Cincinnati/Kentucky Enquirer Article

While I was in Jamaica I sent part of one of my blogs to the Cincinnati Enquirer just on a whim. Well, a couple days later a guy from the Enquirer e-mailed me asking some information about what was going on down there. Turns out he wrote up an article about the work being done in Jamaica and the hurricane relief efforts. I didn't get as much information to him that I would have liked to, but it turned out to be a nice article anyway. If you live in the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky area then pick up a copy of today's paper (Monday, August 27) and check it out. He asked for some pictures and I know there's a picture of me (yeah, that'll bring on the readers. . . haha) but I didn't see if there were any other pictures yet. Hopefully there are. Anyway, here's the link to the article if you want to read it online. . . or I can just post it below. Either way. . . check it out!

Man helps rebuild Jamaica

Ky. missionary endured Hurricane Dean

BY RYAN CLARK | RCLARK@NKY.COM

The day after the storm, the weather was back to normal - hot, muggy, with a flare-up thundershower in the afternoon.

The hardware stores had reopened, with higher prices, and gas was available, too. A few of the residents had turned to looting to get what they needed.

In the more affluent areas, roofs were pulled from homes. The damage wasn't too bad.

But in the poorer areas of Jamaica that Hurricane Dean slammed into last Monday, houses were destroyed. Shacks made of plywood and scrap metal were shredded and scattered. Local authorities reported two people were dead. Countless more needed supplies.

They still do, says Brian Zeschke, a 30-year-old missionary from Dayton, Ky. Zeschke was there last week when Dean rolled over the island, and he helped those affected by the storm. He is planning to go back Sept. 19-25 to help rebuild homes.

"All (homes) were damaged, if not destroyed," Zeschke wrote in an e-mail from Old Harbour, Jamaica. "But not only were their homes destroyed but they lost absolutely everything they have, i.e.: clothes and any 'furniture' they may have had. The trip is planned for the end of September, which gives us time to gather people and resources to help."

Zeschke traveled to the area with a missionary group. They settled in Old Harbour, a town of 20,000 about an hour west of Kingston, along the south coast. There, the unemployment rate hovers around 50 percent and the teen pregnancy rates are the highest in the Caribbean, according to Zeschke.

"You cannot walk anywhere in Old Harbour without seeing a young girl with at least one child," Zeschke said.

Zeschke was scheduled to leave Jamaica the day before the storm, but his flight was canceled due to the strong winds. In a way, he said, he was glad to stay and wait it out.

"I actually wanted to be here for the hurricane," he said. "I know I'm crazy and all, but I thought it'd be a good experience."

For Zeschke, Jamaica is like a second home.

The day before Dean arrived, he spent time gathering supplies with others in his group. They fortified their cement-and-steel home against the winds.

"We have plenty of food and probably 60 gallons of drinking water," he said. "Plus we have a 650-gallon tank on top of the house that can be used to drink if needed."

While they waited, the Weather Channel predicted Dean was following an "eerily reminiscent" path of Hurricane Gilbert in 1988.

"In Jamaica, Gilbert is the hurricane all other hurricanes are compared to," Zeschke said. "Some of the island's infrastructure is actually still rebuilding from Gilbert almost 20 years later. On top of that, Gilbert hit Jamaica as only a Category 3 hurricane."

Dean became a strong Category 4, with 150 mph sustained winds, when it hit Jamaica. Zeschke's house withstood the storm, but others had no chance.

The day after, Tuesday, the group drove around the town, surveying damage.

"Around some of the more affluent areas (there) are lots of trees down, lots of utility poles down, and quite a bit of roof damage," Zeschke said. "Of course even for these people it's fairly easy to get things fixed up once the hardware stores reopen. For the poorer of the Jamaicans, things aren't so well."

Damage littered the town, along with tree limbs and other debris.

"Surprisingly the water has been turned back on periodically but the power has been out since about 2 p.m. Sunday," Zeschke said. "We're using a generator occasionally just to keep food cold in the fridge and get out e-mails to the states. Also surprising was that cell phone service remained on the entire time here in Kingston."

This weekend, Zeschke was scheduled to return home to Dayton. He doesn't regret staying, and he's ready to go back.

"I have been doing volunteer mission work (in Jamaica) for 15 years and I love the people and the land," he said. "I am in the process of going into full-time mission work in Jamaica and I plan on moving here within two years. So I wanted to be here with my 'family' during the storm."

