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Every day here we see the beautiful kids in this community.  Whether it be one of the hundreds of kids that came through Kids Club, the children playing with us during breakfast in the morning before they had to run to school, or simply those whose home we were building a toilet for.  They were all beautiful, but some we truly made a connection with.  And one of the girls from our last team made an amazing connection with these three little girls in the community of Cambridge. And for this story I asked her to tell it:

“When I came to Jamaica I expected to be working hard for Christ – getting in the mud and shoveling dirt, being His hands and feet. I never expected that my service would be spending time with a group of three small girls – Kimmy, Kacey, and Tiana. Throughout the week we taught each other games, blew bubbles, and just sat and talked. Every time they saw me come off the bus their faces lit up and it put a joy in my heart that I had never felt before. We grew so close as the days went on and it felt as though we would always be together, as though I would never have to leave them.

“Then the last day came and the tears started to fall. Seeing these girls cry made me hurt inside and I spent most of that day comforting them and holding them. As I was getting on the bus, the girls handed me two pieces of paper and we said our last goodbyes. We were headed back to the school where we were staying and everyone else was watching ‘Remember the Titans,’ but I was sitting there crying. The girls had written me a goodbye letter and a poem.

“The relationships God helped us build during this mission trip to Jamaica were incredible and everyone will remember the friends they made, whether they were elderly adults who just needed someone to talk to or small children who just wanted a playmate and someone to hold them. I will keep Kimmy, Kacey, and Tiana in my heart and in my prayers always, and I thank God for putting each one of them in my life,”

- Annabel

It is because of relationships like the ones Annabel made with those three little girls that we are here serving and working.  It is awesome to be able to serve by meeting the physical needs of the people surrounding us but I truly believe that the world will change when it sees the love of Christ in its relationships.  That is why we serve.

Until All Know,

Nathan Heath

By Mo Scarpelli

In a small Jamaican mountainside community, a crowd of children gathered around 9 a.m. on the hill overlooking the Barnett Bush basic school.

School got out two weeks ago. But this was more entertaining.

“Will you ever quit?” the children heard Experience Mission leaders yell below them with shovels deep in the dirt.

“No! We want some more!” a crew of college students screamed back amid smiles and laughs as they hauled buckets of sand, maul and stone down a mountainside.

The children giggled and watched from above, and soon made their way down to play near their old school. Several even picked up shovels and started helping alongside the volunteers.

Experience Mission, with the help of local Jamaicans, formed several layers of the foundation for a new basic school for Barnett Bush in just four days.

But their impression on the locals meant something much more.

“You could move just a stone and they’ll cheer you on so much that you think you could move a boulder,” said Dean Bailey, a 19-year-old Jamaican living in the nearby Catadupa community, where he has helped EM since teams started arriving in early June. “That doesn’t happen around here–the people were really excited about it.”

Bailey and several other locals have spent their days helping with EM projects and getting to know volunteers in Catadupa, a community of around 3,000 people.

“Working with Jamaicans, I think it made me work a little harder,” said 19-year-old EM volunteer Courtney Werkheiser of Claxton, Georgia. “You learn a lot more about Jamaica because you aren’t just working next to them, you are becoming friends with them and hearing their stories.”

Pastor Leroy Gordon of the Christian Fellowship Church in Catadupa initiated the basic school project. In December, he visited the Barnett Bush basic school to find out how he could help with the school’s crumbling structure.

“It’s a dilapidated building, we needed something new,” said Cecile Clarke, principal of the school for the last eleven years. “The government does not fund basic school so early childhood gets forgotten.”

The building’s colorful walls were once formed from only slabs of zinc over a dirt floor, like many houses in rural Jamaica. The community then built walls of wood and poured cement floors, but the building was still too small and uncomfortable for students and teachers.

“Some parents don’t even want to send their kids because it’s so bad,” said Clarke. “If they are privileged and have the money, they will send their children to the city to go to school on a bus. But many do not have the money.”

At any one time, an average of sixteen students, ages three to six, attend the one-room schoolhouse that has been standing for more than sixty years. Teachers estimate thirty or forty more would come if the building were more suitable for learning.

Clarke says the entire community is excited about the construction.

“Man, when this building go up, man, it’s going to make a difference,” Clarke said, smiling. “It’s been a long time coming. They need this better facility, it’s a good, good thing.”

