M and M's (Mandeville and May Pen)

Finally, after a week in Jamaica we got to sleep in! What a great and relaxing feeling. Rolled out of bed around 10:30, we were to be checked out of the hotel at 11. We were all ready by 10, sitting outside, basking in the beautiful Jamaican sun. Matt takes our keys up to the front desk to officially check out and the woman says to come back in 10 minutes. :) That's Jamaica time for you. When Matt finally checked out of the hotel, she said, make sure your stuff is out of your room but you can stay as long as you want. We had our morning devotions and headed out to see Mandeville.

Lunch. Today's lunch was one of the most remembered lunches. The group split up into two groups. The first group, full of lively people and fun experiences (Rosie, Abby, Lewis, Dillon, Patrick, Sunshine, Elijah and Wayne) went to the Juci Patties. There they found out that the woman, a cook, in the back, cowering behind a door, had a crush on Lewis but was too afraid to come out and say hi. After finishing their food, this lively group decided to wander outside the doors of the Juci Patti to the strange world that awaited them. The second group (Staffords, Sara, Brandon and me) decided to traverse up the wooden stairs to the wonderful aroma that awaited them...Jamaican Chinese food. We were a little apprehensive about the quality of the taste, considering none of the cooks or servers were Asian. However, they were extremely enthusiastic and grateful to see us. I looked over the menu and quickly chose the Chow Mein. After looking over every option carefully, the rest of the group finally landed on sweet and sour chicken. As the cook carried out the last and final plate, steaming and piled high with chicken, noodles and vegetables, I knew I was in for a delicious meal. I was not very hungry and was quite eager to share with whoever wanted some. I offered it to everyone at our table and they gratefully and heartily ate a portion of my lunch.

We hopped on the bus and travelled a great distance of about a mile, as the rain beat against the bus windows, to the Jamaican Bible College. Clyde, the pastor at Mt. Pleasant Church of Christ was in need of our assistance. We arrived and Clyde gracefully walked across the courtyard, holding an umbrella for himself as well as carrying two others. Our mission was to cross the courtyard and make it into the classroom that awaited us. Everyone grabbed a partner and an umbrella and skillfully and quite carefully maneuvered our way to the classroom to be apart of a "couples counseling" session. (Question: Does anyone know the reason for the quotes???? Answer: there are no couples in Frontline) A little background for you, this is finals week for Jamaica Bible College and Clyde was in a counseling course. For his final exam he was to either write a paper or give a presentation to a group of at least ten people. We did not know he had chosen to talk about couples counseling...we were all ready to participate and play along with whatever he threw at us, but alas, no acting was involved and there was not much participation needed of us.

As we said goodbye to Clyde, and proceeded to May Pen. As we slowly descended down a steep mountainside, I looked out the window and to my delight, found a DOUBLE RAINBOW. We were lucky enough to see the bright colors as well as see the end. Continuing on our way, we decided we'd better stop off for some authentic Jamaican coffee...Blue Mountain...factory.

MAY PEN. Pulling up to the church, we are all thoroughly exhausted after a day of filled with heat and stress. I could tell many of us were agitated and had short tempers, what can we do in situations like this? Pray. I pulled out my journal and began to just talk with God about everything going on. Here's what I encountered.
#1 God moment: A wonderful prayer with Rosie.
#2 God moment: the power went out, which happened twice today in Mandeville, and after many attempts, the church staff could still not get the power on. About five minutes into the darkness, I hear a voice start to sing, soon the whole building is filled with beautiful voices and harmonies as the congregation lifts up praises to our Heavenly father. "There's a light in the darkness, there's a love that's true, Jesus is waiting, He's waiting there for you."

The service has begun, opening with the church's worship team, full of exuberance and joy as the congregation shouts and sings praise. The pastor begins to speak and as he is reading Romans 8, "What then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us..." The power comes on. The congregation cheers and the pastor continues on in his sermon. Frontline goes up on stage to do our part in the service. We open with Happy Day, and let me tell you, Jamaicans love Happy Day! Even though the power is on, we are doing mostly acoustic instruments. (There was a drum set on the ground in front of the stage, but the sound system was not very loud.)
#3 God moment: At about the bridge in Happy Day, we are building the song back up to go into the chorus and hear an extra sound, I glance down and at the drums, on the seat, is a small boy, probably two years old, holding two drum sticks about the same size he is, and he is playing the drums. This was no ordinary two year old, he was not just aimlessly beating the drums, he was keeping time and he knew exactly when to play each drum and when to hit the cymbals.

All in all, today was a God-filled day, full of excitement and prayers. I know that God is using us as we minister to those here in Jamaica, but I continue to find that these people are also changing me.

--Judy :)