“What Happens in Jamaica…”

Luke 11:1-13   ·   July 29, 2007

 

Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.  It feels so good to be home!  After traveling to the Gulf Coast with a mission team, immediately leaving for a family vacation, and then being home for only a very short week before departing to Jamaica for nine days…my own bed has certainly been nice!  Our summer youth excursions have been fantastic.  As of yesterday afternoon travelers from all 4 trips have safely returned.  On behalf of Jonathan, myself and all of the other participants – youth and adult – thank you for all of the congregational support you give us.  This is an outstanding place to be sent out from.  Please know that even if you weren’t along on these trips, you still played an important role in supporting the outreach ministry that we were a part of.

 

It was just two weeks ago today that I was meeting in this parking lot at 3:00 a.m. – final destination, Robin’s Nest Children’s Home in Montego Bay, Jamaica.  Thus began one of my longest journeys and travel days ever, but also the longest day of prayer of my life to date.  I had no idea what this trip was going to be like, and so for the first time flying to a youth international mission trip, I just started to pray.  Would we be safe; what would our living conditions be like; would any of the kids say something stupid as we passed through customs?  So many details of this trip were beyond my control, and so I started praying and trying my best to give my worries to God. 

 

For some reason, the one fear that I couldn’t get out of my mind was that there would be just one van at the airport to greet us – all sixteen of us, that is, and our 32 large suitcases.  Upon arrival to Montego Bay, I realized that my concerns were justified.  There wasn’t just one van, but rather two smaller mini-van type vehicles there to greet us – all 16 of us.  (Unfortunately, by this time we were down to just 31 suitcases as my personal luggage took a detour to Detroit rather than on to Jamaica.)  And so, after a slow clearance through customs, we loaded ourselves and our stuff into these vans.  It was after piling adults and kids into all areas of vehicles, and transcending on roads that surpass the ricketiest and rockiest roller coasters we’ve ever experienced, that I decided two things:  1) God and I were going to be spending a lot of time talking to one another this week; and 2) after sharing wide-eyed looks with other chaperones together we decided, “What happens in Jamaica, stays in Jamaica.”

 

As the week continued on both of these decisions remained strong – there were some parts of this mission trip that probably don’t need to be shared during the Adult Forum hour this Fall nor from the pulpit today, but rather will just stay right in Jamaica. But more importantly, I was right – God and I were going to be doing a lot of talking that week.  What started out as prayers full of fear and anxiety, so quickly turned to prayers of joy and thanksgiving.  I’ve had many mission experiences over the years, and there is nothing that compares to the tremendous experience that I and the fifteen others just had in Jamaica.

 

Trying to choose which stories to share with you is impossible.  Trying to express the feelings that were felt during this week of awesome ministry is even harder.  There was a moment on the second day of our trip that will forever stay with me.  As Tor Sperling and I were traveling into town with our driver to retrieve my lost luggage (that had his name on it), two of the eleven-year-old girls from the orphanage – commonly referred to as the Nest – came with us.  As we made our way back to the Nest, it was definitely past bedtime for these young girls.  As the young girls grew tired, one of the girls, Isha, laid her head on me to fall asleep.  And as she laid her head on me and I put my arm around her, she wrapped her arm around my stomach with my own little unborn baby and said in the quietest voice so only I could hear, “I don’t have a mother or a father.”  I’m certain this would be hard to hear at any time, but with the hormones of pregnancy rushing through my system it was nearly more than I could handle.  And so I snuggled Isha in and she fell sound asleep.  From that moment on, through my tears, I understood why God had called our group to this little orphanage thousands of miles away –  we could love and share His love with these kids, if only for one short week. 

 

It seems so fitting that this gospel from Luke is what was appointed for this Sunday after we returned from this mission, for in it we hear of the parable of the visiting friend at midnight.  At first reading this parable doesn’t make much sense in regards to why Jesus chose to tell this story to his disciples at this particular time.  The friend in the story, the visitor if you will, has a friend that arrives at his house late at night.  And so this visitor with the new houseguest goes to his friend’s house and knocks on the door, waking his friend and asking for three loaves of bread so that he can serve his houseguest.  Pretty bold, wouldn’t you say, of this man to wake his friend for some bread…in the middle of the night, nonetheless?  In fact, in this particular time, it is likely that the man’s entire family, including his children and perhaps even the family’s sheep, goats or chickens, were all asleep in the same, small room.  And that the knocking on the door would likely not just wake up the man, but his entire household.  I know what an undertaking it can be to get my own family to sleep at night in their own rooms, and thankfully I’m not getting any animals down as well.  So we are left to judge, “What a rude friend for visiting and waking his friend and his friend’s family up at midnight…just for some bread!” 

