Thursday was our last full day at CCCD. Our team was able to finish both the retaining wall for the water storage system, as well as planting the entire field. Bekah and Mrs. Boucher continued to have devotional time with the staff during this time.

We had time to just hang out with the kids after we worked. This was a great time to fellowship and have some more discussions that began the evening before.

During chapel, we performed our team song. After that, Jordan, Emma C., and Gemma shared their testimonies. It was another great chapel!

This was unfortunately the time that we had to say goodbye to the students at CCCD. We wouldn’t have time to see them the next morning, so Thursday evening was tough. It’s amazing how close of a bond people can make in just one short week.

While everyone else was coming back to the Great House, Bekah and Anna stayed behind for a few minutes. They eventually came up to join the rest of the team, and they told us that the boy they were talking to, Dante, decided to give his life to Christ! Although we were all sad to leave the students, this was such a great way to end our time at CCCD!

I know that we are already back home, but I wanted to make sure we finished up our blog. The last couple days in Jamaica were hectic and filled with some great things.

Wednesday was another work day. Part of the team finished up the retaining wall to keep CCCD’s water storage clean, and the other part of the team worked on planting a field.

While the team was working on those projects, Mrs. Boucher and Bekah had devotional time with some of the staff at CCCD. This was a great time for everyone to discuss and reflect on how God’s grace has worked in their lives.

At chapel that evening, we had some powerful things happen. There were some distractions at first, including a giant moth flying around, but we prayed, gave it to God, and kept going.

We started out with the song “Alive” performed by Anna, Justin, and Bri. They did a great job!

Next, the team performed their skit. This was a powerful skit that shows that you can’t work, buy, or earn your way into Heaven. It was a skit that laid everything out very clearly, but it had a message that needed to be shared.

After the skit, Brian shared his testimony. The CCCD students were enthralled. People were crying and his story truly touched people.

Once he was finished, we asked if anyone would like to ask Jesus into their hearts. No one raised their hands, but we prayed and told them that the team would be hanging out in case anyone wanted to talk about becoming saved.

It took a few minutes, but then great things began to happen. Our team was dispersed throughout the CCCD students, having conversations with them. Through that time, two students decided to give their lives to Christ – Tyreke and Cavel. This was such an answer to prayer! I also know that seeds were planted in some other students that didn’t give their lives to Christ while we were there, but I believe that they have begun considering it. Please join us in praying that someone will reach them and that they will make the decision to live for Christ.

Emma C.: We went to the big tree. We made our own dampers over a campfire. They are a bread-type roll. We rolled it onto a stick and we cooked it over an open campfire in the woods. After we cooked the dampers for a few minutes, we took it off the stick and put butter and jelly inside and ate it. After eating the damper, we had some chicken and mashed potatoes and a veggie mix. After we finished dinner, we all climbed the big tree and took photos. The big tree was big, just saying. After the big tree, we all headed back by truck or by foot to chapel.

Once we got back to the campus, we started chapel. We performed Grace Will Lead Me Home and fellowshipped with the kids, and then went to bed.

Martina: Today in chapel, I did my group song with Jordan, Emma, and Cia. It was Grace Will Lead Me Home by David Dunn. Then, Emma Hartz shared her testimony, and then I shared mine. Right after, Pandeta, one of the Deaf dorm mothers, came up and told me her entire testimony, and that my testimony really touched her. It was really cool to see that my testimony helped someone because I really didn’t expect it to help anyone that much.

Deanna: On this trip, I have observed people like Brian not really communicating in most conversations because everyone is talking and there is no signing. He probably feels left out. I’m hearing impaired and I’ve never gone a whole day deaf in public as far as I can remember. I thought this would be perfect opportunity to do that since this is a mission trip with Deaf people. So today, I decided to leave my cochlear implants in my bag and not use them at all today to put myself in Brian’s shoes and to give myself a touch of what he goes through every day.

I woke up and everyone was talking. There was not much signing at all. I felt really left out and felt like I was almost watching a movie without sounds. Then I went to breakfast, which was hard. I looked over at Brian and he wasn’t communicating because he wasn’t involved in any conversations. But then, when Mrs. Raisch and I went to work in the field planting seeds, I felt like I belonged more. All the workers were Deaf, and I was able to get more communication. That was one of my highlights of the day. Just working with Deaf people.

That led to heartfelt conversations with our team farmers and talking about our testimonies. Lunch happened again, and it was all hearing people again. It was hard again. I felt isolated.

I went to go hang out with the kids. I still felt kind of isolated because a lot of the hearing kids were there and they were talking, and there were a few Deaf kids, so I stayed with them. Because I felt isolated, that’s why I started to talk to one Deaf teen and one Deaf adult. That went on for at least a half hour. I was more focused because I didn’t have as many distractions.

After a while, I started to forget about the hearing kids. I just noticed my visual perspective was ten times heightened because I was so focused on all the Deaf conversations.

Chapel rolled around, and I finally understood why the students are so distracted. There are no sounds to keep them focused on the front. Even I was distracted a lot of chapel except for the testimonies.

I had one girl ask me why I had my cochlear implants out. When I explained why, she thought it was really cool.

I feel like after this whole experience, I feel more humbled and aware of how Brian and other Deaf kids feel when we are there and we just talk. I think from this day forward, I will be more aware of Deaf people and make sure they are included.

