Meet the Morton A.C. Sunday School!

Tiling classroom floors

Building shelves for the farm room

Tying Rebar

I love this picture of Andy Sauder reaching out to one of the kids at the Hanbury Children's Home

The crew painting my "someday maybe if I'm lucky" apt

Pouring concrete

Meeting up with the Bluffton Sunday School at the Hanbury Children's Home

The Concrete Production

The Morton Sunday School Group

Lifted Up

Good Tuesday Morning Everyone! Its been a great week. I have been so Blessed already by having the Morton Sunday School here working with us this week. This was my morning quote yesterday and it said what I have felt so many times down here..." I cannot count the number of times I have been strengthened by anothers heartfelt hug, appreciative note, surprise gift, or caring question... My friends are an oasis to me encouraging me to go on. They are essential to my well being" - Dee Brestin-

Thank you all for lifting me up and for being that oasis for me. The quote speaks of surprise gifts and I was completely humbled when a lady from the Morton group gave us (Kirk, Keri, and myself) these towel sets that they have embroidered our names on! They truly went above and beyond. What a blessing to get to serve with them this week. I miss you and love you. Have a great day! Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

Meet the Grove City Collage Group

Good Friday everyone! This is the Grove City Collage team from PA and they just left this morning. This picture was taken yesterday at the beautiful YS falls and I felt bad for the team when it started raining on their free day so we had to cut it short. I also felt bad it seemed like we were holding back on work they would come up to me and ask what to do next so I was digging for jobs like picking up all the trash from sports day. Tony didn't want to give out any of the big jobs to ensure that we had enough work for the HUGE team coming in next week. So far the teams I have been hosting are around 10-15 people for the most part. Tomorrow I get to host my first A.C. work team (the Morton Sunday School) and this just happens to be 3 times the size of normal teams them bringing 51 people! I am excited to see all the familiar faces (and now that all the set up work is done:). With the 50+ team visiting here at KP and the 30+ team from Bluffton that will be at JDV that means for Easter Sunday we will have 80+ visitors joining us from church. Praise God what a blessing. I am also getting ready to wrap things up this week because in little over a week I will be traveling back to the states for a 3 week visit (because I am no longer welcome in the country since my 6 mos is up and I have not received my visa). I am excited to see you all and get to spend some time with you. Please pray for a smooth transition into the states and then smooth transition back into Jamaican life after I have been gone for a few weeks. God is good and I put my full Trust in Him. Have a most Wonderful Easter weekend. I love you and miss you all. Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

Happy St. Patricks Day

Good Monday Afternoon. I hope you are having a great day. I had NO idea that it was St. Pats day until my cousin emailed me a picture of her daughter dressed up in her green 4 leaf clover shirt. (Thanks Stacie)! Holidays get passed down here with no second thought for the most part unless someone emails me pictures or are emailing me because they are off school/work. I have a work team of 10 here right now but because my kids are gone the day is going slow. I have spent my day catching up and trying to learn cued speech! What a great new challenge. Nicole Cannell (the speech pathologist) was here last week and wanted to try this down here with the kids and to able to help the kids learn and apply it i have to learn it myself. Cued speech consists of 8 different hand positions at 5 different locations on the face and two different movements. (did i lose any of you?) its very interesting and its supposed to help with reading comprehension so I am will to give it a try. Ok i just needed a break from holding my hand (arm) at a 45 degree angle for a while while i practiced my cueing. I am now working on sentences:) the fun never stops. Back to work... Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

My Week In Kingston

2 great friends Sarah and Josh w/me we have been working together in Kingston for the past 3 or 4 years.

Brittany and I

New Best Friends!

Dish Duty

Lisa & Sarah carrying sand to the mixer

Jonathan, Lisa, & Alan Roth straiting 1/4" wire to be bent and used to make cages

The forms we filled to support the new roof

Sarah Hodel, Me, Lisa Roth

filling the forms by passing buckets of concrete

moving concrete

mixing concrete

The new pavilion that was built after hurricane dean destroyed the old one took over the old basketball court so we built a new one!

preparing to pour the basketball court

The newly poured basket ball court

"Boxing Out" to see who will get the next empty bucket to fill

Making Rebar Cages

The Group Shot after Ice Cream at "I Scream"

The KP Teams Of The Week

Good Morning Everyone! Its been a Crazy week, but it has been SO WONDERFULLY BLESSED and even though it was hard in the end I would not have traded it for the world. I am kind of doing things backwards posting first the end of the week because I would have more pictures from the beginning of the week and I don't have time to post them right now. Thursday I came home to help with sports day, and the work team (that I left to go meet my team in Kingston), and to meet with Nicole Cannell who was going to give me some pointers on speech therapy. Sports day was a fun day full of excitement and then the kids left for their 2 week Easter break and now everything is SO quiet.

