So I have just gotten back from my mission trip in Jamaica, and it was completely amazing! I seriously am so bless to have spent my spring break with this awesome group of people doing such great things. While on this trip I learned so much about myself, and how much the Lord loves me! So I am going to share a little bit about trip so you guys can see all that happened!
Saturday, Day 1: So I spent Friday night at my friend Katie Fosse's house, and her family was so nice! Her mom made us dinner and some really tasty juice, but we actually went to bed kinda early because we had to wake up super early to drive to the airport in the morning. I woke up around 3:30 and Katie's dad drove us to the airport to meet our group at 5:00. We were all kind of groggy but I mean we were so excited too! Going into this trip I was really only friends with one girl on my trip, Danielle, and she wasn't on my flight so I was kinda going into an unfamiliar group of people. We had meetings before every sunday night, so I got to meet most of the people on my trip there, but it was still kinda scary! This is a picture of Courtney, Kaleb, and I on the plane (Courtney was in my small group and we became really good friends, and Kaleb is Katie Fosse's Cousin and he went on another Jamaica trip with Freshly)!
So this is a picture of the hotel we stayed at; it was really small and we were pretty much the only guests all week. The people at Hunny Bay cooked all of our meals and they were so good to us!
Sunday, Day 2: We got up and ate breakfast, and then we went to a local church! The one I went to was called Family Church on the Rock, and it was a 3 hour long service! The people there were so happy to see us, and the preacher actually came later on in the week to speak to us at worship one night. On the left side are my roommates and I! The one on the left is Olivia, and the one in the middle is Morgan (awesome girls fo sho)!
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Day 3, 4, 5: So on Monday we started our mission work! I went to The Golden Grove All Age School which had kids from Grade 1-Grade 6, and it was definitely one of the higher class schools in Jamaica. We got there and we could hear all the Jamaican kids talking, and it was so much louder than an American school! My team painted the outside of the school and built a cement foundation for a new wall. We worked on these projects all of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. However, Monday was probably the hardest day because it was raining while we worked, and all the kids had tests so there were kids in and out of class all day, so it was really hard to focus while they were talking to us the whole time!
This is my girl Whitney! I met her the first day and she gave me flowers and wrote me little notes all week!
This is the outside of the school that we painted, it was just three walls with a courtyard, and we were helping them build the fourth wall. You can tell its about to storm on us here!
These are some of the school kids! The girl in the middle was super sassy haha. She always wanted to play "beauty shop", which consisted of braiding and pulling my hair until I had none left.
So after we finished up at our worksites for the day we would hop back in the coaster and go back to Hunny Bay. The drive home was about an hour so there was some really good sight seeing!
After we got back we would have some time to chill out before dinner (most of us would shower all the nasty off of us, but the showers were always really cold!). Then following dinner we would have small group which was my favorite time of the day! In small group I met with Kasey, Christin, Callie, Courtney, Katie Fosse, and Katie Nipp (try remembering all those names...mmhmm). But at this time we would just talk about our day, and we would talk about pretty much just anything on our minds. These girls became my best friends on the trip! Left to right: Katie Nipp, Courtney, Me!, Christen, Kasey, Callie, and Kaite Fosse!
So after small group we would have worship, and this was always just a great time to be close with God. Every night I would look up at the stars and it truly was magical. This time was always really special because each night we would grow closer to each other, and it was so awesome to experience worship together by the end of the week. After worship we would ALWAYS have snack, and most of the time it was some seriously good junk food that I simply could not deny. I am sure I gained like 10 pounds from all those late night snacks haha. But it was soooooo worth it my friends.
Thursday, Day 6: So by Thursday we finished all of our mission projects, and instead of going to our mission site we went to a place for mentally handicapped adults. This place was mind-blowing. After mentally handicapped people turn 18 the government no longer provides provision for them, so this place was formed by a very special lady (who I sadly cannot remember the name of!). She has made it so this facility is self-sustaining with animals, and gardens, and solar power energy. It was so incredible, and their church was so beautiful! But the thing that blew my mind was that it was all done by missionaries! While we were there all we did was sing songs with them, and just kinda hang out, but they were so grateful still.
The whole week we were singing Whitney Houston, and one of the patients said that she was his favorite, so that is why we chose to sing this song with them haha!
Friday, Day 7: This was one of the most tiring days of the week! Since this was our last day in Jamaica we went to the markets and did some serious haggling, and then we went to Dunns River Falls and climbed up the water falls! This day was pretty much filled with all of the touristy things in Jamaica, and it was really weird seeing white people again! There were a bunch of cruise ships docked here, and it was like being in America again. This was just so different than what we had been exposed to all week that it was weird seeing people come to Jamaica but not even see what really goes on behind the shoreline.
Yes, we did rock the mission trip one pieces with style.
Saturday, Day 8: We got up bright and early to head to the airport, and of course it was hectic, but we eventually made it home around 7:00 pm. We had some good American Atlanta Bread Co. in the airport and then headed back to Katie's house. By this time Katie and I were extremely pooped, and we pretty much went straight to bed.
All in all, this trip was so amazing, and it has greatly affected my college experience already because I have people who I can really trust. Each and every person I went on this trip has such special qualities, and I can't wait to spend the rest of my semester with these awesome people to support me!
I also want to thank all of you that gave me money and prayers for this trip. This whole process turned out to be so rewarding, and I am just floored to see how much you all care. I hope this little synopsis gives you a just a peak at how life altering this trip was for me! I love each of you so much!
Peace and Pineapples,
Mason :)
PS: I am just going to throw on these pictures too!
