Sea Container #2

Praise Jesus!

The container arrives right on time.... 2.5 hours late!
Starting to unload the donations

The team helping to unload the trailer

bringing the donations into the factory and sorting them by product

YAY! After 3 hours we can see the end in sight!

Two girls from the team helping us unload.

They did great work with great attitudes!

The kids in front of some of the MANY white buckets they

unloaded and sorted.

The crew that unloaded 58000 lbs of donations

(1110 items) in 3 hours! Great Work Everyone!

Because the container arrived so late on Monday this was our Tuesday crew

that we took over to JDV to help us sort and organize the donations so divers could be sent to pick them up.

A New Idea

At least it is for me... this challenge was given to the Adults at Deaf Camp this week.
The challenge was to draw your prayer. It is said that 70% of communication is not with words or signs but with facial expressions and body language. Since actions speak louder then words those at camp were asked to draw out their prayer. As soon as I heard this idea I thought it was GREAT and so this morning I tried it for myself drawing out my prayer without using words or signs. It took me a while but I had so much fun doing it, and encourage you to give it a try too.

Correction

so on the previous post I messed up my days 1. light and dark not day and night whoops

The Creation Story

These videos show Mario and Mickey sharing the creation story using story boards. We used story boards as a way to help them learn and remember stories from the bible. Each story board uses a signs to help the kids remember main points in the story thus helping them to remember the story as a whole.

1.day and night

2. heaven and earth

3. plants

4. sun/moon/stars (time)

5. fish and birds

6. animals and humans

7. God rested

The Last week in review

The biggest Mango I have ever seen.
A beautiful Montego Bay Sunset

Last week Mary came down with the Connecticut work team. As we were sitting there during team orientation I looked over and saw her from a side profile, and immediately did a double take thinking to myself ... what is my mom doing here? Then about half way through the orientation Blake (who was sitting beside me) starts laughing and I was like what in the world is so funny and after the meeting was over he is like "Erin your mom is here!" and my response "I know!" It was a little freaky how much the side profile looked like mom and how she had many similar features. Later Warren comes up to me and is like do you realize how much she looks like your mom. and so everyone who knows my mom down here agreed 100% that Mary and Molly could be twins.

The side profile of Mary wearing a very Molly jean jumper.

Mary and I

Through the week she was then referred to as mom.

Tamara, Andiceia, and I at the beach Sunday afternoon

Videos of the week are also posted. Games we played (the kids LOVE competition), the winning dance from the dance competition. and the skit the kids performed for the team.

Bye Friend

Yesterday was a harder day. I had to say bye to a dear friend. God placed her in my life when I truly needed someone and she blessed me far more then I feel worthy of. It was not easy to drive her to the airport or to say goodbye, BUT we know that God is good all the time no matter what. And IF she is called down here full time we will Praise God and if she is not called down here full time we will Praise God as well knowing that His ways are high above our ways.

MoBay Deaf Camp

This past week I was blessed to spend my "off week" helping out with the deaf camp in MoBay. Wow is it HOT here but I am thankful to say that we had a GREAT week with the kids. We had two teams here helping us with Camp, and Randy Sanders was still here as the main speaker. I had worked with the first team last year they were from St. Louis, and the other team was from Connecticut. The teams rotated around so that everyone had an opportunity to work both the deaf camp and construction. We had around 30 kids show up for camp and about 35 team members all together. This was the final group picture Thursday night after our dance competition. I have a video I am trying to get on here that that kids performed for the team. I have already tried and failed twice but I will try again.

Cliff Jumping

Monday night as I was getting ready for bed I get a text from Warren asking me if I wanted to go to Negril tomorrow and go Cliff Jumping. Of course I did... and I had a BLAST!

The Signs at the top of the cliff.
Me walking off the cliff

LOVING the feeling of falling!

bracing myself as I am about to hit the water as

I am now falling VERY fast

An up close picture as you can see I'm bracing myself for

the impact of hitting the water.

Not thinking before my first jump, that yes, this is the ocean, and that

it is made up of salt water

and that when I did hit the water a lot of it would

rush in and start to burn my eyes and throat...

It was still TOTALLY worth it so I jumped 4 more times!

After Warren and I jumped a few times.

(Tamara had told me before we arrived I was not

to let her jump. It had hurt her to bad the last time)
Tamara and I swam around the cove and were going to climb up and around the rocks.

