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Wah a gwaan?! (Jamaican greetings in Patois- what’s going on?)  Ow yuh duh?  (How are you?) So all 11 of us has been kept pretty busy with going to schools, nursing homes, children’s home, serving here at the base, building a house and street ministry. It’s different every week, but we love it! A couple here at the Stone’s Hope base has given us some Patois lessons too. Patois is a mix between Spanish, English, African and Native American languages. It’s the non-official language here and just about everyone knows it.  One of my favorite ministries is street ministry. Every Tuesday morning we will walk around Mandeville. Side note- I love walking around Mandeville! It’s not a tourist town, so it has so much culture and it’s c…

The past month and a half has been so incredible. It has had its highs and lows, but I’m just as thankful for the low points as I am for the high points. Since I stepped off the plane, the Lord has been wrecking me, in the best way possible, and growing me in new ways. I consistently ask Him to give me a new perspective on what He’s teaching me and He has done that and so much more.   The first month, I was working on the grounds team raking leaves, weed-eating, and mowing the grass. This is where the Lord really taught me about joyful obedience along with His patience with us.  A lot of time was spent raking leaves in the same sections we had just raked the day because, it gets so windy sometimes you can’t even tell we raked and it got frustrating. But, it…

Hello Everyone!! I hope you are all doing well! I am doing good. Ministry has been great and also challenging this week. It is challenging at times every week though. I enjoy it because I learn knew things about the people of Jamaica and God teaches me new things on a daily basis. I love it. At the beginning of this week we worked here on the base. I got to work in the kitchen! I had to wear a hairnet and everything. It was a good experience. I learned a few tricks. Maybe that means I can start helping my Mom out when I get home (do not hold that against me when I get home Momma. Haha). I had fun though. We have also gone and done street ministry this week like we do every week. We try and do that at least one morning during the week. It is pretty cool because we are getting to know the…

  Where do I began? It is hard to try and write about one whole week in one blog. I will do my best to share as much as I can without making this blog super long. So ?rst I want to ?ll everybody in about my wi? access. I ?gured my family would like to hear this especially! I am very limited on wi?. I thought before coming here that on the weekends we could go to the city and have unlimited wi?, but I was wrong. When we go into the city to get wi? we have to pay for it. It is not that expensive, but the longer you stay on it the more it adds up. Saturday I bought an hour of wi? and it was literally the fastest hour of my life. Of course I call my parents and my siblings ?rst and then I have to ?nd time to post my blog and do a few more team related things as well. The whole process…

this is a post I wrote awhile ago but forgot to post. I have almost of?cially lived in Jamaica for one week! Has it set in yet? Yes, I think so. We have had a week full of adjustment and adventure. We ?ew out of Atlanta on Monday morning at 10:45 am and landed here in Jamaica at 1:35 pm. When we landed at the airport we had to get on a bus and ride up the mountain for a little over two hours to get to our site. We are located in Manchester, Jamaica which is about 25 minutes out of Mandeville, Jamaica. Manchester is very very small. We are staying in a community called Stones Hope. Stones Hope is a Christian community and is also supported by Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The people that live here are either a part of YWAM or Missionaries that have paired with YWAM. Our house sits on top…

Hi everyone!  Our time here in Jamaica has been wonderful! Here are some photos of our time here at Stones Hope. The girls introducing themselves at the school. Mackenzie teaching a class. Go girl! Waiting for the van to pick us up.   Painting at the foster home. More painting. Again, more painting. Bake sale for the Suriname Mission trip! Tash teaching the preschoolers. Our house is that building on the left side. This is our view from our porch. On clear days you can see the ocean. The whole team! 

First of all, I hope all is well back at home! You all are amazing people so I am sure you are all busy being awesome world changers! God has amazing plans for each of you and He will do some awesome things in you life if you let him. I just felt like I needed to say that so there it is. A little encouragement never hurt anybody. Next, I am sorry for not being able to post last week. I never had access to wi? that allowed me to post my blog. I tried at a couple of different places, but I guess the connection was not strong enough because it would not let me post. In this blog I have compiled both stories and updates from this week and last week. I apologize if it is too long, but I just have so much I want to try and share. Moving on, I am doing great!! Things are have picked up for us …

As of this past month, I have found myself at a desperate state of needing God. I always need help. I keep having to ask God to show up. I have also found myself questioning and doubting Him. Questioning how much He loves me. If He actually has never forsaken me. If I am really not all alone. If He is as good as so many believers claim Him to be. If He is as good as I claim Him to be. I say this because I have been hurting. Not for any huge reasons, but really just because life keeps happening. Plans get ruined. Things don’t go how I envision them. It is during those times that I ask God to fill what would be a hole inside of me. I know that something may be lost, so I ask for it to be filled. Truly, there are times where I don’t feel that hole filled. So what happens with…

On Friday, February19 we had plans to go to a different church and have youth group with them. We are blessed to be able to go to one youth group every Monday night, so I kind of knew what to expect. Whenever I’ve thought of youth group in the past, I’ve thought of middle school or high school aged students. Here though, youth group is anyone ages 18-25 from the church! We were asked by YWAM to prepare something to share, so in the afternoon, we met together as a team and planned. We decided that we would play a fun rock-paper-scissors game and a few of us would share our testimonies. Our leader, Jen, explained to us that testimonies are not only the story of how we came to know Jesus, but they are any stories of how Jesus continually works in our lives. We knew that Kevon from the YWA…

Being scared is something I have never been fond of. My viewpoint is beginning to change though. I’ve noticed during my time here that the times I have been most scared are the same times I have grown the most as a person. God has been putting me in situations outside of my comfort zone, and I am thankful for that.               Last week, we went to a school off the YWAM campus called New Broughton. We went to the primary school, which is kindergarten through sixth grade (grade 6 as they call it) originally. Half of our team was given jobs there. I was not, so I went to the basic school, or preschool. I ended up helping in the 5 year old class. As soon as Ms. Simpson walked me into her class, she basically said, &ldquo…