23 Very Warm but BLESSED Minnesotans

“Today is the day, you have made, I will rejoice and be glad in it (Psalm 118:24).”

Whether you know that passage as a Bible verse, a children’s song, or the latest lyric on KTIS, it does not change its truth or relevancy. For us in Jamaica, today was a day where God truly shared His joy with us. There is so much to say, but unfortunately, I only know my experience, so that will be what I share with you.

It began with the longest car ride yet to the Windsor Girl’s Home in St. Anne’s (1/4 an island away), during this time, I grew closer to God through rigorous prayer due to the fact that I was nervous beyond reason. But what I anticipated was not what God had in mind. The girls were receptive, joyful and I pray that we were as much a blessing to them as they were to us. We are going back tomorrow and I can’t wait.

The evening was punctured by two spontaneous events I did not expect. One was a meal with a 13 year old boy named Owien (oh-wee-en) who Stieg generously gave a free lunch, the other was conversing with a ‘christian-rastafarian-naturalist-skeptic’ named Jordan (he was hard to nail down as you can see) in the ocean.

Besides theses spontaneous events full of God’s love and humor, we went to the Boy’s and Girl’s club in Montego Bay The music was wonderful, the fellowship was heart-warming, and our message blessed by God, with Marching Band and All!

Once again, thank-you for your generous support and never-ceasing prayer, we can tell you haven’t stopped. Today has been, by far, the best day of work on Jamaica.

For the "Team"
Josh Larkin

One Week & Counting on the Island...

would like to start by sharing a joke from my humorous room-mate Mark, who, before allowing us to go to bed, asks the ingenious question, “Why are there interstate highways in Hawaii?” Things have been going well.

Now, today was a first for even Stieg and Marilyn. After a morning visit to the craft-market to witness/barter and hair braiding for Ali, Christine, and Amy (I almost didn’t recognize them) we headed off for Falmouth Hospital. Upon arrival, we met with the many sick men and women to share the love of Christ and previously prepared gift bags. We left an hour later with mixed feelings of compassion and injustice, but whatever we felt, we knew that God would use our work for His will.
One HUGE Yeah God was Stieg was able to pray with Judith Row, a family member of a patient at the hospital, and she accepted Christ as her Savior!!!!

The final stop for the day was at the Anchovy Orphanage up in the hills with children we had played with the previous day. Some of us had a great day of growth both for them and the kids, others of us struggled more than desired. One specific story that comes to mind is an older girl sharing songs that she had written with Annika and Collette.

The day ended with dinner, devotions, and a downpour of rain, and of course some blogging… goodnight.

Josh Larkin....For the "Team"

Sure Ting - Everything "Irie" MON...

Hello All from Jamaica,

Well this morning we visited and ministered at Faith Baptist Church in Flankers. Some of you may remember them our Prairie Hill VBS kids about 4-5 years ago raised over $700 to build their stairs to the second level, which is mostly built now too! -They still need a roof though.

We spent a couple hours with the 34 children at the Garland Home for Children in Anchovy, about 30 minutes SW of Montego Bay, and had a great time doing crafts, playing games, singing, and doing a bible lesson - I am sure you will enjoy some of the pictures.

More to come tomorrow as we visit the hospital in Falmouth and then the Garland Home (Orphanage) again.

Thanks for reading, praying, and supporting us!

For the Team,
Stieg

We Be Jammin MON....

Hello from Montego Bay, JA... We had a great day today - This morning, we got to go on a boat to the reef, and it had a viewing area to see fish and other swimming things. Most of the team went snorkeling, and had a great time. Some got a bit sea-sick, but we had fun nonetheless. It was a lot of rocking back and forth for 2+ hours! We were able to go to the SOS Orphanage and visit with, and do a mini "kids club"for them this afternoon. It was a powerful time where we gave a lot of love, and Ms. Almars was able to pray with a young girl, Erika to receive Jesus as her Lord and Savior! PTL!


The PHEFC Youth Mission Team

P.S. Oh Yes - We hope everyone has had a wonderful 4th of July!- Ms. Straka brought us a few "festive" things to help celebrate today - Patriotic Straws and some Independence Bubbles.... The kids LOVED them at SOS!

Jamaica Post #4

Hello to everyone back in those wonderful fifty states!!!

