Kingston

     For our local outreach we spent a week in Kingston (Nov.7-12). We stayed at a church called Christian Life Fellowship in a area called Papine. The week was an amazing and stretching experience. I felt like I grew so much just from learning to be in slightly uncomfortable conditions (long days,sleeping on hard tile floors, being in close quarters with 15 other girls etc).

We spent a lot of time at two Universities in Kingston; U-Tech (University of Technology) and UWI (University of the West Indies). Mostly we just walked around and talked to people, trying to let conversation flow naturally instead of pushing an agenda of conversion. At first it was really intimidating to try to start conversations but for the most part Jamaicans are pretty open people. Once I got past the point of actually initiating, conversation flowed pretty freely. Some of us "DTSers" actually got to sit in on lectures at the universities.I sat in on an English lecture and then talked to some of the students after. It was fun to get a glimpse of what university life is like in Jamaica. One thing that wasn't so fun, however, was seeing how lost and confused so many of the students were and the false sense of happiness and fulfillment they had. There was no concept of absolute truth. Basically, some of the students I encountered had the mentality that there is no one way to get to heaven (if they even believed in heaven), all roads lead to the same thing.  

     Another thing we did in Kingston was spend time at some of the local squares doing worship and hanging out with people. In the Jamaica the squares are the central part of the neighborhood, the place where people are constantly coming and going

-Business people, school kids, homeless people, street vendors, you name it. Because of the variety of people that we interacted, we had many interesting conversations and experiences, many of them being with some of the Rastafarian's that hang out there. Before I came to Jamaica, I knew very little of what being a "Rasta" actually means other than having dreadlocks and smoking weed. After being here a while, I feel like I have a bit more understanding of it but what I have found is that each Rasta you ask will say he believes something different. It's like none of them really know what it stands for, but have all bought into the "one love" mentality and the liberal lifestyle. They love to philosophize and discuss religion with you, turning the conversation in circles around semi-biblical truths that have been distorted.

     My highlights of the week were spending time at some of the schools in Kingston. The first school we went to was called School of Hope, a school for mentally "disabled" children. In Jamaica, the words "disabled" or "handicapped" are rather loose terms in that they can apply to children with Dislexia or ADD. So some of the children there seemed like they were perfectly normal but were sent to the school because their parents and teachers were tired of dealing with them. Other children had Autism or Downs or had some sort of physical impairment. I got to spend time in the computer class working through phonics and math skills with some of the children. They were all so cute and inviting! It was a lot of fun showing love to these children who in some ways are completely forgotten about. 

The other school we went to was in Trenchtown (A ghetto in Kingston) called Operation Restoration. For living in one of the roughest neighborhoods in Kingston, most of the kids seemed pretty well behaved (They referred to all of us as "Miss" or "Sir") and  happy when we interacted with them. It just reminded me that no matter what happens to kids, they are still kids-still love to laugh and play and sing and dance despite difficult circumstances. I spent most of time with a 15 year old boy whose parents had been murdered and he himself had barely survived, with two gunshot scars on either side of his face. My heart breaks for these children who seemingly have no hope and future (A few of the children performed a poem about having no education and no future and then even when they do get a simple education there is no job available for them. So sad!) which is why many of them steal or getting to drugs or other criminal activity just to make it through life.

Overall the week was an eye opening experience because I learned to see people I had often ignored or not cared about the way God sees them.

"Give me your eyes for just one second.

Give me your eyes so i can see everything that I keep missing.

Give me your love for humanity,

Give me your arms for the brokenhearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach. 

Give me your eyes for the ones forgotten.

Give me your eyes so I can see."

Give Me Your Eyes - Brandon Heath

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5AkNqLuVgY&feature=related

.

     Another thing I should update you guys on: Plans have changed and I am now going Gambia, West Africa for my international outreach! Gambia is a tiny country that is home to the Serahule people, an unreached Muslim people group that we will be spending most of our time with. We expect to leave in the beginning of January and return to Jamaica in the third week of February. I am still waiting on more details and will try to update my info once I know more.  Please join me in my preparations by praying for the Serahule people and our team! 

to those of you who have been sending me encouragements and praying for me! Keep on keeping on! Lecture phase is rapidly coming to a close (We only have 4 weeks left). I want to make the most of the time I have left here!

