ATL and a Party Van (Team 2)

The title of this blog sums up my night. I went on my first ATL (ask the Lord) scavenger hunt. Before coming on this trip, I had never even heard of an ATL. Our trip leader, Jennifer, introduced our team to it. We split into two groups. Before we went into town, we prayed asking God to give us direction as to where we needed to go or whom we needed to see/talk to while in Mandeville. The only thing I got from God was the color brown. I wasn’t sure what that meant. Brown what?? Since ATLs are new to me, I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to do with what God had told me or how this process worked. It was slow going at first as my group began to wonder around town. After some time, we made our way through a sea of students wearing brown uniforms. That’s when it hit me that I needed to be praying for these students and the youth of Mandeville. So, that’s what I did as I walked up and down the streets. I feel like I got my feet wet doing this tonight, and now I want to dive in deep and do it again.

            After just over an hour of doing our ATL, both groups met up to go back to our house. Both trips our team has made into town without someone from the YWAM base driving us we have had the same taxi driver, Gerald. The nice thing about riding with him is that he has a big van our team of 11 can fit into. He showed us something new about his car tonight. He revealed that he has a red strand and a blue strand of lights strung around the top of his car. We loved it! He turned the lights on and the music up. We had a fun dance party on our way home! It was a nice way to celebrate life and the ministry work God has been using us for.

            Now that I’ve told you about my night, I’ll give a brief recap of the week. Saturday was our team’s day off. We went into Mandeville, explored, and took advantage of the opportunity to use Wi-Fi (I’m sure we will be doing that frequently on days off.). Sunday we went to a church nearby in the community of Rose Hill. It was much different than the church services I am used to going to, but I still enjoyed it. Our host has set it up for us to visit four different churches the first four Sundays we are here. After we try those, we will pick a church we want to attend for the remainder of our time here. The rest of our Sunday was spent on base exploring. It was a nice and relaxing day before starting our workweek.

            This week’s workweek has been much more enjoyable than last weeks! Not to say I was miserable last week; this week was just better. My relationship with the cook, Mrs. Bobsley, has continued to grow each day. She has been giving me more responsibilities, allowing me to actually help her cook, and talking with me more! She is one funny lady! I’m actually a little sad to be leaving her after this week to work elsewhere. After work, we have still been playing cards and hanging out, but we have also gone to do several other things. On Monday evening, we returned to the church we visited on Sunday for youth group. Youth group here is more what we would call a young adult group because it is for 18-25 year olds. We had a blast and are hoping to return next Monday. We also had our first Patois class last night. Who knew that even though the official language in Jamaica is English most people would speak a different language?? I definitely didn’t. Patois has formed as the result of the English, Spanish, Native Americans, and Africans influence. I keep getting told that I’m going to catch onto the language because it does have many similarities to English. Right now, I can occasionally understand some things if it is spoken very, very slowly. I’m hoping the Patois classes Kevon and Jadine, a married couple who live and work on base here, have offered to give our team will help me. I could use the help.

            Wahoo!! Pretty much our whole team is celebrating right now because we just caught Cheerio, one of the mice that have decided to live with us. Now, we just need to catch Honey Nut, Cheerio’s friend, and this giant lizard that I think we named Toothless. Not sure on the name for that one. In the meantime, we will have some extra occupants in our house.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Until next time,

Brenna Gardell