we are home!

Everyone made it home just fine! We arrived back at Central Worship Center around 12:15 this morning. And of course you allways have the summarization of the trip once you get home, as you are telling the dear ones who didn't go. So I got to bed around 2 a.m. I will try to update later with more pictures. Stay tuned
Thanks for all of your support throughout the trip!

Last Day of Work..

Well today is the last day of our working projects here in Jamaica. We are finishing the projects on the roof and finishing some painting. Everyone is working very hard to get done what we need to get done. The roof is very close to being done. The paint is drying very fast as we actually have the sun shining! It is pretty warm, but everyone is just excited to see the sun in Jamaica. Last night we went to a local restaurant called bibibips. There was a singer there and he sang for us to celebrate Pastor Tim's birthday, even though his birthday is in September. We are all torn between wanting to go home and wanting to stay here to help everyone here. The pizza man is about to deliver us some lunch, so we can get filled up and finish our work here. I will try to update later, but we are going to have a last night get together.

Another day...

Well I am starting to get a little behind on the blogging, but I am trying my best to stay up to date. Yesterday we went to the craft market and bought all the little gizmos and wood carvings and tshirts there was. Afterwards we took the afternoon and went out on a boat and saw Ocho Rios from the sea. It was truly beautiful. Last night we went to Teen Challenge and they held a banquet for us. They provided food for us to eat, and we ate under the roof that the roof team constructed. We ate under the aid of the lights that Jason Toleson (I hope I spelled that right) put up. Jason joined the team two days before we left. We had a member back out and God provided Jason, the perfect person to help the needs of Teen Challenge. Teen Challege needed lighting on the roof, but we did not have an electrician, until Jason stepped in. Today we went to church and had a wonderful time. Pastor Tim spoke at one church while Pastor Rob spoke at another. Everyone right now is gone to climb Dunn's River Falls. It is a waterfall that you can walk up. We work hard all week, but we celebrate over the weekend! With just two days left of our journey everyone is torn between loving the place so much that they want to stay, but another part of us wants to go home and see everyone so much.

Pictures

Work Work Work...

Today we got a good day's work in. The sun finally came out to meet us for the first time in a long while. The masonry crew was able to accomplish a lot on the front entrance of the building, while the painting crew went behind them and painted their handy-work. The roof crew set the trusses for the roof. Everyone really accomplished a lot and got done what needed to be done. Tomorrow we are planning on going to the market to buy some little toys and trinkets for all those at home reading this. After that we have rented out a boat for the afternoon to reward ourselves for all the hard work. On Sunday Pastor Tim is speaking at one church, while Pastor Rob is speaking at another. Jamaica is going to get a good dose of Delaware pastors. Sorry for not updating, but today was a busy day. Keep checking thanks!

what to say?

Wow, what to say about the last 24 hours? So0o0o0o much went on that my fingers hurt to just think about typing it all, but I will try. To start off, last night a group of about 7 of our guys jumped in a van looking for a man named Bren. We met Bren 2 years ago when we came down here. He was in the Teen Challenge program. This man is so intelligent. He takes scripture and analyze it and just really intelligent. He knows all the answers, knows all about the Bible, but he just will not submit him self to follow it. The past year he has been living on the streets, so we went to find him and pray for him to see what we can do for him. We found him and stood in the middle of the street and just talked and prayed. He was living under a bridge. This man could be the head of a company, but because of addictions he lowered himself to a lower level. He told us he would be at the Teen Challenge Center at 9:00. He never showed. We took him to KFC, but still he never showed up. One day he will realize and come to his senses and finally submit.

So on to today. We were planning to go to the orphanage up in the mountains about an hour drive from where we are staying. We were planning to leave around lunch time to head up there, but as we got to work it just poured down. The rain fell and it was not like buckets, but more like dump trucks. So we decided to go up in the mountains in the morning and hopefully it would clear off by after noon time. We went up and it was raining, but it was not too bad. The destruction from the fire was horrible I just wanted to cry. Just last year I walked across that building. All that is left now is the concrete walls. The pictures could never show just how bad it is. This reminded me of hurricane katrina. The vans couldn't make it up the hill we had to go up to get to the boys home, so on the feet we go. After all was said and done and we were walking back down this hill all the heavens poured out their water, or so we thought. Everyone was soaked, and we still had an hour and a half ride back to work. As we got to work we realized that nothing could be done. We couldn't use saws or drills for fear of getting shocked with all the water, so we came back to the villas to find a nightmare.