Good news!! Tomas is no longer expected to reach hurricane status. It has weakened back down to a tropical storm and isn't expect to regain strength. Even so a tropical storm can cause major flooding in Haiti. Read this article for more info.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/11/02/bloomberg1376-LBAYBO1A1I4I01-3EACCVC3GPCG2CTQ9B8SIME5BV.DTL

Tomas Update

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/01/1901991/haiti-braces-for-hurricane-tomas.html

http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/tomas-weakens-to-a-tropical-storm-6584#6584

Its looking like Tomas has settled down a bit and returned to being a tropical storm (Good news!) however from the second link you can see that Haiti is still in serious danger. Keep praying!

Tomas

This week our lecture was titled "The Cross: Giving Up Rights". It was a week of rediscovering/remembering the One who paid the ultimate price for us, the perfect example of sacrificing rights and how our lives should model His. We dealt with things like repentance and clean conscience as well.

On Thursday we did our first "Street Evangelism". It was so nice to finally get out there on the streets and interact more with the locals. We basically just went around one area in Montego Bay focusing on the key spots people gather (the mall,KFC etc) and tried to start conversations and invite them to the park where we were having music and testimonies. I enjoyed the afternoon although it will take a while to get used to approaching randoms on the street.It was kind of discouraging that none of the people my group talked to showed up at the park. There were some amazingly funny and cute kids there though that we all enjoyed hanging out with and singing with. I'm praying that God will give us all a heart for evangelism and that he will also guide our conversations in the future so that we can effectively share Christ and reach people for Him.

The main reason I wanted to update this was because I am presenting a prayer request before you that is of a certain urgency. I mentioned in earlier messages that we are in hurricane season. Thankfully, we haven't experienced too much other than the tail of a hurricane which was basically heavy rainfall. Even so that heavy rainfall was enough to wash away roads, flood homes and knock out power and water. Last night we found out that a tropical storm Tomas is headed straight for the Caribbean that has a huge potential to become a major hurricane. The projected path of Tomas is pretty much straight for Jamaica(The eastern side) and it is already doing damage on islands like Barbados and St.Lucia.Here's the thing: The projected path also takes this hurricane to the south side of Haiti AKA Port Au Prince. According to the news last night this storm could turn into a category 3 or 4 Hurricane (Hurricane Katrina was category 5). I don't think I need to tell you what this could mean for Haiti.

This storm is expected to reach our area by Wednesday.I know this all seems like its just a chance but please pray that God will keep Tomas at tropical storm level and turn it back towards the open sea. Pray that he will spare the people of Haiti from more devastation!

Here are some links if we want to join us in watching and praying for this storm :

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/Tropical-Storm-Tomas-near-hurricane-strength

http://www.weather.com/outlook/videos/watching-shary-and-tomas-6584

http://www.weather.com/maps/maptype/satelliteworld/caribbeansatellite_large.html



Satellite image of Tomas (The red spiral on the lower right) as of today.

DTS Updates

Things are going really well here in Jamaica.The last two weeks we've had a fairly relaxed schedule which has compensated for the intense teachings that we've been having. I have never been more mentally or spiritually tired(which in turn equals physical exhaustion!). But I know that all the hard work is only going to help me know our Father more.


My last couple lectures were on "Humility & Fear of the Lord" and "Identity in Christ & Plumb Line." The Fear of the Lord week was taught by Gayle Keaproth (Her and her husband are directors of YWAM Madison,Wisconsin). She was such a genuine and caring lady who had a lot of wisdom to impart on us. She even took the time to pray for all of us individually before she even met us! Since starting DTS, the fear of the Lord has been something that has been brought up quite often and I realized I had no idea what it meant. I obviously new it didn't mean being scared of God but I didn't understand the practical application of it or how to explain it. From Gayle's sessions I learned that fearing God has a lot to do with understanding the priority of the one we live for and very little to do with being scared. If we don't fear the Lord than we will be afraid of Him. Fear of the Lord is what makes us want to live the right way(willingly and intentionally putting aside our sin) because we understand who God is. It involves humbly honoring and valuing the God that we serve and respecting the position he is in and being in awe of who he is.


