The Least of These

Hey everyone its Tayler. We will soon have a new video posted about the Infirmary that I would highly recommend watching (we are having some technical difficulties). Whether or not you have been able to experience the Infirmary first hand, this video captures the true essence of God’s work among “the least of these” here in Jamaica.

For those of you who may not know much about the Infirmary, at first glance it may not seem like a place you would expect God to be. At this rundown government facility, you will find people with mental and physical disabilities, those whose family could not take care of anymore, or even didn’t want anymore. Picture a nursing home in the worst condition in the U.S, multiply it by about 100, and you will come close to picturing the Infirmary.

Every week, Won By One To Jamaica takes teams to visit the Infirmary to spend time reading the Bible and talking with the patients there. Usually a little apprehensive and taken aback by the horrendous conditions, the Americans approach the experience with the intentions of blessing the residents, but surprisingly end up being blessed back more than they ever thought possible. The residents that live at the infirmary are so full of God’s love and joy that it is almost impossible to process or understand. I have heard some of the best sermons preached within the walls of the Infirmary, not to mention some of the most amazing prayers.

One of my dearest friends at the infirmary is a woman named Mary. Mary is in her early seventies and is permanently bedridden due to a faulty operation on her back several years ago. Not much is known about how she came to be at the infirmary, but her legacy is one that will live on in my life for several years to come. One would expect someone who spends every waking moment bedridden in the same room to be quite unpleasant and depressing. That couldn’t be more opposite from the witty, funny, and joyful woman who I have come to know and love. Each week we spend time together laughing, praying, reading the Bible, and reminiscing about her early years. Even more, my absolute favorite thing is to sit and listen to her sing hymns. Each week I walk away dumbfounded that such a woman exists. Never have I seen such faith in the midst of so much hardship. There are countless stories such as this from individuals who have experienced the Infirmary, and the amazing people who live there.

It is practically impossible to capture in words the depth of emotion that comes from experiencing the Infirmary, but it certainly is a favorite place of mine here in Jamaica.

One Month?!

Hello my friends! This is Justin and I just wanted to write a quick note this morning as it does mark one month since arriving to Harmons! It is hard to believe that we have been in this amazing place for a month now. The time sure has flown by. We have learned lots, met some amazing people, and had many unforgettable experiences. And we're not even half way done yet! With all that God has shown us and taught us this summer, it is hard to believe there is so much more in store.

This week is going very smoothly. We have a group from Columbia, Missouri in Harmons. And although it pains me to see all of the Missouri Tiger shirts, I have enjoyed their company and excitement throughout the last few days. And don't worry Jayhawk fans, last night I let everyone who didn't like Mizzou eat dinner first. Two words: National. Champions. :)

I encourage you all to check out the three part video based on the show Extreme Home Makeover on YouTube or in the video section of our blog (to the right). Sorry it is broken up into three sections, but it was the only way that stubborn YouTube would accept it. It was a lot of fun to make, but a pain in the butt to get on the web. By the way, I noticed that sometimes Part 2 of the video doesn't show up on the blog. If you click here you can most certainly find all three parts of the video. I hope you all enjoy it! Special thanks to Lee's Summit Community Church for their help last week with the video. You are all great.

Thanks for everyones continued prayers and support. Until next time...

Another Week!

Hey Everybody! This is Tim and I would like to give everybody a little update on what has been going on here in Harmons, Jamaica.

Well, last week, there was a large team here from Lee’s Summit Community Church from Lee’s Summit, Missouri. Their home church would be very proud of the work they accomplished and the way in which they did it. The whole week the group was so full of energy and enthusiasm and because of that, it reflected in the work they did…they set the record for foundations made in a week, they set the bar at four. Let that be a challenge for all other groups who come down! But, sadly, time passed by and after the week, they had to go back home. On behalf of the staff, I would like to say that we really enjoyed all of the time we were able to spend with you guys and we hope that you will all come back to Harmons sometime in the future! WE MISS YOU!

Right now, the current team here is from Columbia, Missouri and this is their first time as a group coming here. Already, I have noticed in the group a big desire to get to experience the Jamaican culture and love on the Jamaican people, which is great and I pray that they all have a great experience doing such.

