by Audrey Johnson, 6-month Caribbean Immersion team member
After spending time in New York City, Haiti, and Jamaica, the 6-month team is now starting up in their final community: Belize. Their team is the first Immersion team to spend time with our community partners in Belize!
We left Jamaica yesterday to begin our journey to Belize! We are all very excited for Belize and all of the newness and unknown it brings with it. But how do you leave the place that has been your home for 8 weeks? How do you say goodbye to a community that has welcomed you with open arms and treated you like one of their own? How long do you have to look outside at the scenery to guarantee you will never forget what every tree looks like? The memories I have made in Catadupa, Jamaica are ones I hope to carry with me for the rest of my life. And if God blesses me so, I have been promised a bed and meals from several new friends if I ever return to Jamaica.
One really cool thing that happened this week occurred at our last Tuesday night church service. I felt the presence of God there stronger than I had since we had been there. The church we were a part of has a Pentecostal background and they just seem to understand more about the power of the Holy Spirit than any other church I have attended. At first it was pretty intimidating, not because it was weird but because I didn't really understand it. But that last night, we all opened ourselves up to the Spirit. Our group showed a new vulnerability in our worship that we hadn't really let ourselves express yet. We were singing and praising and praying harder and more genuinely than I had seen us do so far. But my favorite part was when Pastor Gordon invited us to the front so the church could pray over us. The craziest thing was it didn't feel like we were a visiting group that they were praying for before we left. It felt like our church was sending us off. It was then I really realized, we were more than just visitors. We were truly family. A family not defined by DNA, but one designed by God.
Our last week in Jamaica was full of assisting another group with one of their projects. It was fun because it gave us a chance to interact with the other group and share our experiences with them but it also caused our last week to slip away faster than we were expecting. Our last night there, some of our host moms hosted a party for us with cake and other yummy treats! My current host mom surprised us also with a last dinner of fried chicken, french fries, and Pepsi. It was a little funny how "American" our last dinner in Jamaica was but she really was so happy to make it for us. It was too cute!
So recently I have been reading through Psalms because, let's be for real, it's a pretty awesome book of the Bible. The one that has stuck out to me most recently is Psalm 19:1-6, which I won't quote but you should totally grab your Bible and look it up. Spoiler alert: it's about creation. The way the author describes it is so beautifully poetic. The same wonder and awe he feels looking out at the world is very similar to how I am starting to feel about it. I haven't ever really been a huge outdoorsy person, but this trip is starting to change that. God didn't just give us things we need to survive. He gave us things to enjoy! He gave us a world full of mystery and wonder. We just get to sit back and give God praise for the beautiful world we have around us.
LEARN MORE | There is still room on 2 Fall Immersion terms to South Africa and Costa Rica, and applications are also being accepted for 2016 terms!
Site developed and hosted by Skycog, Inc.