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.