His last days were spent helping the residents - and planning to help them more in the future.

"We have built several of these houses before and they have withstood Hurricane Ivan and now Dean," he said. "They last and are efficient for those who have nothing."

Jamaica update

I just wanted to update everyone on how things are here in Kingston and Jamaica in general. Here in Kingston the electricity is still off. After Gilbert in '88 they say it was off for 3 weeks. It's been not quite one week this time but it's pretty annoying! We are one of the lucky few who have a generator though. So we've been running it at nights to cook with, have a few lights, and get some communication out to the rest of the world. Oddly enough, cell service hasn't been interupted as far as I know. And absolutely EVERYONE has a cell phone; from the executive living on the mountain to the beggar on the street washing car windows. It's a very strange phenomenom indeed. Water has been hit or miss but it was like that before the hurricane too. The weather's been back to normal for the past two days as well. Sunny and hot all day with an occasional afternoon pop-up thunderstorm.
Old Harbour (where the church plant is) isn't fairing so well from what we've seen. We went out Tuesday to survey the damage done to some of our church members' houses and the rest of the community. We first couldn't get into town because of so many utility lines down on the road. So we took an alternate route through a community which showed just a little bit of the damage. We finally got to the church, dodging trees, utility poles, and power lines the whole way. The main squatter community by the church was blocked by power lines so we couldn't drive down. So we walked back and witnessed the absolute destruction that had taken place. Here are some of the scenes we found:

This was the scene as we entered town. . .


This was what we saw when we got to the church. . .



This is what's left of Bobette's house. . .



This is the remains of "Pinny's" house. . .



And this is a guy named Oswald standing where his house used to be. . .



As you can see things were not pleasant! People were calling to us from everywhere asking us to help them. "Can I have some zinc to fix my roof?", "Can I have some bags of cement?", "Can I have some money?" There is just such a great need here!! Dennis said that you could spend a million US dollars in just one of these communities and not even scratch the surface of the need! It's so true!!
Well, we are going to at least try to scratch that surface!! We are organizing a relief effort to Old Harbour and other communities that need help. We are teaming up with IDES (International Disaster Emergency Services) to bring a crew back to Jamaica Sept. 19-25 to primarily build homes for some of these people. These are 12x16 wood homes with a tiled concrete slab. Each costs approximately US$4000. We have built several of these in the past and they have withstood hurricanes such as Ivan and now Dean. For immediate need we have purchased 1000 lbs. of rice, 500 lbs. of red beans, and 500 cans of corned beef to be distributed throughout some of these communities.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO HELP. . . you can donate to Herko Family Mission Fund Inc., PO Box 910933, Lexington, KY 40591. This is a 501c3 non-profit organization and all donations will be tax-deductible. Just designate "Dean Relief" on the envelope. I have already talked with someone from the Cininnati Enquirer and they may be running a similar story sometime soon.
Please continue to pray for these people as they are trying to get their lives back together. I thank you for your continued prayers for us while we've been here enduring Dean. I am returning this Friday and I look forward to seeing everyone! God bless!!!

Hurricane update (Mon. 12:00 a.m.)

