It was dark when we left and dark when we returned. Our team of 21 departed from the Raleigh Road Baptist Church parking lot at 4:15 am on Monday, October 28th. Within 12 hours we had flown to Montego Bay (via Charlotte) and taken an hour long bus ride to the inner part of the island to our ministry base in Grange Hill, Westmoreland parish.
Tuesday - Thursday the team engaged in a variety of ministry activities. Some did minor construction on the church's new addition. Others visited a public school and still others conducted a blood pressure clinic. By the afternoon, construction was still ongoing, but the other teams had combined efforts to conduct a Vacation Bible School for the school kids. In the evening, we worked with some of the Grange Hill worship leaders to conduct three nights of worship and preaching.
On Friday the team visited an infirmary (i.e. nursing home). It was a very emotional visit as many in our team had not witnessed conditions so challenging in person. But, we brought some joy to the residents by singing gospel hymns and by praying with several residents.
From there the team went to a craft market and then on to the beach for a little well deserved, r-n-r.
On Saturday we began the trip home and arrived back in Wilson at about 9:45 PM........in the dark.
In some ways I guess "dark" is a good metaphor for our trip. While Jamaica is a highly sought after tourist destination, spiritually speaking it is a place of great oppression. The overt drug use, highly sexualized culture, and lingering effects of false religion have left a tremendous spiritual oppression on the island. It was into that darkness that our team from Raleigh Road Baptist Church took the light of the gospel.
Our prayer is that the seeds of the gospel that were planted will bear much fruit as the Holy Spirit does his work of convicting of sin and bringing the spiritually dead to life.
