The Church at Osage Hills

Well, I guess we arrived a day ago. . . but we've finally arrived at the Nutshell, our home for the week. Great getting to wind down yesterday and prepare our hearts and minds for what God has in store for us this week. After some worship tonight we took the time to wash each other's feet. What a great way to start out a week which will find us serving God through loving His people!

Waking up in a country that you are unfamiliar with is quite the experience. There's always the initial "Where in the world am I?" I think that everyone on our trip experienced that in some way or another as we woke up for the first time on campus today. After getting dressed, we move on to breakfast. Now, I don't know if any of you USAers have ever eaten Jamaican food, but it is truly amazing. After the chow down, we grabbed our water bottles, sunscreen, and bug juice and headed out to the bus. Scott attempts to take over the driving position, but thankfully Marrick (our driver) refuses. Scott becomes (temporary) co-pilot. Fruit trees and sugar cane fields fill the country side. Then, we pull into a small village called Deeside. We pass many different types of homes and people on our way to Hastings Primary School. The team that came last year got very excited as they realized that this was the same school they worked at last year. A few of the children poked their heads out of windows to get a look at the new "white people" that has come to their school. Girls and boys fill the school. Their laughter and shouts echo throughout the school yard; it is one of the last days of summer school. We make our way to the far end of the school yard where a stone building awaits us. A ladder leads to the roof. The inside of the building is unfinished and run down. We are then split into two groups: one to work on the roof of the school building, and another to work on a house. Those that don't have a job proceed to play with the school children. Their joyous faces were filled with love with every little attention we gave them. Games were played, songs were shared, and kids were sent to jail. :) (It's a game...) At the end of the work day, the roof of the school is ready to be cemented (is that the right verb???) and the kids are sent home happy and with the Holy Spirit in their hearts. I know that they all effected us on the personal level. God was really at work in all aspects of our team today. Tomorrow will be filled with cementing the roof and visiting a girls home. God is doing big things here, guys. Thank you for your support and prayers! -OHills Jamaica Team

We would just like to apologize for not blogging yesterday. After we got back from our long day there was just sooo much going on and so...yeah. Our bad. So maybe we should go over yesterday before we move onto today. Yesterday we woke up, got dressed, and piled into one of the vans. We went back to Hastings Primary School to do some construction work. We were supposed to do construction work on Monday, but they weren't ready for us. So, we did it yesterday. We mixed, poured, spread, and moved concrete all morning. A huge assembly line was formed as bucket after bucket of gravel, sand, dirt, and water were passed down the line. Everyone had a job. We mixed the concrete and poured a ton of it on the roof. Half of the roof needed to be done. We finished half of that. (For those of you who have trouble with math - we have a fourth of the roof to go. We will do that tomorrow). Most of the group was at the school working on the roof, but a few of us went over to a old man's house to work on some more (but different) concrete stuff. This was the same house some of us worked on on Monday. We mixed finishing concrete. Then, we flashed (threw it at the wall... harder than it looks...) and rendered (smooth the wall out with the finishing concrete). We were able to get a ton done. They are now able to paint the wall. They said that they would do that today... That was very exciting for last year's team; they had worked really hard on that house last year. Now it is almost done. God is very good. After lunch at the school, we left for the girls home. We had been told that the girls might be "aggressive" towards some of the guys. The leaders had told the boys to stay in the back and let the females in the group sort of "lead." As soon as we get to the home there is music inside the building. As soon as we start painting nails, the girls opened up sooo much! It was truly amazing! The boys let the girls paint their fingernails and paint their faces. It was awesome. God was at work so much that day. We came back. Had dinner. Team meeting. Prayed. Went to bed. it was an awesome day. Day 3 here in a sec... -OHills Jamaica Team

Today was a great last day of ministry! It was a little sad but exciting at the same time. It was exciting because we finished the roof of the school that we worked on last summer. But it was sad leaving the children that we had spent the week with. As we worked on the construction we were also hanging out with the children and playing games with them. It was also emotional for the group as we stopped by the Granville Girl's Home to say goodbye today. They loved having us back again and they really loved the crafts we did with them. We took polaroid pictures, gave them stuffed animals and made booklets made out of paper bags with verses on each page. It's been a great week full of emotions and great times! We're sad to leave here in a couple days but we're excited to see everyone at home and tell you all about our experiences here!