Jamaicamecrazy

2010-04-27T11:29:00.000-07:00

Friday we had sports day here at Montego Bay for the students from Mobay, Kingston, Knockpatrick, Maranatha and Jamaica Christian School for the Deaf.

2010-04-17T20:34:00.001-07:00

This morning I was talking with Mom and Dad and then Dad asked me what God had been teaching me lately... I think the best way to summarize it would be perspective. More specifically, having an eternal perspective while living out life every day. As today unfolded much like a typical Jamaica day does... nothing going according to what I originally planned, I was brought to my knees before the Lord as I wondered how many Divine appointments I have missed because of my lack of patience. Too many times I take my eyes off of having an eternal perspective and get caught up on channel #1-the past, Channel #3 the future, Channel #4 the What if's when I really need to be focusing on channel #5 Eternity with channel #2- the present in the small screen within the screen.
Today God showed up in a big way illustrating the point Dad and I talked about this morning... I took Dayne to the airport and had several students with me when we went. I was expecting to 'drop and go' but the students and Yvonne wanted to go in and wait in line and say good bye (for all MTI'ers, say good bye the right way). I parked the bus not overly happy with the change in plans. After they all came out, we started driving up top road heading back to school. Kishaun was in the front seat and was signing to me while I was driving something about watching airplanes. Catching glances at him while driving took me until reaching KFC to figure out they wanted to go to free beach and watch until they could wave goodbye to Dayne just before takeoff. But that's like 1.5 hours from now, is what I was thinking! Turned around and headed there anyway. Watched planes for a while and then did get to wave to Dayne and see him waving back(we were closer than we were supposed to be :). After that we headed to the store and my heart had changed seeing their love for Dayne and wanting to show him how special he is to them. After shopping, I took them all to Wendy's(just opened here!!) and told them I would buy them all dinner. While in line a man turned around and recognised the kids. He manages a cable station here in Jamaica and had been up to school to video them last year when they won the national awards in Kingston for the Deaf dance competition! He was sooo excited to see them and said he would stop over to our table after we got our food. He came over and I interpreted for him as he shared with Kishaun, Mario, Neru and Alecia that he recently had to go in for a hearing test and is rapidly loosing his hearing. Through tears he told them that it was a Divine appointment that we saw him there today... He had been thinking about those specific kids for the last couple of weeks and specifically that morning! He told them how much he respects them, admires them and has been encouraged thinking about them and all they can do in light of his situation now. With tears streaming down his face he told them about how he now understands the feeling of being looked at differently because of having hearing aids and can now relate to them in a much deeper way. I was touched by what he shared, but what got me... 'my' kids telling him they would pray for him!!!! Couldn't have been more touched especially realizing how easily that meeting could have been missed because so many times my eyes are on the past, the what if's, worrying about the future instead of doing something today that affects eternity by focusing on souls instead of schedules.

2010-04-15T10:01:00.000-07:00

Last week was a great week of relaxing and enjoying company down here. For a day we got to experience the other Jamaica... a guy I met recently in Montego Bay is the manager of the spa at the Half Moon Resort and let us in for a day for free. Incredible place!
This week the students came back to school after holiday break. It is so good to see them here!!! They were all excited to be back at school to be able to chat with all their friends. I am thankful to have them back but at the same time it is hard as I sit and listen to the hurt they went through while on break. So glad to be able to sit and listen... encourage... and sometime just simply hold them and cry right along with them...

2010-03-22T19:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at church we learned a new song... In Patouis.
An di one prayer mi pray,
mi pray inna night and mi pray inna day
an evry time mi go pan mi knees
Di devil haffi run Weh

Then they worship leader asked the team only to sing it, and then the Jamaicans alone to sing and then all of us again. Great cultural experience!