Well, the power finally went out around 2:00 even though it was scheduled to go out island wide at 10 or 11 a.m. At 2:00 the storm was about 70 miles from Kingston which should have put it here about 5:30 p.m.
At about 3:00 the sustained winds were really picking up and the gusts were what you would expect from a hurricane. Honestly I have really been surprised by the sporadic winds. It's been more gusts than anything permanent. Despite that, trees were losing limbs all over the place and you could hear what sounded like roofs coming off down the street. We were listening to the news on the radio and people were reporting that the gullys were near overflowing and some were near crossing the roads they go under. At that point we also still had phone service somehow. I called mommy and reassured her that I was still ok. But reports were that the worst was yet to come.
Around 4:00 I was thinking that the news reports were inaccurate because the winds actually died down. We didn't have power and the TV stations had probably pulled all their satellite dishes down anyway so we couldn't check the Weather Channel to see exactly what was going on. But the suspicions were that the eye was going to keep south of Jamaica. At this point the eye was 40 miles SE of Kingston and still moving pretty much straight west. So at this rate the eye would actually stay off the coast but it was still very possible for it to "wobble" back north enough for it to make landfall right on top of us. By about 4:15 the winds had picked back up with a fury! The sustained winds were now very high (I later heard somewhere around 140) and the gusts were insane!
5:00 came around and the winds started shifting from out of the east to out of the south. This obviously meant that the eye was moving past us. Apparently it did in fact stay off the coast about 50 miles. This meant that Jamaica, and Kinston in particular, had been spared the worst of the storm. The winds are strongest around the eye so it's best if it stays away! As the winds shifted the roof on a small church next door started peeling. We watched as a couple sheets of zinc (aluminum roofing material) peeled off and flew away. The winds were pretty intense for the next couple hours.
As it started to get dark the winds slowly subsided a bit but the rain continued. Now it's approaching midnight and it's down to a stiff breeze and a light drizzle. This will probably continue for another 12-24 hours before the weather gets back to normal.
Until then, Kingston and other parts of the island are under a curfew. Looting is very probable and the curfew is supposed to help that. Already, even during the storm, there have been reports of shootings and looting. The power is likely to be off for a long time, possibly up to 3 weeks. The water is shut off as well and that could be off for weeks too. Tomorrow morning we're planning on going out early and surveying the damage, getting some pictures and video and helping where we can. We're not sure how the church fared through the storm but we'll likely find out tomorrow.
Thank you for your continued prayers!! Jamaica, even though it was hit hard, was spared the worst! The storm, almost miraculously, stayed off the coast, helping Jamaica avoid what was being called the worst hurricane to hit Jamaica since 1950. . . topping even Gilbert in 1988, which is the storm everyone still talks about. Please continue to pray as the clean-up begins. It will be a long road for Jamaica and it will likely take years to get back to where it was before today. A lot of lives and a lot of homes were destroyed and both will take a lot of rebuilding!

Hurricane update (Sun. 12:00 p.m.)

It's a little past noon here in Jamaica and the storm's starting to be felt here a little more. The rain and winds are picking up but they're coming in short waves. The weather channel is reporting that power is out across the island, which is funny because we're still watching TV and we still have power. It was however scheduled to be turned off at 11. They're on Jamaica time apparently. haha
The eye took a more straight west path earlier which would have put it just off the coast of Kingston or just skirting us. But it looks as though it's heading back north a little which will put the eye, and the strongest winds (145 mph) right on us. The up side. . . if/when the eye passes over the skys actually clear up and it's calm for maybe 30 minutes to an hour. Few people get to experience the eye of a hurricane. Well, get to may not be the right phrase here.
But, things are still good here. We're just using this time to relax and wait for Dean to come. Hopefully we'll keep power a bit longer. I haven't really had the opportunity to take any pictures and there's really nothing exciting to take pictures of. But I'll be sure to get some when the bad stuff hits and get them up here when I can.
Thank you again for your prayers and I'll try to keep in touch. God bless!

Hurricane update (Sun. 9:00 a.m.)

Last night it was pretty peaceful here. . . just some more frequent patches of rain with a little more intensity to them. As of this morning the wind hasn't even really picked up much, but we are starting to get the outer bands from Dean. The winds have held pretty steady at about 145 mph and the eye is supposed to either hit Kingston directly or go just south of Kingston. Either way this city with about 1.2 million people stuffed into just about 25 square miles is going to be devastated! If my guesses are correct, and Kingston is only 25 square miles, then that's about 48,000 people per square mile! Most of them living in those tin and wood shacks I talked about earlier. Those are the people that need our prayers!! As well we have some missionary friends living up on Blue Mountain who run an orphanage with 65 children. Please pray for them as well!!
Well, like I said, the power's going out in less than an hour so I wanted to get this out. You may not hear from me in a while. Keep in mind that after Gilbert in '88 parts of Kingston didn't have power for 3 weeks! I'll probably be out before then, and we do have a generator, but that's the scenario here. Plus this is a worse storm than Gilbert. haha Thank you again for your prayers and I will try to keep in touch whenever I can.
God Bless

Hurricane update (Sat. 11:45 p.m.)

It's now 11:45 p.m. local time (12:45 EDT) and things are just now starting to pick up a little. Short periods of light rain and a very light breeze just starting. My camera is officially broken so I'm going to have to find another way to put pictures up tomorrow. But I'm off to bed and I'm sure I'll wake up early to see what Dean's up to. Forcasters are starting to call this possibly the worst hurricane in Jamaica's history. Good one for me to start with, right? haha Last I saw the winds were down to 145 but I would guess it will intensify tomorrow morning/afternoon with the daytime heating. But I'm not a meteorologist. Landfall should be tomorrow early afternoon. So, I will try to give some more information in the morning and hopefully some pictures. I hope the internet stay's up for a while!! Thank you again in advance for your prayers!!