Our nightmare started out when we drove in and Mark Briley says there is water in the villas. As we walked in to our place of being dry after being so soaked we were a little disappointed to find that our dry place was withholding two to three inches of mud and water. So grab a broom and a bucket my friend and start sweeping. Everything was soaked. The marks the water left show that we had up to a foot of water in some of the villas. We found the easiest way to clean this stuff was with buckets of water and try to flush the mud out. so grab a trash can, pot, pan, whatever it is that can hold water. We were running to the pool and filling up and running back and dumping. Then we got the smart idea to start a bucket brigade. We had about 60 people handing bucket after bucket after bucket. The work was hard, but we had so much fun. We would get singing and clapping. Our group leader exclaimed, "If your are not holding a bucket you have gotta be clapping!" That just set us on fire we were singing and dancing and clapping. We had an awesome time. Still when we walk out onto the sidewalk we are in about 4 inches of water, but that is minor compared to what we were faced with earlier.

Right now everyone is finishing up their Thanksgiving dinner (Jamaican style). Well that is about all for now. Thanks!

rain

It is raining today and we were planning to go to the boys home in the afternoon, but since it is raining now we are going to go to the boys orphanage right now. So I will update later when there is more time. Check back thanks!

Truss me...

Today we started work on building the trusses. We gave up on trying to find a hydraulic press and we are just hammering everything in by hand. This process is very hard work for those who have been elected to strain their forearms to the point at which they are about to explode. So far (10:00 a.m.) we almost have 10 trusses done. This process is moving quickly, but it is very hard work. The paint crew is painting the guard rails around windows and doors. This is a very tedious process as there is small bars and you have to get on all sides of it and keep the paint off of the tile floor. I give a special thanks to the painting team for being very careful. The masonry crew is working very hard getting the outside of the wall looking much more presentable than the way that it was. It hasn't rained during our work day, yet. It did rain earlier in the morning. Tonight we are going to experience a real Jamaican dinner tonight from bibibips.

finishing the day

Well this day has come to a close and everyone is all showered up and nice and clean. I am really tired. We tried all day to get a hydraulic pump for the roof, but came out with no luck. We are most likely going to have to nail the truss plates on by hand. This is going to be a hard task to do, but we will do it. The paint team did and awesome job painting the railing even though I liked to stick my hands in it. The masonry crew really jumped right into the job despite the rain. Tonight we had the wonderful ladies cook us some good food. Right now a lot of the group is gone down to the Carribean to take a quick after-work swim. Today Lewis Gebhart lead chapel and Mr. Greg spoke to us. It rained very hard in the beginning of the day. As you saw in the pictures there was quite a bit of water standing on the roof and on the ground. We are currently enjoying some very funny yet very stupid jokes. Well that is about it for now I will update later. Thanks

The Start of Work

We woke up to find that it was raining pretty heavily. As we got to the Teen challenge center we came to find several inches of rain on the roof. We had several people using brooms to try to sweep the water off of the roof. We also received our shipment of sand and lumber to build the trusses. We had to move the lumber from the ground and hand it up to the third floor. This was not a very fun task. Today we had chapel and afterwards we had some good pizza from mr. humphrey's. The painting team is doing an awesome job adapting to the rain. The masonry team is doing an excellent job using tarps to get the job done. It is wet and it is rainy. I have to admit I did accidentally stick my hand in some wet paint. Woops. Tonight I think that we are going to be eating some good food at the villa. I will update later after I get a shower and when I have some more pictures and stories.

Everyone is here safely...

Well everyone made it here safely tonight around 6:00. All the luggage made it here with the exception of the hydraulic pump which we think we can rent. Everyone is eating dinner right now. I hear that they are eating jerk chicken, but that is not for me. If they wanted to order pizza I would be in there. It is raining pretty hard right about now. We really need some good weather so that we do not have to setup tarps for the people doing masonry and also so we can paint. We have figured to have 16 people to paint, so if the weather does not allow us to paint we will have to find a way for 16 people to stay busy. Staying busy is not something that is hard to do, but if it is raining there is not a whole lot to do. I spent the day taking pictures around the building as before shots and later on i will take some during and at the end I will take some after shots. Well I will update tomorrow and will put some pictures of the team working. Keep us in prayer! Thanks!

In the Air...

The team is in the air crossing the Atlantic Ocean right about now. We (Rusty, Kolby, Kyle, and Laurie) came down a day early to get the materials needed so that when the team shows up we will be able to work. Last year we had to wait a day and a half just to get the materials. Internet is scarce down here, but I will do my best to update this as often as possible. There is a chance of rain all this week so keep in prayer that we may have good weather to work in.

As we were in the airport there was a bar and as we were waiting just outside this bar we heard Christian worship music coming from the speakers. It was hard for me to think that at a bar they would play Christian music. If this was done back in America someone would get offended and have a law suit against the bar.

We were welcomed very well by the staff and students here at teen challenge. I will get some more pictures once the team gets here. Thanks so much. I am working on getting some internet where we are staying, but it is not looking good. Just keep the team in prayer that everyone would make it here safe and also as the team was going through security the airport took the hydraulic pump. We really have to find one so that we will be able to produce the trusses for the roof. We could do without the pump, but it would put a lot more work on the team. Keep us in prayer. Thanks
This is the massive bird that brought us to Jamaica and that the team is on right now!

time is come

Well this marks our one year anniversary of blogging mission trips. last year I had the bright idea of making a website that I would update so mom, mom-mom, and pop-pop could check up on us without having to spend the money to call on the phone. This little idea turned out to be a big thing. This trip will be my fourth trip blogging. While blogging about the Mississippi trips we were able to raise money to help the Katrina victims. This time we are adding a lot of new things such as video and maybe some songs recorded while down here. Hopefully i have everything that I need packed. If not, then we will experience some technical difficulties. Well, stay posted for further updates.

