Well, we’re back from an AMAZING trip to Jamaica. Fifteen First Trinity members (mainly youth and young adults) joined with three amazing Jamaicans to form an absolutely astounding team set on doing God’s work throughout the area of Westmoreland Jamaica. In an effort to share our experience with those who stayed behind, I hope to share a post about each day here on my blog along with some pictures.
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Our trip started bright and early last Saturday at the Buffalo airport. After figuring out how many bags we had and getting our boarding passes, we headed through security and got ready to board our first plane. There was another mission team on our plane. Though they were doing something completely different in Jamaica it was fun to know that there were more WNYers serving God alongside us in Jamaica this week.
Flights went well and we enjoyed a leisure lunch during our nearly 3 hour layover in Charlotte; then, we were Jamaica bound! After some small frustrations in Immigration and Customs, we made it outside the airport where Ricardo, the trip leader for the week was waiting for us. He led us to our bus and we got to meet 2 of the 3 Jamaican staff that would be working with us the week, Andy and Al. With the back of the bus loaded with all our luggage and all of us on board, we left the airport. We made 2 quick stops, one to get us nice cold bottled water and another for an afternoon snack of Jamaican Patties. These are hard to describe but some team members explained it like a taco (turnover filled with meat) inside a giant hotdog bun (coco bread). It was yummy but filling.
The drive from Montego Bay to Town Head was an adventurous one as the road twisted and turned through mountains. This was our first taste of the crazy quantity and large side of potholes. If you thought the roads after this winter in Buffalo were bad, just go visit Jamaica for some perspective. Our OUTSTANDING driver, Andy earned our trust right away has he maneuvered our large bus through the streets.
After two hours we arrived at our home for the week, Town Head Baptist Church and met the other two teams, both from North Carolina, who would also be serving in the area that week. We got settled in a little bit and met our third Jamaican team member, Dillon before joining in dinner. Unfortunately, we had only finished our large “snack” about an hour before and many of us were not hungry to eat much of the delicious meal of stewed chicken, curried goat, and rice.
The day ended with some worship with all three teams and and orientation to the week before blowing up our air mattresses and settling in for our first night.
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Thank you again to everyone who supported us and prayed for us through this trip! Check back tomorrow for a sneak peak at our first full day in Jamaica beginning with our experience in worship.
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