together and learning together as we experience these new things. Thank you all so very much for your constant prayers and encouragement, we are so thankful knowing that we have so much support from our friends and family. We are continuously encouraged by the comments. It has become a favorite thing to do each night as a team before we head off to bed.
Tomorrow morning we will be doing devotions again before we head back to Blossom Gardens, so please pray for energy and strength, as well as the health of our team. Please continue praying that God will continue working in the hearts of each member of this team in different ways. We are so blessed to have each one of them here and continue to be impressed by them each day. Thank you all very much.

Family, I miss you and love hearing from you! Hope everything is going well. I love you all very much! I will see you soon! Oh yeah, next time I come I decided that I won’t come without you guys! (Shan and Kev, see you on the 2nd when I am there sleeping at your place! We will come over after we get dropped off at apu).
Joey, thanks for all of the comments everyday (well... almost everyday ;) ) It brings a huge smile to my face each time. And, have you had the chance to take care of the computer thing yet? Let me know, thanks! I miss you so much. <3>

Everyone else: thanks so much for all of the prayers and support! I am looking forward to sharing so much more with everyone when I return.

Love, Team Jamaica

Day of Rest and Church

2007-05-20T22:19:00.000-07:00

Hey this is Sami with another amazing blog from Jamaica MON! (yes I am working very hard on my Jamaican accent, which I should have down in 2 weeks!) So today was definitely our “Day of Rest”. We had to get up around 8:30, (which is a huge change from our normal 6:45 wake up call) and had some great baked oatmeal, cinnamon rolls, and fresh Jamaican fruit for breakfast. Our bus driver Chris arrived and we were off to Church. Grace, Sam, Tyler, and Stefene sang in the main church service and Garrett did an amazing job giving his testimony. He genuinely shared his heart, and we were all so proud of him! During the church service the team snuck downstairs to the children’s church to help out, or so we thought. When we got down there we were informed that we had to do the whole 1 ½ hours, when we only had about 10 minutes prepared. The children were out of control! So we decided to play some good ole games like sword exercises and hang man. While church was going on, it started pouring outside- like flooding and continued the whole day, so again our tan day was ruined :( After church and Sunday School we headed back to Fairhaven for an early dinner. After dinner we all took some much needed naps- tried to catch up on sleep- but I was rudely interrupted by Samuel who thinks it’s funny to wake up sleeping beauties ;) After we woke up we all went to church again for a little choir sesh (thanks Polley for the word). That was fun, but we were all tired because it didn’t end until about 9:30 (which is late for us to be out at night normally). There were some incredibly HUGE bugs including a bat (which Jen swears was just a really, really big moth); I guess we will never know. Haha. We got home, had a little talky time between team members, showers and had an incredible batch of Mac and Cheese. After Dinner and Ice Cream from Edy’s- which strangely resembles Dryer’s, we just sat around and planned for tomorrow’s new adventures to come.

So as I am writing it is Midnight Jamaican time, (10 p.m. California time) and I have to be up in 6 in a half hours for devotions prepared by Jen. Please pray for us tomorrow as we venture out to a whole new orphanage. We will be going to Blossom Gardens which is a state run orphanage instead of a privately owned place. Pray that we impact the children we come in contact with, and we connect with the staff. Pray for guidance that we know exactly what needs to be done. Also, some of us on the team (not me for once) have not been feeling up to par, so pray for health on the team, because we would not be team Jamaica without each individual person. Soooo in conclusion I must get off to sleep or I will be a grumpy person tomorrow, and I don’t think my team would appreciate it. Hehe. So this is my sign off- Good night California! (and Oregon and where ever you may be sending up your prayers) Keep the constant comments coming- it lifts our spirits!

Now for MY shout outs~~ Momma- I LOOOOOVE you! I miss you lots. Thanks so much for all your love and support you have not only showed me (with my pre-written daily devotions, hearts and cute little notes), but all the support you have shown my amazing team. We all joke about how your comments are longer than our blogs, but we love them. Hehe. Anyways I will see you sooner than you think! Keep up the great work you’re doing.
Soash’s- Thanks so much for all your love and support! I can’t wait to take a trip down memory lane to Matt Denny’s J Miss and love you guys!
Bee & Ruth- Thanks so much for your comments. We look forward to reading more! Love and miss you girls!

