Usually when we land into a new country, we are always a little bit lost on the airport, not really knowing where to go for the first minute, and then we organize ourself. Our landing to Kingston, Jamaica's capital was very special. Someone was waiting for us, and directed us to a VIP lounge, where we waited for the Pastor to come and pick us up... We had free coffee and soft drinks, what a blessing ! Later, we learned that the Pastor is also involved with the crew of the airport, that explained this special threat !
The next morning, we had our first opportunity to serve: We went to a shelter that welcome homeless people, and we simply set down and had discussions with some of the person staying there. Most of them were impressed that we just wanted to spend time with them, 'cause usually when people come they just bring food or clothe, and then leave quickly. We shared testimonies, explain the focus of our journey, listen to heart-breaking story and even prayed for some of them ! As Jesus said, there is more blessing to give than to receive. In our case, we only had our time to offer but to see how it touch some people there, it brought us definitely a lot of Joy !
After 3 days with the all team we split into 2 teams, half of us stayed in Kingston and half of us moved to St Anns Bay, a coastal town about 2 and hald hour away from Kingston.
I was with the team who went to St Ann's bay. The drive to our next ministry place took us across the Jamaican Island from North to South. God blessed us by being able to see the wonderful Jamaican nature ! We saw stunning rivers, big mountains, huge rocks... And finally arrived to St Ann's ! There, we met our host, pastor Jerry. She organized for us school visits, where we every time share a short program with songs, games and personal testimony. The rest of the time, we connected with the local people. We had the opportunity to meet and share quality time with the owner of a local supermarket, a volunteer of a youth center, one local fisherman, etc. It was nice to be able to meet people who didn't know that we were Christian, it gave us the opportunity to share the gospel with them not with our words, but actually with our acts !
I think that during this time in Jamaica, that was one of the major topic were God made me grow : When we were with the homeless people, in the school visits or with the local people, people saw us acting in a different way that the majority of the people. That is enough from our side to plant a seed in someone's heart, and then its the job of the holy spirit to change people's hearts, not ours ! Of course, we need to stay open if the holy spirit wants to use us more effectively in someone's life, but just interacting with people and trying to imitate Jesus in our behavior can be a powerful testimony.