The Stand

"Believe me you friends, we are being called to take a stand." A quote by Mr. Forrester who is a lovely man who brought the message this morning. I will tell you a little more about that message after I introduce you to Mr. Forrester. Mr. Forrester is becoming one of our dearest friends. Mr. Forrester is 72 years old but has the spirit of a youth! He is a Godly man who is truly one of the most passionate people about their faith that we have ever met. No matter what he is talking about or what happens in his life he brings it all back to God. We have been so refreshed by his wisdom, his stories and spirit and also by his friendship! Wednesday night we invited him over for dinner and we were so blessed by our time with him. He always tells us that he just loves God so much that he can't help but talk about him! We love his transparency about his faith in God.  I have felt really challenged and questioning how can I be more bold in sharing God's word? Today he preached on standing for Jesus. Last Sunday we introduced the song to our church, The Stand by Hillsong and sang it again today. Mr. Forrester talked about how he feels this song is what God is calling for us. To take a stand for Jesus. To not be complacent in life because we aren't called to live in complacency. I felt challenged in thinking about where is complacency in my life? How can I be more bold and proclaim the gospel more each day? He said we need to be "addicted to the word of God" and I believe this is so true! If we are "addicted to the word of God" then we will be filled, overflow and shine him to all those around us. I felt lots of challenges this morning and am so thankful for Mr. Forrester bringing the word of God to us. I really felt that this was on my heart to share.

Right now I am just thinking about how when we follow Jesus we choose to take the narrow path and even though this path is unpredictable, hard, full of challenges, full of joys, and a crazy journey, it's this path that gives us life. God is awesome. :)
We had a good week this week. Of course there are always challenges but believe you me, life is good and we always have so much to be thankful for. One phrase that they say here in Jamaica that for some reason I just love is, "believe you me". I hear people say it all the time in conversation and I just love it! We are slowly learning how to be more Jamaican especially in the way we talk. We also decided that we are going to start walking every where as much as possible! Teaching is still a challenge for me but Caleb keeps reassuring me that it will be hard at first but it will get better and better! Caleb is continually working on project after project! There is always something to be done! :) We ended the week by hiking the Blue Mountains. What an awesome experience!
For some reason this is all I can think to share today! I hope you are having a blessed day. :)



 

Hi my name is Caleb

Caleb here, I have been hearing some critics say that I need to write a post and that they want to hear my voice.  Well here it is, might be the last.

 Things here have been wonderful, terrible, emotional, lonely but yet peaceful all at the same time.  It is hard to explain all the emotions I have been feeling. First off because I don't even know what all of them are and secondly it seems like there is a new one every day.  Each day brings a new challenge.

  The handyman work or feeding the chickens isn't the challenge, what's challenging is to never get done what I set out to accomplish during the day. Whether it is getting distracted by the students or by a neighbor who is excited to tell me everything he knows about Pennsylvania, something always gets in the way.  It has been frustrating for me because I love a Plan. When I eat my breakfast in the morning I make The Plan. “First I will paint the steps of the church, then move the broiler chicks to the new hen house, then give some attention to that leaky gutter” is what I think. The whole day is already scheduled before I even leave the house. But the plan usually doesn’t work out and I am left feeling like I didn’t accomplish much.  God has been working on me though.  He has been showing me that serving is not about me or the amount of work I am able to accomplish during the day. Instead it is about making relationships that are more than just skin deep. So I have been practicing at breakfast purposely not making a plan for the day.  It sounds crazy but not having a plan actually makes the day move a lot smoother.  It isn’t a perfect system but it works better than what I had going for me before. 

Lately I have been missing home a lot too.  I miss things that are familiar.  Family and friends and cold fall nights, the leaves turning colors, pumpkins and hunting.  Oh boy! I really miss hunting!  However one of the only things I remember from our 2 weeks in Virginia was how we were told “When you really start missing home and all you want to do is come home the best thing is to dive deeper into the culture and the people there.”  I will start by throwing away all of the hunting magazines that the Knepps (people who were here before us) left behind, I don’t think they are helping me.  But I am not sure what getting deeper into the culture looks like here; I will have to let you know when I figure it out.

Lastly, this morning I was watching a sermon by Francis Chan and he was talking about waking up every morning and telling yourself that Today is Going to be the Best Day of my Life! And really believing it.   We have so much to be thankful for but yet we still find things to complain about.  God is so good and loving and caring and yet we still complain.  I want to try it tomorrow and I hope I am able to see a lot more of the ways that God provides for me. 

