Bakin' Jamaican

The sky has been hazy, and the temperatures have been hot! The hot, dry weather has been part of the conversation for most of the month of April. The temperatures have been in the mid-upper 80s with high humidity, but there is another contributing factor. A local newspaper is reporting that the haze we see is actually dust particles from sand storms in the Sahara Desert. This dust raises the heat index as well. Unfortunately, they are predicting for it to get worse before it gets better. You can read the article here. Several of us have been coughing recently, so we now have something to blame.

Floyd & Ellen Yoder are still in the US. Floyd had a pacemaker installed, and is waiting for a doctors clearance to travel again. I think they are eager to be back in Jamaica again, and we will be excited to have them here again.

We had some visitors in April as well. Rose's sister Krystle, and three of her friends spent a week here in the early part of the month. Becca's parents, Ruben & Laura Graber; and her two brothers, Josiah & Justin, were here for a week. Our girls enjoyed having someone new to play with, and we enjoyed getting to know the family better.

Joe & Ellen Shetler from Indiana also came for several days. Currently we are hosting Melinda Martin and her friend Dinamarie from Illinois. Melinda served as an auntie at JRM several years ago, and they have been helping at Blossom Gardens as well with the children here. We enjoy meeting a variety of people here!

Sheri spent about 2 weeks in the US for vacation. We were all together again for a week then Nicki left for her vacation. We are starting to make plans to be back in Ohio for about 2 weeks in June/July. We talk about going "home" for vacation, but in many ways Jamaica feels like home to us. We have been blessed with friends here in Jamaica, and a tremendous team at JRM!

The girls are excited about finishing school soon. They still have several weeks left before they will be done. We are sad however, that this means that Tammie will be leaving us soon.

Last Friday was sports day for the JRM school children. Every school has a sports day in the spring. Most of the activities were variations of racing. Sometimes they would run to one end, figure out a math problem, then run back. They had all the children divided into 3 teams, and they would get points according to how they finished. The most amusing part of the day was when they had the parents race. In the end the yellow team was the winners.

Last Friday evening, some of our friends hosted the simulcast of David Platt's "Secret Church." It is a 6 hour bible study patterned after what the underground church does when they meet. They cram as much into the time slot as possible. The phrase "drinking from a fire hydrant" is quite appropriate. The subject was focused on issues in our culture such as abortion, poverty, orphans, and same sex marriage. It actually lasted 7 hours, but it was well worth it.

We are just starting to enjoy fresh mangoes again. They are slowly starting to ripen. We are getting about a dozen per week. Once they are in full season, we will have more than we know what to do with.

Jamaica Relief Ministries is now officially licensed by the Child Development Agency of Jamaica as a group home. We received our 3 year license this week. The application process was started in 2011/2012, and now it is finally official!

Please join us in prayer for Sierra. She has been sick for over a week. She has a lingering cough, and has had a fever as well. We did take her to the doctor who says it is a viral thing.

Also pray for us as we have a work group coming to JRM next week. We will be hosting 28 people here. In preparation for that, we are adding a few more showers and toilets to the pavilion. If you enjoy camping, you may want to book a stay in our new accommodations!

Thank you so much for your prayers, support, and interest in our lives and what happens at JRM! We really appreciate it!

Sign of the week:
Poverty is a serious problem here, and I don't want to make light of it, but several things struck me about this sign at the post office.  First of all, it seemed a little politically incorrect to say "registered poor persons." Secondly, illiteracy is a large problem, and is a great contributor to poverty, so I wonder how many poor people would even be able to register, let alone read this sign. On the other hand, I really don't know much about the Jamaican welfare system, so maybe none of this applies.