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