"Goodbye my Betsy, Goodbye my Rachel. I love you."

These were the parting words that Phoebe would give us last year every time we left her presence.
Last year we left hoping beyond hope that these two little girls who had stolen our hearts would at least somewhat remember us when we came back.
This year, they not only greeted us with shouts of excitement, but we were instantly welcomed back into their family, and have created a bond that goes much deeper than mere friendship.

Little did we know when we arrived on the island and established our theme of being Jesus to people, that our greatest mission would be being Jesus to a two and a three-year-old, and their extremely busy parents. Some days it was difficult to wake up and dress, feed, bathe, and entertain these two girls all day until we got them ready for bed and read Jonah and the Big Fish before we said prayers and said good-night. But God has taught us more through these two little girls and their family then we ever could have imagined.

We fly back to America tomorrow and we would greatly appreciate your prayers and support as we come back and strive to continue the life-changes that God has put on our hearts this summer. The last 2 months(ish) have flown by, but we pray that the lessons learned would be permanently ingrained in us and that you who have read this blog have gotten a taste of our experiences.

And don't forget that a more detailed story account of our adventure here will be (hopefully!) published in the memoir. If you're interested in a copy, please email Betsy at nahgwan@gmail.com.

We are leaving the pigeons behind, and our scratching on this part of the world has ended for a time, but God will continue to faithfully scratch on hearts as we seek His will for our futures. Jamaica has made its impact on us forever - we're sad to say goodbye.

But we know that, just like Phoebe and Danae remembered us, we will not forget our time here and we will look back on the memories made and lessons learned with heartfelt excitement because of the deep bonds created. We may leave with tears in our eyes but we'll always return with open arms.
It's time to say "Goodbye my Kingston. Goodbye my Knockpatrick. Goodbye my JDV. I love you."

Picture Blog!

The next installment of our Picture Blog can be found at www.xanga.com/jamaicamecrazy08

Enjoy!

With Love, From Me, To You

Please forgive us for our lack of updates. The last two and a half Weeks flew by before we realized it.

Last week we were at the Jamaica Deaf Village, living with Damion and Felicia Campbell. We took care of their three kids (along with some others), helped with VBS, helped with Speech class, and taught sign language to the missionary family.
This week we are back at the Knockpatrick campus with a team from Rachel's home town as well as a team from GA. We work with Erin in the mornings and then go with the St. Louis team to do Child Evangelism Fellowship at an outlying church in the afternoons.

As probably anyone could tell you who has gone away on a long trip, some of the best things we get are letters from home. We want to say a big "Thank You!" to everyone who has written to us (via snail mail or email), sent us packages, or commented on our blog.

It all started the second week. We were working in the office in Kingston and Ms. Leanora handed Rachel two envelopes! One was from her mom. She opened it to find an expandable letter banner that spelled out "YOU ROCK" - she's kept it in our room ever since. The second was from a family friend that had a picture of Rachel and her friend, as well as a newspaper clipping of important Jamaican news. It's nice to know that things like that trigger people's minds to us and encourages them to let us know!

About two weeks later, Betsy got something in the mail, but it was just a packet of schoolwork that she had requested from a professor. That same day, Rachel got a letter from home that included a couple of pictures. She was happy to see pictures of things that have been going on while she's been away.

We arrived at JDV and Mark White handed Betsy an envelope at dinner. She wasn't expecting any mail yet. But inside was a special "I'm thinking of you" card from her mom. It was exactly what Betsy needed that day.

Then just a couple days ago, here at KP again, we were piling into a van to go to CEF for the afternoon when Erin handed Betsy 2 envelopes! She examined the post marks of each so that she would know which to open first. The first one was another card from her mom, but this one was extra special. Inside were individual notes from the members of her mom's sign language group - all of whom have become good friends with Betsy.
The second card was extra EXTRA special - it was from Betsy's dog! Another "I'm thinking about you" card. Betsy's mom said that Minuette picked it out herself. :)

But the best one of all was the huge care package that came to us through the St. Louis team. With joint gifts from both our mom's and one of Rachel's best friends, we were super excited to find candy, snacks, notes, colored pencils, contact solution, comic strips, and various other things. It was like Christmas wading through all of it!

So thanks again to everyone who has corresponded with us while we've been here. We've only got two more weeks, so don't send any more mail now, but feel free to email! We love you all!

