Church Day!

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!