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