2010-03-17T18:25:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I posted something on here...
So I went down to Freeport this afternoon to say hi to the Driver family... Robert has been down with Grace Church(TX) many times to JDV and he had contacted me that they would be in and would like to at least say hi.
I got down to the cruise dock and as I was waiting for them to come I was just observing the taxis and people coming back. One taxi pulled right up close to where I was standing and as the couple was paying, voices started raising and the tourism cops came over to see what was up. The woman turns to me as if asking for help and so I asked what was the problem. Here they had hired this taxi to take them into town to a grocery store, then after spending close to $100 they then asked to be taken to an orphanage(Blossom Garden) to hand out goodies and things to the kids to bless them and the staff. The whole 'excursion' was about an hour and a half from the time they left the boat until they got back. The taxi, after already having agreed to a price before leaving, was demanding they pay him $100 US for his 'service'. The couple was outraged, and rightly so, since he more than doubled the 'original' cost, especially since all they were trying to do was bring some happiness into some orphans lives. Thankfully the cops sided with the couple even as the taxi man cursed them for being cheap. I talked with them for a little after that and that is something they do at most of their ports of call and they were so upset about it they won't be coming back to Jamaica ever again. And people here wonder why tourism is bad and the economy is bad?!?! Treat people that are not sight seeing, but actually trying to help the less fortunate in your country like this?? The 2 tourism cops were so embarrassed and upset at this man's behavior they called in his cab to report it.
Unfortunately, never did actually meet up with the Driver family.

2009-11-07T18:35:00.000-08:00

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!!

2009-11-03T17:19:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-10-06T08:44:00.000-07:00

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!!

2009-10-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-07-27T17:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

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.

2009-04-24T21:38:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-23T16:40:00.000-07:00

Latest jobs we have been working on in the factory. Cedar Entertainment Center.

Queen Bed (Tambrind wood)

2009-04-23T16:07:00.000-07:00

Green House waiting for the races to start!

Miss Lawrence! When you are Principal you need to support all the 'houses'. Red, Yellow and Green

Roger! Can be a little hard to manage at times, but I have come to love him!

2009-04-23T15:54:00.000-07:00

On Friday April 3rd(I know I am behind on this:), I was at the Kingston school for Sports day. There are 3 'houses' that compete on the last day of the term before Easter break. Yellow House was confident they would win again... and they did!

My favorite banner was green house

2009-04-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Rubbish pile is gone!!

The rood is complete! The windows are in the front wall

2009-03-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

Thursday night I was walking over to the apt. building with one of the guys from the team about 10:30 having a discussion about creation and absolute truth of Scripture... We had just gotten to the apartment when Brooke ran out calling me to come quickly, something is wrong with Simone. I ran over to Brooke's apt. to find Simone on the floor. Brooke explained that they were talking and Simone just collapsed. Simone was laying on the floor and opened her eyes when I got there. She tried to sit up and I held her head as she told me she felt dizzy, was seeing black spots, her head was hurting and then her eyes kind of rolled back and she collapsed to the floor again. I left Brooke with her and ran to the truck and drove over to Chad's and got the van. Racing back to the apt I picked her up and carried her to the van. Sheldon, Simone's husband, Brooke and I took off for the hospital. I learned that it is possible to get from JDV to the ER in less than 10 minutes! We pulled up to the ER and called out for help... Sheldon ended up just carrying her in and putting her in a wheel chair since that was the quickest way. Of course Hospital rules are that only one person can enter with the patient(never mind she is deaf and can't communicate) so we were required to go in the other entrance and fight our way into the ER. I came very close to causing a scene with the security guard and finally convinced him that he wasn't going to be able to stop me from getting in to interpret for her by himself.
Got there as the nurse was checking vitals and stuff and explained what happened. We then were told to wait in the waiting room for the Doctor. The Dr. came around about an hour later and checked her again and ordered a urine test. We then proceeded to wait for 3 1/2 more hours for the results of that! Yeah, you really have to love "Free National Heath Care"!!! It is SO efficient and wonderful. No sarcasm there!! If you know anyone dumb enough to think that would be good for the US to have National Health Care, please send them down here and I will take them on a field trip! When Simone thought she was going to throw up we couldn't even get a bag or bowl for her.
Thankfully that the 5 hour hospital visit ended up alright. Simone is doing fine! I am still trying to catch up on sleep:)
Now I am heading to Kingston for the day. Will post pictures of the progress there in the near future!