HURRICANE DEAN!!

Many of you may be unaware that I am still in Jamaica. Unless you live under a rock (Jen) then you know that there is a major hurricane coming right for Jamaica in about 24 hours from now. My flight was actually supposed to leave tomorrow (Sunday) at 1:30 but has been cancelled. To the dismay of a few (sorry) I actually wanted to be here for the hurricane. I know I'm crazy and all, but I thought it'd be a good experience. So here I am with Dennis and Mary waiting for Dean! Gonna play with the CANE!!! I don't know when I'll be able to leave, though I'm not all that concerned. I'm home, right?
We spent pretty much all day preparing for the storm. We first had to make sure the team got out safely as their flight left this morning. (I have so much writing I need to do in order to catch everyone up on what's been going on. But we've been EXTREMELY busy for the past two and half weeks and I haven't had a chance to write. Maybe I'll catch up during the storm) So they went to the airport with Dennis while Mary and I went foraging for food. haha Spent most of the morning getting food and supplies, ate lunch, and spent the rest of the day working around the house getting things ready.
If anyone's worried about me. . . there's good news and bad news. But don't be worried! The good news. . . the building we are in is built of solid cement and reinforced with steel. On top of that, there is no wood/aluminum roof but instead a solid slab of cement and steel. We have plenty of food (and coffee!!) and probably 60 gallons of drinking water. Plus we have a 650 gallon tank on top of the house that can be used to drink if needed. The bad news. . . the Weather Channel is saying that this storm is following an "eerily reminiscent" path of hurricane Gilbert in 1988. In Jamaica Gilbert is the hurricane all other hurricanes are compared to. Some of the island's infrastructure is actually still rebuilding from Gilbert almost 20 years later. On top of that Gilbert hit Jamaica as only (yeah, only. . . haha) a category 3 hurricane. Dean is now a strong category 4 with 150 mph sustained winds. Just 5 mph more makes it a category 5. The difference may be whether or not Dean makes a direct hit. Gilbert did and Dean looks like he may.
The moral of the story so far. . . pray for us!! But more than us pray for the majority of the population of Jamaica that does not have a cement house. Many of the "houses" are built from plywood, zinc sheets (roofing material), and scrap metal. These would blow away in 50 mph winds let alone 150 mph! Put almost a foot of rain on top of that and you've got tragedy! There are shelters set up but that won't help much after the storm's gone. I'm glad I'm here to help in whatever way I can during and after the storm! I'm sure the days after the storm will be spent helping secure roofs and rebuilding lives. I think I'm physically ready for the storm but I am just now thinking about the mental aspect of the storm. But I know God is with me and I know that this is the path he's prepared for me!!
To finish on a lighter note, I will be trying to keep this updated as much as possible over the next couple days. I would like to put a lot of pictures up but that may not happen since I think I broke my camera today. But so far I've taken a few pictures today and you can keep up with them at http://s29.photobucket.com/albums/c269/zeschke41/Hurricane%20Dean%20August%2007/ password "jamaica1".
Right now it's 7:50 Jamaica time (8:50 EDT, 7:50 CDT) and things are eerily (good word) calm. Today was a typical day in Jamaica. . . sun and heat! haha Although Dennis said when he went to the airport the sea side of the road (the background in my picture) was completely calm. It's NEVER calm! Weird! Around 6:00 p.m. here some very ominous looking clouds started rolling over the mountains. The rain is scheduled to start (not random rain) later tonight and conditions will deteriorate after that for the next 24 hours or so.
Well, that's all for now. More later hopefully. Remember I'll be updating this as long as I still have electricity and internet. Thank you all for your prayers in advance!!

Oh, and. . .

I keep forgetting to put up some pictures and an update on the work. The first team of 6 guys from North Terrace Church of Christ in Zanesville, OH arrived today. Their main focus is going to be on the roof of the back building. The floor of the sanctuary SHOULD be poured either late this week or next week. The weather may be an issue though since there is some tropical activity that may develop further and MAY head our way. Could be fun!!! The next team of 22 (I think) arrives Saturday and then another of 21ish next Saturday. But I'll post more about them later. Here are the pictures I've been trying to get up. This is the closest to a panoramic view of the church I can get. The pictures start on one side of the back building and go around the church ending on the same side of the sanctuary/worship center. Here goes:

Look for updates near the end of the month showing the progress!

