Two weeks ago I went to Kingston, Jamaica. Talk about a beautiful location! Even though it’s more tropical than home, checking the daily temperatures showed that Atlanta had higher temperatures the week I was there than Kingston did. One forgets the crucial detail though: no matter how how Atlanta is, air conditioning will make living (and sleeping) far more comfortable than the lower temperatures in Jamaica.
What I’m trying to say is: Jamaica was hot…not as hot as Haiti…but hot enough.
A team of about fifty total convened at the Salvation Army in Kingston at a school for the deaf and blind. The compound is a boarding school for children with handicaps. They were out of session and home for the summer so we stayed in their dormitories.
One of the bonuses of Jamaica is that it’s an English speaking country. I’m not used to such luxuries! It made ministry and touring around so much easier. That being said, it was exactly what I’d come to expect from bustling third world countries. Street vendors, taxis and buses exhaling truly impressive amounts of billowing exhaust, flip flops, plastic lawn furniture, soda-in-a-bag (seriously, they save the bottles so they pour your drink into a zip-lock-without-the-zip and give you a straw), and a host of other little tell-tale signs that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Kids are precious. Doesn’t matter where you are. They want to hug, be hugged, laugh and be laughed with, they’re willing to learn, willing to try new things and have the energy to keep going well after we’ve tapped out. Their little hearts are just so sensitive and tender. Their culture toughens them up early. The boys especially have an eat-or-be-eaten mentality and Jamaica was no exception. But when you talk about the things that are important, they have this strange ability to understand more than they psychologically should be able to at their stage of development.
They understand pain.
They understand brokenness.
They understand what a family should be
and how theirs may not be what it should be.
But they’re so resilient!
They see the world in terms of
what’s beautiful and fun and colorful.
It was only six days but it was the start of my new season (read my last couple of blogs). Next summer I’m assembling a team that will host short term trips just like this for teenagers. The forty or so teenagers in Jamaica were amazing! They took ownership and organized and ran our kids ministry the entire week! They slept in the same sweltering temperatures I did without complaint. They endured sickness and dirt and discomfort and saw the purpose to our visit. I was so proud of them and was honored to join them on their journey.
Stay tuned for some more explanation of what I’m working toward. If you want any information for your church’s youth group on our Adventures Youth trips, you can direct them to:
adventures.org/youth