Day 4

It is day four!!

We have been having such a wonderful time here in Jamaica! Yesterday (Saturday) we finished painting the wall and helping out around the church.  After we had lunch, we had a wonderful time in groups sharing about ourselves.  We had groups of about 5 with some Americans and some Jamaicans in each group.  Pastor Svend led us by telling us either to say something about ourselves or  to finish a statement that he started.  It was awesome to hear the hearts of each of the people in our groups and their passion for serving the Lord! 

As a part of our group session, P7 had one person from each team sing into his iPhone so their voice was changed by the T-Pain app! It was a lot of fun! One of the Jamaicans from each group was selected to sing and P7 picked one at the end.  That group got a certain amount of money. It was a lot of fun!

In the afternoon, some of the group stayed at the church to play a soccer game! 

That evening we went to a roadside stand/restaurant that is owned by one of the church members.  We all chose either to have Jerk Chicken or Jerk Pork.  It was delicious!!  The food here, overall, has been very good!

This morning we went to the church service at The Rock.  It was awesome to hear Pastor Dennis' heart and encouraging words!

We have more planned for this evening! :)

 This is everyone at the restaurant!

 Here are our groups cheering on the next singer!

 This young lady had a great voice!

 Her group won!!

 This is a picture from the roof of the church of the group playing around waiting for the opportunity to play soccer on the field!

Pastor Dennis and Nina not sure who's ball it is!

It's the end of day 2!

We are at the hotel at the end of day two! It has been such a wonderful experience so far. This evening we had a joint youth service with The Rock of Maypen! Everyone introduced themselves, Stephen Arrington led charades using people and events from the Bible, MacKenzie Chapov shared a word on Gideon, and the leaders from Jamaica's youth group took roll.  During roll everyone was given the chance to share a Bible verse they had memorized!

We are looking forward to serving again tomorrow! Tomorrow we have tentatively planned that we will finish painting the wall at the church in the morning and we will have a ministry service outside of The Rock. 

All prayers are greatly appreciated! ;)
Grace

I have asked for one of the youth to share their hearts:

The trip so far has been amazing. I have had so much fun in these first two days. The kids that I was given the privilege to meet today were so cute, extremely well mannered, and so excited to meet you. I am so very grateful for this experience and trip that it's hard to put into words. I am looking forward most to meeting more people and showing them God's love. ~ Emily D.

 Playing dodgeball!

 Nina working hard starting to paint the wall that surrounds the church!

 Stephen painting like a pro

Grace painting like a novice!

MacKenzie making friends!

This is the only picture I have to load so far. We are working on getting more on my computer to upload! :)

Day 2!

I didn't post yesterday..but we all made it safe & sound! It was not a bad trip at all! Once we got to the hotel we all found our rooms, had a meeting, ate dinner, and spent the evening bonding and having fun in the pavilion area.  It has been so much fun so far!

After breakfast today we went to the Rock of Maypen! It was awesome to meet some of the people from the church and get to serve them! We spent some time cleaning up the church and school - cleaning the kitchen, windows and doors; planting flowers along the fence, and painting the wall.  I believe that everyone had a great time!

We spent a lot of time with the Jamaicans from the church so far today! They were all very welcoming! It has been awesome to get to know them and have fun with them. We kicked the soccer ball around with them a lot today! It was a big hit!

We are waiting for dinner at the hotel now and will be going back to the church tonight for a service.

I will try to post again tonight! :)

GA

It's only a day away!

We are all preparing for our 2012 mission trip to Maypen, Jamaica!! This is a test blog to make sure that I know what I'm doing to keep updates while we are gone. 

Please be in prayer for our team as we prepare and travel.  We have a lot of new mission trippers (including me!) so this will be a great experience for us all!

--Grace Arrington :)