Hard Work With a Purpose

After a couple of days of settling in and spending time with the kids at Sophie's place and Matthew 25:40, today was our first official work day at Jerusalem - another Mustard Seed home.

Jerusalem is a beautiful place in the middle of Spanish Town with a gorgeous chapel, cottages for the kids, and a school buzzing with energy from all the kids of "Dare to Care". There are also sheep, chickens, fish, and a garden that supply the community with food.

The staff at Jerusalem had plenty of challenging tasks lined up for us. Kevin, Michael, Andrew, Gretchen, Karen, Francesco, and Fr. Benny spent the morning chopping away at concrete in the ground to make way for a new lawn. While Suzanne, Teri, and Carla painted one of the newest cottages. I helped Bridget, Nisha, Kasey, Christina, and Julie clear away brush, scrap metal, and garbage around the area.

And then came the tile. Lots and lots of tile. Over 500 boxes of tile were donated for use in the newest cottages and we all helped unload them from trucks in preparation.

With the sun beating down and temperatures above 90 degrees, today was truly a challenging day. But getting to work alongside some of the older boys from Jerusalem and with frequent visits from the smiling kids of Dare to Care, we understood why the hard work was so important. The day was made more special by seeing members of our team reunited with their sponsor children and in delivering gifts and messages from sponsor parents who couldn't make it this year.

After a long day of work and playing with the kids we headed back to Sophie's for dinner and mass. On the bus ride home a rain shower appeared out of nowhere and delivered a beautiful rainbow and the unique opportunity to grab some soap, suds up, and use the rain as a natural shower. Once we were cleaned up, we celebrated mass for All Souls Day with Fr. Benny.

It's wonderful to be back on this trip for a second time and to see all the changes that have happened at Mustard Seed since we were last here. We all have something to learn from one another and we share a mutual sense of joy in being together. This is our Jamaica family, and families are all about love.

~ Melissa (2nd Year Mission Tripper)