Joining with Commission To Every Nation!!

We have been serving God in Jamaica with Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf - CCCD - for over four years and look forward to serving many more years. Our family has been blessed and enjoys serving with CCCD.  We were sent to the field through a partnership between CCCD and our home church Trinity Bible Church - TBC. This has been a great partnership.

Since joining this work, we realized we’ve missed a key part that is important for our longevity on the mission field, i.e. pastoral care for our family as missionaries in a foreign country. With all the preparation and support that CCCD and TBC give us, we’ve seen the importance of pastoral care for our family. As we follow God and His leading we found an organization that specializes in this.

Let us introduce you to Commission To Every Nation USA - CTEN.  CTEN is an inter-denominational missionary sending agency with over 289 missionaries all over the world. They offer administrative support, financial accountability AND - personal pastoral care for their missionaries.   

Through much prayer and counsel with our leadership at TBC and CCCD, we are excited to announce we have decided to partner with CTEN.  This unique 3-strand partnership with CTEN allows us to continue the work we love with CCCD. We will continue serving God in Jamaica as the work-team coordinators at the CCCD Montego Bay campus. Please check them out at www.CTEN.org.

What does this mean for you as our prayer and support team?  Your prayers are still coveted for the work that God is doing in Jamaica. We could not continue without you! If you are a part of our support team financially, you will need to start sending your support to CTEN at www.cten.org/jeffreydaniel. Special gifts and automatic monthly support using a credit card or bank draft can all be done online.  If you would like to set up an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and do not have a computer then call CTEN at 800-872-5404.

Our ministry is not changing! Only the level of care that we receive will change and the direction of your support for us - CTEN. We have our own CTEN Pastoral Care Couple, Dick and Birdie Johnson who are career missionaries.  CTEN has an in-house Publications Department that will help us communicate with you. If you are a part of our Support team you will be cared for through the receipting of your tax-deductible donations as well as a year-end giving statement issued on your behalf by CTEN’s accounting department.

May God Bless you for your partnership in God’s work.

God is good!!!

The Daniel Family

SURPRISE!!! Furlough in Texas.

For the past few months we have been planning our furlough in Texas. Through prayer and discussion we also decided to surprise our families with a much needed extended time during the holidays. We shared with our family that we would be returning on Dec 4 for Christmas but bought tickets for Nov 13. This would allow us to also spend Thanksgiving with our family and friends. As we put out our need for transportation, housing and finances there was a need of secrecy for the surprise. This created a particular challenge since we couldn't use the typical means of communication through social media etc. Through prayers of many to our Father, finances for our airline tickets and transportation was provided quickly. Father decided to notify us of our housing on Nov 12 the day before we returned. He always has perfect timing.
This set the stage for the video above where there was a birthday party planned for Jeffrey's brother Chris at a restaurant. Jodi's parents were also invited to the same restaurant by some friends for dinner. To both of the families surprise they were at the same place on the same night. Our flight landed at 4:15pm, some friends met us at the airport and drove us to the restaurant where we waited to see everyone arrive. As you can see from the video it was a sweet time of basking in the love from our family our Father has provided. Thank you to all that prayed for this time and continue to pray.

Zachary One Year Later

 

Zachary loves to dance with his sister Allison. Wanted to update you on Zachary. If you remember a year ago we took him to the hospital here in Jamaica because he continued to throw up. They ran some test did a spinal tap, admitted him for 24 hours and treated him. There is a little more to it than that but you can read about it in an earlier post from last year.  We left the hospital with no problems. We thank God for protecting Zachary and answering our prayers for a healthy boy. 

Teams, Teams, Teams........

So far this year we have been very, very busy!!! We have another team coming in on Mother's Day, who are a group of speech therapists, and will be with us for 2 weeks!!!! They will spend half their time with an autistic school, as well as here at the CCCD campus.  We have had numerous teams, ??? to be exact.  We've hosted many friends and visitors, too!!!! It has been a pleasure to meet so many people, even off the cruise ships who "pop-in" for a quick visit.

     Jeffrey has been in his new "role" for just over a year and 3 months and is doing a marvelous job.  Many different projects have tackled, started and completed in his time as "Acting Campus Manager", or as I refer to as "Head Hauncho!"

   We celebrated Erin's 9th ,Zachary's 1st and my ??? birthday in the last several weeks in between all the teams. The kiddos have been doing great overall with homeschooling and welcoming in the work teams!!! They thrive when they are here.  Our family truly enjoys the teams. Bubba likes to be the supervisor. Pickle and Allison like to set up a lemonade/water stand for the teams!!!! Lexi likes to get out there and help especially when she doesn't have to do school work. No worries, she makes up for it later! Erin loves to take pictures of the teams working.  Can't forget about little Zachary....he's so close to walking all on his own. He has been a trooper, being the youngest family member to grow up in this hot, humid place. He's developed quite a personality, is learning sign language and is learning to talk as well!!!! It's never a dull moment in the Daniel household!!!!