Well, that’s all for right now. Please remember to keep myself and the rest of the staff and all of our Jamaican friends in your prayers. Also remember to keep checking in to blog about every other day to check out what is going down with us, many more to come!
With Love,
Tim

I Saw The Sign

To my dearest family and friends… Seth here! Welcome to my first blog while here in Jamaica, other than my staff profile that is. I want to share with you all about a woman I have met down here, Juliet Green, also called Ava. Juliet is deaf and mute. Unfortunately, in Jamaica the culture doesn’t accept anyone who is different or has a handicap in any way. Most Jamaicans, even in Harmons, consider Juliet to be “dumb.” Many of them do not take the time to get to know her or try to communicate with her.

I met Juliet the second week of my time in Harmons. I was playing basketball and saw her sitting alone under a tree. I figured I would go and say hello and make a new friend. I quickly realized that she couldn’t speak or hear, and she started to write on my hand. I wrote back on hers, but we quickly ran out of hand space. So I ran inside and grabbed my journal. Now I have a couple pages of my journal filled with conversations with Juliet. We talked a lot about her life. I found out that she had gone to school in Kingston and that she’s 29 (I don’t think she looks 29, I was guessing maybe 40, but that’s beside the point). She wrote that she has a sister and family. She also gave me her address. I felt like it was a really sweet opportunity that God presented this woman to me, to be able to open up and deeply communicate in a way that was different than the ordinary.

After that I hadn’t had the chance to spend time with her until last Saturday. She came to the worksite where we were building a house for my friend Eddie. She said hello and just stood around for awhile. Nichole was also there, and once we tried to communicate with her a bit more through hand gestures and “writing” with our fingers, she got excited and ran back to her house to get a book. Bringing the book back, she showed us that it was filled with phrases and pictures on how to sign. Nichole and I spent over 2 hours watching and learning how to sign common, and some not so common, phrases. We also learned how to “sing” the hymns, “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name” and “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” When she saw that we were catching on and making the attempt to learn how to communicate with her, she said we could borrow her book to “try hard” and learn on our own time to better talk with her in the future.
I think I have recently been struggling to go deeper in my conversations with Jamaicans, and this time spent with Juliet has just opened my eyes to the fact that I shouldn’t take my time here for granted and that I should try to talk with Jamaicans about everything, God, life, and culture, and not be afraid to try and communicate with them, no matter what the circumstances might be.

(Hi Mom!!)

Summer Staff Profile #4

Name – Nichole Smith
Age - 21
Hometown – Lower Burrell, PA
High School – Burrell High School
College – Allegheny College
Major – Mathematics (with the goal of continuing into Secondary Education)
Hobbies – reading, singing, guitar, spending time with friends, laughing, all that good stuff…
Interests – drawing near to God and living out His will in my life
Favorite Color – I can never choose this kind of thing… I love all colors, especially bright ones, and I suppose I would have to say my top 2 at the moment would be orange and turquoise/any shade of that blue/greenish color
Favorite Sports Team – umm… I can name the Pittsburgh teams, but that’s about it… haha
Favorite Book – the Bible, Irresistible Revolution
Favorite TV Show – recently it’s been Lost, I also enjoy Dancing with the Stars
Favorite Food – chocolate milk, I don’t care that it’s not really a food
Favorite Jamaican Food – Jerk Chicken, bag juice, pumpkin soup
Favorite Music – anything but rap or the majority of country, I thoroughly enjoy anything with good words, or good sound, haha
Biggest Dream – to fulfill God’s purpose in my life… and less vaguely, see the world and visit Greece and/or Costa Rica and become fluent in Spanish
My job in Jamaica – Assistant to the Director (not to be confused with Assistant Director). I basically do all the little things that Josh and Loyd don’t want to do, like take soda pop inventory, take care of coffee orders, put the pictures online every day, etc…
Biggest thing I have learned lately – a few hours ago I learned how to roast and package Harmons Coffee… but I suppose on a deeper note, God’s been urging me to really put my trust in Him, with my own future as well as with the future of all the people He brings into my life this summer, Jamaicans and Americans.

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee!!!

Hello all! Nichole here :) Welcome to my first Jamaican blog! I hope you’re as excited as I am. So looking at our blogs so far, I feel like we need to add a little more information on our day to day life. And so, as you saw in my profile, earlier today I got the opportunity to learn how coffee down here is made. Every week as part of my job, I help take the coffee orders from the group and deliver the amount needed to Lenny, a.k.a. Coffee Man. Fortunately, today I had some down time and decided to actually go help out.