 

Us relaxing before the school day started

The garden I have been working on. carrots, cucumber, thyme and calilou

Electric ray I thought was a flounder

The chicken house

The sweet ride we get to use

The homestead

Roni playing the game Gaga with some students

Roni giving me the sign for dirty while washing her feet

 

Well that is just some of what is going on.  These are some pics that I felt also needed some recognition.  I hope tomorrow is the best day of your life, I think mine might be. 

Highlights of what's been going on!

Hey mon, Wagwan? This is just a little taste of some patwa! Wagwan means, what's going on? We have been trying to learn some patwa and this phrase is one of my favorites to say! Although it feels a little silly for us to speak it, we have been enjoying learning the Jamaican language! :)
Here are some highlights of what has been happening! Saturday we took a trip to YS Falls, which was about an hour and a half away. It was AWESOME and so beautiful! It had been raining so much there that we couldn't swim or explore the falls because the water was SO strong, but we got to do an awesome rope swing into the falls. My adrenaline was pumping and me and Caleb both had a blast! We had a great day spending time with Brooke, Larry and Brenton! Sunday we had church and we had communion for the first time here. It was a really special experience. The worship was so energetic and loud, we loved it! Everyone was clapping and singing choruses and we have been learning lots of new little songs that we are starting to sing all the time. They are so catchy! For communion we all stood in a half circle while the pastor prayed. We ate the bread, drank the grape juice and joined hands as we sang to Jesus to thank him for all he has done for us. It was truly so beautiful. I felt so close to our brothers and sisters here in Jamaica! After church we drove Brenton and his sister home and met the rest of his family. They are so kind and sweet. We had a great time talking with Brenton's mom and learning more about them. Sunday night we had youth group. We started out with bible study which has been really neat to see Caleb teach. We had a lot of great discussions and it was a great time of digging into the word! After that we had a bonfire and that reminded us of home! It was so much fun! We made smores with the youth and drank some Ting, which is this really tasty, grapefruit soda. It was a great time to get to know them more and spend time with them. They love to sing so we sat around the fire and were all singing together and had many laughs. It was a great end to the weekend! This week things have been crazy! We are so busy it's hard to have time to just be together! I have been assisting Mrs. Green in her class this week. She teaches the youngest students and it was a bit challenging. I worked with Cavel who is almost five and a new girl named Brittney. Brittney is seven and has never been to school before. She is hearing but has trouble communicating. I was working on teaching them the letter "Ee" and it was a little challenging for me. At break time I found myself just praying for strength to continue through the day. It's good to be thrown into teaching but it's hard when you don't know as much sign language as you want! Prayer is so powerful and I am learning that more and more. God is so good and he is always here with us! By the end of the day I felt good though and was excited to teach again the next day. It was really neat to get to work so closely with them and a good challenge to try and figure out how each of them learn. It was also good practice for me to be in the classroom working with them and get a feel for what it's like. As of now I am going to start teaching next week! I feel like I am ready! Caleb has been working hard! He has been working on the closets and doors in the dorms here. A lot of them need new wood and some new paint jobs! He has also been working hard trying to get our garden started, building some stairs for the church and playing lots of soccer with the kids after school! They LOVE soccer and are a lot of fun to play with! We have been having so many visitors and so many of them want to teach me how to cook! I think almost every night last week we had people over. They really love to teach how to cook Jamaican food and I am trying hard to learn! This week we both feel exhausted. Yesterday we went out to Junction to do some food shopping and bought two cans of Coke as well. We got home, cracked those babies open, sat in the bus and drank them. It was great to have some time to just sit and be together and talk about everything that has been happening! Caleb said he felt like we were on a date. :) It was a good time to get away from the craziness of life and just connect. That's a little update for now and I have lots of pictures! So enjoy! Thank you everyone for your continuous prayers and support! We are so thankful. :) We feel the love. :)

Brianna, Shanice,Caleb,Tianna and Dwayne!

Roasting marshmellows!

Our Radio! It's fun to listen to some Jamaican toons!

Letter from home from Natalie!!!!! It was amazing to get mail, I cried!!!! We love our families so much!

Here they call these Scandal bags! No one knows what you have in your bag! ;)

Here is a sweet sop. When they are ripe you split them open and eat out the inside! 

Caleb and his scandal bag!

Playing some futbol!

Omali on the left and Justin on the right!

They love posing for pictures! 

making some orange juice!