Back to routine?

Wow! What an awesome week we've had. As I've said in the last post, we had a team here from the Eastgate, Cincinnati area for a week. They left on the Saturday before Father's Day, and Jordan, Jim and Penie's daughter came home from an extended stay in the states. It was good to see her again. Hannah and Alyssa have connected with her and are having a blast.
On Wednesday, we had the privilege of going to Negril with Jim and Penie for dinner and a visit to the chiropractor. Negril is 7 miles of beautiful white sand. Dad, you would LOVE it there! We ate dinner at an Italian restaurant overlooking the beach, and then took a stroll up and down the beach. It was sooooo relaxing.
Father's Day was great for me. My four kids all gave me a homemade card, and my lovely wife wrote me a beautiful letter. Then the church here recognized all the fathers (a total of 4) with a pen and our choice of two gifts. I wasn't expecting anything, so their token was really special. The gifts weren't much in American standards (I got a comb and shampoo), but the idea and love that came with them is what touched me. Then to top it off, they had a cake for us! YES! After church, we just kinda laid around and rested after having the team here. I was going to take my family to a nearby pay beach, but the weather turned nasty, so we'll put that off for another time.
Yesterday was a bit of a rough day in the house for all of us. We were ALL tired and a bit grouchy, so we took time out of our day to pray and ask the Lord to help us show the love of Jesus. After that, we went to the other extreme of being loud and silly! Boy, the power of prayer! We all were in bed earlier than usual.
Today was great, though. During team competition, the teams did two major games. While one team was doing an obstacle course, the other two went on a scavenger hunt at the beach looking for conk shells, sea urchin shells, hermit crabs, etc... They had to find 1 lizard, 2 crabs, 3 clam shells, and so on up to 10. They had a great time and it kept us busy all day! Every team did the obstacle course, but the Mighy Lions came out on top. StarFire won the scavenger hunt, but PowerStrikers are still in the lead overall!
Dulcie got to go on an adventure with Penie today...grocery shopping. As you ladies know, shopping for an entire family is alot. Imagine a family of 26 plus the 6 of us! They went to another town called Savanna-la-mar. Dulcie said that one man approached her and began to rub her arm over and over while saying, "hello, whitey". She replied "hello" and pushed the cart away from him. I guess he got the hint, cuz he left her alone. That was a first for her. Thank God he was with her. I was in charge of the house most of the day while they were gone, because Jim was in Montego Bay. One of the social workers showed up...I was a bit nervous at first, never having had to deal with that before, but it went great. He was only here a few minutes to see a few of the kids.
Tomorrow is a really big day because the container from the states is supposed to arrive. It is a tractor trailer filled from front to back, top to bottom with supplies for the home and some to give to other ministries. When it gets here, we only have two hours to unload it. I guess I'd better get my sleep tonight! All of us here at the house (kids included) will have to help, as well as a group of college boys from Taylor University who are down. We've been getting the house in order so that all available space can be used. We've been getting rid of old clothes and shoes, and skates, etc... to make way for the new. The next few days will be really busy!
On Friday, we have another team of 20 coming down for a week from Texas. They will be giving us a little "break", as they will take over team competition for us. Perhaps we'll get some new ideas from them as well. Hopefully, we'll get to see more of the island while they are here. The day they leave another team of 20 arrives from Cincinnati, so the next two weeks will be busy.
We're still loving it here, but a few of our kids are beginning to get homesick. Please pray for them. We know we're where God wants us, but that's hard for kids to grasp sometimes. I know they'll be fine with the prayers of the saints covering them. We are still battling the bug bites, but Praise God it has not been as bad as when we first arrived. I guess they're getting tired of us! My driving is getting better as well, but I haven't driven in the city yet! I'm really enjoying everything about Jamaica. To my mother's surprise, I don't really miss the fast pace of city life. These kids keep me too busy to think about it. All I really miss about the states is my friends and family.
I have posted some pictures on KBM's website. www.jaminjamaica.com click on the photos link, then click Bushhorn internship. I will post more pictures periodically. Please keep us in your prayers. We need them! Love you all. See you soon.