A Halfway Point Picture Review

Well, this blog wouldn't let us upload the pictures through the Internet connection that we had, so we made the picture post at this blog - www.xanga.com/jamaicamecrazy08. Check it out there, but you can comment on either one. Enjoy!

Betsy and Rachel's Infirmary

Since we arrived at Knockpatrick we have had the task of watching many children in the nursery. During the week of camp, though, ages 3 and up went to the children's program and we were left with only 5 kids under the age of 2. Of those 5 kids though, 5 were sick. How we are still alive, I don't know.
Caleb has a cold.
Danae has a virus.
Shania has a throat problem.
Roseanne needed medicine for...something.
and Ashley went from "just a cold" to "just throwing up."

A few days later (after we had banned Ashley from the nursery because she was throwing up) we realized she had a much bigger problem. There were peculiar red bumps all over her face and arms and she was scratching endlessly.
"Um...I think she has the chicken pox." I said.
We went around trying to find someone more in charge than us to tell about this new predicament, and finally I found someone who could go find Ashley's mom. Also, we told Phyllis Jones who is the wife of the head of the organization that we are working with.
Simone, Ashley's mom, came into the nursery.
"Is Ashley alright?" she asked.
I quickly explained about my diagnoses. Simone shook her head.
"No, it's just bug bites. It's just bug bites."
"But she's been really sick for a long time now - those are also symptoms of the chicken pox."
"It's just bug bites," she assured me.
Then Mrs. Jones came in. She looked at Ashley.
"It might just be bug bites," she said.
I explained my theory again.
"What did the doctor say when you took her because she was throwing up?" Mrs. Jones asked Simone.
Simone said that she hadn't taken her to the doctor yet.
"Well, we are going right now," Mrs. Jones said. "It might be the chicken pox, or it might just be bug bites, but she's been too sick. It's better to be safe than sorry."
So we packed Ashley up and sent her out with her mom and Mrs. Jones. Then we immediately disinfected the entire nursery, knowing that if Ashley did have the chicken pox, it was too late to keep the other babies from being exposed.

Later that evening, Simone came back. Ashley has the chicken pox.

So, we started off with "Welcome to Betsy and Rachel's Kitchen, what may we serve you today?" and moved to "Welcome to Betsy and Rachel's Day-Care, who can we watch for you today?" and now we have arrived at "Welcome to Betsy and Rachel's Infirmary, what can we diagnose for you today?"

We're Still Alive!

Last Monday we said good-bye to all of our Kingston friends and piled into a bus with some of the teachers to go to the Knockpatrick campus. The teachers had teacher training as well as Red Cross training, and we were going to help out where we were needed.
Betsy was excited to arrive because the team that was at Knockpatrick was one she had met two years ago and she was able to reconnect with some old friends. Both of us spent the week taking care of the children of the teachers while their parents were in classes all day long. In the evenings, once the parents were out of teacher training, we joined with our friend Kristi to teach sign language classes. Kristi, an interpreter from Ohio, focused on the higher level signing with the wife of the missionary couple here at Knockpatrick. We were able to teach beginning sign language to a couple of the boys on the work team who soon became good friends.
We had to say good-bye to that team early on Friday morning, but were soon making preparations for two work teams, a group from Grenada, a group from St. Vincent, as well as Jamaicans from all over the country who were coming to participate in camp.
In the middle of the day we realized that it was July 4th! Keri, the wife and mother of the missionary family here at Knockpatrick, invited us over to their apartment at night for a make-shift celebration. We were there with Erin, another long-term missionary here, and a deaf Jamaican who works in the kitchen. We had a nice evening of sharing stories while drinking hot chocolate and eating cookies. There were no fireworks, but we decided we could wait until August when Jamaica will be celebrating its Independence Day with extravagance.
Now all the new people are here and eagerly awaiting camp's official opening tomorrow morning. Our job will be to take care of the kids who are too young to fully appreciate the camp activities.
Please be praying for our patience as we attempt to control and entertain a large group of kids. We also need patience for times when our jobs are vague and communication is difficult. Also be praying for all the students and visitors who are here for camp. We had the opportunity to share the gospel with one young man the other night, and there are many more like him who might be confused or unsure about salvation. Pray for their understanding and open hearts as well as our ability to take advantage of conversation opportunities.
Sometimes the little kids can teach us the most profound things:

Jesus has a telephone, tell Him what you need
tell Him what you need, tell Him what you need.
Jesus has a telephone, tell Him what you need
tell Him what you need right now.

