Day Fourteen

It was our last day at Bethel. The group was pretty subdued on the ride to the church. Worship was lively and Pastor Gary gave the sermon, punctuated with many an Amen, Brother and Praise the Lord. Many tears were shed. After the final song, we took many pictures and many hugs and addresses were exchanged. As we all headed for the bus, Miss Colleen said, “Wait, we have cake!” So we stayed for fruit cake, took more pictures and gave more hugs. As we all headed for the bus, Miss Winifred said, “Wait, ice cream come soon.” So we stayed for ice cream cones (rum raisin) took more pictures and hugged everybody goodbye. When we got on the bus, Mr. Riley chuckled and said, “I think they want to keep you.”

Mr. Riley drove us to Montego Bay to spend our last night in Jamaica at El Greco hotel. (It has hot water!) We walked a few blocks and found Margaritaville restaurant ~ wonderful food and a two story waterslide going down to the ocean. Scott led the way, and even Pastor Gary and Wayne gave it a try. We watched the sun go down and walked back to the hotel. Some went to the swimming pool and some retreated to their rooms to have a bath or watch tv.

Tomorrow we leave for the airport at 11:30 and should arrive in Atlanta around 5. After a 2 ½ hour lay over, we depart Atlanta around 7:30 and land in MPLS just after 9. Katy and Wayne will be driving Luke and Ellie home and Cyn will be taking Annie to her house. Our phones will be working again once we land in Atlanta. It will be good to be back in touch!

Day Thirteen

Johnny drove us to Dunn's River Falls...a beautiful cascading waterfall spilling into the blue-green ocean, a gorgeous white sand beach, and shopping. We went with three young folks we met at Bethel: Simone, Pinny (Stephen) and Chavelle. Pastor Gary and all the youth got into a game of keep away - boys vs. girls - that lasted for almost two hours. After finding something to eat, Brian, Chavelle, Pinny and Simone went up the falls. It was a bit tricky, but the hardest part was getting around the massive groups of tourists all holding hands so they wouldn't fall down. it was a perfect day on a perfect post-card beach.

Our miss Annie got a marriage proposal today. A gentleman asked her to marry him. She thought he was joking, so she just laughed. When he said, "I'm serious", she laughed and responded, "No, I'm good." (It's OK Loree and Paul, we're bringing her back single...she just wanted to make sure this got into the blog today!)

We got back early, cleaned up and headed into Brown's Town for Chinese food. It was good, and we got to greet a few people we knew from the retreat center. Kinda like walking down the street in Akeley, only farther from home.

Brian had devotions tonight, talking about long term results from short term missions. it was good to talk about the impact we have had on the folks here and the impact they have had on us.

We also took a few minutes to talk about packing up and getting ready to leave. We talked about things we are looking forward to:
Stella – my friends and my family
Luke – my own bed, my dogs and everything, my family and snowboarding
Scott – everything that’s not here...hot water, Internet access whenever I want it, my own bed
Ellie – I don’t want to leave
Annie – my family, friends, school and a comfier bed and snow
Gary – a warm shower, my own bed, fellowship with members of the church and being able to share the trip with them.
Becky – I miss my friends at work, and hot water
Katy – my Mom and Joe and a hot bath
Wayne – me, too...a bath, taking to the kids and finding out if I still have a business or not.
Cyn – I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with folks at home and at work.

Day Twelve

Today was our last day at the worksite. We finished up a few painting things, and spent some time cleaning floors and polishing furniture. Mostly we hung out with the growing crowd of gathering folks. Sheldon, our work supervisor, traded hats today and became head chef. He prepared jerk pork and chicken, which was served with gunga peas, rice and yam. Tons of food, tons of people. Carlos (the Rasta guy) brought his guitar and sang. It did not take long for the tambourines to come out and for folks to get up and dance. It was a day of celebration, and of good-byes to those we won't see on Sunday.

Becky did devotions tonight, about sharing our faith through our actions. We talked about our highs and lows from the trip. Most highs had to do with making friends and "gelling" with the Jamaicans. Lows included feeling like there were not enough times of hard work, spilling paint, the goat soup and having to leave.