09 Jul Jamaica Missions Trip Update: Part 1
Jesus told us to, “…Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15) Ye means me! This Month we are excited to have our youth pastor, Pastor Rob Simms, share from our recent Joy to the World Missions trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica. We believe that it will inspire you to step out of your comfort zone and into your purpose. Whether in Jamaica or at your places of work, schools, or neighborhoods we should all be sharing the good news – that God loves you, as if you are the only person in this world to love!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We are privileged to share with you today all of the awesome details of our Joy to the World 2019 Congregational Missions trip to Montego Bay, Jamaica. During the week of June 10th through the 15th, we took 64 incredible team members, which included 15 quality Joy Church teens. With six days of ministry, we were able to lead a record number of 1825 people to first-time decisions for Jesus! When you add this number to our previous trips, Joy to the World Missions teams have lead 12,837 people to first-time decisions for Jesus! That is just huge! Each one of those numbers represents a precious heart. We count souls because souls count! All of this is fruit that abounds to YOUR account as a partner with WCBI. Thank you so much for your prayers and continued partnership!
I am going to endeavor to give you a “Day by Day” synopsis of all that we did, but I need to include a big encouragement to Pastor Jim and Mrs. Anne for your years of investment and entrusting us with this privilege to lead. I also wanted to give a big thank you to Pastors Richard and Joye Keane, Pastor Earl & Jean-Anne Murray and the entire team from Family Church on the Rock in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The itinerary you prepared for us was wonderful! Each and every time we come our “Strategic Alliance” gets better and better!
Day 1 (MONDAY)
Our first day began with our team meeting at 5am. With our Jesus, church and family support (and a little bit of coffee too :), the team came ready and you could see it! Our support team quickly checked passports/documents, tagged luggage and escorted everyone to the bus so we could head to the airport. We had plenty of people on our team who had never been out of the country before and a few that had never flown on an airplane. For half of our team, this was the first time that they had gone on a missions trip with us. After a lengthy day of travel, we arrived at the hotel, ate our first of many authentic Jamaican meals and then checked into our rooms. Because this was a new hotel for us, we took a little extra time to get everyone settled in. This hotel and staff exceeded our expectations and took great care of us during the week. We had an orientation with the Leaders from Family Church on the Rock to provide our final preparations and then got the team some rest to get ready to hit the ground running in the morning!
Day 2 (TUESDAY)
One thing we do on our Joy to the World Missions trips is build in an hour of Prayer and Word time every single morning. We require that our missionaries “Tank Up” on the Word before we go out and minister because you can’t give what you don’t have. (I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that this is a great practice for us at home the other 51 weeks of the year!)
When you have 64 total team members and 3 buses….you can cover a lot of ground! Our first school that we took our team to was Chetwood Primary School that consisted of approximately 28 classrooms. We sent teams of 2 and 3 individuals to each room and led each class with songs and games, and then invited these precious children (and teachers) to come to know Jesus. Over 150 accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior!
We loaded back on the buses to head to Sam Sharpe Square for street witnessing. Sam Sharpe Square is in the center of Montego Bay and is the busiest section of the city. Our team split up into small groups and talked with people as they were walking through. This was the quickest that we have seen a team step out in boldness. There was no hesitation. They were hungry to make sure people knew about Jesus. We led over 70 people to the Lord! The reason we minister there is pretty simple…if you can tell people about Jesus in Sam Sharpe Square…you can do it anywhere!
After Sam Sharpe Square we went to Blossom Gardens Orphanage. Blossom Gardens is a special place to us. We were told during one of our first trips there that the staff had shown up for work in the morning only to find an abandoned baby left at the door step. They currently house 61 children who are currently without a family for various reasons. We were able to spend quality time playing with and praying for the children. Several of our skilled team members were able to provide repairs that assisted this facility tremendously (things that they were unequipped to do). To top it off, one of our team members was able to lead the security guard to Jesus right before we left!
After dinner that evening, our team headed up to Moy Hall (a community way back in the mountains of Jamaica). Our “Kids Club” team, led by Paula Goldner, did a service for all of the children in the community while the rest of us went up and down the mountain roads telling everyone we could about the gospel. By the end of the day, we had led a total of 484 people to Jesus!
Join us next week as we continue to share from our recent missions trip…