Aldersgate UMC

We got stated with the our trip today as we were picked up from the hotel at about noon with food and water waiting! We got settled into our school home for the week and then spent a little over an hour at the infirmary. It was great visiting with the residents there abs a great way to start the week! After that we rested for a few minutes abs then went out for Jamaican jerk for dinner. We're rested and ready for the week! Please continue to pray for us as we minister this week!

Today was a great day in the community of Belmont! We started the morning with a traditional breakfast of Ackee and Saltfish, the national dish. Then we went to Belmont for church. It was an "average" length Sunday service at about 3 hours today. It was cool to get to see how a Jamaican church service is though. After church we had a delicious lunch and then headed into the community for a couple hours. The weather was great...it clouded up and we even got a spit of rain. We spent the time walking door to door, meeting people, inviting the children out to VBS and praying for people. One gentleman we met has lung cancer and has been sick since October. We sang some songs with him and his family and prayed for them. We barely made it back to the church before the rain REALLY started coming down. We then had a little time to share our life stories in small groups and then finished out the day in the community with some sandwiches and juice. Overall it was a great day! It was good to see the community we'll be serving in this week and meet some people. Tomorrow starts VBS and we're all very excited! Continue to pray for us!

Monday was a great first day of VBS! The pastor wanted a slight change in the schedule to make room at the end of the week, so we did two sessions of VBS on Monday. There were children waiting and cheering for us when we arrived at the church in the morning! That was a great sight to see! The morning started out a little slow as the children trickled in, but by the middle of the morning we had over 40 children. They loved the interaction and especially the songs! We took a little break for lunch and then we came back and did it again in the afternoon. It was a long day of VBS but you could tell from the children's smiles it was all well worth it. We took some time in the evening to debrief from the day and then it was off to bed! There was a street party right outside our school the night before that ended at 4:30 a.m. so we slept extra good last night. :) Thanks for the continued prayers! Can't wait to tell you all about it!

We had a fantastic day today! In the morning we had our last session of VBS. We had the whole group together for songs and then made salvation bracelets in small groups. We then had relay races outside with buckets of water. The kids had a blast! And so did we! We're going to miss the children but we're sure to see them again tomorrow. After lunch we went to Westhaven Childrens Home which houses about 80 mentally and physically challenged children ages 2+. We spent time singing, dancing and playing with them. We also gave out salvation bracelets to them! Finally we ended our day with a quick trip to the beach and jerk chicken and pork! We got to splash in the water for about an hour and watch the sunset. Great way to end an awesome day!

The children loved getting wet playing the water relays and duck, duck, goose.

Hannah dancing with Frankie at Westhaven Children's Home. Frankie is one of the most energetic of the children!