I want to start out by apologizing that we will not have pictures with this blog. For some reason, technology isn’t working well and my pictures won’t transfer to my computer. Hopefully we’ll get more pictures up tomorrow!

Mr. Recker: We set concrete forms today, pulled weeds, prepared a retaining wall to be extended in height. Tomorrow, we will continue to set concrete forms, hoping to form on Wednesday.

Brian: This morning, I was ready to get started with my day, but Richard, the maintenance man at CCCD, came to tell me that something was broken.  I went to see what was going on, and there was an issue with the air compressor, so they were not able to fill up the tires of the tractor. The compressor had a belt that was broken. They didn’t have a backup. They had another shop at the top of a hill, but the air compressor is very large. I had to figure out how to fill the tire. I used a shopvac with a blower, and added tubing to fill the tire up.  It was a temporary fix, but it was good enough to get it to the other shop. But it really hit me that they don’t have the appropriate equipment. My work at DC has everything. It really broke my heart to see that. It had a big impact on me.

Mrs. Raisch: The farming team was led by a former student, Andre Simmonds. I was excited that we were able to work alongside him.

Justin: All the work we did was harder than it looked. We used machetes to dig holes so we could plant the beans.

Martina: I really enjoyed farming today. We worked with a Deaf farmer named Barton, who works all day every day, and has worked there for 50 years.

Deanna: I realized how much I complain about work at home. After doing today’s hard work, I don’t think that I should be complaining about the work I have to do at home.

Anna: I thought that it was cool tonight in chapel to share my personal testimony. I felt like my testimony was nothing special, but I appreciated the opportunity to relate in a different way with the kids and share my story.

Cia: Tonight, I got to share my testimony in chapel. I didn’t really want to because I didn’t feel like it was relatable, but I felt like God was telling me to do so. I just hope that it sent a message to the students.

Today’s blog was written by multiple people on the team. It’s in a little bit different format, but I thought it was fun to get some of their favorite parts of the day like this. Today we have Bri, Deanna, Anna, Martina, and Emma H.

Bri: During breakfast, which was delicious, and during dishes, I was contemplating how everyone was very generous and would continue to volunteer immediately. It was very encouraging to see everyone so eager to serve. I’m excited to see their servant hearts grow even more throughout the week.

Deanna: We traveled to a Deaf church today. It was very different from a hearing church because in the Deaf church, you’re just signing. It made me feel at home because I go to Deaf camp every summer but I didn’t this past summer, so getting to experience that again was really cool for me.

Anna: It was really cool to see that no matter our language or how we communicate, we can all come together and use sign to worship Christ, and that there’s no communication barriers between us and God. In fact, there was one point that I got chills because we were able to worship together in the same language.

Martina: I got to pet a dog today at church! That was a nice experience because we were told not to touch the dogs at the school. His name was Jacob!

Emma H.: I just thought it was really cool and neat that I just went down to see the kids and they all knew my name. It was just cool that they remembered my name.

Martina: I got a sign name today! It’s an “M” that shakes near the corner of the right eye. Shawayne gave it to me!

Bri: I also had the opportunity to share my testimony, not only with my team, but with the students at CCCD. It was really encouraging to see everyone so engaged and truly paying attention to what I was saying compared to last year when a lot of students wouldn’t pay attention during the chapels. It made me feel like my story was worth being told.

We will have team members writing the blog posts together.  Saturday’s blog will be written by Jordan and Martina:

We woke up and went to breakfast at 9:00. We got to sleep in a little bit because of our full day of traveling the day before. It was just a relaxing day to play with the kids and get to know them.  The children did not have any school, and we didn’t have any work, so the door was open to opportunities galore. As a returning member (Jordan) it was quite pristine to get to know all the students from before on the previous trip. We got to play with the kids with the chalk that was brought out. They wrote “Jesus loves you” on the basketball court and put their handprints around it in different colors, which was really interesting to see because they just did that on their own. Socializing with the hoodlums made the time pass quite quickly. Before you knew it, it was lunchtime and I was quite famished. Once again, it was good to enjoy the Jamaican cuisine. We had Jamaican mac and cheese and fancy bread.

After lunch, we played 4-square with the kids and kicked a ball around. Then we went on a walk and saw pigs, cows, and chickens. We named one pig Demarcus and the other one Rachel. We saw banana trees and coffee bean plant things. We tried a not-ripe orange/lime hybrid, which was very sour. Eve A (the missionary at CCCD) showed us the water collection system, but only the ones for the animals. This would also be the sight where the concrete will be laid by our team. A large frog had also found the large water system to be a great spot.

After our walk, we had dinner. We had beef, veggies, rice, and plantains (similar to a deep fried banana). All the food here is really good. Beef is what’s for dinner.

After dinner, we had a team meeting. We shared our highs and lows for the day.

Essentially, it was relaxing to have calmness and enjoyment before a long road of labor ahead. It was a good opportunity to learn about the kids and play with them. It was easy to acknowledge that God is good in the good times, but the challenge comes when things don’t go our way, especially when we don’t understand each other.

-Jordan and Martina

Hello!
This is where we will plan to keep everyone updated on what is going on during our trip, as long as we have access to the internet! I hope to have students write about each day themselves so you have the opportunity to get their perspectives on the trip. We’ll hopefully be able to show you all some pictures here as well so you’ll be able to have a glimpse into our week in Jamaica!

This is going to be a great trip!

Mrs. Boucher