Sunday, January 18, 2009

One done and one almost...

So, here's the first COMPLETELY finished room. The hall bath...we're pretty sure Emmaleigh and Hannah think it's their new playroom.


And, after two full day and help from Mom, Dad and Sister Hemingway, the kitchen ALMOST done...


Would've done some before and after, but we keep forgetting to take the 'before' shot!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

As promised, though perhaps a bit late (!), Carolyn, Caren Dilts, and I went to Jamaica to scout out a new mission trip that we're taking there over Spring Break. Each year the freshmen ministry (Freshley) has taken a huge team over to a YWAM base in Montego Bay. This year the sign-ups were so large that we're having to take two trips. Caren and I will be leading a trip with a little under 40 freshmen with a few of our staff to a rural, mountainous, and very poor region around the small town of Mandeville. The other group will take about 60 to MoBay. We'll still be working with YWAM: local school devotions in the morning, 3 work projects during the day, an after school program for the school at the base during the afternoon, and some community-building for the team at night. We're VERY glad that we went down early, since the whole trip--atmosphere, projects, arrangements, etc.--are completely different from the trips we've taken in the past. It should be interesting. The trip itself was a lot of fun, too. Dave and Debbie Alexander were the YWAM staff that drove us around to scout out the work sites, schools, and other opportunities. It was good to be with them and I think the trip will be a real success.
This is a picture of the gate in the middle of the base and the great house on the hill. As with a lot of properties in Jamaica, this one was once a plantation. This house was really hit hard by Hurricane Ivan and lost one of the rooms on the front left as you face the house. If you keep going down the road around to the left, you'll get to the chapel, the dorms, and the primary school past that. We actually stayed about a hundred yards back behind me as I took the picture in this little house...
where we saw this sunset the first night...Here are a few more pics from the trip:

Dave and Deb Alexander, our missionary contact at YWAM Mandeville (candid!).

Another shot of the base. The gate in the middle of the picture is the same as above.

Where the boys will be showering while we're there--not exactly the lap of luxury! The whole base actually doesn't have running water (and neither does much of the countryside). The government gets much more money from electricity, so they ran the lines but not the pipes. Most of the water on the base is collected rainwater, supplemented by water delivery trucks every so often, and gravity-fed into the sinks, toilets and showers. Most people thinking of Jamaica see the white sand beaches, but reality for most of the country is that the people are seriously impoverished with little hope of economic or social recovery. Most children are born out of wedlock and will have little to no contact with their fathers. The impact of slavery and the racial tensions that resulted are still an extremely powerful force (socially and spiritually) on the island.

Anyway, we'll begin our Sunday night team meetings in just a few short weeks leading up to the trip over the break. Christmas post to come...