Monthly Archives: January 2014
Jamaica 2014 travel blog
JANUARY 2 we have arrived at Montego Bay Jamaica. The ministry team is currently 5 men and 2 women, with 5 more to arrive next week. We gave brought thousands of gospel tracts and many Bibles. We will start to preach to the locals here in Montego Bay, from Sam Sharp’s Square, right beside the statue of Sam Sharp, who was a Christian slave, a Baptist preacher, and a man used by God in the abolishing if slavery here. He is also a national hero, and his statue depicts him with a Bible in his hand preaching to the local people around a out 1830. He was hung for his role in a slave revolt, dying for what he believed in. He believed that from one man God made every man and established their nations and boundaries. ON Wednesday we will rent a bus and travel to Ochoa Rios to preach.
Jan 10, We now have 11 persons here to minister in Jamaica. The Osborne family from Canada has finally arrived after delays due to weather. Today we were blessed to have privileges of sharing the Gospel at a local school. Approximately 100 children heard a message from Jespsie Bates. Afterwards we gave them each a Gospel tract. Afterwards we preached at the open air produce market in Montego Bay. This is an amazing place. Men and women pack in here to buy or sell any and everything. Thousands pass through the market during the afternoon. Tomorrow we will visit a local infirmary that we have visited in previous years. Only those that are severely disabled or dying are given residence here. We try to meet with each, share a Gospel message, and sing some hymns. Afterwards we will stop by Sam Sharps square and preach to all those that pass by on a Saturday afternoon.
Jan, 14. We are now 7 members strong. Several of our team have returned home. We had a worship time here amongst ourselves on Sunday. Later that night some of us walked down to the waterfront where the locals here gather in an open air nightclub-like setting. Some bring alcohol, others bring snacks and they buy or sell all their products, and then they just hang out. We preached there for a few hours, knowing many had not gone to a church that day, and some may never go to a church.
On Monday, Jerry Osborn and his family rented a van and we traveled to Falmouth and spent an afternoon preaching there. Tuesday we drove four hours to Kingston and preached there at the downtown market area. Kingston is a decaying and dark town. It is by far the largest city here. For the first time in 4 years the police there insisted a permit was required to preach with amplification. It was late afternoon, so we packed everything up and prayed for God to bless our endeavours and save the souls of many here in Jamaica. Tomorrow we will drop someone off at the airport and then return to Falmouth to preach again .
Sunday Jan 19. We worshipped today with some local believers here in Montego Bay, This was a house church plant for Good News Missions, an independent Baptist ministry. The past few days there has been much rain in Montego Bay. By God’s providence and by the generosity of the Osborn family, we were able to travel and preach in areas where there was no rain. We made a 4 hour trip to Port Antonio and had a great day of preaching. This is on the east side of the island, then we spent Friday preaching on the west end of the island, in Negril and Lucea. We have given away all the Bibles we brought, but we still have many Gospel tracts yet to be given away. We have turned in the rental van, so the next 4 days we will travel to and from the square in Montego Bay by foot.
Thursday, January 23, in what seemed like a twinkling of an eye, our time in Jamaica is finished. We spent our final 3 days preaching in Montego Bay, At Sam Sharp’s Square and at a huge taxi/ bus lot. We were out of Bibles, but we preached and distributed tracts. The Osborn family were using tracts with their website and the next day there was an e-mail sent to them asking if they had been sent by God to preach in Jamaica. A waitress and a waiter at a Chineese restaurant we ate most often were both asking great questions about the Christian faith. The young waitress sent a note to Mike asking for continued prayer because, since he had witnessed to her, she had been making changes in her life. Several of the local homeless men became attached to me be cause of the meat patties or soup I had given them. One day they even got into a fist fight over a bowl of soup. I pray that after hearing so much Gospel preaching, God will deliver them. A local woman with her 2 sons is in need of much prayer. She has one young son in public school and her older son has severe autism. He is much larger than her and combative. At times she can only restrain him by tying his arm to a street sign. She sat day after day listening to the preaching while begging. She can not work, she said, because there is no one else to look after her son. Her name is Rosalee, and her son’s are Christopher and Chadwick. By all appearance the autistic and insane are not given medical assistance here and are left to beg or rummage to feed themselves. We have found many in Jamaica who are insane, demon possessed, or brain damaged due to drug use. Please pray for these people and for more laborers to share the Gospel with them.
On Thursday I flew from Jamaica to Orlando. I am now visiting my friend John Barros. John is in full time ministry working outside the Orlando Women’s Center abortion clinic and as chaplain at the Orlando 29th Street Jail. Today I went with John to the abortion clinic where we were greatly blessed to be joined by about ten young men and women from Reformaton Bible College. They sang hymns and the young men took turns sharing the Gospel with the women inside the clinic, preaching from the sidewalk. Tomorrow we will drive to Tampa and meet some others men to preach to those at a pirate festival.