Some want silver, some want gold,
But I want Jesus in my soul
Jesus has a telephone, tell Him what you need
tell Him what you need right now.

You Said Goodbye and We Learned How to Say Hello

We couldn't begin to retell you each of the goodbyes we both had to say before we came on this trip and the myriad of ways that people said "Bye! Have a good summer!" There was one salutation, though, that permeated through to the heart of our experience.
Many people offer advice and words of wisdom to someone embarking on an extended trip or overseas endeavor, but this particular one was a command. It was spoken with such sincerity and intensity that it captured Rachel's attention so much so that she couldn't get it off her mind. When she shared it with Betsy, we decided to make it the theme of our summer and soon after God brought our attention to a set of verses in Colossians to partner with that theme and solidify it in a Biblical basis.

The command was, "Go be Jesus to people,"
The verses are Colossians 3:12-17:
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

This idea of (metaphorically) clothing ourselves with the same attributes that Jesus demonstrated is vital to a ministry where people will only see Jesus if they see Him in us. Our time on this Island is spent interacting with kids, staff, teams, and even Jamaican people on the street who may or may not know Jesus personally but who are looking for Him in us. As Christians, we are never "off-duty." We should be constantly looking at people through Jesus' eyes and be such a light for Him that they can't help but look heavenward. No matter where we are or how difficult the situation is, we will always be called to be Jesus to those He came to save.
By taking these verses to heart and remembering the command of that special goodbye, our gaze has been focused and we are striving to daily live the love that He has shown us to every person we encounter and through all situations. If we aren't here for anything else, we are here to be Jesus to people.

It was a simple goodbye with a lasting lesson. Now we have learned how to say hello to our summer, to our work, to our teams, to our kids, to our neighbors, to our elders, to our strangers, to our ministry, to our Christian purpose, and to the entire world.

Join us as we make this our prayer for the summer. We obviously aren't saying "goodbye" because our summer just began, but we are saying a different kind of "hello."
Go be Jesus to people.

Sunday Stories

Yesterday was a very big day here at CCCD Kingston for a myriad of reasons.

To start the day off, Rachel and I learned how to cook a Jamaican breakfast from Ms. Yvette herself. At 6:30 in the morning we were frying bammies and dumplings while mixing saltfish with cabbage, green peppers, and onions to make an Americanized version of the Jamaican National Dish (which is ackee and saltfish).
Every day we cook with Ms. Yvette and she is teaching us how to make many of our favorite Jamaican dishes so that we can bring the recipes back to America with us.

Following breakfast was the Sunday School hour with the team dividing up to lead each of the three age groups. Rachel and I wandered from one to the other to the last making sure everything was going smoothly. Everything was - except the class with the elementary age kids.
At first the group gathered outside and introduced themselves, allowing each of the children to stand at the front and sign their names. After everyone had finished, one of the team members explained in detail how to play the game of Chain Tag, which they were using both to supplement their Bible story as well as to rid the kids of some of their excess energy.
After the girl explained the rules she signed, "Okay, everybody spread out!"
Immediately all the children ran in one straight line back into their classroom.
The team stood there. "Okay," the teacher shrugged. "Game time's over."

But finally after some admonition from team members and school teachers, even the elementary school kids calmed down and got through the Sunday School lesson - even completing a cute little craft.

The middle school and high school students were extremely enthralled by their respective Deaf teachers and were actively involved in the lessons. Students from both classes were able to clearly explain what they had learned in Sunday School during the sharing time in the church service.

The church service was also led by a Deaf man - one who is a pastor of a Deaf church in Tennessee, and the children were excited about his sermon before he even began. When he got up there the first thing he asked them was "What did I preach about last year?" and all the students rushed to raise their hands and sign about "the donkey that talked! the donkey that talked!" This man has a gift for keeping the children's attention and impressing upon them the point of his message.