Written by Team Member - James Christenson:
I would like to start off by making a list of all the things I am now much more thankful for. I’m sure the whole team would back me on these. Air conditioning, paved roads, cars with steering wheels on the left side, sun screen, ice, humidity readings with less than three digits, singers other than Bob Marley, and Swedish accents.

I wanted share with you an event that happened to me and my teaching group early this week. As I’m sure most of you know we are running a couple of VBS’ down here. My teaching partners (Collette, Joey, Annika) and I are responsible for ages 12 to 18. The first day of VBS was, to put it bluntly, miserable for our age group. We had a group of 27 kids in a room built for about twenty. The kids were very rowdy the whole time. We had so much trouble understanding their accents in the noisy room. They didn’t appear to be paying the least bit attention to what we were trying to say. Not to mention we didn’t do a great job communicating it. I know things can always go worse, but to be honest, I was having trouble thinking worse a worse scenario.

BUT God was able to turn it around. Before the lesson the next day the four of us met and prayed. We acknowledged that there was no way we could make it through the whole week like this. We prayed fervently that we would be able to understand them, that we would be able to communicate what God has for to say, we prayed that we would have a controlled class that would be attentive and ready to receive our message. And God answered!!! There is really no way to describe how much of a turnaround this really was. The second day we got to move into a bigger classroom and we only twenty kids in the class. It seems that the seven that didn’t come back were the ones causing all the problems. Miraculously (and I mean miraculously) we didn’t have any trouble understanding them. We were able to hold conversations and communicate our lesson clearly to the attentive class. The four of us talked afterwards and there is really nothing we would have wanted to go better. God completely answered our prayer. Growing up, I’ve always heard stories of things like this and believed them, but it has been such a blessing experiencing it first hand. God is working here in Jamaica and He DOES answer prayers.

Blessed a bunch!
PHEFC Jamaica Team 2009

PHEFC Youth Jamaica Trip Update #3

Staying true to our preparation, we have getting increasingly busy, and have had more and more to do every day. We began this morning by giving devotions at two schools and one mother’s center. After eating lunch and doing some prep work, we then headed over to Flankers to do Bible School once again.

Now, I may have neglected to tell you, but yesterday was pretty rough to say the least, kids were everywhere except where they should be and as far as we could tell, they were not getting the message being taught (not to mention that we could hardly understand them!). But today, by the Lord’s blessing and with one day under our belts, things went much better, it seems to me that though we may not perfectly understand each other the kids are beginning to see the true love of Christ through us. One child even deliberately asked to stay behind so she could talk and became a Christian! Praise the Lord and keep checking the internet for some stories from other team members.

Please keep praying for us and our safety and for the Jamaican’s and their salvation.

Last nights dinner at the Pork Pit was spicy, a true Jamaican Barbeque, so don't worry, we are being fed quite well.

This morning began with a 7:00 wake-up call and giving devotions at Catherine Hall, a primary school for girls and boys. There we met our church contact here in Jamaica, Pastor Campbell. He is kind and we are glad to have him as he has set up the other places we are giving devotions this week.

VBS took place at Flankers, an economically challenged area of Montego Bay. There was games, crafts, lessons and lots of kids thanks to Collette driving around the neighborhood with Taylor and James annoucing, "Come to VBS," and "Free Candy!".

Due to Colette's injured leg (which is still healing, thank you for your prayers) our dance and song were re-choreographed, Abby replacing Colette for one of the dancers.

Please continue to pray for VBS crafts as we will most likely be low tomorrow, patient attitudes, Colette's knee- and praise that she can actually walk on it!

We Made It

Hey mon, we finally made it to Jamaica and as you can see we are keeping it cool. The weather is hot and humid but Stieg has assured us that it can get hotter. To fill you in on the trip, we had two small delays and almost lost Joey, Taylor and Kevin in Memphis' vast Elvis displays and pork houses. Collette has been improving by the hour and we are greatful for it.

Thank-you for your prayers and to all the parents who showed up at three this morning. We are headed off for dinner at the Pork Pit in an hour which is basically a Bear Grylls Man vs. Wild combined with Famous Dave.

So long from Jamaica,

Josh Larkin

for the Team

Just Stay Calm

This is the new official blogspot for PHEFC youthgroup. Use it to get updates about the Jamaica missions trip. We will be making regular posts so keep an eye open or you might miss something big.