Jamaican Reunion

Last Saturday night, my family and I attended a Jamaican Reunion. We got together with Sr. Connie and Sr. Naomi and all of the people who have gone to the Jamaican Mission trip for the past few years. It was fun to see everyone again.

History: Back in 2001

For the past few years, there have been volunteers from our church and community that volunteer to go to Jamaica to build homes for a week. Typically there have been four week trips each year. Each group was about 10-12 people from the area. I was on a waiting list to go since the other four weeks were full for that year.

Right after 9/11, I got a call from the person heading up the next Jamaican trip. Everyone was backing out of the trips because they were scared to fly. I was asked if I was still interested. Right now they were having a hard time trying to find enough people to fill just one group.

I was always intrigued by the concept, and knew that I could be of help. I just had a feeling that I needed to go. I had just been through the birth of our second son Michaeleen. In fact he was only a month old when I got the call.

"Dan, would you go with us?"

[Pause, while reflecting hard] "Yes."

"Do you know of anyone else who would be willing to go?"

So I said that I would call my sister Susan and see if she was interested in going. A few years prior she went to Haiti on a mission trip, so I knew she was interested in the experience. After a quick phone call, she said "Yes!" She was much more confident than I about the trip.

We were scheduled to leave for Jamaica in January, so just when my newborn son was only three months old, I packed up with my sister and kissed my family good bye, and with wet eyes, I went to Jamaica.

The Journal

I decided before I went that I would keep a journal of the events during Jamaica. My fear was that I would forget everything that happened, so I wanted to get everything written down, especially for my children when they were older. So I'm very glad that I took the time to write things down as they happened. I wrote at every chance I got. It was an experience I'll never forget. It was homework that I assigned to myself, because when I wrote, I was thinking about home and my two boys and my wife. I survived the trip and got back with many more tears of joy. It was nice to return to a non-third world country; roads that were paved, reliable electricity, sanitary water, etc.

For those who are truly interested, you can view my Jamaican Journal (1,594 kb pdf).