2009-03-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday after Jumping off the cliffs in Negril, Jeremy and I went to Mobay to check one last thing off the list. Snorkeling. We went inot Dr. Cave and got our stuff and had been swimming around for about 1/2 an hour when something shifted in the pocket of my swim trunks. Reaching down my fears were confirmed... cell phone. Yeah, not sure if you are aware of this or not, but cell phones don't really get along with water all that well! Oops!
When I got back to Mandeville Sunday and picked up Ionda, I told him what had happened. The initial outburst followed by him laughing from Knockpatrick all the way to the village made it worth the frustration of being such an idiot. He couldn't wait to tell everyone!! :)

2009-03-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

This past week my cousin Jeremy cam down for a visit! It was great to have him here and we had to get a pic of 'the guys' on the last night.
Marvin, Me, Sheldon, Jeremy and Ionda

Even put him to work with the team from Crossroads(Duquesne) pouring concrete while I worked in the factory

The Concrete Mixing Crew. Sarah, Brittney, Laura, Maddie, Brooke, Marcy, Wayne, Pete and Amy

2009-03-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

I am getting a little ahead of myself in the timeline with this post, but haven't gotten my photo's from last week up just yet...
Today I arrived in the factory and was getting the guys all set up for the day when Diana came stumbling in completely out of breath to inform me that they could not wake up MJ(Marvaline Johnson). A little history... MJ has a number of health problems, the most serious being Lupus. I dropped everything and hammered up the hill to the apt. building and ran into her room. In the short ride up Diana explained that they had tried to shake her awake and had even tried a glass of water. I felt for a pulse and it was so faint it took a few seconds to be sure. About that time Pastor Damian came running in and between the two of us we carried her out to his van. He took off with her, Geneva and Diana for the Hospital and I took his kids and dropped them off at school. As soon as I dropped them off I headed for the ER arriving not too long after they did(everyone says I drive like a Jamaican taxi:) After helping to interpret for the doctor and nurses the information Geneva and Diana had, Damian took them back to JDV and I stayed to wait for results from blood tests and everything. After about 1.5 hours on IV's MJ came to. We then proceeded to wait until after 5pm before we got results from one of the tests... They discharged her then and told us to come back tomorrow for the results of the other test.
Jamaica Hospital ER was a first for me... or as Granpy would have said, 'I went there twice in one day... My first and last time!' or at least I hope so!!!

2009-03-05T03:58:00.000-08:00

Steve making short work of digging out the footings

Tieing steel for the footings

Mixing cement for the footings

2009-03-05T03:54:00.000-08:00

I will post more pictures from last week's team in Kingston... Didn't have my normal internet access while at the Kingston school to get pictures posted last week. They are all up on facebook, but for some reason it takes a long time to load them onto this blog so be patient with me on that.

2009-03-05T03:36:00.000-08:00

Sunday morning church in Kingston. After Sunday School the kids did a couple of dramas and then when one of the teacher's asked the older students who was preaching, they said Warren. Not sure who was more surprised... the teacher that didn't know who the sign name 'W' on the shoulder, or me since that was the first I knew I would be preaching!

The kids getting ready for school to start.

The group from Freemont, MI. L to R: Steve, Lew, Rich, Greg, Judy, Brian, Lisa and Keven. Fantastic group to work with... Willing hearts, hard working and a lot of fun!

2009-02-19T12:31:00.000-08:00

It has been an interesting week since my last post... I will get pictures up as soon as I can.

This past week was very busy... I have been preparing to be gone for a little over a week so getting all the work set up, supplies purchase, etc. has kept me hopping. We(Chad, Damian and I) had met and discussed an employee issue that has been an ongoing problem and needed to be addressed. Last night we met with Calva to fire him. If you remember from previous posts, Calva is the one who carved all of the bed heads. It was a hard meeting and he is extremely upset, but we know it was the right thing to do. Please pray for Pastor Damian, Chad, Calva and myself as we all work through this situation.
Today Chad brought me to the CCCD Kingston campus. I will be here for the next 9 days hosting a mission team. Today I have been looking around to see just what work needs to be done and took a detour over to the merry go round to push the kids. Gandpy's saying of 'Once is a habit with kids!' is ringing in my ears... I lost count of how many times I've pushed that crazy thing, but the kids are loving it and so am I!
I will have limited email access these next few days, so if you email and don't get a quick response... now you know why.

