|

Gwaan Go Dweet (team 2)


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 crazy with everyone walking around, no sidewalks, traffic jams, horns honking, loud music blaring from huge speakers,  street venders, the smell of jerk meat cooking in barrel grills on the streets, people yelling about veggies in the market, I love shopping at the farmers market here. It’s completely chaotic with people bumping into you all the time and vendors shoving fruits and veggies in your face trying to sell em, it’s all just so cool. And some things about Mandeville aren’t so cool like- guys asking us if we want a Jamaican husband or if we’re married and if we’re honest and say we aren’t married, they’ll ask why we’re wasting time,  which can be awkward and sometimes weird, so we try to avoid those conversations. 

 But anyway, back to street ministry- we go out with food and drinks and go to the regulars, give them breakfast and talk with them.  It’s great because we are able to form relationships with them and pray for them too. Sometimes we will have a bag of clothes with us to give them a new shirt or a new pair of pants.  We will occasionally give them a haircut if they want it. It’s through this opportunity that God is showing me how much of an impact we have on those around us. One day as we were talking to Vincent, a blind homeless man who plays music with a saw and wooden spoon. (He’s really good at it!) Anyway, as some of the girls were talking with him I was watching the other people react (we’re pretty much the only white people in town so it’s kinda hard to miss us) as they walked past. And I saw a lot of surprised, shocked and looks of disbelief on their faces. I also noticed before we approached Vincent that people completely ignored him. Didn’t even look at him and if they did, it was a look of disgust.  And I thought, man, we’re making a huge impact here. Here we are, white “rich” people sitting with a homeless man. We’re going against the “norm” and loving those around us. We had a few ladies talk to us and tell us how they appreciate what we’re doing. And one lady came up to us and was really mad. At first we thought she was mad at us, but after listening to her we realized that she was mad at her fellow Jamaicans. She was asking why Jamaicans aren’t’ doing this. Why do they need a group of foreigners to come in to do this? She grew up on the streets and shared that no one would ever help her.   It’s during these moments that I realized that each individual has an impact on those around them. I also realized that none of us fully knows how much of what we do or say affects the people around us. 

  These 10 girls that I’m with have stepped completely out of their comfort zone to show God’s love to the outcasts here in Mandeville. To show God’s love to the kids at the school, to show Gods’ love to a man at the nursing home who has never felt love before.  They not only obeyed God’s calling and left home, but they are also putting their faith into action, aka Gwaan GoDweet (go on and do it).  Every day, I see this team step up and impact those around them in a positive way and it’s incredible!

More Articles in This Topic