Beyond the building’s functionality, Clarke’s two biggest concerns for the area are early-age literacy and nutritional education.

Clarke says many parents in the area are illiterate.

“But even if the parents can’t read, they want their children to read,” said Clarke. “They understand children are the key to the future and they must start learning early.”

Nutritional education, however, does not have much support at home. Clarke says this is a direct result of poverty, as healthy foods are too expensive for those struggling with money. She brings lunch for the children several times a week, just to keep them coming to school.

EM volunteers brought their lunch everyday to the worksite, and some shared with their young audience when they could. Others snapped pictures, blew bubbles and played jump rope with the little ones on their breaks.

“These people are willing to move from out of their comfort zone and help other people,” said Bailey. “The Jamaicans that watch say, ‘Hey, these people are really on fire for God, they’re serving like God would serve us.’ It’s really awesome.”

“It’s cool when you work at the school and think about the building it’s going to make for kids to go to school, but it’s also cool to think it’s going to be a place for lots of mission trips like ours to come and stay as well,” said Werkheiser. “From what I’ve heard, the mentality in Jamaica is that if you don’t get paid you don’t want to work, because people need money here. But I think it’s more motivating for them that we’ve come just to work and have fun. Hopefully they’ll help out after we’re gone,.”

Jamaican locals estimate the school will be finished completely in the next several months, depending on community support.

Check out these photos journalism intern Mo Scarpelli snapped in Jamaica.

“God, we ask for fish and loaves.”  It was a humble prayer from three young men who had no other way to solve the problem of enough food than to pray. It was all we had.

Last Saturday, we picked up our new mission teams as they arrived into Montego Bay.  We all then made our way back to Catadupa, with some of our new arrivals feeling very excited and tired but all of them hungry.  After arriving in Catadupa everyone settled, set up their beds and we sat down to eat.  As the food was set out on the table Stu, Luke, and myself found ourselves facing a huge problem, there was no way there was enough food.

It was an issue we had feared and we were seeing it come true in a big way.  We had almost 50 people for this mission trip, worn out and tired from traveling and we had so little food to feed them with. We immediately began to reassess the situation, talking to the cooks, and trying to figure out how to get enough food for this many people.  Everywhere we turned we received the same answer: “Yah mon, we need more time fer de food.” But we had no time.

So we did all we could. The three of us huddled together in an empty sanctuary, prayed, and lifted up to God a situation that was bigger than ourselves, but not as big as Him. And the people ate.  Table by table they filled their plates and we watched as they finished.  And it was crazy–there was food left over.  Everyone was full and we still had food.  So we took what was left over and headed home for the night.  The three of us were starving from the day’s work.  But we couldn’t eat all of the food.  I have no other way of explaining it.  It had to be a miracle.

Please keep us in your prayers!

Until all know,

Nathan Heath

The beginning is coming to an end.  Our first Jamaica mission trip group is leaving and on their way back to the States. The days seem to last forever here, but looking back on them they have flown by. We have been here almost two weeks now but with some of the friends we have made it seems like we have been here for months. Each day has definitely brought new challenges, stories, and tan lines.

But more about our first group for now:  They arrived Saturday midday, after a crazy day of shopping, closed Internet café’s, and some wild driving (involving a goat and a guy jumping into our van). They were definitely a special group for us. They came as a team of three women, having never even left the country, and all of a sudden they found themselves in the hands of three American college students about the same age as their children. Things went really well though. We began our week at church on Sunday, allowing the group to rest and prepare for the week ahead. We spent the rest of the week building, shoveling, carrying dirt and rock, and laying concrete at a school that will hopefully completely renew the education system in that community. It was an amazing opportunity to connect with the students (elementary age), the teacher, and the Jamaican workers volunteering for the project.

Having such a small group allowed for them to develop personal, intimate relationships with people in the community.  On their last night in Catadupa they were hanging out in the home of a local, laughing, joking, and being asked to stay in Jamaica forever.  These relationships are a huge blessing for us here it the community.  They open doors and tear down walls that previously prevent people in the community from connecting with us on a personal level.

So in a dramatic change we say goodbye to our smallest group as we begin to prep for our largest team (48… here we go).  Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts.   Pray for our hearts and lives to be open to the people here in Catadupa.  God has already done some amazing things here and we are excited to see what the next four weeks bring as we serve with Experience Mission.  Take care and God bless.

Until all know,

Nathan Heath