Monday, January 18, 2010

Today we had to get up earlier than we usually have while we’ve been here, 5:30AM. We had a great breakfast again: eggs, bacon, fruit, cereal, and orange juice. Somehow I missed that we needed more dressy clothes to wear to the schools and orphanages. I thought we only needed slacks and collared shirts for church yesterday. So, I don’t have any clean ones. Several of the guys offered to loan me some, but we decided that since we’ll be doing the skit where I’m supposed to be a track athlete, it would be OK if I wear shorts and a T-shirt. Whew!

This morning we went to the Merlene Ottey High School, where we did their opening assembly. We did both the Sin Chair and Burdens skits, and Christi danced to “I Will Praise You in this Storm.” All of the students here wear uniforms to school. I think they look really nice! Too bad Americans are too independent to wear them.

On the way down the mountain from the high school, we saw Pastor Desmond on the side of the road, and he flagged us down. He asked us to come in where he had stopped at a pre-school. It wasn’t on our agenda, but we’ve come to expect God to bring things to us on mission trips that we hadn’t planned, but He had. The school didn’t have any power because they had not been able to pay their electric bills. But we had a great, however short, time with them. They did a song and dance for us, and we did the Sin Chair skit for them. Then Pastor Desmond had us sing with them for a while. It was great fun.

Then we climbed a different mountain to get to the Robin’s Nest Orphanage. The drive up (and down afterwards) was very interesting! The road was narrow and winding. Several times, Michael had to sound his horn as we approached a corner that we couldn’t see around so we’d be sure not to collide with someone coming the other way. Lois suffers from carsickness, and she had a bit of a rough time, but she didn’t complain. What a trooper!

We did some work for Robin’s Nest. Scott and I worked together again—we seem to do that a lot. Jon helped the two of us sweep their roof (they collect rain water, so they need a clean roof), and then Scott and I whitewashed some trees. Whitewashing trees is a Jamaican thing. Almost all of them do it, some just to palm trees, others to all of them. We asked several people why they do it, and most of them didn’t know. One woman at Robin’s Nest said it is for beautification. My theory was so that the trees are easier to see at night. Others worked on moving rocks for a spring, fixing scooters, and other projects. Tony did some drawings for others to paint later in one of the boys' dorms. I love watching him work!

Then we did our skits and Christi’s dance for the kids. We also had opportunity to hold some of the younger ones and play with the older ones.

Tonight’s supper was chicken, rice, sweet potatoes, and caramel brownies. We were hoping the chicken we were eating was the rooster that woke us up every morning, but he was still crowing the next morning, so no such luck.

In tonight’s devotions, Ed and Steve gave testimonies, and Pastor Ken taught us about the steadfastness of Daniel and his three friends in Daniel 1. I don’t think I mentioned yet that Pastor Ken gave us all booklets with choruses, personal devotionals, and place for devotion notes and journaling. The devotionals related to our trip and challenges we might face here, so I used them while we were there instead of my usual morning devotions.

After our evening group devotions, I prayed with Charles before heading to bed.