Kenny's Jamaica Trip

Introduction

This experience as a whole was such a blessing. We did so many things in Jamaica; it will be hard to share all of them! I'll do my best, though, as I talk about the course of my mission trip. Our team consisted of 6 members, including myself; we were the smallest team out of all 20 Campus Ministry mission trips! Our student point leader’s name was Hannah, and she had put in much work beforehand meeting with Campus Ministry’s Spring Break Team to make sure that all our details were worked out and that we were ready to go serve. I was actually the support leader, helping Hannah when she needed anything in just being there and being ready! Our other team members were Brian, and so he and I were the only guys (we bonded quite nicely!), Missy, Anna, and Jessica. It was such a pleasure and blessing to get to know these great people and serve with them! Our memories together will not leave us anytime soon.

The Trip There

We flew out of the Chicago O’Hare International Airport straight to Montego Bay, Jamaica on Saturday, February 28th. The flight was about 4 hours, and we were blessed on both flights with no delays, smooth sailing, no layovers, and no lost luggage. Even during the transition through customs we did not have any problems! As soon as we exited the plane we knew we were in for a good time. The Jamaican sunshine was so warm and beautiful! After successfully regrouping with our luggage, we met up with one of the missionaries and our driver who stayed at the campus we worked at. The missionary, Kirk, and his family drove behind our van, while Mr. Lewis, a lifelong citizen of Jamaica, drove us. From the airport was a 3 hour drive to the school, and we definitely got to experience the Jamaican landscape and heart of the country. Oh, and they drive on the left side of the road in Jamaica! That was an interesting and eerie experience itself, but Mr. Lewis was safe!

We arrived at our destination safe and sound. We stayed in and worked with the Christian Caribbean Centre for the Deaf, a ministry that operates three schools on the island of Jamaica.  The schools are residential facilities that allow them to bring in the rural deaf that would otherwise not have access to the gospel of Jesus Christ or to a language, basic education or vocational training. The kids / students live there at the school, range in age from 4 – 24 years old, and are there almost completely because of private sponsorships. We stayed at the Knockpatrick Campus, which is in the city of Mandeville, Jamaica. On Saturday after first arriving, we got to unload and unpack and get a quick look at the campus we were in. One thing that’s neat about the ministry as a whole was that they have teams like us from all over volunteer and do mission work there every week (also as in the other schools), so the staff was really good at accommodating us. We ate dinner in the dining hall and hung out as a team in our dorms, doing our first devotional study and getting to know each other better and prepare for the upcoming week.

Sunday's Activities

After our first restful night’s sleep in Jamaica, we ate our first breakfast and prepared to go to church. All of our food, by the way, was provided. There was a dining hall in which we ate every day, and full time kitchen staff who also lived on the campus cooked us wonderful meals. Most were traditional American meals, but occasionally we got a taste of pure Jamaican food, too! One of the crazy things that we all ate was some goat meat! There was also peanut butter and jelly at every meal in case we didn’t like what was served and also simply to satisfy any remaining hunger. Brian had at least one sandwich at every meal!

Anyway, we all dressed up to go to church (thankfully we still got to sleep in a little!) and headed to a village community related to the CCCD ministry. About 20 minutes away, their church was located among some apartments, dorms, and a factory. Adults and families in the deaf community live and work there, and also have their congregation there as well. What a neat experience to be a part of a deaf community church service! The pastor, Damion, was a wonderful man with an obvious passion for the Lord and Jamaica’s deaf community. The church was really small and minimalistic, but that was a part of what made it neat. A few members of the congregation led the service in praise and worship: a unique collage of signing, mouthing, broken words, and singing from those who could. A few melodious notes even broke through! Our missionary leader, Erin, who was also our guide and interpreter throughout the week, filled us in as to the song we were singing / signing, and also spoke aloud the sermon as Damion signed it. This was again a really neat and unique experience that humbled and blessed me and the team. After the service, we went back to Knockpatrick and got to relax for the remainder of the day and further explore the campus where the kids, who were at that time not yet back from a short vacation, would be returning to school soon to begin a new week.