The process starts with the coffee growers. If there are any coffee lovers out there reading, you might be familiar with the fact that Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee is extremely expensive. Lucky for this coffee lover, it’s a lot cheaper down here. So Won by One would buy and sell the coffee to the teams at this cheaper rate. Recently, however, it was discovered that there were some farmers in Harmons growing coffee, but with no market in which to sell. So Harmony House Coffee was born.

Today Lenny informed me that every winter the coffee down here is harvested. The Harmony House will buy it in bulk from the local farmers and store it in a small coffee room off of the courtyard. The large bags have to be hanging so that the air can keep the coffee beans cool so they don’t sweat and get ruined. When the bags are hanging like this, the beans will last up to 2 years.

So, now that there are teams here, every week we give them the opportunity to buy the coffee and the process begins. First the beans are roasted on an open fire. For good roasted beans it takes about 45 minutes of slow roasting and stirring in a small pot. There are probably only about 8 or 9 pounds that are roasted at a time. I got the chance to do some stirring myself, and let me tell you, with the heat and smoke from the fire added to the hot temperature of Jamaica itself, it gets pretty darn hot. Lenny also showed off his arm muscles that he has accumulated from stirring coffee for so many years.

After the coffee is roasted (which smells wonderful by the way), the Jamaicans dump the hot beans onto a screen type contraption that has a large fan positioned underneath to start the cooling process. The beans only take about 10 to 15 minutes to cool. Then they are dumped into smaller bowls. Once there is a fair amount of beans ready, they are poured into small bags and measured to be one pound each. (Technically we made sure that the scale was 1.02 lbs to take into account the weight of the bag, so no worries, everyone gets exactly one pound of delicious caffeinated coffee). We take orders for both beans and ground coffee, so for the ground, we measured the coffee beans first to make sure we had enough, then put them into a big grinder, then scooped the grinds into the bags. At that time the bags are sealed closed with a heat pressure thing so no air can get in and they will stay fresh for at least a year. Next we took the bags and slipped them into our nice burlap Harmony House Coffee bags. Tomorrow some of the team members will help with sewing on the labels.

Voila! My coffee experience was complete.

I really enjoyed being able to watch and help with this part of Jamaica. I love coffee and now I can say that I actually prepared some from scratch. I am definitely planning on helping again next week! I hope you enjoyed reading about a small part of Jamaican culture.

Family Matters

Hey everyone, its Tayler. This is pretty exciting because it’s the first time I’ve ever blogged. Woo Hoo!

It being Fathers Day and all, I thought it would be appropriate for me to write about something that has been on my mind a lot lately: family. For me and my fellow staffers, coming to Harmons this summer meant saying goodbye to many close friends, loved ones, and family members. As hard as it was to say goodbye, surprisingly enough what we found upon arrival was a new kind of family made up of eight crazy college students chasing after God’s heart in Jamaica.

I’m not quite sure when it happened, but somewhere between the awkward introductions, endless card games, and walks around Harmons, the eight of us have fallen in step with each other in such a way that its almost hard to believe we have only known each other for three weeks. As I write this I can hear laughter drifting in from the staff meeting room, a sound that often fills the halls of the Harmony house when we all get together.

Like any other family, ours is not perfect and is actually quite odd at times. We have laughed, cried, prayed, cooked, sweat, cleaned, done laundry, played games, and even fought off killer (not actually) insects together. All these invaluable countless moments have brought us together and enabled us to live in such close proximity enjoyably. Not to say that every moment has been perfect, but at the end of the day it comes down to the fact that we are all here for the same reason, and that’s enough to get past any differences or difficulties we may have.

This past week in May Pen especially has brought us together even closer, and I loved being able to work alongside my family all week demonstrating God’s love and grace. Working together on Vanessa’s house got me thinking about the bigger picture of God’s family too. Before we even met each other, the eight of us were already part of the same family. God chose to bring the eight of us together this summer and build literal relationships and bonds, but even before that the bond of being a part of God’s family is one that we already shared. Being part of the staff this summer has taught me a lot about family, big and small picture. The gifts and abilities that each of us possess contributes to the value and functioning of the whole. That’s the same way it works in God’s family, which is something that we are trying to enlarge through our work here this summer. I guess this is just my way of publically thanking God for the blessing of family in my life, big and small : )

Summer Staff Profile #3 (Seth's First Blog Ever!)

