Test Driving Theology

There was excitement this morning as the Mission Jamaica teams boarded the buses to head to our work site.

After breakfast, and a pause to read today’s scripture verse and to pray, we began the one-hour journey up the mountain to Westhaven.

We arrived, and Jeff gave us our tasks and turned us loose. Many in the group headed into the cottages to assist the housemothers with feeding and dressing the kids. Others broke into work teams to begin on the work projects.

Today’s projects included:

• Digging, placing and mixing (by hand, on the ground) concrete for new fence posts to

  

  create a garden area that is secure from critters wandering in and eating the items being grown. This will create a more reliable stream of healthy vegetables to include in the kids’ diet.

• Assisting with the conversion of the physical therapy room into a second classroom at the schoolhouse. Physical therapy has moved to a new space, and the classroom is sorely needed for the kids to learn. Today we worked on painting the ceilings. Climbing the ladders to the 12-foot peak in a room with fair-poor ventilation was…a toasty…experience.
• Beginning to dig a trench to run a water line into the new garden area.
• Along with the direct care of the children, and the small crew that assisted in the laundry room.

It was a busy day!

It was hot and sunny through most of the day. And by hot, I mean…really hot. Around 2pm, a rain shower started, which was really refreshing…for about 10 minutes. Then it increased into heavier rain, which caused some of our outdoor projects to

come grinding to a halt. But eventually we could get out and finish up our tasks for the day.

At around 3pm, we began our way back down to Montego Bay and our hotel. We arrived a little after 4pm and grabbed some quick food. Some headed into the ocean to cool off, others took a nap, others just sat on the beach.

We met for devotions at 6pm. We sang, talked about our scripture reading from Ephesians 4 in small groups (today in our conversation about Discipleship, we were talking about “Learning”),   debriefed our day a bit, heard from Jeff about tomorrow’s schedule, and then sang and prayed.

We grabbed dinner and hung out a bit before heading to bed. The group is pretty tired. I’m certain they will rest well tonight.

Tomorrow, we’re back at it on the same basic schedule.

Thank you for our prayers! We can feel the support of our friends and family!

God’s blessings!
Pastor Todd