Day 3, Sunday, March 11
For the morning service we traveled to our bus driver’s church, Independence Hall Baptist Church. Our bus driver is the assistant pastor at this church.
Our students taught the Sunday School classes and were involved in the morning service with music and testimony. Unfortunately, it had rained that morning and most people walk to the church, so attendance was down. In spite of that it was great to fellowship with other believers in another part of the world. Despite being from different countries, we have this one, wonderful thing in common: Jesus Christ.
Some of the kids at the church.
Visit Troy Johnstone Photography
Students leading the singing.
The service was almost 2 hours long, and not because I am long-winded. They had over an hour of music and Scripture reading before they invited us to share our ministry. It was interesting to see how the services ran in Jamaica.
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In the afternoon we went to Oasis Baptist Church to run their Sunday afternoon youth group program. Like most events, everything ran on J-time (Jamaica time), meaning flexible time. When we showed up there were no kids there at all, but slowly over the next hour more people arrived. One even showed up just as we were leaving..
Anyway, once some people showed up we played some games and sang songs.
Playing Huckle Buckle with our students
My voice was almost shot from speaking louder than the traffic the night before and preaching that morning, and with one more sermon to do that night I asked Frank to share the devotion with the young people. Frank is a missionary with ABWE (the organization we partnered with for this trip) and came along as a facilitator for us. He also was a missionary for many years with Word of Life. We really enjoyed getting to know Frank and ministering with him.
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Late once again for a meal we quickly had supper back at the school and then headed off to our final ministry event for the day. We would be participating in the evening service at Mt. Stewart Baptist Church. Students again lead music, shared a skit and some testimonies, and I preached.
Pastor Moore and I after the service.
At each of the churches we visited on this trip we left a copy of the books The Stranger on the Road to Emmaus and the children’s picture book, The Lamb.
Both these books clearly explain the Gospel without making assumptions of what the reader may already know or not know about the Bible and God. It is our prayer that these churches will use them in their ministries with the people of Jamaica.