2009-02-12T07:29:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I interviewed and hired a new man, Kenroy to work in the Factory. Kenroy has done woodworking for Northern Caribbean University in the past and I hired him to work on a per job payment basis. He started on Monday and so far things are going well. I gave him a print of a dresser and turned him loose. The dresser he is building is the first project to use the Kreg Drill system that Grace Church so graciously provided for us! His ability and using the Kreg jig is helping with the production time. Having Kenroy here has also begun to accomplish another goal of mine... you see Kenroy is hearing. There is a lot of competition with the deaf here, especially Nigel, to prove they can do better than a hearing person. Nigel has started showing improvement in his efficiency and I am hoping that continues.

2009-02-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

It is 8:30pm and I am still in my work clothes... been a long day and wasn't feeling like anything got accomplished. Calva came down wanting to talk and we had a good discussion. I need to back up a second and let you know that Friday I got all new screens put in at my apt! So, we are sitting talking and he sees a rat on top of my cabinet. I got my machete, and tried to kill my unwanted guest... but he got away out of a hole in my brand new screen! So, I set a trap between the screen and the now closed window. We continued talking and pretty soon... Bam! I ran over and opened the curtain to see it only had him by the tail. We quickly ran outside and blocked the hole in the screen so now he was trapped. It was a good thing, cause about that time he got free of the rat trap. So I went inside and opened the louvered glass window just enough to get my machete through and got him!!!!! I will spare you the pictures and just tell you he was 81/2" without his tail. Did I mention that I ABSOLUTELY HATE RATS!!!!

2009-01-31T14:49:00.000-08:00

Ya think there may be a reason the roads down here are shot??? Yes those are 2x12 extra tall side boards on that truck and it is loaded with wet sand and the tarp is kinda keeping it from running off the sides. I would guess at least 1.5 if not 2 times the legal limit for the States...

2009-01-31T14:28:00.000-08:00

Right after I got in the bus just as we were leaving the pier. In the back, Carole, Dan and Keith. Second row is Eric, Sharon and my Great Aunt Hellen. Closest is Kay and Ken. Mary is sitting right next to me to try to keep from getting sick on the smooth straight roads we have down here:)

Aunt Hellen and me at Walkerswood Spice Factory getting ready for the tour

The Whole Kloter Crew at Coyabe Botanical Gardens. Kieth, Carole, Dan, Mary, me, Great Aunt Hellen, Sharon, Eric, Ken & Kay

2009-01-31T13:54:00.000-08:00

So I am a little behind on the updates... I arrived in Mobay on Friday, stayed overnight and then picked up Marc and Leo at the airport on Saturday and as we were getting ready to leave town got a call from Delta that they had my bag and wanted directions. We met in Montego Bay so it was No Problem!
These last couple of weeks have flown. First was the quarterly board meetings, then on Friday the 23rd I went to Ocho Rios and picked up Kevin and Rachel(Clough) Strong and brought them up to JDV. It was great to meet Kevin and we went to the infirmary Friday late afternoon and then I drove them to Mobay on Saturday. Sunday was my day to drive the church bus, so I left here at 9:30 and made 2 trips and after Church drove twice into Mandeville and then dropped Delroy off at his home... Way out in the bush about 45 minutes past Knockpatrick! On Monday Chad, His son Paul and I went to Kingston with Mr. Jones to the immigration office. They processed the first part of my Visa on the Jamaica end and I registered as an alien(yes I am officially and alien), and they kept my passport to give to the Ministry of Labor. Lord willing Wednesday coming we will go back to pick up my passport and go to the Ministry of Labor to finally get my Visa!
On Tuesday, I had the awesome opportunity to go to Ocho Rios and meet up with family! My Great Aunt Hellen, Kieth & Mary, Eric & Sharon, Ken & Kay, Dan & Carole all were on a cruise that had a port of call in Ocho, so I was able to spend the day with them! It was a blast and meant so much to me! Pictures coming...
The rest of this week has been... well, I glad it is Saturday!:) My job has been putting out fires and fixing equipment for the most part. One big Praise report is that devotions went well this week! Praise God for that!

