One Heart: November 2014

Christmas is in the air here in Jamaica!!! We have started to listen to some Christmas music and Christmas is ALL the children are talking about at school! We are seeing more and more that our friends here in Jamaica love Christmas just as much as we do! It's a little different to think that we will be having a hot Christmas this year and no snow but the Christmas spirit is stirring! We are getting excited too! The Christmas program is coming up and the teachers are beginning to plan what they want to do for the Christmas program with the children. We are excited to experience Christmas in a new way.
I wanted to tell about two special events that happened this week. Last Sunday, Caleb and I decided we were going to have a Jamaican Soup dinner and game night with our church family on Wednesday night. We gave the announcement at church and couldn't wait for that night! We have been feeling like we want to try and create opportunities to get to know our church family more. Wednesday came and after school we drove out to the vegetable market to get the vegetables for our soup! We made a HUGE pot of Jamaican Spicy Cock Soup. One spice I love here is Jerk seasoning. I love to add it to everything and love to add it to soup when I make it. It gives it a nice kick! Caleb and I worked together preparing everything and set up the church so people could sit, eat and play games. A little before six we had 2 of our church members show up! I was so excited! We sat and chatted and waited to see who else would show up! Beth, Brooke, and Larry also joined us and Brenton as well. We had one more of our church members come so we started to eat and fellowship with one another. We also had the dorm children join us and their dorm mother Miss Maureen. It was a special time. After we had finished eating we began some intense games of Dominos. I never knew the right way to play Dominos but it's a very popular game here in Jamaica and Caleb and I have been learning how to play. Every time you place a domino down you are supposed to SLAM it down loudly. Its a lot of fun and can be a very loud game! I won zero games and the champion of the night was, Mr. Forrester! He was really, really good. After the games ended people started to leave to go home and I just felt this overwhelming joy. What a beautiful time with our church family and friends. I felt God was just surrounding us the whole evening as we were together.
The second special event that I am really excited we got to be a part of was the first 5K race here in Ridge! Larry put the event together and it had a nice turnout! There was a boy who lives here in Ridge named Dillan who was the D.J. so it was great to get pumped up to run with some loud, fun music! I could hear it the whole time I was running! Everyone was so supportive and just cheering for each other during the race. It was a really neat time of being together with some of the people here in Ridge and getting some great exercise! I haven't ran a 5K in a few years and I really felt blessed by this opportunity. I still am always amazed at how there are SO many hills here and they are BIG! After the race we all enjoyed some watermelon, bumpees and some other treats. There was a small raffle and then we all cleaned up to go back home. When we got home we just both agreed that it was great to be a part of the race. I was feeling so thankful for legs and good health to be able to run! It's so easy to take for granted our health.
We are continually reminded of God's goodness each day even through the struggles and hard times he is ALWAYS faithful. We also continue to try and live each day as if it was the best day ever and man does that change things! :)
We have been blessed with so many prayers, cards, texts, calls and support from back home. We can't thank everyone enough for your continual love and prayers. We love you all!

We have been learning a lot about pressing on everyday here in Jamaica. Pressing on and knowing that we press on through all things to glorify God and further his kingdom. We are here to shine his love, build relationships and show him to all who are around us. We are here to serve those around us but above everything we are here to serve God and serve him in ALL things. Why is this so easy to forget? We truly need him every moment of everyday.
Teaching has been one of my biggest challenges. Some days I love it and some days I just feel like how can I even do this? There are many times during the day where I am just praying as I teach that God will continue to strengthen me when I feel incapable. He is so good! I am so thankful that he always is walking beside us! I need it! I have been working with the three youngest children in the school who are 5, 8 and 9. I love them and love to work with them even though it can be very challenging. I have been teaching them how to write, teaching them letters, signs, colors, shapes and numbers. This isn't easy for me at all. I have never taught in a classroom like this before so everything I am doing is all new! Some days I just want to cry! I also am not a good planner. I never have been and I have been challenged so much in my planning skills. Along with teaching these young children I am teaching computer all day on Thursdays and art class Monday through Wednesday. So I have lots of planning to do! I am feeling very challenged by it and am very, very slowly getting better at it. The thing I love the most about teaching is being with the children and getting to know them each better and better. Although there are challenges with unmotivation and just days where they are not interested in what I am teaching them, I love working so closely with them. Caleb and I love them all so much and feel like they are our children! They are very dear to us.
Caleb's list of things to do continues to grow each day! There is always something for him to fix or make here! Caleb had his first encounter with the pig man! This man carries baby pigs in a crate on the back of his motorcycle and sells them. The school purchased 2 to raise and use for food. They are pretty cute! Caleb has also been doing some welding. The gate in front of the school here needed pieces to be replaced, welded together and painted. It turned out really nice and Caleb says that he learned the right way to weld! One big event that is coming up that we are really excited about is National Deaf Sports Day! This will take place November 29 and we are taking the children to it! Caleb has been getting them ready for all the different events that will be at sports day like racing, the lime and spoon relay, the potato sack race and futbol. Caleb loves to coach and it has been really neat to watch him work with the kids in this way.
Every week Caleb and I have been walking/running to Junction when we need to get just a few things. Junction is the closest town to us that we do our shopping at. It's been really great for us physically and socially! It's nice to not use the van and to walk through our community more. I think Junction is about 2 or 3 miles away from us and it's a very hilly, hot walk! But its very refreshing for us and gives us time to chat and connect!
We celebrated a lot of birthdays this week! So we have been baking lots of cakes! We celebrated Omar's birthday on Monday, Angie's birthday on Tuesday, who is one of the teachers at Maranatha and then our good friend Brenton's birthday on Thursday! We can now sing Happy Birthday in sign language! For Brenton's birthday we experienced "flouring" for the first time. For birthdays in Jamaica they flour the person who has the birthday! Sometimes they will throw egg or something wet on you first and then throw the flour on but for Brenton, he just got plain floured! It was a fun time! We have never saw or experienced this before so it was pretty exciting!

We still can't thank everyone enough for your support, love and prayers! We love you all so much and are so thankful for all of you!

Hostile we stayed at to hike the Blue Mountains! Their was no electricity and no running water! It was awesome! We felt like we were at camp! We woke up at 2 in the morning and began our hike to see the sunrise!