Thrilling and Therapeudic Thursday

I'm very sorry we didn't post yesterday, but by the time we got back to the house we were exhausted. Quita took a few minutes to check her "happy birthday" emails and then we all collapsed. (The girls in the kitchen - Yvonne, Marie, and Odette - made her a beautiful cake and she got a lovely banana-leaf purse.) The devil was working hard to confuse schedules, test relationships and discourage our work, but our God is mightier than any arrows Satan can throw our way!

This week of teacher training is the only time of year when all 3 campuses get together, so it was important to have some fun and fellowship. This morning after a breakfast of sausage and baked beans, we took a 1-hour bus ride to Negril. For those of you who went to Knockpatrick with us last year, let me make it clear that this was a very different kind of travel. We followed the coast the whole time and had lovely views of the sea and no switchbacks. Our delightful hostess for the week (and the principal here at Mo Bay), Dorette Russell, is also a licensed tour operator, so she gave us all sorts of interesting facts along the way. She also has her own very nice AIR-CONDITIONED bus. We stopped to see some cliff-divers, climbed to the top of the lighthouse, shopped at an open-air market, and then went swimming at the beach.

After dinner when we got back to campus we received the warmest of thank-yous from the staff. Individual teachers with whom we'd bonded came forward to give us kind words and a cool gift. We also got to laugh through all the inside jokes for the week. It was a very special time. Miss Lawrence, the principal from Kingston, said she felt this was the most informative and fun teacher training they'd ever had. We want to keep these relationships going, not only to hear about our sisters in Christ but also to be able to help them implement what they've learned.

Right now we're sitting around the kitchen table and some of the Deaf girls from Mo Bay (who live upstairs) just finished braiding our hair and now we're chatting. It's going to be very difficult to say good-bye to most of our new friends when everyone heads home tomorrow. But perhaps we can soften the blow by going back to the beach in the afternoon!

Before I sign off, I want to ask you to pray for little Summerlyn Anne who came into the world 6 weeks early today. She weighed 4 lbs, 3 oz and was born to my best friends back in Fort Worth.

Jen