Dunn's Falls

2007-05-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Hey family and friends, this is Garrett here to tell you about our newest adventure today at Dunn's Falls. Our day first started with a much needed sleeping-in session that was enjoyed by every team member, after we all finally awoke from our slumber we enjoyed some personal quiet time and stared out into the beautiful blue ocean and reflected upon whatever was on our minds. When that was done we ate yet another delicious breakfast and packed for our exciting adventure that lay ahead of us. Once we were ready to go we loaded onto the bus, accompanied by our host from Fair Haven named Mary, and like always were greeted by our smiling bus driver Chris. During our drive Chris further educated us about the country we were visiting as well as cracked random jokes that we all greatly enjoyed, mostly because of the hand and body motions that accompanied them. After eating lunch at this small fast food restaurant that I cannot currently remember the name(I think it had some tropical theme to it), we were finally ready to scale Jamaica's own Niagara Falls or die trying! (For those parents who are now very unhappy they allowed their precious child to go on this trip I apologize and let me assure you that we were completely safe the entire time we were scaling the falls and I am sort of embellishing the size of the waterfall. It's kind of like when guys go fishing and when they come home and tell stories about

the fish they caught they are a million times larger than the goldfish they actually caught. If you still are worried about your child and their safety check out the pictures from the day and those should put your worries at ease.). In order to climb up Dunn's Falls, you first have to go down to the beach and start your ascent where the water empties into the ocean so naturally that is where we started after taking some pictures. Sadly because of Samantha's thumb, she was forced to the sideline for the first part of our adventure and took pictures of us starting our climb. Let me tell you Dunn's Falls is yet another testament to God's amazing creation that we call Earth, I am not going to try describing it to you because I would not do God justice and besides everyone says a picture is worth a thousand words. After we had successfully completed the first stage of the Falls Samantha was able to join us again and we proceeded to climb the rest of the waterfall as one big happy team. *sidenote by lindsey: the boys were absolutely amazing today helping us girls get up the falls. As you can see from the pictures there were many times when we needed their hands, or arms to keep us from falling and they were always there. They are great and we love them! *

Throughout our climb, various people managed to pull off pretty spectacular falls and my personal favorite would have to be seeing our big guy Sam Adams slip and slide on more than one occasion. Once we finally completed our amazing adventure the girls decided to relax on the beach while the guys went off to try and climb the harder parts of the waterfall. While I cannot tell you exactly what the girls did while we were gone, I can pretty much assure you that they probably talked about how muscular we are and how manly we were climbing the falls (see for yourselves in the pictures!). When we had finished climbing Dunn's for a second time we had the genius idea (or idiotic) of pretending one of us was hurt and got ketchup from a restaurant to smear on as fake blood. Luckily for us our girls are very nice and didn't kill us when they found out we were just joking. And that my friends pretty much wraps up our day at Dunn's Falls, as you can see we all very much enjoyed ourselves and it was great to take a day off and test ourselves against good old Mother Nature's finest. Now if I could only convince one of the girls to give me a massage (it's way harder than it sounds).....

In Him,

Garrett

Personal Note: Joey I just wanted to let you know that I am growing out my beard too and hopefuly this will help Lindsey's beard withdrawls. Also I think I am the only person on the team who has yet to see your "cat"...Joe it is great to hear from you and I hope you are enjoying Colorado. Madre and family I miss you all and think of you everyday. It is so nice to read your comments and know that you are supporting me 110% throughout this amazing trip I am taking part of. I can't wait to return home and tell you all about it while enjoying a massage :) Sarah it is great to hear from my little sister and know that she is doing well. Your heart would absolutely melt if you met these kids, they are so adorable and as you have heard we all have plans to take them home via suitcases and oxygen tanks. In response to the hat question you know perfectly well I will go nowhere without out it and to date it has been to Mexico, Canada, Malta, England, and now Jamaica. Continue to take care of yourself (you know what I am referring to), tell my family I love them and give them hugs for me, and tell Kyle I am looking foreword to a spa session when I get back and that I hope things with Arnold have cooled off and that his texting has not gotten him into trouble even though I know it has. Also make sure to throw in "Big Guy" somewhere when you are relaying that message to him.

Robin's Nest: Take 5!