  We've had some trials on campus that have made us stop and wonder why we are having to endure this....but we know that God has brought us here and He's not through with us yet so we persevere and walk in faith that He's in control and not man, He's our Rock and our Fortress, Our Protector, our Healer and Our Provider...Whom shall I fear? God's got this!!!  Who are we to doubt it??? He never promises that life will be easy, fair, or a bed of roses!!! We just ask that you continually lift up our family in prayer. We are so grateful for the love, generosity, and thoughtfulness.  We appreciate those who give prayerfully and financially which allows us to be here on the battlefield for our Lord!!! -Jodi

A Glimpse Into The Last Few Months

School started the beginning of September for CCCD and the Daniel house. This was a stressful time in the school office being short 5 staff members from the office assistant to the nurse and house parent position to be filled. Trying to hire and fill all of those positions is a task that I had to take on and the process of hiring and interviewing in a different country is different. Praise God at this time all of our positions are filled!!
Also in the first week of September, we got to visit the hospital with Zachary for an overnight stay. This was another process that is very different for us being in another country. Aside from being different it was also a very scary/stressful time that we had to fully rely upon God for his wisdom and protection for our son. Our Work Permit was also approved for another 3 years!!

The Frick's

The next week we were able to meet a couple that were missionaries at CCCD Montego Bay when the campus began. It is always good to meet the heritage of CCCD.
The third week of the month we hosted a team from South Dakota that was here with Samaritans Feet. They came with over 600 pairs of shoes and socks, then to wash the feet and distribute the shoes to the children of staff of all 3 campuses of CCCD. This group also had a reporter from their local news station in South Dakota, who sent back reports daily of their trip. (KELOLAND.com | Dispatch Project Hands Out Shoes In Jamaica )

2 Year Anniversary

The first of October we celebrated our 2 year anniversary on Oct.3rd. We reflected over and celebrated the last 2 years of what God has been doing here in Jamaica and in our lives. Also picked up an intern that has been with us the past 6 weeks.

Cistern Work

The second week started with a team full of friends that we served with the week after we arrived in Jamaica in 2010. They finished the cistern at the school and installed a pump to use the rain water we catch. They also did many other projects of maintenance to help here at the school.

The next week arrived another team with friends that we served with last year in October. They built and installed a solar water heater to help with electricity cost here at the school, painted and helped organize my office and keys for the 8 buildings on campus(we came up with over 100 keys/locks).

Ali's 7th Birthday

Jodi, Her Sister and the Boys

The 3rd week my mother and Jodi's sister arrived to spend time with us and celebrate some birthdays with the kids. Our Allison turned 7 on the 23rd so we celebrated her birthday and we also ushered in our first hurricane experience with Sandy arriving the next day. This was an experience for all of us. We sent some of the younger students home from the school and then hunkered down for a day of wind and rain. Praise God we only got a little wind and rain in Montego Bay.

Capping the Wall with Glass

We dropped of Jodi's sister on Friday then my mother on Saturday at the airport then walked over to the arrivals area and picked up our last team for the year. This team was busy as all the teams have been doing maintenance, capping the wall with glass and installing guttering for our cisterns.

Lexi's 14th Celebration

Bubba's 3rd Celebration

Then last week we took a breath and then celebrated Lexi's 14th birthday on Nov 5th and then Bubba's 3rd birthday on Nov. 7th. We covered them with flour for their birthday(a Jamaican tradition).

Bubba and Lexi got floured for their birthday but everyone played in it. 

Turner and Daniel kids enjoying the beach. 

This week we are hosting the Turner family minus Kevin(who had to work). Kevin is the person who invited me on my first mission trip 10 years ago to CCCD Montego Bay. This was the trip that changed my life when God called me to missions. It is great to spend time with great friends, especially since they have had played such an important part of lives. -Jeffrey

October News.....

Just ended a wonderful week with family being here.  Jeff's mom, Sharon, and my sister, Edie, came and they were able to experience our very first hurricane with us and celebrate Allison's birthday too!  Three-fourths of the deaf students went home before the storm blew in and they came back to school the following Monday.  It was, thankfully, a very small one so the winds and rain weren't treacherous.  Our kids were outside enjoying some "slip and slide" before it hit.  Nonetheless, it was nerve-racking for all of us in not knowing what to expect.   We were able to swim at the beach before hurricane "Sandy" made landfall.  We tried to make it back to the beach again before my sister's flight out on Friday, but the waves and the floating debris were brutal.  Sharon flew out on Saturday, so after we saw her off at departures, we walked over to arrivals where our last work team was waiting for us.

 

 This is our last work team for the year which is good and bad.  We love having the teams here because it allows us to see familiar faces and friends, work gets accomplished here at the deaf school, and the time just flies by.  Things are hopping around the school grounds.  There are different groups broke out in these areas: guttering crew, painting crew, welding crew, wood-working crewing, and concrete crew.  They are knocking out much needed work....thank you Bethlehem United Meth. Church out of PA!!! -Jodi