Name – Seth Roush

Age - 20

Hometown – Selinsgrove, PA

High School – Selinsgrove Area High School

College – Geneva College

Major – Christian Ministry with a focus in Missions

Hobbies – Drumming, Freestyle Raps, long walks on the beach, and Making People Happy.

Interests – I am interested in discovering who I am going to be in the future after this summer and how God is going to use this puzzle piece of my life to shape me.
Favorite Color – I think I am a fan of most colors but if I had to choose it would be toss up between red and blue.

Favorite Sports Team – Jamaican Bobsled team, E.A.G.L.E.S. , I also am a PENS fan, and college BBall is UK, and College football is PENNSTATE

Favorite Book – The Bible

Favorite TV Show - Fresh Prince, Seinfeld, Aqua Teen, Flight of the Conchords

Favorite Food – Pizza, Tacos, Hoagies, Frito Burrito’s

Favorite Jamaican Food – Pork

Favorite Music – is this a legal question? : Coldplay, Tacking Back Sunday, David Crowder, Lecrea, S & G, Masta Inc, Brand New, Jimmy Eat World, Copeland, Ground Breaking Ceremony… the list could go on for days.

Biggest Dream – To have a huge crowd of people singing music that Justin writes with me while drumming on stage in Central Park. Pretty sweet, am i right?

My job in Jamaica – Courtyard Coordinator. My job is to help make the night life in Harmons a hip place to be with a comfortable atmosphere in the courtyard of the Harmony House.

Biggest thing I have learned lately – The biggest thing that I have learned while being in Harmons is that Love conquers all. Trusting in God to give me patience and strength to make it through the day is a must when being drained from unconditionally loving on every one including Americans that come down and Jamaicans. But I love it. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Summer Staff Profile #2

Well I just wrote my first blog post this morning, so I figured a profile was in order. I look forward to sharing more about my experiences in Harmons as the summer goes on.

Name - Justin Harlan

Age - Just turned 22 while in Jamaica and never got floured.

Hometown - Overland Park, KS

High School - Blue Valley Northwest High School

College - The University of Tulsa

Major - Music, Arts Management, and Business Management

Hobbies - Singing, playing guitar, hanging out with my family and friends, sports

Interests - KC Chiefs (not so hot), KC Royals (not so hot), JAYHAWKS! (so hot right now)

Favorite Color - I have so many blue clothes my mom refuses to buy them for me anymore

Favorite Sports Team - Please refer to interests. And I enjoy the San Antonio Spurs.

Favorite Book - The Innocent Man by John Grisham, Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell

Favorite TV Show - American Idol, Prison Break, Full House, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, okay basically anything on late night on Nick at Nite

Favorite Food - Pizza and my mom's fajitas

Favorite Jamaican Food - Bag juice

Favorite Music - Oh wow... where to start... Dave, Jack Johnson, Citizen Cope, Jason Mraz, John Mayer, Dashboard, David Crowder, Switchfoot, Bayside... the list goes on.. and on...

Biggest Dream - To have a huge crowd of people singing music that I write with me while performing in on stage in Central Park. Dreaming big, right?

My job in Jamaica - Worship leader, morning devotional leader, and I make the videos on this blog

Biggest thing I have learned lately - What we see as a little in the US can go a long way elsewhere, so I have just been thinking about what I can eliminate out of my life financially and what I can do to help others who need it much more than I do.

Community

Hey everyone, this is Justin. You will find out more about me very soon as I am next to give my staff profile but I figured I would take a minute and just reflect on the past couple of weeks of my life. First of all, I can't believe I have almost been here for 3 weeks and my summer in Harmons is nearly a fourth of the way over. Time has flown by quicker than I can even explain and every day makes me feel closer and closer to the community of Harmons.