2007-05-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

Today, we woke up extra tired due to the long previous day, and a draining night of pounding rain and non stop thumping from the club bangers next door. Yet nothing today would slow us down because we knew it was our last day with these amazing kids at the orphanage.

First though, we stopped at Redding School. We introduced ourselves to these new strangers by doing goofy songs that made everyone jump, shout and dance, which in one song included doing the robot briefly. Let me just mention that I perform a mean robot. Anyways, that got the kids awake and laughing, and we then had the opportunity this morning to do our entertaining version of the David and Goliath story. The kids and the faculty really enjoyed the skit, which was good way to start the day by lifting our spirits.

As you walk into Robin's Nest Orphanage, a leather book rests on the front desk. This book acts as a sort of yearbook for the orphanage by telling the names and birthdays of each child next to his or her picture. Underneath that, is a brief description of how that particular child has ended up at the home. Some were taken to the orphanage after serious cruel abuse, others suffering for serious diseases, and one is even the result of incest. Yet you wouldn't figure any of this because 26 of the most beautiful, welcoming, and joyful children live here under this roof. We arrived at Robin's Nest with the welcoming we have received everyday this week... attacked with love. As each child pulled a team member somewhere in opposite directions, and laughter began to echo through the halls of the the orphanage. In every corner of the house, you could find a cute Jamaican child wrapped and tangled in a member of our team. Work was of course issued and done but we all may have been working a little bit harder and faster so we had as much time with the kids as we could get. Pool time consisted of little bodies flying through the air until gravity had them smack the water, or tiny hands desperately clinging onto the neck of a team member who was making their way around the area. Once in dry clothes, we felt the end of our last day at this orphanage sneaking up on us. We all tried figuring out ways to escape to the bus without saying goodbye because it would be to hard to here them say, "But you're coming back tomorrow right?" But the goodbyes had to be done. :(

Each of us made our way around the house giving our last hugs and pulling out of last laughs from the kids. It was especially hard to say goodbye to the staff members who many of us have built strong friendships with throughout the week. Adults like Glaston, Sefton, and Georgia have made a lasting impression on us all with their work ethic, love for children, and desire and hope for one day being in America. They all smile as they do routine chores in hope for one day being able to be on United States soil. They all want to hear about America, and are not shy about telling you not "if" but when they come to America, what great things they plan to accomplish. Their view on America that we often overlook really makes you appreciate the great country we get to live in, and how we forget that we are truly blessed to be somewhere where that education is promoted and opportunities are endless.

Today might have been the hardest day yet, but it ended with all of us opening up and telling how we are truly feeling on this trip and just in our lives in general. A combination of tears and laughter really brought us together even closer, and I'm excited to see our group grow as one towards that guy in the sky (God).

In conclusion, I haven't shaved yet and luckily I'm not searching for a wifey down here because I'm getting gross. I have tried to recuit the other guys by hiding their razors but it was only matter of time before they came to me begging for their blades back. I think they are considering it though which is good. Plus I'm starting to resemble that one guy who lived thousand of years ago and performed miracles. What was his name? He died for our sins and rose from the dead.... O YEAH, JESUS! Who better to look like as I'm out trying to recuit for his team in heaven hahaha.

Well homesickness is creeping up on each team member so keep the comments and love coming ok! I would also like to mention that I am extremely more dedicated than Grace in training while we are here; she is taking second helpings of cake as I'm doing hundreds of push-ups (one handed).

Robin's Nest: Take 4!

2007-05-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! This is Katie writing our lovely blog for you all tonight! Like Grace said, it is really hard to think of where to start these things...so I think it is best if I ramble for a little bit. I think it is safe to say that we have all learned a lot so far on this trip. For instance, we have learned that it is very unwise to leave the indoors without bug spray...the Jamaican mosquitos have been dominating all of us since we got here. I cannot express how thankful we all are that we have an experienced Jamaican driver like Chris to drive us around. If you think driving in LA is intense, you would be blown away be the moves they make down here. And when it rains in Jamaica, it pours! I'm not even trying to speak metaphorically right now...that statement is compleatly literal. Infact, at this very moment we can hear the rain pounding on the roof. We have had at least one surge of rain everyday since we have arrived. Oh, and this might be a little too much information, but the muggy weather is resulting in my skin constantly feeling slightly wet and sticky. Seriously, nothing ever dries here. Ok...now i'll get to the good stuff...

