Just the facts. . .

At the request of my mother (and maybe some of you as well) I am going to write a bit about the country of Jamaica. I think there are many misconceptions about Jamaica coming from several different sources. The first source is the popular thought and the second would be the numbers. . . yes, the numbers. Popular thought, in my judgment, would be the tourist industry. And by the numbers I mean the "facts" that are posted about Jamaica that I've found to be unrepresentative of the truth.
Let's start with the basics. Jamaica is located about 90 miles south of Cuba in the Caribbean Sea (pronounced by the locals with the accent on the E and not the I). It is approximately 50 miles from north to south and about 80 miles from east to west. The size is slightly smaller than the state of Connecticut. The island is made up mostly of mountains with narrow coastal plains. It's amazing to see the sea on one side of you and mountains on the other nearly everyday (I don't get to see the water everyday, unfortunately). The temperature stays around the mid-90's most of the year and nightime lows I have heard never go below 70. Of course these numbers vary as you reach higher eleveations, but this is mainly true for Kingston. Blue Mountain is the highest peak in Jamaica at just over 7,400 feet and is home to the world's best coffee!! Only coffee grown over a certain elevation on Blue Mountain can legally be called "Blue Mountain Coffee". Given the terrain of the island, and the fact that there is one main road (one "lane" in each direction) over the mountains going north/south, it takes about 3 hours to travel the 50 miles from Kingston on the south coast to Ocho Rios on the north coast. Driving is an adventure (please refer to my last blog) but one rarely get's over 40mph and in Kingston (referred to on the island as "town") it's difficult to even get over 25mph most of the time with traffic and pot holes big enough to swallow a child.
Jamaica was "discovered" by Columbus and started as a Spanish settlement (I'm not going to try to find dates and put them in because I'm not a history buff ) but was later taken over by the British. Jamaica just recently got it's independence from Britain in 1962, which makes it a relatively young country.
Kingston, the capital, is the largest English speaking city south of Miami (anyone who's ever been to Miami and/or the Miami airport may dispute this fact). Although the English spoken here is actually called "patois" and is a mix of mostly slang with English and Creole. It is located on the south coast and is home, among many other things, to about 1.3 million of the island's total (all approximate numbers) 2.8 million people. All these people condensed in such a small area create a lot of problems! Official numbers from several years ago place Jamaica (mainly Kingston though) number 3 in the world for murders. I've heard more recently that it's actually second only behind Columbia. A couple years ago there were 1,500 murders in one year.
The average income PER HOUSEHOLD is somewhere between US$2,000 and US$4,000 A YEAR! But, believe me, there are quite a few wealthy families who are throwing the average off. So take into consideration the even higher number of households/families who are bringing the average back down. Skilled construction workers make maybe US$20 a day. General laborers make maybe $10-$15 a day depending on the work they're doing. I would guess that most of the people in Jamaica live below poverty level. Because of this windows and doors are barred. Yards are fenced off and contain several dogs used as security. Nearly every car has an alarm on it. Funny how car alarms become background music to whatever you're doing. Most of the time I don't even hear them anymore. haha
But despite the poverty, many people are very happy. . . content with what they have. And despite the high number of murders and the high crime rate, I have NEVER seriously felt unsafe. I hear gunshots. . . sometimes near, sometimes far, but they never make me feel like I'm in harm's way. I trust Dennis' judgment and I trust him with my life. He knows what parts of town not to venture into and we don't go out at night often unless we need to. Not that it's necessarily unsafe at night, but it definitely raises your chances of something bad happening to you. In general you just learn to be more aware of your surroundings. You don't flash cash around, you don't wear expensive jewelry, you just don't try to advertise that you have anything of value. Your skin color is advertisement enough!! haha
But the most important thing about Jamaica is it's beauty!! The landscape is beautiful (despite the pollution) and the people are beautiful. Mainstream culture is very respectful and EXTREMELY laid back! The catch phrase for Jamaica isn't "NO PROBLEM" just for the fun of it. haha People say hello, good morning, good afternoon, and aren't afraid to make eye contact or have a conversation. Of course there are the bad apples but they are usually pretty easy to spot. But you always have to keep your eyes open. My opinion is that even good people can do bad things if the situation is bad enough. (refer to my last blog about persecution. . . when you're hungry you'll do about anything to eat!)
Bottom line is I LOVE IT HERE! And I love showing off the things I love! So everyone needs to make it a point to come down here and visit sometime soon! When I'm living here everyone will have a free place to stay (for a few days of course). So, let me know when you're coming!! See ya here!!