After church was over began the rushing around making preparations for graduation. Our job was to staple sheets of paper with the words to a hymn inside each of the programs. Our secondary job was to guard all the things that Ms. Lawrence had placed in the office until she came back for them to carry over to the church. While we were waiting for her return, a cute little girl named Anna joined us in the office - mostly because she liked rocking in the rocking chair. We asked her how old she was and she replied "My mom says I'm four." Although she was very shy at first, she soon became extremely talkative. She informed us that our skin was very "lightened", that a mean rock had hurt her big toe, and she knew how to do the hokey-pokey but when asked to teach us all she would say was "You can go ahead."

Then when the starting time for the graduation came and went and no one had come to get the things from the office or even go over to the church yet, we decided it was time to venture outside, bringing Anna with us.
Outside we were greeted by Felecia Campbell, a good friend of ours. She and her husband (both Deaf) work at JDV where we had the opportunity to stay with them for a month last summer, helping them by taking care of their two adorable daughters, Phoebe and Danae, so that Felicia and Damion could focus on other necessary tasks. Yesterday, however, the girls had stayed at home, but in her arms was the newest addition to their family - 7 month old Caleb. We quickly took him off his mother's hands and were reminded of how close we got to his two sisters last summer. We were also able to help keep him occupied during the graduation service so his mother could watch undisturbed.

Yes, the graduation service did eventually start - only about an hour past schedule. There were a few minor glitches when they suddenly remembered someone needed to hand out the programs after 30 people had already been seated, and the wrong CD information was given to the man running sound. Overall, though, the ceremony was very nice and Rachel and I were both overwhelmed as we watched our close friends get their diplomas and enter a new stage of their lives. It seems like just yesterday that we were playing with the boys and having them say "Hi, my name is Kemoy Campbell and I am 9 years old."

After all the festivities were over we came back to CCCD Kingston and had dinner - Felicia, Damion, and Caleb joined us as well as other staff members from the CCCD Knockpatrick campus who had participated in the graduation ceremony. We had a lot of fun catching up with people and the team got to interact with even more people involved in the Jamaican deaf community.

We completed the evening with a powerful devotion led by one of the hearing men on the team, who reminded us that all love comes from God and if we call ourselves followers of God then we will seek to demonstrate that love in every aspect of our lives. When he closed with "I'd be on the streets, in the gutter, or in jail if the love of God hadn't changed me" we realized that we could all say that - and we now understand just a little bit better how extremely blessed the two of us are to have such "boring" testimonies.

When You Think You're Getting Guineps, Make Some Limeade!

So we learned this morning that despite the fact that we are well known around here as "Jamericans", the emphasis should still be placed on "Americans", unfortunately.

There is a fruit here called Guineps. Guineps look a lot like grapes, just bigger with a thicker skin. To eat a guinep, you peel of the outer skin, and then suck on the small ball of fruit inside. You eat all the fleshy fruit and then spit out the inner seed.
Guineps are amazing.

Yesterday evening we were shopping with the school's principal to get food and supplies for ourselves and for the 21 person team arriving today. Ms. Lawrence had told us that if we saw anything at all that we wanted while we were shopping to grab it and stick it in one of our three carts. So as we passed through the produce section we saw a container of guineps! They were being sold in bags with about 10 guineps per bag. We both saw them, looked at each other and smiled, and put one bag in our cart.

However, in Jamaica grocery stores the products are not as well labeled as they are in American grocery stores. There is a little tag to say how much it costs, but nothing that clearly states what the item actually is.
But regardless of that, we enjoyed our time at the grocery store and were very excited about our guineps. We decided last night that we would have some after our breakfast this morning as a nice way to start a day that is guaranteed to be busy.

Betsy placed the guinep in her mouth this morning to peel off the skin with her teeth and immediately spit it back out.
"Blech," she said. "That tasted awful."

Rachel carefully tried to peel hers with a fork while Betsy complained about the extremely strong, bitter, lime taste that the peel of the guinep had.

"Maybe it's a lime." Rachel said.
We both stopped.

Sure enough, once Rachel broke through the skin with the fork, there was no pink fleshy fruit of the guinep. It was definitely a lime.

"This is going to have to go in the memoir," Betsy said.
"Do we really want to put it in the memoir?" Rachel asked. "It'll just show how incredibly stupid we are." She paused. "I know, we'll post it on the blog."

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

We have set a goal for ourselves this trip - to formally document our experience here by writing a memoir and (hopefully!) getting it published upon our return.