Our day once again started a little too early(6:45am), with breakfast, sandwitch making, and devotions (Which I led today....Romans 12:9-12...if you are interested :) ). When we got to Robins Nest the kids were once again wide awake and ready to play! The boys only got to stick around for a few minutes, and then were sent off to do more manly work. Today they had the opportunity to help out an employee of "the Nest", Sefton, who they have built a relationship with over the past couple days. They spent the whole day laying tiles on his front porch. Let me just say how proud of them I am. They have been doing hard labor practically all day for the past 3 days, and they still remain willing and excited to get out there and help however they can. Good work boys!

While they were off doing work that I certainly did not want to be doing, us girls were helping out with chores and ofcourse playing with the kids! Grace, Jen, and I took a few of the toddlers in the pool (I was shocked at how well some of them could swim!), which is always fun and a great way to cool off. Stephanie helped the cooks do dishes (imagine doing dishes for 26 kids!!), while some of us folded laundry and did our best to carry heavy babies around. I got a good laugh when one of the head workers at Robins Nest, Georgia, asked all us girls if we wanted to get our hair braided. I told you all I was going to come back with braided hair! haha! Don't worry...I didn't....today at least...

I think it is safe to say that we were all very encourged today when Georgia was telling us the children who are going to be adopted. While the process can be long and tedious, I was so excited to hear that those kids were on their way to a home with loving parents.

When the older kids got home from school we were able to play outside with them, watch "Cars", read books, and spend time following them around the orphanage. One thing that is so amazing to me about these kids is their love and openess to every member of our team. None of us are alone for long before a child will climb on to your lap or ask to be heald. The way they cuddle into your arms continues to make my days worthwile. Their attitudes are even more amazing to me when I think about their stories. So many of them have been through things that no one should ever have to experience. For example, today I played with a little girl who had been kept in a cage, fed bones for nutrition, been burned and hit with sticks by her parents. To hear her story, and then see her standing in front of me, is truly incerdible. Whenever I look at her, I can't help but think of what she has experienced. It completly breaks my heart, but at the same time gives me so much hope in the changes that God can make.

Tomorrow is our last day with the children at Robins Nest, and believe me, we are already dreading saying goodbye for good. We have all streatagized ways to sneak them back to the USA - airtanks in backpacks seems to be the best option so far. The idea of coming into their lives and then leaving them five days later is very frustrating for all of us, but it is comforting to know we are leaving them in good hands. I have come to the realization that I may not be able to completly change the course of the childrens lives at the orphanage, but if I can be a playmate to them, and show them love and comfort for just one day, then our trip has been worthwile.

Thank you all so much for the comments and wonderful words of encouragement - it is always so exciting to see who has written us, and hear all your voices (well, sort of). You are all loved and missed very much!! :)

I don't know how often my people read this thing, but I am taking advantage of writing this blog anyway.... Mom, Dad, and Kristina - I love you guys so much. I think about you everyday and hope you are not too bored at home without me :) Jenise - thanks for the comments, I love you alot. And don't worry, being tanner then you isn't much of a challange, ha! Linds and Jess - I am praying for both of you, and miss you tons. There is a store here called "Sinclair's Bargain Shop". I thought of you both, haha. I can't wait to see you guys, love love love!

Molly - Hey its Tyler, I just wanted to let you know that i found out a day early and I do have sandals. But I guess they are the kind of best sandals you can have. Hopefully you get what I'm saying, if not you should give her a call, I'm sure she'd love it. Tell your mommy happy birthday for me too! Miss you like crazy...

much love to all,

team jamaica

2007-05-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family! This is comin at ya from ya girl Grace...haha...but seriously--after almost three days of asking me to write this thing...I finally caved in to our 'fearless' leaders (by the way--the word fearless isn't in quotes because I'm being sarcastic...actually...I don't really know why they're in quotes, but I thought it looked cooler)

I really don't know where I even want to start...well, I guess the beginning haha. I was born midday on March 29, 1987 in a hospital in Los Angeles...and the rest is history. I bet your getting really annoyed at the fact that you have yet to get to the part about how OUR (the team's...the reason why you're reading this) day went...but I think you guys also need to understand that its really late right now, we haven't been getting much sleep, and I'm probably delirious right now.