Our Work

By this point of the trip we were fairly settled into our rooms and becoming more and more comfortable with each other. Monday began, and we readied ourselves for the service of manual labor we were about to give. Our first project, which turned out to only take a half a day, was to stabilize and solidify a drainage pipe just outside a fence of the campus. Being at the top of a hill, this pipe had become exposed from underground as the soil eroded away from it, so we got to move rocks to place underneath it, mix our own cement, and fortify the structure. In the process, we all got to use a jackhammer to break up some of the bigger boulders, and we definitely got a workout by moving the sand, gravel, and cement to the site via wheelbarrows. Luckily we didn’t need to have that much of a cement mixture! We were, as was to be common, done with our work for the day by lunch, totaling at least 4 hours of labor each day. Our construction coordinator, Ladrick, was really laid back and didn’t want to overwork us, so that was nice. We definitely had our share of breaks! Even so, we still got the work done that they had for us to do.

The project that took us the rest of the week was inside the campus courtyard area, and throughout the day we had an array of kids watching us work! We had to use caution tape to keep them away from the site. Granted, for the majority of the day the kids were in classes, chapel, lunch, etc, but they still had a few breaks themselves where curiosity got the best of them. This project was regarding another drain that was underneath the concrete in the courtyard. It was plugged and had flooded a few times where water rose up in the central academic building. Our job was to dig up the pipe and remove it, smooth out the sides and bottom of the newly dug trench, and pour cement forms to allow an open drainage system that led out of the courtyard. All I have to say is, thank the Lord we had a jackhammer!

The ‘soil’ underneath the few inches of concrete was almost pure rock. What little dirt or sand there was, there was far more rock in and around it. One quote of the week was that “there’s always another rock!” It was a tedious task and we didn’t get to pour the cement until Thursday morning (it took all of Tuesday and Wednesday to break through and remove all the rocks and dirt), but we felt really accomplished when we finally completed the task before Thursday’s lunch! The dimensions of the trench that we dug were about 30 – 40 feet long and about 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. Again, we mixed our cement (though thankfully we didn’t have to transport our materials this time – with a need for much more cement, they brought up their front end loader!) and poured it into the forms that we set to complete our new drainage trench. The finished product turned out quite nicely and the CCCD staff was really grateful.

Our Daily Afternoons

Though we only worked each day until lunch (and one day early afternoon as well), we still served and had an amazing time as part of our mission trip in the afternoon and early evenings as well. Each day during the week, when our work was complete, we got to hang out and play with the kids of the school. What a treat to hang out with the young deaf boys and girls of Jamaica! We simply played with them and loved them through activities such as basketball, duck-duck goose, sidewalk chalk, and tag. Even though we obviously were not proficient in sign language, the kids did not care. They just wanted to play and have fun and give hugs! We met some really cool kids and had as much fun playing and interacting with them as they did with us. There were even a couple kids that we wish we could have brought home with us! Just look at the pictures and you’ll see what I mean!

By the way, though we went to a school for deaf kids and were a part of a deaf community, none of the team knew very much sign language going into the trip. A couple of us knew the alphabet and a few phrases, but that was about it. However, that fact was yet again another great aspect of the trip – the fact that we didn’t have to know sign and could learn to communicate in other ways. Obviously, Erin (our leader), Kirk and his family (some missionaries who had served with this ministry for the past year and a half), and other administrators and staff of CCCD were not deaf, but almost everyone else, including our construction leader and workers, were unable to hear. We were able to communicate in other ways such as lip reading and mouthing words, hand signals (though not official sign), paper and pen, spelling out words in sign, and facial expressions. Yet we still did learn quite a bit of sign language after all. We did the best we could and even had practice sessions where we learned how to sign our names, pick out a sign name, say please, thank you, hello, goodbye, I am hungry, I am thirsty, how are you, and other common phrases. What we did learn we used as often as we could, and it was neat to occasionally be able to interpret others as they signed.

This was essentially the primary itinerary from Monday to Thursday. We worked during the day while the kids were in school, played with them and interacted with them during the afternoon, and after dinner were on our own as a team in the dorms. Every night we did devotionals, a set of scripture readings and discussions common to all CM spring break trips about being One in community and learning to better serve our Lord. We also just hung out and talked, played Apples to Apples, took pictures, relaxed, and eventually slept! It was a routine we all easily adapted to and could have easily continued for awhile longer. The essence of Jamaica, including its culture and beauty, the deaf community, the kids, the work we did, and the time we had as a team all contributed to making our trip an amazing and blessed experience.

