Jamaican Journal – Day 5

The fifth day of my exciting journey starts off with a lukewarm bucket shower. I feel like I didn’t get much sleep and a hot bucket of water on my head would feel great, but alas, I find no comfort in the bucket today. Only the lukewarm reality of another day. I quickly splashed the necessary areas and moved on to the breakfast portion of my day. Today was corned beef and cabbage, a fine Irish meal to start the day off right. After breakfast it was off to drop Sister Gail at her childhood home to preach in her home church. We delivered a bag of Lighthouse offerings to a poor neighbor of Sister Gail’s mother. She seemed very grateful to get the package. Sister Gail also packed a food basket for her. Pastor Nathan and I left to go to Richmond where I was going to be bringing the Word to the congregation this Sunday morning. The church in Richmond was a basic one-room concrete structure with no windows. I haven’t felt air conditioning since being here. The sound system was pretty temperamental and kept squealing with feedback and every breath into the microphone sounded like you were hitting it with a hammer. After about an hour and a half of singing and scripture reading and singing, and prayer and scripture reading and prayer and more singing the Pastor called me up to bring the Word. I opened with a song and even though the sound wasn’t very good it came across well. I preached the Word like a man on fire. I was sweating through my clothes and my suit. I felt like Pastor Ronnie usually looks right after a service. Although to be completely fair, Pastor Ronnie sweats like that WITH air conditioning. Pastor Nathan enjoyed the message and said he took three pages of notes. I hope that wasn’t a hint that I spoke too long. 

After that was over we went home to rest up for the next two events. We had lunch which consisted of macaroni pie, rice with some type of Jamaican peas that I can’t remember the name of, and some part of a chicken that I didn’t recognize. When lunch was over we drove to Somerset to show a film to the children’s ministry there. We met a nice lady named Faith and her husband who use their yard to hold Bible meetings for the neighborhood children. We had to set up the screen outside because there were too many children to fit in the metal shed that they usually use to meet in. Because it was so early we had to wait for about an hour for it to get dark enough for the projector to become visible on the screen. We watched another Mr. Donut movie and then I spoke to the children a little about being ready to meet Jesus when He comes back. There had just been a funeral for a little girl in the neighborhood who was shot to death. After I was done praying I was asked to come into the house to pray for a girl named Crysta who was having a problem that she didn’t want to discuss. She knew she needed God’s help and she cried the whole time I was praying for her. She looked to be about 15 years old and was very pregnant. I asked if I could pray for the baby too and she said yes through her tears. I believe God ordained that time for healing and restoration. Several parents were standing in the road listening to the preaching and prayers. God was able to do a great work in Somerset on this evening.

Because we started late we were about a half an hour late for our next film showing at Mt. Zion Baptist. This was the biggest church I had been to in Jamaica. They had a large sound system and a full praise band. Even so, there was no air conditioning and only slats for windows. The movie shown was “Escape from Hell”. When it was over Pastor Nathan gave an altar call for salvation and I spoke a little about reaching our lost family and friends for Christ. The people here seemed very unresponsive to the Word, like they didn’t need to hear it. The problem in Jamaica is that everyone has heard so much gospel they think they know it all and they don’t need to be changed by it. There is a lot of dead religion here. There is a severe shortage of Pastors and most Pastors run between 3 and 5 different churches. They don’t seem to be building up leaders and helpers from within. Most of the Pastors here come from the bible schools and seminaries. They aren’t raised up underneath Pastors. They really need the Kingdom of God to be taught here. Something is definitely wrong. There is so much religion but so little life.

Tomorrow is another day. Hopefully there is hot water and good sleep for me. Until next time. Goodnight and God bless.

Like, Subscribe, Share, and Comment! Share your stories of encouragement with us. We want to hear from YOU!