So anyways, this morning once again was an early morning--my alarm went off at 6:25am, but we didn't actually get up until about 6:40am. I should note that Samuel Adams was supposed to wake up me, Tyler and maybe Steph, at 5:45am so that we could go running, but as soon as I heard my alarm, I knew that he failed to do so...again (as a side note, I should point out that I play soccer and he plays basketball at APU and we BOTH need to get in shape for our sports...clearly not a disciplined athlete).

Geeeeez, i seriously need to get to our day. Okay, so we had devotions after everyone was finally up and ready and bug sprayed and hydrocortizone creamed. Miss Samantha supplied us with the inspiring verses that would hold us for the day, and after her reading we had our quiet reflection times, ate breakfast (consisting of french toast and sausage), prepared our lunches (pb&j), and headed off for the orphanage. During the thirty-five minute drive we may not have had the privilege of watching our bus driver, Chris, scale a mountain to pick us some fruit that tasted like flower petals, we did get to hear his silly antics and hear the much unwanted cat-calls of different passersby.

When we arrived at the orphange, the children were in full swing. They clearly had woken up much earlier and were extremely energetic. Not long after we arrived, we had the opportunity, nay, the privilege to take some of toddlers into the pool...well at least we girls had that privilege. I bet the boys would tell you that their 'man work' was a privilege, but I'm gonna have to say I was much happier in the pool with the little ones. The boys (Tyler, Garrett and Sam) went off with Sefton and Glaston and continued the process they had started yesterday. They macheted large trees and battled spiders and red ants the size of New Mexico. All of this was done in the blaring heat of the sun, but around lunchtime, it began P-O-U-R-I-N-G! Of coursed it was well received by the boys who still had a mile to walk uphill to get to the bus for lunch.

While they were basking in the Lord's great cool blessing, Jennifer, Katie, and I had just taken a lunch down to the young children (3, 4, and 5 year olds) in the schoolhouse lower down on the Robin Nest Property (MUCH lower down...lemme tell ya--it was quite the trek). While we were assisting the teachers as they served the children lunch, the out pour of rain came. We were stuck in the small schoolhouse, because we had JUST dried off and changed back into our day clothes from our pool clothes, and we didn't want to get soaking wet like we knew we would if we tried to go back. Eventually one of the teachers called Glaston to come and pick us up, and even the sprint from the door of schoolhouse to the van got us pretty wet...it was raining that hard.

After lunch we all were able to play with the babies. By this time in the week, its clear that we all have our favorites...I have Shana Kay (pictured to the left), Tyler has Neon, Sami has 7-month old Shamoy, Jen has Baby Grant, Katie has little Senika and so on....

I must say that I know that it is going to be soooooooooo hard to say goodbye to them on Friday. I'm probably more attached than I ever thought that I would be, and I think that my teammates share the same sentiments. So, if it seems like our suitcases are bigger the next time you see us, or like we have little bodies under our shirts, don't be alarmed, we just decided to take some kids with us.

The afternoon was really fun, though. When the older kids returned from school at around three o'clock they were able to watch a movie, Angels in the Outfield (an oldie, but a goodie).

We left the orphanage at around 4:20pm, and came back to Fairhaven. I napped while everyone else chilled and showered, and we went to dinner at 7ish o'clock. Overall, today was a grrreat day. ;)

You thought I was done, huh? haha PSYCHE! Anyways, I still need to make my own shout outs: mom, dad, angel--I love you and I miss you all a lot. I hope you're all doin okay...keep the comments comin!

ruthann stone: today was wednesday, and if you truly are a fan of Top Model, you should have had something very important to do tonight at 8pm...can u puh-leeeeeeze post who won???

polley, leigh: thanx for the comments...u guys are grreat

rachbbgirl, bundie: where's the love???

anyone else I forgot: I love you!!!

okay peace!

Robin's Nest: Take 2!

2007-05-15T19:50:00.000-07:00

Greetings everyone! This is Kristin excited to tell you about another wonderful day in Jamaica! First things first, just to clarify some information from our blog yesterday...Lindsey did not break her thumb! It is Samantha who has a sprained thumb, but it is healing and she is doing great!