2009-01-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

Travel...
Praise the Lord for great friends! Thursday Jared drove me up and dropped me off in Elgin at Jason and Karen's.(thanks again Zobe!) Schambach hospitality was once again awesome:)... I must say that I am royally spoiled when I go there!
Jason got up at the unreasonable hour of 3am to drive me to Ohare for my 5:50 flight... and once again the flight stories of Warren continued.
My connection in Atlanta I knew would be tight... 30 minutes to be exact. We arrived in Atlanta 20 minutes early so I was breathing a sigh of relief, however there ended up being no gates available to we didn't get off the plane until 9:15 and my connection was 9:30 departure. Other than the brief help from the train, I was at an all out sprint(man am I out of shape) across the airport and as I rounded the corner to concourse E, I heard the last call for my flight. They had to re check me in at the gate because they had closed the ticket scanner. Whew, Just made it!
Customs and Immigration went great! I was hardly even questioned about me paperwork, Praise the Lord for that!
When I arrived in Mobay I found one bag, but my hard to miss red plastic tote didn't make it:(
1 1/2 hours later... I had completed the lost bag claim and hopefully will get my bag sometime this week. Pray that it arrives with everything in it!

2009-01-12T08:55:00.000-08:00

God thing...
Friday I was scheduled to fly down to Jamaica, but because my Visa papers came through(Praise the Lord!) I ended up needing to fly back to IL to have them validated. I cancelled my Friday flight and booked a flight for Saturday morning to Peoria. Because of that change, I was able to go into work with Uncle Darryl on Friday and give a presentation about CCCD to 8 of his co-workers!! Totally a God thing!
Saturday, I flew into Peoria at 9:45 am, stopped at Fedex right there at the airport and picked up my Visa documents, Dad took me to Walmart and I got Passport photo made, went home and printed out the last form online and then jumped in my car and drove through the snow up to Chicago! I had arranged for a 4pm appointment at the Jamaican Consulate and arrived just after 3. Waited a bit and decided to go into the building and wait in the lobby. Walked in and sat down about 3:15 and almost instantly the Consulate looked out his office and asked if he could help me. I explained that I was there for a 4pm meeting, but because of the snow drove up early to make sure I arrived on time. He said, No problem, Mon, I will be with you in a few minutes. By 3:20 I was in his office and by 3:50 was heading back to my car with all my papers/passport stamped!
Praise the Lord for that! Totally unbelievable!!
Now I will just need to go into Kingston and pick up my Visa there. The Consulate sends the passport photo's and his stuff down and they make the Visa in Kingston, so hopefully I can pick that up soon!
I just booked my flight down for Friday of this week! We have a team coming in on Saturday so the transportation on the Island will be best if I waited until the end of the week. In the mean time, I am enjoying a couple more days with friends and family!

2009-01-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got to stop at Ring Power Cat to see Uncle Darryl at work and I got to 'play' for over an hour!!! I had never operated a dozer before, so they put me in a D-6 to try it out. Totally Awesome!!

After dozing up a ramp into the pile I swapped out for a 315 Excavator. Fred, the guy that made sure I didn't get stuck, was a little nervous for a bit while I did a few things with the hoe. Didn't know I had operated one before:)

Pulled up the ramp to make a big drop off and then walked the hoe off the edge to quit.

2009-01-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

Monday I flew to Florida(supposed to be on my way to Jamaica, but that is another story) and visited my Uncle Jim and Aunt Nancy for 2 Days. On Tuesday Uncle Jim took me to Fantasy of Flight, a private collection of War birds from WWI and WWII. It was absolutely awesome!!

Uncle Jim and me standing in front of a P-51. In the background is a B-26

This picture is the nose of a B-17 Fighting Fortress. That chair is where my Grandpa Rinkenberger sat as the bombadier for 13 missions over Germany. So cool to walk through the plane and have Uncle Jim tell me history of it and stories of Granpa!

