On Wednesday night I was chatting with Javel, Raquel and Patrice and in the course of conversation the question they asked was..."Is divorce wrong?" "Should Christians get divorced?" That was just one of many topics that was brought up just before it was time for them to head down to the dorm. Things came up both Thursday and Friday nights and so I didn't get to talk with them, but tonight when I went over just before 7 they asked me if we could talk now. I went and got my Bible and for the next 2 1/2 hours we sat in the gym with the Bible open as they asked question after question. It was so awesome to experience and to be able to share God's word. They asked questions about marriage, divorce, salvation, forgiveness, Christianity vs. Muslim, so many questions my head is still spinning. I am excited to see where this goes and how the study time can continue in the future! Your prayers for wisdom and clear communication are greatly appreciated!!

I have had several people ask me recently... "How long are you planning to stay in Jamaica? Isn't it hard to be away from family for so long?

I think this is the best way to answer those questions.

We have a new student this year. Her name is Ruccell Salmon. She is 12 years old and is attending school for the first time. The lady who brought her to us is no relative of hers, but saw that she was treated badly by her parents and spoke to them about it. Ruccell's mother just carried her over and told the lady to take her if she is so concerned because she doesn't want her.

The lady took Ruccell into her home, got her hearing assesment done and brought her to us. She is so malnourished that she looks like one of our 7 year olds here.

Yes I do miss me Nephew and Nieces a ton, but one thing I take comfort in is that they have parents that care for them and love on them daily! Every morning when I go out to start work I get the opportunity to hug Ruccell and tell her I love her. Tonight I went over to the gym where all the kids were playing and since I was tired, I grabbed a chair and sat down to watch. Within minutes 'my little girl' came running over for a hug. I signed with her for a few minutes and then she crawled up on my lap and laid her head on my shoulder and just let me hold her. It isn't the first time she has done this, but it melts my heart every time!

Why am I here??? I guess my question would be... Why would I leave?

Yesterday I spent most of the day behind a push mower trying to knock down the tall grass here... The riding mower has been down for about 2 months now and 7 acres is hard to keep up with if you only have a push mower.
The other part of my day was playing plumber in the dorms... Fixed a couple of toilets, one faucet and figured out a parts list for the other issues.
Today, I located all of the plumbing parts that we have here at campus... Glenford has them in 3 different places, so it took a while. I have been waiting all morning for Lipton, the school driver, to come in so I can send him to get the rest of the parts so I can start on the other plumbing stuff. In the mean time, I started tearing into the riding mower to see just how bad the damage is so we can know what we are up against. The picture shows the 'rest of the story'. Not pretty. Rod coming through the head. Anyone have an extra engine for a Husqvarna laying around you want to get rid of??
Looking forward to hanging out with the kids tonight after dinner!!

After spending 7 weeks in the States visiting family and raising support, I flew back down here on Tuesday. I am back at the Montego Bay School and have spent the last few days settling into my place here. This week has been a nice slower pace than the summer and I have been juggling email, writing an update letter, as well as doing some weed eating/mowing(riding mower is down) and today cut up a tree that fell in last nights storm.
It is good to be back, but it has also been a harder transition than I thought. Next week will be spent getting ready for a team to arrive on Saturday.

For those of you that have been checking in, I am sorry that this is so out of date. I have focused my efforts on my facebook page simple because it is very easy to post pictures and videos of what is going on down here. This website is only allowing me to post 3 pictures at a time and it takes more than an hour to upload those 3 pics. I haven't been successful yet on posting any video.
If any of you are bloggers and can tell me what I am doing wrong I would appreciate it and try to do a better job keeping up.
Hopefully with the help from some of you that understand technology, I can start updating this more often

Today completed my second week here at the Montego Bay School. It has been a great time so far!! The first week I had a group of 7 come from Georgia and was treated like a king! They went out for ice cream twice and paid for mine both times:) Their last night they went to the Windham Resort for dinner and paid for me also... It was a totally different world eating at a resort buffet for dinner. I think I bordered on gluttony :)
This past week was just Awesome!!! Signs of Grace Ministry was here from Cleveland Ohio for the week with 19 people. They have a large church that has a Deaf Ministry and it was awesome to have 2 deaf men on the team as well as 3 Interpreters and several that are in interpreter training! I have never seen a team connect more with the kids and deaf staff!!! They are already talking about coming for 2 weeks next year!
On thursday we took them to Dunns River Falls in Ocho Rios for a fun day. We were climbing as a group and got to a part that was pretty straight up and very slippery and I decided to try it first. I made it part way and then slid back. The second attempt was successful and then several other tried to follow. One of the ladies got pretty much all the way to the top and then slipped. I reached out and grabbed her arm to hold her. At this point she started to panic(not good). She started sliding down the roughly 8 foot rock and I reached out my other hand and grabber her leg thinking I could hold her in place while she helped get her footing. At this point I am laying down facing down the rock slope and it seemed that she gave up altogether. My feet were hooked on a rock that was just too slippery to hold on so I started sliding head first straight down the rock. Thankfully, since it took me 2 attempts to get up I knew that there was a huge rock just under the water at the bottom so about 1/2 way down I let go of her and stretched my arms out to brace for impact. As I hit the rock my arms buckled into my chest and I absorbed the entire shock of the fall with my ribs. Everyone including me could not believe that I didn't hit head first... my hands hit the rock just perfectly to get my head out of the way. I am very thankful to be alive and have all of my teeth! The nurse checked me out and says I for sure have several bruised if not cracked ribs. Yesterday was a rough day, but today it is quite a bit better as long as I keep from laughing :). Pray for a quick recovery and that I can be willing to accept help and admit that I can't do some work for the next week or so.

This is what happens when you don't keep an eye out for Ionda on your birthday!! First was the cold water, followed by the flour and him laughing and celebrating that he got me!

Jamaica tradition is to make the person who is having a birthday into a cake!