Today our morning began once again at the early hour of 7am. Our drive up to Robin's Nest was a truly cultural and educational experience. Our bus driver Chris loves to share stories and tell us all about the different plants, trees, and fruits that grow in Jamaica. So much so, that this morning he suddenly stopped the bus, jumped out, and literally scaled a steep hill in order to pick some Ethiopian apples for us to enjoy on our drive to the orphanage. We all love Chris and it is so great for the team to be able to learn first hand about the "real" Jamaican culture and the true heart and life of the Jamaican people!

As you can tell from the pictures, today at the nest was filled with more fun and lots of laughter! I did a lot of tickling today and I think my tummy is sore from all the laughter! It is amazing how quickly we get attached to the kids and begin to build relationships with them as we play, interact, and learn about their stories. Today we were able to read through an informational book about Robin's Nest that talked about many of the kids and their each individual stories. It is heartbreaking to learn about the immense struggles and home lives that many of these kids have come from. I was humbled today as I put my own life into perspective and thought about the things that I worry about and complain about in my own life. These kids have endured so much and known hardships that I will never have to experience, yet they already have. I am comforted knowing that God has a purpose in all things, but still filled with sadness and compassion. But I am thankful that they are now living in a place where they can experience the love of God.

Our day was filled with playing with kids, reading stories, playing in the pool, and doing various chores around the house. I am very proud to tell you that our boys proved to be very manly men today as they participated in manly chores, such as clearing brush and chopping down an enormous tree. I am suppose to specifically mention that they were chopping down the tree with machetes, which apparently was a pretty big deal! :) So, unfortuately the documentation of these activities were erased but tomorrow we will have some pictures to show off their studliness!

After our energy filled day we came back to Fairhaven, Samantha and I took naps while the rest of the team swam in the Ocean. We had dinner and finished the evening with team time, reflecting on our day.

It has been a honor to watch the team interact and have experiences at the orphange. I am encouraged by their willingness to serve in whatever area they are needed. I am excited to see what God begins to stir in each one of us as we continue to experience new things and allow God to move in us and begin to transform our hearts. Thank you for your prayers and continued support. As we have already told you, we love the comments! We have started to bet on how many we will have when we check the blog, so please keep them coming! :) Blessings to all our family! We miss you but know that God has us here right now for a reason!

And because Tyler took the opportunity to give some personal messages, now it is my turn. My family, I miss you and love you all! Dad, I am praying for your healing and I hope that you are feeling better and recovering quickly. Kip, I miss you so much! Thanks for your comments. In case you didn't notice, Joey has made a comment every day so far....I know how competitive you are and I wouldn't want Joey to beat you in comment posting! lol! :-) :-) :-)

may God bless you and keep you.

much love!!

Robin's Nest: Take 1!

2007-05-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone at home! It's Tyler and it is your lucky day! First off, because you aren't covered from head to toe in bug bites, second, your towel gets to reach a dry state between showers, and lastly, there are a ton of pictures posted today! Today, as most of you know, was our first day at the orphanage. It was quite an amazing experience for all of us! I really wish we all could get on the computer and tell you all the funny and heart-warming stories of our interactions with the children, but I think you will have to wait for stories first hand from your loved ones when we arrive at home.

In the morning we started out with devotions and breakfast at a glorious time of 7 am (5 am west coast time!). Then we all headed up the beautiful, scenic hill to Robin's Nest lined with banana trees, coconut trees, guava plants, and all sorts of tropical vegetation... well, all but two of us. Sammy, accompanied by our fearless leader Lindsey went to the hospital today to get her thumb x-rayed. And good news, it is not broken! Although, it is sprained and she has to have it in a splint for the next two weeks (that's going to be a sweet tan line!). But the good thing is is that she can take it off for swimming and showering! Hurray! But as they were headed to the hospital the eight of us walked through the doors of the orphanage and were immediately greeted by smiling children reaching out their arms to be lifted up, and man were they cute! We then proceeded to hang either play with the kids or help out around the "nest" with laundry, cleaning floors, and stuff like that.

I really want to share with you guys about one of the moments today that really touched my heart. In the morning one the first kids i got to play with was a little girl by the name of Neon. She was a lot calmer than most of the other kids, but still enjoyed being tossed in the air! (who wouldn't?) But she was definitely a cuddler, when I held her she would just nuzzle her head into my body. A couple yawns later I could definitely tell she was about to zonk out, and that's when one of the staff asked me if I wanted to lay her in her crib. I've never really done that before, and I'm sure most of you know that it is pretty easy, but I was afraid I was going to wake her up when I put her down. So I laid her down gently and she continued to dream. It was definitely something I had never experienced before and really put a smile on my face! And again, I think you'll have to wait till June to hear about some amazing stories that my other team members have, sorry...