After I had gotten up on the first rocks and looked down all I could see were

MASSIVE leeches covering the rocks so I start yelling Gross Gross Gross

hearing this Tamara pushes

off the rock, and I jump off and back into the water!
There was no rock climbing that day:)

Praising Jesus for another great day with good friends!

Being Spoiled

My break has started and I am LOVING IT!

Yesterday in church I was able to sit and just enjoy the sermon for the first time in months. There were no hearing people that I needed to voice for, and Randy Sanders was there to preach for us and did a wonderful job feeding us. I was able to see and talk a little with Sheldon who is back from the states. He is such a fun guy and ALWAYS challenges me in my receptive skills. Its kinda fun and I am now always ready for the challenge as he approaches me with that very ornery look in his eye. I am hoping to also get to see and spend time with his wife Rachel who I believe is coming in next week. They are such an AMAZING couple who are surrendering their lives to God's use. Please pray for them as they have one more year of college in the states they will start off as missionaries to the deaf on one of the islands down here.

I have been blessed with such great friends down here this summer and now that both Tamara and I have an off week its nice to just spend the day hanging out doing whatever needs to be done or absolutely nothing if all the work is done:). I have been spoiled having her around and am not looking forward to when she leaves in a few weeks. Please keep her in your prayers as she goes back to the states July 17th. Please pray that she has a smooth transition back after being with us here on the island for 6 weeks.

WOOHOO!

I am VERY HAPPY to say that I made it!

Praise Jesus that 9weeks and 13 teams (sometimes having 2 teams a week)later I have made it to a break in work teams!

I have been ready and waiting for this break for a few weeks now as it seemed at times that God was dragging me through certain days and weeks. I am SO excited now that my break has come! My last team left at 8:30 this morning, by 9 I had the dorms picked up and piles sorted to be washed and put away!

Now I have the day to do WHATEVER!

The week to relax!

VERY EXCITING!

Happy Fourth Of July!

Meet This Weeks Teams

I started off this 9 week stretch of teams with two teams the first week and I am ending this last week with two teams as well.

This first team was here to host deaf camp and consisted of Randy Sanders from Peoria (his wife Sue was one of my signing instructors in college) and a deaf ministry team from Minnesota. Because of the H1N1 Virus being found our camp that normally consists of around 100 was down to 13 students this year. I pray that because the group was so small and more individual focus could be had that those who attended would surrender their lives to Christ.

Our Second team this week was here to do whatever was needed and because the size of camp ended up working construction most of the week. They were from Team Effort a sending organization I have not worked with before but was happy to start this week. They are planning on sending another team in July to our MoBay campus and another team her to KP in August. Their main leader Bryant was taken to the hospital Monday Morning with Kidney stones and to the airport Wednesday Morning for a flight back to the states. Hopefully everything gets taken care of before he is expected to bring the other teams down this month and next!

A Perfect Day!

I was blessed to wake up this morning with torn up feet, a sore body, and a heart full and overflowing.

Yesterday I was blessed and had the opportunity to stop and go out and enjoy the island with friends. Blake, Matt, Tamara, and I took the afternoon off and I got to take them around and let them experience Y.S. Falls and Little Ochie for the first time!

The Falls
Blake going off the rope swing.
It looks like he is falling out of control, but he is actually mid flip
(Sorry you have to wear gloves to swing off the rope and mine were to big and got in the way of this picture)
I opted out of flipping and just enjoyed a normal jump off the rope:)

Matt flipping off Rocks into the falls

Tamara and I as we are waiting on the guys

We climbed up to this layer of the falls then our "guide" was going to take our picture but there was only one, not very big, rock to stand on to take this picture so we are all trying to hold each other on and not fall off while the picture is taken.

We then jumped off the rock we were standing on for the picture and fought the current to swim up under the falls.

The picture once we all made it up under the falls.

After a few hours of swimming we drove to the south coast to eat at Little Ochie

Little Ochie is well known for the "BEST" seafood and very fresh. So fresh you go and pick out what you want them to cook up for you. These were Blake's options for Crab.

Blake with his supper

As we waited for our food we walked around the beach and had people from around the area come and entertain us with there different talents.

Yesterday was Matt's last day as a summer intern with us on the island.

I was glad we could get out and have SO MUCH FUN on his last day.

The Perfect Ending to a Perfect Day!

Praise Jesus for good friends who are there to help me stop

and get me out, those who fill my day with so much fun,

and my heart with so much Joy.