Erin's Baptism

On Sunday Erin was baptized at Dump Up Beach here in Montego Bay Jamaica. This is a far cry from who she was just 10 months ago. Last summer Erin had mentioned that she would like to be baptized, so it tried talking with her about it. Immediately she clammed up and refused to talk about it. Over the next few weeks we tried many times to talk with her about this and also her salvation. She acted embarrassed and would cry many times not wanting to talk about it and asked us not to mention it. I think she had a fear that she would have to get in front of everyone and speak if she accepted Jesus and got Baptized.
In September after watching the movie "Letters to God" I was able to share with her about her need for a savior and we prayed to ask Jesus into her heart. She was so excited she started crying. She couldn't explain or understand why she was crying but was very excited. Over the next few weeks she shared with many about her new life and also got to share at the church service at Beautiful Feet. We were amazed of the transformation that Christ had made in our little girl.
Our church here in Montego Bay had announced they were having a Baptism service on May 1 at the beach. My desire was for my daughter to be baptized but wanted it to be her desire to follow Christ and not for my desire. Saturday evening we were talking about the Baptism service and Lexi mentioned to Erin that she could be Baptized. She said sure so we talked with her to make sure she understood about what she was wanting to do. I called our pastor and asked if it was too late to add Erin's name to the list. He was excited to add her name to the list.
So on Sunday we went to church and Erin got in front of everyone shared with the congregation about her conversion and desire to be baptized(no fear or crying). We then went to the beach and Erin proudly was baptized.
We have been through so many changes in the past 7 months and look forward to the many more changes God has in store for us. We have seen many lives changed here in Jamaica and we are so excited and blessed to see our children grow into the children that God made them. As parents we are so blessed and excited that our children desire to follow God and be obedient to his commands. We pray every night that our children would grow up to know God and serve Him with their lives. God has been faithful to answer our prayers and know that he will continue to provide answers to our prayers.
-Jeffrey

5 months on the field

Since I last blogged, we hosted a work team from Cedar Springs Presbyterian Church out of Tennessee, which was a smaller group but wonderful and definite go-getter's. Thank you all for your hard work!


We also had a week off and we were able to have some quality family time just hanging out around the house, we went one day to the beach for Valentines day and then hung out with some friends that are also missionaries here in Jamaica. They came and spent the night with us on Friday and Saturday night. They allowed us to have a date night while they watched our children and in turn we gave them a date night and watched their children. Thank you Aaron and Melissa Black for being wonderful friends. I pray that our friendships continue to grow deeper too.
We are at the end of another week with an amazing group of people from Illinois. This diverse group was comprised of both mature and young individuals, who worked equally hard. They have been spread out on the campus working on various projects such as the collapsed wall, re-screening the patio on our home, cleaning/painting of some rooms in the educational building, finishing the construction of the ramp and let's not forget about striping the field (with used motor oil) to create a track for sports day. We will be taking this group to the airport later on today and in turn picking up our next team from Rosedale Baptist Church located in Maryland.
On Friday 2/25, CCCD-MoBay campus had sports day which was also Jamaica Day island wide. There were many track and field events that the students and staff participated in, as well as the On To Victory work team! It was very exciting to see all the houses(Red, Blue & Green) get involved and eager to do their events!





On March 1st, Jeffrey and I will be celebrating our 8th our anniversary!!! WOOHOO!! And on March 3, CCCD-MoBay campus will be hosting the 2nd annual 4-H Achievement Day where all schools within the St. James parish will be represented here on this campus. That's over 200 schools. Each school will setup their own booths and then there will be an awards program, too, for accomplishments. It will be a pretty big day here and guess who's in charge of coordinating cakes and cookies...me! They are expecting 1000+ people. This isn't going to be big....it's going to be HUGE!!!! This is a fundraiser for CCCD since they will be providing the foods/beverages for sale during this event. Please be in prayer that all the details and technicalities will go smoothly....it's hard for me to even wrap my mind around this right now but I need to start baking ASAP!!!
I feel like there is so much going on that I'm forgetting to write about in order to give you all a glimpse of what our schedules are like. Maybe as I get better about blogging, it will all just naturally flow. Our family is so excited about being on the field!!! God is so Good!!!!
Jodi

4th team of 2011

Today I sit here in a house that is quiet, for the moment, and I am reflecting on the previous teams that we have hosted in Jamaica at Caribbean Christian Centre of the Deaf. It's hard to believe that today is the first of February. This year has just flown by and yet it seems to be standing still. We are hosting our 4th team so far. We have had Trinity Christian College, Trinity Bible Church, Draper Valley Presbyterian Church and now Bowling Green Christian Academy. Wow,the makeup of each team is different but yet the mission of each team is the same, to serve others. Some of the things that have been worked on are: the collapsed wall, painting the interior of our home, locating/fixing plumbing problems, laying new pipes, deaf students were taken to the Jamaican zoo located in St Elizabeth parish.