The Red Sports Day Team coming in 2nd Place
The Purple Sports Day Team Coming in 1st Place

The Orange Sports Day Team Coming in 3rd Place

The Ferris State Work Team from Michigan + Kara Martin from Boston & Ladrick our Mason

I hope you have a great weekend I need to go clean up after the Ferris State team and set up for the Grove City Team. I love you and Miss you. Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

Out of Reach

Hey All! I just wanted to let you know I am leaving for Kingston tomorrow morning and will be there for the next 5 days. I am not planning on taking my computer So if you need to contact me or just want to chat you are going to have to call me or text me. 1.876.588.8096 Have a great week. I Love YOU. Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

Deaf Revival

Good Afternoon Everyone! I hope all is going Wonderfully well for you. Tonight @6:30 starts the Deaf Revival. Then for the next 3 days (Thursday night-Sunday) There will be speakers, seminars, and fellowship. Damian and Felicia have traveled all over the island spreading the word personally to the deaf to encourage them to come. Praise God! they are expecting around 200 deaf to attend. (and thanks to the work team at JDV right now child care is provided for all during speakers and seminars!)On there travels to spread the word they saw how much this Deaf Revival weekend was truly needed. Besides Damian there are very few Deaf Leaders or Ministers here on the island. So many of those who may have accepted Christ while here at CCCD have fallen away once they got into the real world with out constant Christian fellowship and edification. Please pray for open hearts and that many again will turn their lives to Christ. Thanks so much. Have a great Night! O' on Sat. I get to meet up with the Gridley group and get to spend a wonderful week with my brothers and sisters in Christ! I AM SO EXCITED! This will be our first A.C. team down here. Please be praying next week as we work in Kingston. Be blessed and be a blessing-Erin-

God Smiling

Kadene Sutton & Laverne Anderson

Good Morning Everyone!

I would like to share an experience I had last night when I was spending time with the kids. I have my "spot" that I always go and sit at after supper and sometimes I just sit and watch and sometimes one will come to be held or need someone to pay attention to them or just listen to what they have to say.

So last night I was sitting in my spot and Kadene Sutton came and sat down by me. Kadene is a very special child of God. I don't know all her disabilities. I think she can hear some but mentally she is not all there. She is 15 and still in the very first preprimer (preschool) class. She has constant joy and you can tell by hearing her shouts through out the day, and her constant smile. She does not sign much but at least 10-20 times a day she will ask me my name by signing the simple sign of name, and after she signs name she signs color, because she likes to come to the library after school to color pictures. SO last night as I was sitting there all a sudden she just starts voicing (in squeals and yells) and continues to do so for a good 5 min. At this point I looked over at here and saw her hands moving as she was using her voice and randomly signs would be said and after watching her for a while I realized she was SINGING! Praise Him Praise Him Praise Him in the Morning Praise Him in the noontime Praise Him when the sun goes down. Over and Over and Over she sang this simple song of Praise to the Lord putting her entire heart into it. Watching her I felt so humbled and in awe of her child like faith. It also made me think of how God was sitting up in Heaven right at that moment smiling at the Praise His child was giving to HIM. She may not be all there mentally, and she may be looked down upon by others because of her disabilities, but through it all Kadene has Joy and even better then that she knows how to Praise the Lord! What a Blessing! Thanks so much for letting me share. I hope you have a great day. Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

Meet the JDV Families

Good Monday Morning Everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Yesterday I had the opportunity to take family pictures after church of my brothers and sisters in Christ down here. So I thought I would put up the pictures and introduce you.

Damion and Felicia Campbell. Damion is the preacher here at New Life Church for the Deaf. They have 3 kids Phoebe, Danae, and Caleb. They are an amazing family who have blessed me greatly as I have gotten to know them and spend time with them.
Sheldon, Simone and Ashley Mackenzie. Simone teaches here at the KP school with me and has taken on the role of my mother although she is only 2 years older then me!( Simone is never afraid to tell me what she thinks of me or what I need to change:)

Nigel, Bianca, Rosanne, and Doreen Johnson. Nigel is the master wood worker down here and does beautiful work.

Cressmore, Erica, and Brianna Fletcher. Cressmore is hard of hearing and leads the music part of the church service. Erica assists Ms. Veronica in the kitchen when work teams are here.

Wayne, Cheryl and Andrea. A very sweet family.

Have a great week I love you all. Be blessed and be a blessing -Erin-

I apologize

I want to apologize. people whom I don't know have started leaving messages on my blog and I am trying to figure out how to delete them and deleting them as soon as possible. The Only way that I know of to stop getting comments that may put links to their sites is to make the blog one that is invitation only, but I don't want to do that because I don't know everyone who gets on to read updates. SO since it was brought to my attention that some of these links that people are leaving lead to questionable sites Please don't follow the links unless you know the person and I will try to get them off as quickly as possible. If you know how to delete them or get them off please let me know. Thanks so much. Have a great day I Love you. Be blessed and be blessing -Erin-