 

But Jesus, of course, has more meaning in sharing this story with the disciples.  For he continues to say, “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.”  And if that doesn’t clarify the story, Jesus makes it quite clear beginning at verse 9, “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”  Persistence, persistence, persistence!  Jesus isn’t telling us to persist with our friends when asking late at night for some bread, but rather to be persistent in seeking Him.

 

Now, I am not a Greek scholar by any means, but in the few lessons I have made my way through, and after in conversations with my friend, almost Pastor Eric, we’ve talked about this particular passage.  Most agree that the literal Greek translation of the verbs in this text read to, “Ask and keep asking, search and keep searching, knock and keep knocking.”  Be persistent in prayer. 

 

Never before have I met someone as persistent in prayer as Michelle Robinnette, founder of Robin’s Nest in Jamaica, and kindly known to everyone there as Miss Michelle.  Miss Michelle’s story is absolutely amazing.  She isn’t a wealthy woman, in fact she really has nothing to her name, yet by the grace of God she moved her life to Jamaica because she felt God’s call to care for the street children of Montego Bay.  Today she runs her orphanage in an amazing home with 27 beautiful children and a multitude of committed and caring staff members, but getting to where they are at now and maintaining the building wasn’t and isn’t easy.  Her story of starting the orphanage involves her getting thrown into a Jamaican prison, left without running water for days on end, and struggling consistently to have good, running vehicles.  Yet through all of these struggles she has remained persistent in her reliance on God to provide for her and His children.  The panels on the back Sanctuary wall in the Narthex have many of the photos from our mission trip.  Also included is the web address for Robin’s Nest, where, if interested, you can read more of how Miss Michelle is persistently living her life answering God’s call.

 

On our final evening together as a mission team in Jamaica I shared this gospel text with our group and asked our youth and adult chaperones, “Throughout this past week, when have you sought God in prayer and received an answer from Him?”  Their responses came easily. 

 

One of our chaperones, Dottie, shared the story of when she was left at the Nest one afternoon while half the group was with the children on an excursion to the beach and the other half of our group was down the road working on a project.  She was left to help with the dishes and the laundry.  (Did I mention that the Nest averages 17 loads of laundry a day, with one washer and no dryer?)  Although most of the staff at Robin’s Nest is kind and loved having our group there, there was one woman who was definitely stern with her words, and while Dottie was left alone at the Nest this worker made it known that Dottie, a grown woman, did not know how to properly mop the floors nor hang the laundry on the line correctly.  As Dottie was corrected she took some deep breaths and had a pretty long afternoon.  At one point she paused to ask God, “Is this all worth it?”  Eventually she decided to take a break and go to the baby porch.  While there she held little seven-month-old baby Grant in her arms, and as he nestled right into her she felt a breeze sweep through the porch.  At that moment she said it felt like the Holy Spirit coming through with this heavenly breeze, while this child was snuggling and sharing his love.  God answered, “It is all worth it.”   

 

One of our youth participants shared the story of when a couple of the older girls living at the Nest came to our group asking for money so that they could go to a sleep away camp.  You could rightfully say that these two girls were persistent in their asking.  And so one evening as our group sat together I pulled out an empty Pringles can and shared their story. All together these two girls needed about $100 US dollars to pay for their camp stay.  I told our group if they had any cash of their own that they would like to donate to just put it in the Pringles can and I would count it after lunch the next day.  Just a few hours later I dumped out the can and found $300 – enough to pay for these girls’ stay at camp in addition to a couple of other kids living near the Nest that so badly wanted to go.  For these two young girls persistently asked our youth mission team for money to be able to go to camp, and because of this strong calling from God to be there, our team was able to respond three-fold.

 

The stories that come from Robin’s Nest and from our group’s mission experience are endless, and can only speak as examples of how being persistent toward seeking God’s will can come with an abundance of rewards.  At our final reflection time together on this trip, one of the student’s said this, “When I go back home I need to figure out how to bring this experience with me.  I can’t just take this trip and box it all up as ‘Jamaica 2007’ and put it on a shelf.”  He got it.  The truth is this, “What happens in Jamaica, can’t stay in Jamaica.”  These Jamaican children and staff at the orphanage are living examples of how persistently seeking God can lead to such great riches in Christ.  We, as wealthy American’s in so many ways, can learn so much from these people.  By their own they have so little, and so they have no other hope than to seek God continually to provide for their needs.  Do we do that here?  Do you seek God as the one that has the answers to all of life’s hardships?  I know that too often I try to solve it all myself, yet that is exactly what God tells us not to do.  Ask and keep asking.  Search and keep searching.  Knock and keep knocking.  What happens in Jamaica, can’t stay in Jamaica.

 

Let us pray together.  O God, I give You thanks continually for such an amazing mission experience.  Guide all of us to learn that it is You that we must rely on to fulfill our needs.  Help us to hear your call on our lives, that when we seek You we may find the answers through your abundant grace.  AMEN.