A couple quotes

I've heard/read a couple quotes in the past week that have impressed me and made me think a little bit. They're totally unrelated but have really had an impact on how I think about my work here in Jamaica and it's work.
The first is somewhat related to my last post concerning the "facts" about Jamaica. Circumstances caused me to write my blog over two different days and caused me to lose some of the focus on what I was writing. But I believe that what I wrote was representative of Jamaica, at least as I've experienced it, and my only regret is that I didn't have the time or the room to fit in everything that I could possibly talk about to try and describe Jamaica with words. In case you're wondering, I don't think it's possible to describe with words. . . just a fleeting attempt. One part that I failed to put in that I had intended to is concerning the religious state of Jamaica. This is one of the areas where I consider the "facts" to be misleading. "Facts" will tell you that Jamaica is 62.5% Protestant Christian. Another of these "facts" is that Jamaica has the most churches per capita than anywhere else in the world. So, if these facts are true than why am I here? I interviewed with a church as a "Living-link" missionary a few months back and these facts came to be sticking issues. This church (understandably) did not want to pay to send a missionary somewhere that was already saturated with Christianity. Let me place a quote from the CIA World Factbook that supplies said information:
Protestant 62.5% (Seventh-Day Adventist 10.8%, Pentecostal 9.5%, Other Church of God 8.3%, Baptist 7.2%, New Testament Church of God 6.3%, Church of God in Jamaica 4.8%, Church of God of Prophecy 4.3%, Anglican 3.6%, other Christian 7.7%)
I can tell you that of these "Protestant" denominations, most are considered by Orthodox Christianity to be cults. And even if they weren't cults I can say from experience that Jamaica is not a "Christian" nation. They talk a lot about God, they mostly believe in God (whatever that may mean), and they allow prayer in schools and government, but I do not believe that people's hearts are truly commited to God. The crime rate and murder rate says otherwise!
I heard a quote that really hit the nail on the head on a documentary on the Travel Channel the other day. They were talking about the wickedness of Port Royal (the city referred to in Pirates of the Caribbean) and how it was referred to in its prime as "the wickedest city on earth". But at the same time it was said that Port Royal had the most churches per capita. The historian said something along the lines of, "When you're out gambling and womanizing all night you need a lot of churches to go pray for your sins the next day." I believe this to be the case of modern day Jamaica as well. Oddly enough Port Royal was destroyed and mostly buried under the sea in a huge earthquake which ended its reign as "wickedest city on earth!"

Another thing I've been thinking about came from a statement a friend made right before I left. Of course I've heard this before and it has been a huge debate in missions for quite a while. It's the age old question of "why not just send money." Why not just funnel all of our money into these underdeveloped countries and let them sort it out for themselves? Why waste our precious, precious time on flying ourselves to these places and using our own sweat and blood to try and help? I've played it up a bit here, but it's a valid question and one that missionaries are facing more and more as they try to find funding to go onto the mission field. Whether that be overseas or in our own inner-cities.
Well, my answer came from a blog from my former youth minister on why the church shouldn't focus PRIMARILY on social help. (I don't believe he is saying that we shouldn't use social help as a ministry tool, but I think he's saying it shouldn't be our end goal) His quote, and I think it applies to my question as well, is:
"It causes American Christians to feel better about all of their great wealth without considering how caught up they are in material stuff. I really wonder if all of our service isn’t just some guilt trip relief because we are so spoiled and rich and want to throw a few shekels to the poor so we can go and watch our HDTV with out remorse."
I think he may be on to something here! Americans (I'm not saying all Americans, or whoever has the money, and I don't believe he is either) would rather send a few dollars than really take the time and effort to immerse themselves in the problem. Granted, missionaries (myself included someday very soon) rely on thse people for their funding. But wouldn't the world be much better if people quit sending money and instead invested in the lives of people? Instead of sending money, invest in a plane ticket and see, smell, hear, and feel what it's like. Share in the tragedy, the pain, the hope, the joy! Leave with a sense of accomplishment and with a new friend or two! Even more so, leave with a better appeciation of what life is like on the other side of the fence. . . wherever that may be!