The One Who Stole My Heart

So from the first day I was in Jamaica I have met some totally amazing and wonderful childrens, teens and adults and as I am sitting here with only a few days to go before I head home I am thinking about the people I have met and the impact they have made on me and my life. When on the second day of our arrival Ericka and I were asked to join the children's church on their outting to Hope Garden Zoo I really had no idea what to expect however once arriving and meeting all the kids I knew it would be a great day. Once we finished looking at allt he zoo had to offer we all went to an open feild near by and spent the remainder of the day playing games and having fun. It was then that I met a little four year old girl who came up to me and asked me to play catch with her and everyone knows its nearly impossible to say no to adorable young girl with a beautiful smile holding a Hello Kitty beach ball! It was then that I met Zoe!
I absolutely fell in love with this girl she was so happy and so inquisitive about everything around her and one of the most polite and well behaved four year olds I have ever come into contact with. Once we decided to take a rest from our playing one of the older girls informed me that Zoe had lost her mom only a short time ago. This totally broke my heart. As we continued to play this same older girl asked Zoe where her mother was and Zoe simply said as sure as ever.

"My Mommy is in the sky and she don't come down anymore but that okay I will see her agains soon."

After hearing these words come from such a small person I nearly lost it. It just never ceases to amaze me how God can show his love and mercy to even the smallest of people and can give them faith enough to make it through some of the hardest things in life. When she said those words I asked God right then and there to give me the faith of a child. I never really knew what that meant till I met this little girl.

As I arrived at the church tonight for a meeting I was so delighted to see Zoe standing outside. I no sooner got out of the car when she ran up to me and gave me one of the most needed hugs and smiles of my life. I will cherish this little one forever and never forget how on one of our last days together we spent a good thirty minutes playing catch with an imaginary ball outside. I only wish everyone had the opprotunity to meet this precious child. Thank you Zoe for all you have taught me may the Lord bless you and keep you always.

Mission Accomplished

So since we have been here I have had a personal mission to simply see another white person aside from Ericka and myself in Jamaica. Well last night as we were preparing for bed Ericka informed me that she had a similair misson only hers was a bit more ambitious she was determined to see a white person not only in Jamaica but in Old Harbor, the town we are staying in, which in my mind was rediculous because Old Harbor is not much of a city there I would assume only locals would be here witht he occasional random visitor like us and I just didn't think the odds were in our favor. However, I was wrong yes yes yes I know it DOES happen sometines. As we were sitting in the church office this morning a goup of people walked in and SURPRISE there was a white woman with them. I think she was just as shocked to see us as we were to see her. Though we didn't actually speak to her Ericka and I were quite excited. Ericka simply looked over to me and whispered, :mission accomplished"

What I am thinking

So as most people know by now I am going to leaving Jamaica about a month earlier than I originally planned, and to be honest I have mixed emotions about it I am not totally excited to be leaving this wonderful place the people here are wonderful and the church is incredible beyond words, however I wont lie and act as though I am not a little be excited about seeing my family.

So many have asked why am I leaving early and honestly the only answer I have is this.
I came into this journey with a very naive mindset. See I knew months ago that God would do something with me this summer but was never really sure what exactly it was so when I heard about the trip to Jamaica I just simply assumed that that must be what God had in mind. I am regrettful to say that I never prayed about it fervently I just took upon myself to know that that is what God wanted.
Coming to Jamaica has not been a bad thing by any means. It has in fact been one of the best things I have done in my life but I know I am here for the wrong reasons. I don't feel this is what God has for me right now I feel there is something else out there. This was confirmed for me personally when I was up all night praying to God. I asked him to show me what he wanted and if he wanted me to stay then he needed to make it impossible for me to leave. The main way for that to happen would be for me to not be able to afford a plane ticket home which means it would have to be more than $200 because I simply didn't have the money. However when I looked at plane tickets the following day I found a non-stop flight home for $139. This to me was enough.
I am sorry if I have disapointed anyone that was truely not my intention and if I thought this is where God wanted me then I would stay dispite all the circumstances. I hate that I am leaving Ericka here alone in fact she is the only reason I considered staying to begin with, but I know that would not have been right.

So there it is take from it what you will. I love all of you but I am asking you to trust that I am doing what I honestly feel is right.

PRAISE THE LORD!! no really praise the Lord about 130 times

Since being in Jamaica Ericka and myself have had time to not only visit the church we are working with obviously but two other churches as well.and we have noticed something that in my opinion as well as Ericka's is quite humoureous. The first couple services we noticed that they say praise the Lord alot. Each service we attended we noticed this pattern continued. So last night I decided I was going to count how many times they said it within the church service. Lets just say I lost count at 130!!! Now everyone who knows me knows I love God and I love to praise him but this to me is just hilarious. I guess the people in Jamaica really do love God and just want to let him know lol I love it. Just thought I would share.

In other news it appears the youth fellowship went well on Friday night. Ericka and I played a few games with the youth to learn their names and to teach them how to work together and then gave two short devotions and let them know what we wanted to accomplish this summer. They all seemed receptive but time will tell.

Well in closing it definitely looks like we may be going to the beach this week either tomorrow or Thursday from what I hear. I am super excited!! We have also heard that their may be fireworks at the US embassy ont he fourth of July so if this is indeed true we may or may not be going ther to see them and celebrate the fourth.

Well I believe that is all for now :)

Things I am sure of

I am pretty positive of about oooo lets say three things today.
1. I officially hate being a woman for at least a week or so out of every month and i am pretty sure being in a new country makes PMS about 100 times worse than it is normally.
2. I am pretty positive that Ericka and I will stand out a little more than usual on sunday if we do indeed sing in the choir. As if we didn't stick out enough just put us on stage with a bunch of Jamaicans (says Ericka) oo and just so you know I only found out we were doing this about 2.5 seconds ago lol.
ooo yes and last but not least probably my biggest accomplishment (maybe thats not the best word for what I did) of the day I am pretty sure i just scared a Jamaican woman away from ever going to Nebraska!!! Not completely intentional just so ya know.

Peace out and good day

Getting My Hands Dirty

So today Ericka and i decided to be quite brave and attempt to wash our clothes only if you remember correctly we do not have a washing machine so after about two weeks of not doing laundry we were out of clothes so what else can ya do right? So we went to our sink oooo sorry its a washing machine here we began to try and wash clothes on our own with what little experience either of us had. Needless to say this was a very interesting/ entertaining process however I feel we did okay our first load is hung out to dry while more wait to be washed. I must say though that my fingers are a bit sore from scrubbing the clothes but hey if your washing machine ever breaks never fear I am here to help.

A New Respect For Minorities

So I am going on two weeks here in Jamaica and have officially decided that I have a whole new respect for minorities in the states. Here, obviously unlike in the states Ericka and myself are the minority. We can not leave the house without having stares, this is not neccessarily done out of rudeness but simply curiousity. I can not begin to count the number of children who have asked to touch my skin and hair simply because it is not something they have seen alot if at all before. The only hard part is that is not really safe for us to be out on our own and that makes things a little crazy every now and then. However I will gladly take the negatives with the positives, but I do know that I will forever have a new respect for all minorities.