2009-01-08T06:51:00.000-08:00

Last week I had the opportunity to go to Sun Down skiing with Fuel, the highschool youth group from Harvest.

We took a break at 6 for a pizza party and then some of us went back out for an hour of night skiing. It was a total blast!

2008-12-26T14:14:00.000-08:00

Queen size bed with hand carved matching head and foot boards.

King size Cedar Head Board

2008-12-26T13:55:00.000-08:00

Candle light Christmas dinner

Marly cheesing for the camera

Me, Brock, Tim and Marly cracking nuts... A Kloter Christmas tradition.

2008-12-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

David cutting wood for the factory. I asked for

1 1/4" boards and that is exactly what I got! Well, they vary about 1/16" of an inch either way on the 10" wide 8 1/2 foot long board. Unreal!

2008-12-26T13:29:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since I updated this... Sorry for those that actually check up on here.
So much has happened in the last month. One amazing God thing was on my trip back to the States for Christmas. I was walking out of the last security/customs/immigration check point at the Atlanta airport and saw this man that I was sure I knew... Sure enough, it was Tracy and Joy Dager!(they had been missionaries at JDV when I first started going down) They were coming back from their new mission field in the West Bank working with Palestinian Christians. It was a Divine appointment that I had been praying for for a long time. We got to talk for about 1/2 hour and it was so good to connect again.
This past couple of weeks has been a great time with family, Friends and being back at church!

2008-11-09T18:39:00.000-08:00

Damion posing after we got done putting the shelves together.

The 'after' picture

Damion helping me on this project for Veronica our cook.

The before picture of the pantry in the team dining building (M-3)

2008-11-09T18:24:00.000-08:00

Its been raining alot... From Wednesday night through Sunday morning it poured. This is down by R-2, the maintanence building. I am in the truck on the edge of the lane.

Me, Ionda and Nigel. They convinced me they needed to go to Mandeville Saturday, so in the torrential rain we piled into the little white truck and took off. Not the smartest thing I have done, but we made a memory and laughed a lot.

2008-11-09T18:07:00.000-08:00

It's a Jamaican Tradition... On your birthday you don't get a cake, you are made into one!!! First the cold water, then the flour!. Sheldon's birthday was yesterday.

Simone, Sheldon's wife, had a birthday a couple of weeks ago

Simone and her twin sister, Latoya, after Ionda and I got them good :) Ashley, Simone's little girl, looks on wondering what happened. You can tell by the spots on the picture the flour goes every where.

2008-11-09T17:51:00.000-08:00

making Wayne into a muscle man

Wayne was all smiles

2008-11-09T16:07:00.000-08:00

Hero's day trip to Ocho Rios. Ionda and Kadine.

Donavan posing for the camera

Ionda and his typical flex pose

2008-10-21T10:20:00.000-07:00

God is Good! I had a fun weekend in Montego Bay meeting a team from Peoria(St. Paul's Baptist Church). They brought down a power point projector donated by a couple of people from Harvest(Thanks tons Christian and Steve!)and I was able to give that to the teachers on Sunday after church. Speaking of church... I visited Rosemont Missionary Church with the team for an awesome service!! Wow! Powerful and convicting.
Yesterday we loaded up the bus and went to Ocho Rios for the day to celebrate Hero's Day. Had a great time and will get a few pictures up soon. Last night Dad called to let me know that my police report came in so he would overnight it so that I can hopefully get my paper work finished here before I come back in December and will be able to take it to the Jamaican Conciliate in Chicago to finalize my work permit exemption.
Today I was working in the factory and Chad came in with a box that arrived in the mail for me. My First mailed care package!!! Kinda like an early Christmas:) Thanks Ross & Heather!!! Decided to open the mixed nuts first:)