Sammy and Lindsey arrived at lunch time from the hospital and got to hang out with us at the orphanage for the rest of the day. It was nice to have the whole team back together! Also, shortly after lunch the bigger kids got out of school and came back home to Robin's Nest. When they arrived we got the chance to go swimming with most of them and it was a ton of fun! They are extremely energetic little ones! Following the pool we had to head home for the day so we told them all we would see them tomorrow and hopped back on the bus with Chris.

Guess what we did when we got back home... you got it! Took a big long nap!! :-D And it was niiiice! (I think a few of the girls went swimming in the ocean for a little bit actually) But the majority of us woke up just in time for dinner, which was pork, potatoes, and vegetables, definitely needed to restore our energy from playing with kids all day! And after dinner we just hung out and eventually had team time to reflect on our experiences with the kids today.

We were all so blessed today to start what we came here for, and are all definitely excited to go back tomorrow and for the rest of the week! Thank you guys so much for the prayers so far!! And we all love reading the comments! We were so stoked that there were 18 posts yesterday! So please keep the prayers and comments coming! They are really encouraging! We all miss you guys a ton and can't believe that there are still 19 days in the way of us seeing you again, but we are here for a purpose and are eager for God to use us however He wants! Talk to you guys tomorrow!

And the cool thing about writing the blog for today is I get to send out personal messages! Woo hoo! Molls, I am loving the notes each morning, I only wish they were pages each... :-) miss you! Sean, thanks for the words of encouragement buddy, you are awesome! Dad, thanks for the the comments so far! Its always great to see your name while scrolling through them!! And mom, thank you so much for your comments as well! I praying really hard for you tomorrow! God is good and just and everything happens for a reason, whether we will ever see it or not. I love you and will talk to you soon! :-)

Love you all!

Day 2

2007-05-13T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

This is Jen, writing to you from beautiful Jamaica! Today was our first full day and it was so nice to wake up in this amazing place. This morning we woke up to a tasty breakfast of baked oatmeal, muffins, fruit, and cereal. It was delicious (especially the baked oatmeal)! After breakfast we headed to church with Mary (our host at Fairhaven) and our bus driver Chris. We quickly learned that honking is quite common in Jamaica, and can have a multitude of different implications. We are still all getting used to driving on the other side of the road, especially this morning. Pastor Dave's church, McField Baptist, is up in the hills of Montego Bay, so our drive was about 40 minutes on a very narrow and windy road. Luckily we all survived, thanks to our very skilled bus driver. The plan for church this morning was to lead "Sunday school hour" and then stay for the regular church service. Once we arrived, Tyler, Samantha, Grace, and Sam headed on stage to sing a couple of songs. They sounded fabulous of course, and our audience seemed to enjoy the worship. We then performed our "orange skit," which is a symbolic skit of the worldly tolls life can take on someone's heart. Stefene (who had the main part) did an amazing job of making the skit personal and meaningful, and Grace did a great follow-up/explanation afterwards. After the skit our little worship team performed a few more songs, and Kristin sang a beautiful solo, accompanied by Tyler on the guitar. Since it was a special occasion...and we all love our mothers so much...Sam, Grace, and Tyler performed a special tribute song to mothers during the main service, which they all wrote together last night. Sam "spit" a rap, which the entire church really enjoyed. We intermingled ourselves with the children in the congregation and enjoyed the rest of the service while entertaining them as well. One of the little girls, Kayla, made out like a bandit. She managed to head home with a snack, full bottle of water, and even my favorite chapstick with that sweet little face. Overall, Church was a great experience, and we all really enjoyed getting a taste of the Jamaican culture.

After church, we headed back to Fairhaven for an authentic Jamaican dinner (dinner is a big meal at lunch time on Sundays). As usual, we all took naps and some of us headed out to play football in the rain. Garrett would really like me to interject here that he dominated at football (or at least we let him think he did hehe). It has been raining off and on here, and usually there is a solid downpour for a few minutes, but it is still extremely warm and we all enjoyed the change in weather. After playing in the rain, they took a swim in the clear ocean and headed inside for showers and naps (we definitely have been enjoying our naps). Then it was dinner time, Kristin and Lindsey made us yummy spaghetti and funfetti cake.