Big Tree

On Tuesday night, our schedule was slightly altered. Every week the team that serves is taken down to what is called Big Tree, and such was the case with us. Big Tree is an area of the farm still on the property of the CCCD (though not a part of the school) in which, quite literally, a big tree resides. It was about a quarter to half mile walk from the campus part, and there were three big bonfire pits and a beautiful old tree. We hung out there with several of the staff and adults of CCCD, including Erin and Kirk and his family (his wife’s name was Keri and their boys were Drew and Truitt). We most definitely climbed the tree, talked around the fire, and cooked dampers as a treat with our dinner that they provided. The dampers were simply some dough that we put on a stick and roasted over the fire and then filled with butter and jam for a unique Jamaican treat. It was pretty tasty! It was nice to get out of the dorms and dining hall and relax outside by the fire and enjoy the outdoors. We also got to watch a nice sunset. Jamaica can be so peaceful and relaxing!

Our Free Day

Though the primary purpose of our trip was mission work, we still had a free day on Friday before we left Jamaica. We woke up and had breakfast as normal, but afterwards a group of the older kids of the school had a presentation for us. They were a group called the Hands and Praise Team, and they signed songs and performed skits. This was a really cool experience too because you could see the passion that these kids had for God and for the ministry they were performing. They signed to the words of a few songs as the music was playing, and though they could not hear it they were able to be musical through their signing under the direction of a teacher who could. It was one of my favorite parts of the trip, because we did not see many of the older kids throughout the week (many of them were more reserved and would do other things like homework rather than play with us or the younger ones), and you could definitely see the pride they took in their signing and that they loved God. The skits were neat too because it was all done without words, yet you still clearly got the message. It was definitely a blessing in itself to see them perform.

We then left for a trip to some waterfalls. About an hour and a half away, we visited a park called YS for about half of the day. Talk about beauty! This park was filled with cascading pools and waterfalls, and it was breathtaking. We ate lunch first and then were set to explore the park. Up the path as far as it went was the biggest waterfall of the park, and it was cool to see. You could go swimming and even sit in one of the waterfalls, and it was awesome! There was also a rope swing in which you legitimately swung out about 15 feet above the water, Tarzan-style. What a rush! Brian and I did that at least a half dozen times! Throughout the varying levels of the water and pools were various places to swim and explore other sections of the many waterfalls the area had to offer. One final thing that this park had, which was one of the coolest things ever, was a zipline.

Our entire team got to zipline over these gorgeous waterfalls in Jamaica! How cool is that? It was an amazing time and we literally flew over the waterfalls as we sped towards the bottom. There were actually 3 separate ziplines, and with our guides, who happen to be two of the coolest Jamaicans ever, we worked our way up to the first one and got started. One by one, we ziplined across the main section of waterfall at the top to the main long line. Our guides, all the while talking and joking with us, unhooked us and rehooked us into the central zipline, the main attraction. We then made our way down the waterfalls and took in the breathtaking views from above before reaching the end, where one more short zipline awaited us for our stairs back to the ground. It was such an awesome experience! After taking in the beauty of the park one last time and buying a souvenir or two, we headed back home. And after our final dinner at CCCD and our final team devotional, we sadly laid our heads down to sleep for our final night in Jamaica.

Coming Home

After a wonderful week that went by all too fast, we woke up on Saturday and began to prepare to come back home. We ate our last meal at breakfast, packed our stuff, said goodbye to Erin, and headed off. We again got to see the Jamaican countryside as we wove in and out of the mountains during our 3 hour van ride to Montego Bay. Upon arriving about a half hour early before we needed to be at the airport, our driver took us to the beach in Montego Bay. We had pizza for lunch and got to at least dip our feet in the ocean. The water was so warm and blue, and we wished we could stay longer and go swimming. We did get some great pictures, though, and made some last-minute memories before leaving the island of Jamaica. We went to the airport, got our tickets, checked our baggage, boarded the plane, and took off. I must say it was a sad sight to see the island disappear as we quickly ascended, but eventually we arrived in Chicago safely. Another 3 hour charter bus ride (with other CM spring break teams that flew into Chicago), and we were back to Grand Valley.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my trip and the various experiences we had. If you haven’t already, please browse all the other pictures via the link to the left. I hope that through this website you were able to understand how amazing this mission trip was for me and the team and to see how much of a blessing it was to all of us. And to those reading this who specifically supported me, thanks again! Be sure and check out my Supporters page to the left as well. You are all sincerely appreciated and I pray for God’s blessings to shower on you. Wherever you’re at, whatever time it is, I sign off to all with this: Thanks for exploring my website, have a great day, and be blessed!

      ~Kenny Spicer