Last week, Olathe Bible Church and South Leawood Baptist Church came down to Harmons. What a way to start the summer. The group was very energetic, fun to be around, and made it very easy to wake up in the mornings. Whether it be Cheez-It running maul up the hills at worksites, Josh's ventriloquism skills, or Michelle's chipper attitude towards life, the group made us summer staff very excited about the summer to come. No pressure to future groups, but you have a lot to live up to. :)

Over the past three weeks here, yesterday was probably the highlight. The sense of community that is starting to be created between those who live in Harmons and the summer staff is incredible. This week, we are working on a house in May-Pen, which is about an hour drive from Harmons. It is for a pregnant lady that is due in August and didn't have much of a place to live at all. While we were working yesterday, a few boys walked by pushing a wheelbarrow and a big empty barrel, usually used for water. These two boys were clearly young enough to still be in school, so I asked them why they weren't at school today. The older boy went on to tell me that his mother didn't have enough money to send them to school. The saddest part about it is that it costs roughly $2 in US money to send a boy to school for a day. I asked them to take me to their house, where I met their mother, had a great conversation with her, received some candy (it was really good), and gave the oldest boy, Sheldon about $10 for school for the week. It really opened my eyes to the fact that $10 can go so far. In the States, we spend $10 on a pizza to fill us up for a few hours or buy a few gallons of gas so that we can drive our cars from place to place, when there are many kids like Sheldon who would love $10 so that they could get educated for the week. As someone who has been to Harmons 5 times before this summer, I feel like I have a pretty good sense of how fortunate I am to have the things that I have, but yesterday opened my eyes even more. If you feel the way I do, here is how you can get involved.

Last night, I went into John Robinson (a part of Harmons) and had dinner with a few of my Jamaican friends. I felt like I was in a scene of Cool Runnings or something, sitting at a bar, eating chicken and rice while everyone listened to the radio. The coolest part was that the people in John Robinson didn't make a big deal at all out of the fact that there was some random white dude walking around and eating with Jamaicans. I felt like the community knew who I was and accepted me for that. Later last night, Don the barber came and cut a few of the guys on staff hair. Again, just another example of being accepted in the community. When you are here for a week, Harmons feels like a trip, something that will end in a short matter of time. BUT, when you know you are going to be here for a summer, Harmons really does start to feel like home.

I am going to end with something that happened this morning. I have gotten into the habit of running a few miles every morning with my buddy McKenzie. Well we were getting to the end of our route this morning and came up on a group full of elementary schoolers walking to school. All of a sudden about ten young kids started running with us, smiling and laughing the whole way. I couldn't help but think, in my moment of extreme exhaustion, that this concept was nothing new. It was something I had been experiencing since I had been here. Very rarely do I do something in the community without having a Jamaican right there doing it beside me. When we are hauling maul, a Jamaican breaks it up for us. When we are building house, a few Jamaicans mix the concrete to put on the walls. When we are riding in a bus, a Jamaican is usually driving. And when I am out on a run and Jamaicans see me coming, they want to run with me. Some random white guy that they have accepted. Because lets be honest, life is something that is way to complex and difficult to do alone. You need multiple people running beside you. It is definitely something we lack in the States, but I am beginning to discover what true community could look like.

Week 1 Recap!

Hello Everybody!
Greetings from Harmons, Jamaica! Well, all is well here and we just got done with our first week with a team, which might I add, was a blast!

There were two groups down here teaming up. Both were youth groups from Kansas, one from Olathe Bible Church and the other from South Leawood Baptist Church. While they were here, they were able to build two houses, lay a foundation, and haul a ton of marl! Apart from all the grunt work, I know that I saw lives changed and people learning lessons that they will carry forever, which is what the ministry is all about…Changing Lives By Changing Lives. All in all, it was a very successful week and all of the staff would like to say THANK YOU to everybody involved and we hope that you all will come back to Harmons sometime soon.

Also last week, we were able to welcome full-time staffer Loyd Jacksons’ wife, Candy, who will be staying with us until the middle of the summer, and we are all very happy to have her here…she also brought us candy (which spawned a lot of dumb jokes because of her name) and that’s just awesome!

As for this week, the scheduled church from North Carolina dropped out so now we are hosting two people and we all (including the rest of the Summer Staff) are building a house outside of Harmons in a very rough area called May Pen. The house we are building is for a young, pregnant woman who is in need of shelter. It’s exciting to be able to do this for her and we all pray that God will bless this new house and her future in it.

In closing, I would like to ask you all to please keep me and the rest of the staff in your prayers. God has blessed us so far and we are anticipating the weeks to come!

Peace and Love,
Tim