As our trip has developed we have recorded all the "memoirable" moments in story-form including such titles as "Toilet Flushing 101", "The Deaf leading the Deaf", and "You Know You're a Whitey When..." There will also be illustrations to accompany the stories taken from our nightly drawn memoirs of daily excitements. We even plan to compile a section of photographs that document our time on the Island and with the kids to be included in the center of the book.

We are extremely excited about this endeavor, but we have never published a book before and are therefore unsure of the best way to go about writing the book, getting it published, and promoting awareness for the book and CCCD. If you or anyone you know has any tips for us or any helpful connections as we work on this, please let us know! You can contact us by commenting on this blog or by emailing us at nahgwan@gmail.com.

So be excited about what will "soon come" and keep your eyes peeled for "Talons On the Tin Roof" in bookstores near you!

~Betsy and Rachel~

Back to the Beginning

Our trip started a little over a week ago on June 7th, 2008. We arrived in Kingston, Jamaica and immediately met the first work team as we all piled into a van together for the short drive to the school campus.

After only a few minutes with them, we knew that this team was like no other team we had worked with before. In every way possible they did things differently than we had experienced in the past.

At first we thought we would be spending our week doing construction with the team, but it turned out that our help was needed in the office. Leaving the team to tear down and set up forms and then mix and pour concrete, we spent our days copying a myriad of exams for the teachers using a copier named Max, a stapler named Big Blue, and a tape dispenser named Arnold.

Our time in the office brought on a new acquaintance, Ms. Leanora, the secretary of the Kingston campus' office. We always look forward to our time with her because she keeps us laughing with claims that Betsy sounds like a turkey and that Rachel is a mischievous child and that we both need to learn to speak Jamaican. She has also helped encourage us with this blog, encouraged Betsy in her newly discovered talent for drawing, and taught us to always be happy when we eat so that we will be content with whatever food we have.

Working in the office the first week also brought numerous interactions with the teachers. The mornings always began with cheerful "Good mornings!" from everyone who stepped into the office. On one such morning, when we asked Mrs. Williams how she was, her response was, "I am blessed." And as she left she told us to "have a blessed day." At the door, though, she paused and turned around saying, "The day is already blessed - have it."

Every Wednesday there is evening chapel for the students. We advised the team to have a story or something prepared as a lesson for chapel, so we also decided that we would prepare a new song to sign. We chose "He Reigns" by the Newsboys and were very excited about hot it turned out and especially about how well it was received. The team also prepared a skit about the Good Samaritan (story found in Luke 10) and we were very impressed with how well they captivated and maintained the students' attention and also at how much of the story the students could remember and tell back when it was over.

On Thursday we took the team on an afternoon outing. Our first stop was Sun Island which is a Christian run T-shirt store that does a lot of business with the school and gives the teams and gives the teams a chance to buy some Jamaican souvenirs and know that their money is going to a good cause. The second stop was the Devon House which is a culturally permeated site with a museum, shops, beautiful gardens, and the best ice cream in the world. Well, at least the best ice cream in the Caribbean.

At the end of the week, as a way to say a special "Thank you" to the team, the kids put on a Friday night performance that involves saying Thank You individually, dance numbers, and signed songs. After dinner on Friday the team gave out ice cream and cake to the kids and there was one big party for everyone's last night together (but not for us!!)

The team left on Saturday and because there was no team coming in, we began a quiet weekend with just us and the kids. Sunday was probably the highlight of the week. We piled into a bus with all the kids and went to Havenhill Baptist. When we arrived we were cheerfully greeted by many church members who knew sign language and were led to a section of pews reserved especially for the deaf visitors. Even though we were the only two white people in the church, we felt overwhelmingly welcomed into this church body and never once felt awkward and out of place. And when we raised our voices and hands together with the Jamaicans and sang Days of Elijah it was evident that this was one body of believers singing praises to our God.

Immediately after the church service we were brought to a Sunday School room where the church members provided sandwiches and juice for EVERYONE before beginning a Deaf Sunday School class. After discussing what had been learned from the sermon, we piled back into the bus and were driven home.

we now begin a new week of work in the office while the students take their exams. And thus, as the new blog has officially begun, we will keep you posted on all our adventures to come.

The day is blessed - have it.

~Betsy and Rachel~