Persecution

The past two days here have seemed like a week (so far) but we seem to be getting things accomplished that will very soon turn into something big!! I've been driving (that's always big) which is fun because I feel like driving in the US just isn't a challenge anymore! Here you get to do things like avoid potholes big enough to swallow your vehicle, dodge goats, children, adults, dogs, and all of the above on bikes, motorcycles, and in cars. All while driving on the left side of the road! Now that's what I call adventure!! So that's been fun and I haven't hit anybody/anything (so far!).
I've enjoyed having the new blog site and playing with that a bit but it hasn't had the response I'd hoped for. I'm tellin' ya, it's pretty cool so ya oughtta check it out! I've only had 20 hits as of tonight and only 6 votes in my poll (one of which was mine because nobody was voting. . hehehehe).
The church buildings are getting ready for a major overhall this month and we hope to have the bottom floor of the back building ready to use and the roof on the second floor along with the floor of the sanctuary poured. All of this is going to involve a lot of delicate timing which we haven't had much luck with to date. We were extremely blessed to see the backhoe finally show up at the end of June. . .unfortunately we haven't been that blessed in the past two days. He's been "on his way" since 9:30 yesterday morning. haha Soon come!! But, as always, we trust that it's God's timing and not our own!
An observation I made yesterday (Wednesday) was about the persecuted church. There's always talk of the persecuted church in closed countries (countries that do not allow missionaries and often do not allow conversion to Christianity) but I wanted to talk of a different persecution and how it's effecting Jamaica. In no way do I want to downplay the seriousness of persecution around the world, but I want to bring to light a persecution that seems to be overlooked.
I was talking to a newer Christian yesterday and something of theirs had broken. They said that if they couldn't get it fixed or if we didn't get them a new one (both of which have happened several times) then they would have to find one. They said, "if someone lays one down and looks away/walks away, I'll have to take it." I said, "but that's stealing. . . you can't steal!" But since this object (I'm purposely being vague) is tied into their livelihood, then there seems to be a disconnect from what is stealing and what is deemed "necessary".
Here's how I came to the conclusion of persecution from this. . . it's persecution of the Church by Satan! Let me explain. First of all, we believe the church to be the body of people that come together to worship God and build each other up. We do not believe the Church to be a building (although we often call it that). And when I say that Satan is persecuting the Church I do not necessarily mean that Satan is physically beating people or possessing people. But Satan is using poverty, hunger, sex, and lies to keep the Church (individuals) from truly turning to God. This is so true on this island and it is only getting worse! Satan uses sex to keep the girls/woman in Jamaica dependent on a man. It's a vicious cycle. . . a girl gets pregnant (often as young as 14), she needs someone to take care of her so she lives with maybe the baby's daddy; he decides he doesn't want the responsibility and leaves; she needs someone to take care of her so she finds another man to live with; she ends up getting pregnant again; and the process continues! Poverty. . . "he has something I need" quicly turns into "he has something I want" and "he has something I'm willing to kill him for".
Folks, unfortunately this is not only true here in Jamaica or in developing countries, but it's true everywhere! Very similar things happen everywhere in America as well. But it gets worse because Satan is very adaptive! In the US especially he uses things like wealth and content to do the exact same thing. The Church of Jesus Christ, the followers of Jesus, are being persecuted because Satan DOES NOT want us to truly know God! It's sad and it's scary.
Please pray for the individuals near you. Satan is lying to them right now and every day! Please pray for the individuals here who's very needs are being used for evil. Please pray for us as we attempt to bring these people out of the vicious cycles they are in while trying to keep ourselves from believing the lies being told to our hearts everyday.
Thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers!!

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes. . .

