For our last work day we returned to EFC Zion and finished up our projects at the Church. 

We had many different projects going simultaneously. One group was putting a finishing second coat on the sunday school room in the back. Others were constructing new benches for the church, and another group was hanging and painting a side door.

 

Warren and EC testing our their bench.

Julia and Julie painting the bench

 

Eric Painting the side door

Here is the final group picture out in front of the church!

Sorry to keep you waiting on our trip update! But we experienced technological difficulties and decided to wait upon our return to the United States to update the blog.

 

On Monday our group was split up. One group was sent to refurbish a chicken coop in Lilliput. Here Warren, Sully, Eric, and Sharon put up chicken wire, built a place for the chicks to stay off the ground, and built a door for the chicken coop.

 

Here we are starting to work on the chicken coop

Here is the chicken coop finished with a new door and chicken wire

While one group was finishing up the chicken coop, the rest of the team members were at EFC Zion starting to paint classrooms, lay out rock, and deliver feed and chickens to the Jamaicans.

 

Julia and Julie painting a Sunday School Room

Here are the chicks waiting to be placed in their new home!

As the feed arrived at the church, we set the delivery into piles so we could hand out the feed to the families present.

 

 

Here we are stacking the feed for the chickens

 

 

We did encounter some spiritual warfare during the delivery of the feed. Certain members of the community felt as though they deserved a larger share of the feed than others, but we were able to donate what we could for the community with the resources that we had.

 

Here is Cynthia collecting her box of chicks.

This weekend was spent spending time getting time to know the culture of Jamaica and play a big role in the church service at Evangelical Friends Church at Zion. On Saturday, we traveled to Ochos Rios, about 2 hours away from Montego Bay and climbed a waterfall.

 

Here is our group at the base of the ochos rios waterfall!

This was a great team-building experience for our group and we were all able to make it up the waterfall safe!

 

Here we are climbing a part of the waterfall!

Group at the Beach!

On Saturday night, we spent much of our time planning the details of our church service. Here in Jamaica, there is a very loose plan on how church is run. It is not singing followed by a sermon etc.

To start we had brief introductions of the members attending the church, we then had Sunday School which consisted of a brief bible study, then we moved on to singing followed by a skit, a mini-sermon, and another sermon by Pastor Paul.

 

Pastor Jonathon Gibbons singing at the Sunday Service. He is the Pastor of EFC Zion.

After this we donated food and clothing to the church attendees and spent time in fellowship with the locals. Church started at 11 and we ended at 3. We had a lot of fun and it was definitely a learning experience for all and a great experience on learning how other cultures Praise God on the Sabbath.

 

Cassie with a family at church

For our participation we ran a children’s Sunday school, we led the congregation in song, Pastor Paul gave a sermon, and also ran children’s church.

 

Children's Church at EFC Zion

Hopefully I will be able to upload a few videos of the service soon… Thank you for your patience

 

Yesterday, the entire group went to Zion Evangelical Friends Church to work for the day. We spent the day building a chicken coop, working with the local children and rough-casting an outside wall of the church. When we arrived, the materials were delivered to build the coop. We took the materials down next to the church and began to build the frame and sides of the coop.

Warren working on the coop

Throughout the day chicken wire was added to the coops.

The group working on the chicken coop

It was then brought it pieces to the backyard of the new owner and reassembled.

Carrying the pieces to the backyard...

As one group was working on the coop, we ran a short event for the children. We sang songs and acted out different stories from the Bible of David & Goliath, Samson, and Daniel.

Julia with Ziggisha and Robert

At the end of the day, we were able to finish our chicken coop and roughcast of the wall on the church.

Eric and Peton finishing the roughcast of the church wall

Built chicken coop in the backyard

More pictures coming soon…

Prayer Requests:

1. 1. Children- Ziggy, Tito, Matthew, Robert, Ziggisha, Shane

2. 2. Prices for Chickens

3. 3. Safe Travels for us and our driver, Desmond

4. 4. Robert’s Mom- so she can send Robert to School

5. 5. Completion of church work

6. 6. For Peton (another church worker), that he goes to Church on Sunday

7. 7. Pastor Gibbons

8. 8. Continuing Protection for our group on the work site and off

Yesterday was a great 1^st day of work! As previously posted our team was stationed at Zion Evangelical Church. We sent 8 members of our team there to work on plastering the walls of a church classroom, laying out rocks for a walkway, and to prepare a list of materials for the building of chicken coops.

EC and Eric mixing cement with Peton (a worker at EFC Zion)

Pastor Paul carrying rocks and Tito (a local boy) to pour onto the path

The other members, Bill and Cassie, were sent to a free medical clinic that another group of doctors were hosting to teach proper nutrition to the locals and triage patients before they went to see the doctor.

Cassie working at the Clinic

Bill taking a heart rate at the clinic

After work we went to visit a local orphanage. Here we spent time getting to know the children and staff of Robin’s Nest Children’s Home. While visiting, we played games with the children and dropped off donations of books, clothing, and toys.

The front of the Orphanage

Sully playing with blocks with one of the children

Today the whole group is going back to Zion Evangelical Church to finish plastering and to start the building of our chicken coops!

Jamaican Sunset

Good Morning! Thank you for being patient with us as we worked out the kinks with our internet problem here in Jamaica. We had trouble locating a signal down here and had to drive to a local shop to pick up an internet connection.

Here we are leaving Boston!

We arrived here safe and sound last night and settled into our Villa.

Here we are landed in Jamaica

Last night, we sorted our donated material into piles so we can deliver it over the next few work days.

Here we are sorting the donations for the week

Currently we are getting ready to go out and have our first day of work. Today we are going to help in the construction of Zion Evangelical Friends Church and prepare our materials to work on the chicken coops for following work days. Thank you for your continued support and prayer!

Here we are at the No Problem Villa

About 30 hours from now on Wednesday, the 10 members of the Jamaica Team will be meeting at the EFC parking lot to embark on their trip. We will be flying out of Logan and landing in Montego Bay shortly after 3 p.m.

Montego Bay is located in the top left corner of Jamaica

As we get ready for our trip, finishing up the final details and packing. Please continue to support us in prayer.

Here are the members of the Jamaica Mission Team

left to right: Julia Mullins, EC Helme, Warren Garceau, Pastor Paul Hoffman, Sully Pichette, Julie Cronk, Bill Montoya, Eric Cronk, Eric Aldrich (not pictured: Cassie Standish)

Here you can download a powerpoint of Pastor Hoffman’s trip to Jamaica.

Included are pictures of him, the people that he met, and the areas we will visit.

Jamaica Mission Trip

to open, right click the link and click ’save as..’ to view on your computer

Pastor Paul and Jamaica Locals

Here we will post daily updates of our mission work in Jamaica! We will also post our prayer requests and any other updates.

 

You can click the members link above to view a picture of the members of the trip, use the link of the right to go to the EFC Newport homepage, or download a Powerpoint of Pastor Paul’s trip to Jamaica.