Jamaica!

As previously mentioned, during July 16-24 I was privileged to be in Jamaica with my parents and two younger siblings. We did a four-day VBS, and Dad preached in some evening services.


Amber teaches the Bible lesson

On our first day we had 64 kids. The crowd grew and on our last day we had almost 200! Anyone who has done children's services in inner-city Cincinnati may know a taste of what we experienced; though I've never had the opportunity to work with 200 Cincinnati kids!

One thing we discovered while we were there was how well kids will listen to another kid give a presentation. Amber (10) taught the Bible lesson one morning, and I was amazed at how immediately there came a genuine hush over the other children, and they really listened! Amber was somewhat soft-spoken and she didn't have a microphone, but that didn't matter because those kids' ears and attentions were glued. And she did a wonderful job delivering the lesson. This was the first time for either my younger brother or sister to be outside of the USA.



We lodged with a local family in the heart of the country, deep inland among beautiful, low, bamboo and banana tree-covered mountains. The trek to the church from where we stayed takes only five minutes, and the road overlooks what is known as Yankee Valley. At night as one looks out over the valley one can see the lights of dozens of Jamaican bush homes, as collectively they form lighted trails tracing around and through the foothills (too bad I couldn't capture that on our camara; it was gorgeous).

Staying with a local family also afforded us the opportunity to learn a little about some Jamaicans' everyday lives. Most village families grow produce: yams, bananas, plaintains, mangos, coconuts, ginger, and/or just about any other tropical fruit or vegetable you could think of. Four things I tried for the first time on this trip were: breadfruit (roasted and fried, served with sardines), sugarcane (freshly chopped pieces to chew on), sugarsop (which I fell in love with; I think now it's my favorite fruit as far as flavor goes), and soursop (more sour than sugarsop (duh :-) but still very good).


Getting some "real" cultural experience, transporting yams through the garden.

Perhaps we'll return to Jamaica. In fact, Mom and Dad are seriously considering returning as summer missionaries.