2008-10-06T08:51:00.001-07:00

Last week was a rough week... Things were not going so hot in the factory, at least in my mind. I had given a deadline to complete 2 jobs with a significant incentive(bonus) for each person working on them. Goals weren't met so bonuses weren't given. I was really bummed. Tuesday I went to pick up some turned bed posts for a job and Dwayne, my main guy I work with at the lumber place, was there with his left hand all bandaged up. A customer was 'helping' him rip some boards in with a table saw and instead of just steadying the wood as it came out, the man pulled the last 8 inches through. It caught Dwayne off guard and off balance and his left hand went through the saw. He lost 3 fingers and mangled a fourth. Please pray for him as he has had 1 surgery since to attach the 3 fingers and will have 1 more this week as they try to attach all of the tendons so he can use his hand.
Suddenly unmet goals didn't seem like such a big deal. It has brought back a lot of unpleasant memories of the day Ionda ran his finger through the jointer here at JDV 6 years ago when I was here.

2008-10-06T08:13:00.000-07:00

We made a baby crib & changer for a lady in Kingston. The Side of the crib drops down to make it easier to pick up the baby. Nigel was given a little to much freedom on the design and so it is built like fort knox! :)

We made 2 Danish chairs for Pastor Tomlinson and then Sheryl sewed covers for the cusions.

2008-10-06T07:27:00.000-07:00

Chairs that we fixed for a pastor... I thought they should have been on a junk pile when we got them, but Nigel fixed them all and Ionda did a great job upholstering the seats and backs.

The guys have all caught the farming bug and have their own farms. Nigel's is closest, then Gary's, then Marvin's and then Pastor Damian's isthe far one.

After work last week, Nigel was expanding his farm and I decided to help. It's a little different than using a Troy Built Tiller! We potato forked through the rocks 12" deep the whole patch of darker dirt. About killed me:)

2008-09-01T18:49:00.000-07:00

On the way back from the airport Saturday after Gustav, between Middle Quarters and Bamboo Ave. I got out my camera on the shallow water spot to take pictures while i was driving. Went through it earlier in the day so knew it wasn't too bad(the mini bus has a snorkel). The water gets up to the license plate of the Honda CRV in front of me down past the white car. Didn't think it was the wisest thing to keep taking pictures once the water got that deep. :)

2008-09-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

Sheldon and Rachel came over the Wednesday before they left and cooked dinner for me. We had a great time and I learned Sheldon's Sweet and Sour Chicken recipe. I also learned how to cook Calaloo & Cabbage, Yams and Plantain.
Sheldon Burkett, my brother and amazing friend!!! had to get a pic of the two of us with our 'bald' heads. It was hard to leave him at the airport... counting down the days until May when he and Rachel hopefully come back on break.

2008-08-17T18:41:00.000-07:00

The bed Calva made for Nicholas and what it looked like after we set it all up!!

Dresser that Nigel finished along with help from Calva on carving the drawer fronts of the top 3 drawers

2008-08-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

Dwayne is LOVING his new mower!!! the old one finally couldn't be revived. After the first day of using it, he cleaned it all up and wanted his picture taken:) Wayne made this security gate and installed ityesterday

The before and after stain pics of the headboard Calva is making

2008-08-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

Andrea excited for the beach

Dennis and Damion

2008-08-10T15:59:00.000-07:00

Sheldon and Simone at Negril for Independance Day(last Wednesday, Sug 6th)... I told everyone here that I would drive where ever they wanted to go for the holiday. I told them they needed to pay $200 each for fuel and then when we got to the gas station gave their money back... Ionda called me a liar and couldn't trust me, but was laughing and thanking me the whole time! Thanks to all of you for making the surprise possible with your support!! this isn't staged, we had 20 of us in the mini-bus for the 3+ hour trip!:)

Nigel posing for the camera

2008-08-10T15:47:00.000-07:00

Kitchen Cabinets that Nigel made for Mrs. Senior.