Meeting

There is a mandatory meeting on Monday, November 13th at 6:30 p.m. This is held at Central Worship Center. Please be there. Thanks

Get Ready!

Well We are under the two week period now. Things are really starting to take shape. Every year we go God always provides for us the people with the skill and the knowledge to accomplish our goals down there. Last year we had to build trusses, no one knew how to build trusses and Christ provided Lee Thompson and Even Rogers, who both worked at Sam Yoder's truss plant. It is always amazing to me to see how Christ puts people in our way and on the trip that are such a huge part of the team. With out Mr. Lee and Mr. Evan we would have been lost last year. I was reading in Colossians 2 and I found this verse (19b) "... Christ makes the whole body grow as God wants it to, through support and unity given by the joints and ligaments." Every person that is going on this trip, or if you are just financially or prayerfully supporting somone on this trip you are a joint and ligament of this unified body that God is raising up to go to a town in Jamaica to share His word and to just show His love. So in these next two weeks just pray and be flexible to any changes. REMINDER: Mandatory meeting November the 13th at 7:00 at Central Worship Center

Arial Shots!

There is a free program from Google called google earth. It allows you to move around and zoom in on satellite snapshots of earth from above. Last year I checked and they never took new pictures of the earth, but they now have and you can see our handy-work from the last few years! Below are pictures of our villa (lodging) and The Teen Challenge Center!

Help the Hemans

Over the past several years we have unofficially adopted the Heman family. This is a brief history of their story. The father is a rastafarian and is rarely home, the mother died of cancer about 2 years ago. This left Jeronimo (22), Ikeno (26), and Ladada (18), and Gregory (27) to take care of the family. They had to take care of Kemar (11), Jessica (5), and Coy.
Click here to see a list of what is needed. If you plan to donate these items we request that they be new(or very very close to new). If you do plan to donate please email (kolbydukes@gmail.com) me and I will mark your name down for that item so that we do not have multiple of one item. THANKS

Coming Soon to a Computer Near You...

The time is coming close! We are under a month until our final meeting! Our next meeting will be November 13th at Central Worship Center. This meeting is mandatory! You will receive team t-shirts, luggage tags and other vital information. Don't forget to bring your Birth Certificate for verification. It is really time to start thinking of all the essential items you might need. Think about bringing t-shirts that you can leave down there for those in need. Also think of things that you can bring in the way of tools that you can leave there for Teen Challenge as they are always trying to make repairs on the builing. We are going to do some street evangelism this trip, so if you have any tracts or any information bring it. I am preparing the computer system for the long journey down. Here are some sites to visit to prepare yourself for visiting Jamaica: This site explains the Jamaican "Slang" called Patois or Patwa pronounced potwa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamaican_Patois . This site gives a brief history of Jamaica http://www.jamaicans.com/info/brief.htm . And finally this is the site of Teen Challenge Jamaica (where we are going to work, learn, and play) http://teenchallengejamaica.org/ . Things are starting to build up, including excitement and nervousness.

Email Notification

New feature of this website! I will send out an email everytime a new post has been posted. There is one problem with this theory. I cannot send you an email if I don't have your email! So send me an email at kolbydukes@gmail.com with the subject "Jamaica Blog Email List" and within the contents of the email please have your email address and your name. I will send out an email notification everytime a new post has been posted. So fill my inbox! Thanks for the continued support!

Update

There will be a final MANDATORY again MANDATORY meeting on Novemer 13th at 6:30. Please be there you will recieve items that you need for the trip. Stay tuned for updates and more information on how to be notified when a new post has been posted. Thanks

Meeting Monday Night

For those who have turned in an application, there is a mandatory meeting on Monday October 9th. The meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Central Worship Center in the fellowship hall.

Soon the time will come

Well the beginnings of this trip have begun. The letters are sent out, the logo almost complete (clickhere)
we will be leaving soon

Jamaica Again

Well we are going back to Jamaica Again. We are going to be doing alot of work in masonry and truss building and painting and septic. If you have the skills to talk, walk, or stand then you can be a great asset in The Jamaica Mission. We are going to be goig down to Jamaica Teen Challenge in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Jamaica Teen Challenge is Christian drug rehabilitation. We have mad several trips down to Ocho Rios to work on this project. It is so rewarding. If you would like to go the dates are November 20th0-28th. If you are interested please contact Rusty or Tim Dukes.

Rusty Dukes: (302) 381-9718
Tim Dukes: (443) 235-9806