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

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.

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...

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!

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.

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!

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

Queen Bed (Tambrind wood)

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!

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

Rubbish pile is gone!!

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

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!

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!! :)

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

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!!!