I know that God is doing great things through the teams that He is forming and sending here and it has been an honor and privilege to work with all of them. Thank you Lord that we have the ability to do your work in a such wonderful, beautiful place!
Jodi

We are anticipating our upcoming year of service here in Jamaica and seeing all that God is going to do in the lives of the children, staff and teams here on campus. We are looking forward to working with over 26 teams this next year. We are excited that one of our first teams will be from our home church in Texas. With many projects and maintenance issues here on campus we are looking forward to seeing what God can do through each and every person. Some of the projects that need to be accomplished is 1)completion of the surrounding wall, 2)repair of plumbing issues throughout the campus, 3)painting, 4)completing the educational and vocational buildings (interior/exterior). Great to know that with God all things are possible!!

With the arrival of our container several weeks ago, we are still trying to get our home in order. Jeffrey's mother arrived shortly after our container arrived and she was a wonderful help with either watching the children or helping unpack boxes and plastic containers. There is still much to do in our home but we can't let it overwhelm us. I am having to adjust with not being able to use a hammer and nails to hang up pics and things. It's quite different with concrete walls (cinderblock walls). I desire for the house to feel like a home, our home.

With the holidays upon us, we took time to celebrate the birth of our Lord with some friends here on campus. We had a whirlwind of baking and cooking for 2 days. It was great, had the kids in the kitchen as well as the cook, who prepares the meals for the students. His nickname here on the campus is Chef (or Uncle Allen-by our kids). With the students gone for Christmas vacation, it has been very quiet here allowing us to have family time as well as getting to know the staff at CCCD on an more intimate level. This was our first Christmas away from all of our families, which was hard, but God enabled us to have a wonderful time and we were still able to do some of the family traditions as in the past. (Jeffrey's mom even brought a little snow from back home...obviously fake snow but the kids enjoyed it just the same.)

We are also still trekking along with homeschooling. This being our first year to do this, which is even a learning process for me, but has been very rewarding. We were delayed in starting their schoolwork prior to our move but they are making it up by not taking the 3 weeks off at Christmas time. Having the flexibility to do their school work is wonderful and allows our children the ability to work with the teams. Lexi and Erin are eagerly awaiting the teams because they desire to work along side them. They quickly get to their school work right after breakfast and try to beat the other to see who gets to go out first and work with the team. I don't mind this as long as their school work doesn't suffer!!!

We are looking forward to having some of our family members visit in March and June. Knowing that they are coming, helps us anticipate with excitement their visits. Anyone else wanting to come, just send us an email or contact us. We would be happy to accommodate!!!!

Last but not least, we desire to have a stronger and deeper personal relationship with Christ, our Lord and Savior, to have Him be the focal point in our marriage. To draw us closer to Him and to each other. Jeffrey and my desire is to also equip our children with the knowledge of Jesus and to teach them morals and values that are pleasing to Him. God has blessed us with much and we desire to honor Him in all that we do and say! May you all have a Happy New Year full of God's blessings!!

Christmas

Wow....Christmas in Jamaica!! It's way different than the Christmas one year ago. We had snow last year and 80 degree weather this year...but we are right where God wants us to be. We celebrated Christmas with the students and staff here at CCCD before everyone went home for the Holiday's.


We were blessed to have Jeffrey's mom(Nonnie) come here for 9 days in December. She even brought snow for the kids, obviously it was fake but, nonetheless, it was SNOW!!!!

We had a mini Christmas while she was here and we had Jeffrey's dad(Poppy) Skype in so he could watch the children open their gifts. We were able to send bicycles for our children for Christmas and Nonnie and Poppy also sent Christmas gifts ahead of time via our container that was shipped back in November. Way to plan ahead Nonnie and Poppy!!!! Christmas was a little different without having our loved ones near but we still tried to implement some of our family traditions where we could. We attended "Evensong" from Christ Chapel via live streaming, we had pig in the blankets, kids wore their Christmas pj's and had a big Christmas dinner. For Christmas day we invited the staff from CCCD to come over for dinner. It was great!!! Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year too!!!!!