If you've made it here via Myspace then thank you very much!! Please, if you have the time, play around with some of the options and let me know what you think. One option that I didn't mention was the ability to comment without being a member. Also feel free to skip the paragraph below as you've probably already read it. If you've come here from an outside source (being anything other than via Myspace) then you can read the paragraph below as it explains my (partial) move from the "evil" empire of Myspace. :)

First of all I want to let everybody know that I will be making a few minor changes to my blog. Really only one change and it really won't change anything here. But, the big change is that I'm also going to be using blogger.com in addition to Myspace. Reason for the (partial) move? Well, I realized that a lot of people (my mother being the main concern) cannot access Myspace from their place of employment because the site is so addicting (partially kidding) that it's been blocked. So I wanted a place that could be accessed from said workplaces. When I checked it out I also found that it has a ton of cool features that aren't available here. One which I am going to really enjoy is the survey feature! I can ask anything and set up the answers and let everyone vote! Fun! Also it has a news ticker that allows me to designate what news items it displays. And one other cool feature it has is it allows me to create links to web pages and/or blogs that I read. Oh, and this site will allow outside users (unlike Myspace) to receive a notification when I update my blog; saving one from having to constantly check to see if it's been updated. I believe that link is at the very bottom with the "subscribe to" link. Not sure how that works yet, but, looks like a good idea. So make sure to check it out. It's http://jamaicamonz.blogspot.com. But I will still be using my Myspace blog as well given the advantages it has for my Myspace friends! But you folks feel free to check out the other site as well and see all the kewl stuff it's stugot!! GOT BLOG?!

"All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go" (ok, that's a lie)

I know I've been a slacker about updating this, but things really have been a little busy since I just returned back to Cincinnati July 3 and I leave for Jamaica again this Tuesday (24th). But in this short time a lot has happened. Well, at least in my mind a lot has happened.
First news item is my pending approval for officially working full-time with Herko Family Mission. The goal (and all this is pending approval by the HFM board, mind you) is to have me approved and able to officially raise support to work full-time after the end of August. Given I am able to raise my funds in a timely manner (big item of prayer in the upcoming months) I would be working full-time with the mission within a year. For all of you keeping score at home this would, thankfully, mean no more restaurant work!!!! Good money and I love the people I work with but it's not what I want to do with my life and because of this it is DRAINING!! So, after that the goal (pending approval and funds, once again) is to be living in Jamaica a year and a half from now! After over 15 years of this being my "dream" it looks as though it may actually happen! haha I laugh because it has only been a real "goal" of mine for maybe 5 years now. I differentiate a dream as being something out of your grasp that you wish you had and a goal being something within your grasp that you're actually working towards. Of course we all have to work on God's time, which often seems very similar to Jamaican time, oddly enough. So that's the news there.
In other news I just spent a couple days working at the mission's office in Lexington preparing the latest newsletter. After many hours of sorting through a gagillion pictures (that's actually 10 times larger than a bagillion), thanks to Jenn and the Central crew, and thousands of revisions to the articles (specialy thanks to Mary for her editing skills!), TADAAAAAA, IT IS ALIVE (evil laugh)!!!! If you would like to get a copy before it's officially released (much like getting an early copy of Harry Potter), you can find it here! (caution: the way the pages are placed makes it difficult to understand. . . so the pages left to right, top to bottom, are 8-1, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5)
Finally, as I stated earlier, I leave for Jamaica again Tuesday for another month(ish). Your thoughts and prayers would be greatly appreciated! We have two large teams coming from Lakeside Christian Church in Northern KY, and Southland Christian Church in Lexington, and a group of construction guys (I don't know what else to call them) coming form Zanesville, OH. We will be putting a roof on the back building, pouring the floor of the sanctuary, and (hopefully) putting in windows, doors, and grills (not cooking grills but bars over the windows. . . although now that I think of it a few BBQ grills would be nice).
I hope to be a little better about updating this while I'm there. Part of the problem is that most things that would seem totally outrageous to those who don't know Jamaica (pictures and experiences) are fairly commonplace for me now. So I apologize about that and I'll try to think outside the bun. . . er, um. . . box.

P.S. A real quick update. . . just after I finished writing this I got a call from Dennis telling me that he went to dinner with a family who wrote him a check for $17,500 to go towards finishing the worship center. . . the total needed was $18,000. . . WOW!!!!!! Coincidence??? I think NOT!