Last week was Identity and Plumb Line which was taught by Howard and Margaret Ellis who are from Canada(woo!) and have a ministry called Jacob's Well (http://www.jacobswellministries.ca/). It was an interesting week of learning the answers to the "fundamental questions of life"(Who am I? Where am I coming from?Where am I going? What has value to me?") and identifying the areas in our lives that don't line up to God's Plumb line and dealing with them. If you are wondering what a plumb line is (I had no clue either) apparently its what builders use to make their walls straight. Therefore God's plumbline is what shows us how to live our lives (or build straight walls). His unchangeable word has to be the reference point instead of man's if we don't want our "walls" crumbling.
Outside of class we haven't really been up to too much. The past two weekends have been spent lounging by the pool so I can't really complain! The weather has cooled down considerably and it rains everyday but I still managed to get my first sunburn! Me along with some of my classmates have started leading worship on Thursday mornings for our DTS students and staff. Its been fun to grow in that area in safe environment. Next weekend we hope to go to Negril and visit Rick's Cafe where we will go cliff jumping (weather permitted).


Prayer Requests
1) Please pray for Haiti and the Cholera outbreak (http://www.youtube.com/v/6FbWJRVQcYw?version=3%22%3E%3Cparam
2) Pray for wisdom as we prep for outreach 
3) Pray Paul's prayer for the Ephesians in Chapter 1 over me so that I will have wisdom and understanding during the lectures.


"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." Ephesians 1:17-19a

Sunrise this morning:)

Whoa!

This post has been a long time coming and therefore will be extremely long.Sincerest apologies!haha

I am headed towards my third week here in Jamaica! It is unbelievable to me because it feels as if I've been here forever...In a good way. The base already feels like home, the people all ready feel like long-time friends and yet there is so much more to know about each other. 

Recap of the past 2 weeks(as best as possible;)


I guess I'll start with the first actual weekend I spent here because that was my first real exposure to Jamaica. On Friday night after our DTS welcome party (dancing and good food), we all hopped on the bus and headed into Mobay for a Christian reggae concert with local artists. While there a man with the darkest eyes I've ever seen touched my arm and then proceeded to fall at my feet and start smoking a joint. From his appearance and smell, he was clearly homeless and obviously his mind had been corrupted from many years of drug use. He continued to lay at my feet while the others danced and carried on with the concert but I couldn't take my eyes away. My heart was breaking because I wanted to help him but didn't know how. A little girl that I had previously been dancing with turned to me and said "Don't worry,he's just a mad man." Just a mad man? Just a mad man that God cares about and loves. Just a mad man that God desperately wants to free from addiction. Nobody is "just" anything. 


Eventually the man got up and moseyed on, only to be pushed out off the gated concert area by security. For some reason I thought of the story of the woman that had been bleeding for 12 years and who touched Jesus's cloak to receive healing. Only this time, in my mind I saw the woman being pushed away from Jesus by the crowds of people. Can you imagine what that story would have looked like if the woman was never able to reach Jesus? There is something wrong when at a Christian concert people are only accepted if they look a certain way, or are "normal".There is a problem when people only go to a concert to sing about being world changers and about Christ love and not be able to really experience it! A wave of conviction hit me. By me choosing not to do pray for this poor man who desperately needs Jesus(whether he knew it or not-I'd like to believe he did) I was doing the same thing as everyone else. All I could do is pray that God would lead the man back.And he did! A group of us prayed for him and I could tell he was so thankful. He gave one of the guys a big hug and wouldn't let go. Nothing big or miraculous happened but I left feeling like I had been obedient to they way God calls us to live and that was all I could do.

We spent the rest of the weekend at the beach(which was incredible) and promoting a torch prayer run for Jamaica to some of the churches around the island. The group I was in was in went to Kingston for church on Sunday which is about four hours from Montego Bay. The first church we went to was outside of Kingston and it seriously felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere. It was a tiny country church with little goats running around outside and no a/c (of course). We got there just in time for the end of the service(because we had other churches to stop at) so it was hard to get an accurate picture of what the service was like. The people were warm and friendly and the children interacted with us after the service. The second church we went to was inside Kingston in the downtown area. Definitely an eye-opening experience. You always hear that Kingston is rough and it really looks the part. It was good to see and experience for myself though. After church there was a huge prayer vigil in the city square and a bunch of local ministers,politicians and singers came out. It was amazing to see Jamaicans praying and repenting on their country's behalf in the heart its darkest city. 


Yikes this is long already...are you still with me?