Thanksgiving in Jamaica

The kids and I had a wonderful experience spending time with Aaron and Melissa Black and their two kids (with CSI Ministry in High Gate, Jamaica) during the 2 weeks that Jeffrey was gone. Jeffrey went back to Texas to load our container with all of our personal things and flew back just in time to have Thanksgiving with the rest of us. We are upon our first major holiday here in Jamaica and we feel that we are truly blessed to be able to have friends here to share in this special occasion. We had all the trimmings that we would typically have in the U.S. The Jamaicans, that we shared Thanksgiving dinner with, enjoyed the food right along with us. This isn't a holiday that Jamaica observes but they didn't mind humoring us...actually, I think they'd enjoyed it just the same. I am so thankful that God knows and grants things to us even if it's of simple measure.

Changes...

As I sit here listening to it rain I'm pondering all of the changes we have had in the last few weeks. Moving to a new country and a new home is only the beginning.
When we arrived to our new home we discovered that the refrigerator and microwave was not working. The repair man has been out several times to repair the refrigerator but to no avail. It would work for a few days then just when we turned our back it was out again. Looks like it will be an expensive fix, so for now at meal times we have to walk up the hill to the school kitchen where we keep our food that needs to be kept cold.
I also had to laugh at the humor of God. When we arrived the grounds have not been able to be mowed for the last month so the grass was over 3 ft. tall. What has He prepared me for. Time to mow!!!

Our electricity has been off several times and for several hours throughout the past few weeks. It has been raining a lot but I'm sure we will be missing this rain during the dry season. This also brings in the 40 leggers, kind of a cross between a centipede and a scorpion because it can really hurt if they sting you.

Yesterday the rain came in buckets and knocked down over 200 ft. of the security wall around the school grounds. This will be added to the top of the ongoing list of projects and maintenance that needs to be done here at the campus.
Also looks like our kitchen cabinets and table are full of Chi Chi bugs. These are like termites and wreak havoc on the wood. They will have to be replaced.
At this time we have no transportation but the school is so graciously allowing us to use the van when it is available. Just trying to figure out how to purchase a vehicle and get a price is a learning experience. I stopped in to look at a 2007 Toyota Hiace (van) at a used car lot to get the price and was told it was around 4.1 million J (about $48,000.00 us). This vehicle is nothing fancy but does seat 15 which would be a great vehicle for our family of 7 so we can transport friends and family when they come to visit and help with the teams. Doesn't look like this one is a vehicle for us though.

We served with our first team which was a great experience and they were so gracious with us. As a family this is such a learning experience for all of us. Balancing family and work will take some getting use to. Almost every time I would step out the door to go work our kids wanted to go with me and help. As a father this is a great feeling to have your children want to be with you and help work, but with all that needs to be done they couldn't be with me all the time.
The girls have started homeschooling. This is a new routine that Jodi and the kids are adjusting to. Thankfully the children love to do school work!

Within all of these situations and as we draw closer to God, He is sure blessing us with some great times.
Erin loves to catch the lizards and gecko's inside and out of the house, she has a little cage that she likes to keep them in. She even wants to learn how to sign fast like the kids here do.
Matthew is now walking and into everything. He sure helps us connect with people with his great smile.
Allison has been a prayer warrior. While I was holding Jeffrey after he fell and hit his head, Ali wanted to pray for his head and read him a story. She is also excited about celebrating her birthday this week in Jamaica.
Lexi has been such a great help in everyday life with all that is going on, not that this is any different than before. She is also learning sign quicker than any of us and is able to communicate.
Jeffrey Jr. loves to run and play with the kids here and is learning some sign language as we all are.
Jodi loves sitting with some of the older girls and allowing them to teach her sign language. She has also been able to connect with a friend here that she has been keeping up with while in the states.
I have been able to lead our first team that ministered to the staff and students and did alot of work here. I assisted the staff in setting up for a fundraiser to help the school with ongoing projects for the students. Been blessed with beautiful sunsets and watching my family grow.
As I continue to say "God is good!!!" today, tomorrow and forever.....