After dinner we had "team time," which was a chance for all of us to share how we are feeling about our first day at the orphanage tomorrow. We all feel like tomorrow is really our first day on the mission field, and have a range of emotions. We're feeling excited, nervous, anxious, and ready to begin what we came here to do. Personally, I feel like each and everyone one of us are part of this team for a reason, and there is something BIG in store for each one of us individually and as a team. We can't wait to get to Robin's Nest tomorrow and spend the rest of the week there!

It hasn't even been 2 days and already this trip has been different than I imagined it would be! We are all so excited to be here and look forward to the coming weeks. Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement, we look forward to reading your comments every day! We love and miss all of you and hope you had a wonderful mothers day, we wish we could be there with you..well kinda...c'mon we are in Jamaica!!

P.S. - Happy mothers day to my Mom, I love you so much!!!!! (I love you too Dad and Ally, but it's Mothers Day)

P.S.S. - Warriors update please Joey (dictated by Lindsey and Garrett...hehe)!

2007-05-12T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hello to family and friends!

This is Stefene reporting live from Jamaica! We all made it safely, but due to the late flight we were on, we were quite exhausted. We all had a very adventerous time at LAX especially Samantha. When we were going through security they had to check her bag and make sure that she didn't have any illegal paraphernalia on her bandage. While security was checking her in their little booth, the rest of us were standing 10 feet away snapping pictures. What a team! lol. It was some great bonding time waiting in the airport together and talking about how we couldn't believe that we were going to Jamaica. Once we got to the Jamaican airport we were all hit with the humidity as soon as we stepped off the plane. It actually wasn't that hot (only 78 degrees) because of the fact that it was 6 in the morning and it had been raining. We got through immigration and customs safely and quickly. Our hosts Pastor Dave and Mary picked us up in our bus and we quickly learned that Jamaicans drive on the opposite side of the road and the driver's seat is on the right. Today was a day of rest for us all. We took a very long nap once we came to our new home for the next 21 days. Once we all finally woke from our naps, we were able to enjoy some real Jamaican food. We had some chicken and beef patties with cocoa bread. It was amazingly delicious! So rest assure, we are being fed quite well. Once, lunch was over we headed straight for the beach which is right across the street from where we are staying. We swam in a beautiful little bay where we were amazed to see how clear and beautiful the water was. It was a nice way for us to all cool off, jump off some rocks and attempt to catch some sand crabs. Once we were done at the beach we all headed back to shower and dinner was ready for us. We got to eat some sloppy joes and fellowship with some students from Purdue who are also staying at Fairhaven. After dinner we walked to town to eat some Gelato and get to know the area. As we were walking we were entertained with the sky lighting up every now and then from lightning. We came back and worked on some skits and worship songs that we will be doing for church tomorrow.

We also wanted to send out a Happy Mother's day greeting to all our Mom's! We love you! Thank you for all your love and support through the years!

Well, we are all getting ready for bed as we are all tired. Please continue to pray for our team that God would continue to prepare us, transform us and use us to further His kingdom. We are very blessed to have a team that gets along so well and we are all here to love and support each other. May God's love and peace reside in your hearts. He is definitely accomplishing His will in each of us and as a group. All Glory to God. We miss you and love you all very much!

By the way, thank you all for your comments. We all sat down tonight and read all of them and were really really encouraged. It brings joy to our hearts and smiles to our faces to read your lovely comments. So please feel free to continue sending us comments because we absolutely love them:)

Talk to you tomorrow!

Love,

Team Jamaica

We are finally in Jamaica!

2007-05-12T07:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family!

We landed safely in Montego Bay, Jamaica this morning at 6am Jamaican time. We are excited to be here but exhausted from our flight. We met with our hosts this morning, had an orientation, and ate some breakfast. Now we are heading back to bed to get some more rest. We just wanted to let you know that we are all safe and that we made it to Jamaica! We will write again later tonight and tell you about our day.

love,

Team Jamaica

2007-04-18T14:32:00.000-07:00

woooo

2007-04-17T20:52:00.000-07:00

Hi team! Just thought we would set up our blog site so you all can tell your friends and family. Love you guys!