Last week was our first official week of classes which were on God's Nature and Character. It was taught by YWAM's Regional Director of the Caribbean who is a guy named Bill Landis. I enjoyed the classes although it was tough to concentrate with the weather that we had going on.It is hurricane season here after all! I experienced what is called a tropical depression which is basically tons and tons and tons of rain and wind. We went through all types of things-roads completely washed out, power outages, no running water, flooded classrooms, the list goes on. Some parts of Jamaica had tornadoes and the homes of the poor were devastated. By the end of the week the weather seemed to have passed us and by Sunday it was hot and sunny once again.


Sunday was my first official Jamaican church service. We went to a church called the meeting place which is actually run by a jamaican born white woman which I found interesting.(http://www.trumpetcallministries.org/meeting_place.php) The service was really good...different, but good(and it had a/c!Hallelujah!!) The music felt like one big celebration. We had probably a good hour of music. The Jamaicans are a very musical people-it almost seems it is part of them. 


Monday we started a new week of classes on Truth and the Bible. I feel like I am learning so much it is almost hard to process in a such a short time frame. The classes don't really feel like classes though because the lecturer(Mike Huckins) has a way of presenting the info in a way that is so practical and applicable. Feels like he is just having a heartfelt conversation with us and we are eating it up!


Tuesday was the Kingdom Torch Run I mentioned before. Basically the idea of it is that Jamaica needs to be reclaimed for God's Kingdom so as we ran and prayed through every parish in the country, we were taking it back for God. It was an incredible time. My team went to Morant Bay(236 km from Mobay) which is basically out in the boonies. Rural to the full essence of the word. It was also one of the areas that experienced a lot of the flooding so the place we stayed Monday night had no running water still. We ventured out at about 5:30 am and alternated between driving and running(we saved the running for key areas). We each took turns running with the torch and praying for Jamaica. It was fun watching peoples reactions to us-some heckled us, some just stared and pointed, others asked what we were doing ("Whagwan?") We ran all the way through Kingston and ended up in Mandeville at about 7 pm. 12 hours on the road in the hot sun made for a long day. The tiredness we felt though was a feeling of accomplishment. That day will never be forgotten for many reasons!


Anyways, I hope this gives those of you who were wondering a good picture of what I've been up to and how I'm doing. If you made it to this part, I'm amazed you had the perseverance to read through all my ramblings! Feel free to email if you want to hear more- amhildebrand@hotmail.com. Blessings!

The Beginnings

I am nearing the end of my first week in Jamaica and I figured I should update this while I have time because from the looks of it, life will be jam packed starting next week!

Sunday I arrived in Montego Bay. After a little difficulty at customs and not being able to find/be found by the people who were supposed to pick me up, I finally connected with some DTS staff at the airport and we made the scary journey to the base. I say scary only because of the driving! Very narrow bumpy roads combined with fast driving and being on the left side of the road made for an interesting truck ride. I spent the rest of Sunday unpacking and meet some of the students who had already arrived.

This first week has been an orientation week which basically means they've been going easy on us! We have done some foundational laying classes(Truth of the bible, Hearing God's Voice, Work is Worship etc) to help us grasp the lectures that will come in the following weeks and have started sharing our testimonies and getting to know each other. There are 18 students in this DTS and it is amazing to hear each ones story as to where they are in their journey with Christ and how God lead them to Jamaica.

I feel I have adjusted to most things pretty well. We only have cold water for our showers which I thought would bother me but instead I love it as it provides relief from being HOT all the time. At night the base guard dogs howl at the street mongrels which makes a interesting lullaby to fall asleep to.My roommates are wonderful gals. One is 23 and from Jamaica and the other is 19 and from Idaho. It's been fun getting to know them so far. The food for the most part is delicious. I'm enjoying eating some traditional Jamaican meals however I did not enjoy pigs tail with beans.Yes i said pigs tail.

The staff all seem like great people who are passionate for Christ. Most of the staff are from the Caribbean if not Jamaica. There are a couple from the states and that's about it. The base is beautiful and kept up pretty nicely. The campus is on a hill that over looks the ocean so there is lots of stairs and steep sidewalks (good exercise in the heat!) It is probably one of the most beautiful places I've ever been (I guess I haven't been that many places but still). Its magnificent.

This weekend we will venture out into Mobay and maybe find the beach. Friday night will be a welcome party for part of the evening but after that we will go to a christian reggae concert! Can't wait to experience the more of the culture. Prayers are greatly appreciated as I continue to adjust. Love you all:)