The cabinets are pine and the crown mold on top is pineapple. We are going to have to change a couple of thingsin the furture... the corner base cabinet was made in one piece and we had a real treat trying to get it in the house:)

2008-08-10T15:43:00.000-07:00

2008-08-03T18:07:00.000-07:00

Ionda sneaking up on me the first night... didn't realize his giggle gave him away, but I played along:)

Me looking like a Rasta Mon

2008-08-03T17:23:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I drove to Montego Bay in the truck with all of the luggage for the last work team here at the village this year... Should have gotten a picture:) Amazing what a tarp and a lot of rope will hold in!! Spend the day in Mobay and got to hang out with 2 teachers from the Mobay school for dinner and the evening as they showed me around and gave me a dose of Jamaican culture. Slowly but surely, I'm learning Patwa!
There is a big group here at the Village now for a camp... 75 boys from the inner city of Kingston and 23 men watching them. They managed to break more than 8 glass window panes so far fighting:( This afternoon one of the boys got news from Kingston that 2 of his buddies were shot. Details are still sketchy other than the boys are ~14 years old. Praying that they both live. One of the leaders told me that this is a very common thing these guys live with. Makes me thankful for growing up in the cornfields of IL. I am thankful that these boys, many of whom have never been to church, are able to get out here in the middle of the mountains and here about the love of Jesus Christ through this camp!!!
On a more selfish note... I gave a tour of the factory to 5 of the men that are helping lead this group this afternoon... One is a lawyer and the other is a manager of the biggest security company in Kingston. They are very excited about what we are doing and think that the churches/church members they represent in Kingston need to be buying their furnature from a Christian organization! They are going back to spread the word as well as offering to help me with locating anything in Kingston that I need for supplies!! Praise the Lord for that!!

2008-07-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

Church in Kingston at Calibar Baptist. 173 deaf there. 13 made a commitment to Christ

Me and 'my boys' Sheldon, Me, Kevin and Ionda. 3 of the guys that I lived with and worked with 6 years ago. I was able to meet Michael W. Smith in Ocho Rios when his cruise stopped. The fundraiser he had for CCCD brought in $7500!! 2 recent graduates from Knockpatric helping in the factory

2008-07-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

Grace Church from Witchita Falls TX bought, brought and put together 2 playsets at the village for the kids

This is walking into my apartment

My Bathroom, Living room and My bed room as I was getting unpacked and settled in

2008-07-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

actually got a good serious picture with my sisters. This one is more typical of the 'abuse' that I get when Gwen & Gina are around :) I tried to duck, but I guess I've done that once to many times so they were ready.

I had a great time over the 4th of July out in CT with the whole Kloter family. I think there were 115 of us at Keith & Mary's for the day! It was wonderful timing to be able to see everyone before leaving. I am very blessed to have such a wonderful loving and supportive family. Praise God!

2008-06-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

Can't believe that it has been over a week since SPLICE training in Colorado finished! Had a great 3 weeks of training and met some awesome people. I Miss my SPLICE family already:(
For those that have been on a mission trip for a week, you know how close you got to everyone on that team in a week... add 2 extra weeks on to that and you will understand what I mean!! One of the guys that I got really close to, Stephen Hellwege, I was able to talk to last night for a while before he left for Malawi, Africa today. (thanks for putting up with your OLD brother, Stephen!)
I had a great time Friday night at the going away party that Uncle Barry & Aunt Joyce and Rod and Robyn put together... the reality of moving is starting to set in after that, my last Sunday at Harvest today and all of the boxes in the house from packing the last 2 days.
I am looking forward to heading out to CT this weekend to visit the team from Coventry that came down to Jamaica last July when I was there and then stay for a big Kloter reunion over the 4th!

As you can tell, I am new to this whole blogging thing, but my goal is to send out monthly emails like I have been and then post updates and pictures at least once a week on here.

2008-06-02T16:04:00.000-07:00

One of our home work assignments for our cross cultural training was to visit a church service that would be different from what we are used to. I went to the U.S. Air Force Academy Chapel service and wanted to show some pictures of the chapel. Air Force Academy Chapel
View of the Chapel from the back row
The Organ at the Chapel
Chapel from the back

Me next to the statue of a B-17... the plane that Grandpa Rinkenberger flew in WWII

2008-06-02T15:50:00.000-07:00

The MTI Campus
Me, Stephen and Isaac at the visitor center at Garden of the Gods on our free day
Katie, Stephen, Joel and Michelle getting ready to climb

Michelle 1/2 way up our first climb

Me on 'Pot Holes'