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Jamaican Mission 2010
Jamaican Mission 2010
In November of 1999, a missionary group from Peru, NY traveled to Jamaica for a week, to work with the poor. That was the first Jamaican Mission of the Peru Community Church. We now have completed eleven annual trips and the experience has never been the least bit mundane. Each year, our friendships with our partners in Jamaica deepen. Each year we learn more about the culture of Jamaica. Each year we are faced with massive human suffering that is carried by the people with the utmost Grace. Each year we work really hard to make the smallest of dents in these problems and we come away feeling greatly rewarded for our efforts. There were 18 of us on the Jamaican Mission this year. Pastor Bob and Don Haight broke off each day to run the counseling program at the Ridgemount Church. They were very busy with a morning class and an evening class. They reported that it was amazing how the groups, mostly the same people as last year, picked right up where they left off last year – no ice to break in Jamaica. The majority of the group worked mornings at the two worksites described below with a handful of people breaking off for to work at a school, and visit a Nursing Home and a Children’s Home. Hyacinth Thompson is a 76 year old retired Sunday school teacher. Her 100 year old mud-walled house partially collapsed in Hurricane Ivan in 2007. Since then she has been spending her days in the very unsafe building and nights in the house of her daughter’s family, which greatly strained their living conditions. One small unfinished of her house was salvageable and to that we added a solid one room structure and a roof over both. Her family agreed to tear down the remains of her structure. Miss Hyacinth continues to work at a nearby school. She was delighted to have us working for her as was her daughter Mrs. Foster.
Pay it forward:
True to their word, the family we built for last year came to this year’s site and worked with us. It was so wonderful having them meet this year’s family. Hyacinth’s grandson and son-in-law worked on her house and also asked to be notified as to where we will be next year so they also can join in again. How wonderful it is to have local people helping us helping other local people! The second building project was for a mentally challenged woman known as Miss Cynthia , who is unable to work. She at one time in her life was a beggar in the streets of Mandeville. She now lives many miles out of town and gets by with the help of her neighbors. She has been victim of violence more than once. She chased off one pair of would be attackers with a machete we were told. She did not report it to the police and when asked why, the answer was because one of the attackers was a policeman! The one room wood- sided house she shares with her cat was dark, dank and moldy. Her tin roof and blown off in a storm and had been placed back but the bent and twisted metal soon rusted and leaked. Rainy days are disastrous for her. We had one rain storm come through while working on her roof. She grabbed her leashed cat and high-tailed it to her outhouse for dry cover. We fell in love with wonderful Miss Cynthia. She insisted that before our workers started, she offer a prayer or two and a song or two. At the drop of a hat, she would burst into song. To leave her with a solid dry roof in this tropical, wet climate was a pleasure. We also left money with the Ridgemount Outreach committee to oversee the cleaning of the interior of her house. Part of that money was used to install a ceiling to help keep the house warm and part was used for cleaning materials. The balance will be used to purchase cement and materials as a neighboring church would like to give her a second room. Those of us who traveled to Jamaica came back with hundreds of precious moments, funny stories and moving experiences. We are ever so grateful to those who supported us with funds, prayers and good wishes. It is truly a blessing to be able to serve mankind in Jamaica in the name of the Peru Community Church and in the name of the Lord.
Harriet Burrell
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