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It’s in the Bag
Every year, we host our annual Backpack Distribution to provide students with the supplies they need to succeed in the classroom. Thanks to our ACE friends and family, we were able to equip 170 students across 30 schools, from infant/basic and primary schools, to high...
The Long Game
AMBER SMITH The ACE Sponsorship Program was established 20 years ago and has touched the lives of over 650 children and their families. The program offers a unique opportunity to invest in the youth of Jamaica, specifically in St. Mary. The commitment level our...
Marla’s Minute: Friends & Fundraising
This month, Allen and I have focused on visiting friends of ACE in Mississippi. Yes, fundraising is always important, as well as receiving volunteer help through our teams. Yet, as we were driving back to Atlanta to prepare to leave for Jamaica, both of us agreed that...
Marla’s Minute: Wellness in July
What a treat it was this month to have a first-time medical and dental team volunteer at ACE to help us serve St. Mary Parish! Normally, wellness teams join us in February, so you can imagine the courage and dedication this team from First Baptist Madison had wearing...
Althia’s Angle: Magnifying God’s Greatness at VBS
Every July, ACE hosts a three-day vacation bible school (VBS) for the children in our community. While we usually host three different camps in multiple locations, this year was a little different. Last-minute changes in volunteer numbers left us with only one camp to...
Marla’s Minute: A Container of Patience
Almost one year ago to the month, ACE was investing funds to see the next microbusiness come to fruition through GLF – Green Life Fresh. This microbusiness features a greenhouse with 132 9-foot aeroponic growing towers in order to produce real, fresh food. We endured...
New Life Has Begun!
BY COURTNEY SIMMONS Once again, this past month, I had the blessing of taking a group of families and students to Port Maria to serve with ACE. This was our eighth trip as a school (Sugar Hill Christian Academy), and what an amazing week we had. There were 17 people...
Marla’s Minute: Finding Your Purpose or Calling
While enjoying my first cup of coffee the other day, I began rereading the book of Jeremiah. It’s interesting how the New and Old Testaments go hand in hand if you analyze the verses a little deeper than normal. I’m sure God knew that when He wrote it. Jeremiah was a...
Faithful with the Tasks at Hand
When God closes the door to something that has been very special to many people, there are emotions that surface: sadness and frustration, as well as some anger and asking God why He chose to close that door! This is what many of us experienced when the gate to the...
Marla’s Minute: New Life & Freshness
Easter brings life and freshness to old things. As most of you know, this is Holy Week. In most of our books, it’s just like any other week. We have our daily jobs to go to in town, in the country, or on the farm. And with spring break happening at the same time, Holy...
Althia’s Angle: Kindness Never Goes Unnoticed
At just 13 years old, a girl in ACE’s Child Sponsorship program got pregnant and had a baby. Typically, ACE doesn’t sponsor girls with children because we are not equipped to meet the needs of pregnant women or young mothers with babies. But God found a way! In this...
Marla’s Minute: Growing Towers & Growing Patience
For many months, ACE has been excited to share our new endeavor, Green Life Fresh, aimed at creating jobs and providing healthy food through 130 nine-foot aeroponic towers. Thanks to your support, we have reached our goals of purchasing these towers and covering the...
Birdwatching Adventures with ACE
At ACE, we love welcoming teams with all kinds of talents and interests to visit us in Jamaica. Recently, we had the privilege of hosting a group of passionate birdwatchers who experienced firsthand the island’s beautiful wildlife. Led by local eco-certified guide...
ACE’s Four Impact Buckets Unite for Spring!
What a fantastic start to our 2025 outreach year in St. Mary, Jamaica! In February, our medical and dental teams served the community, providing exams, cleanings, fillings, and other essential wellness services. This month, our ACE team, along with volunteers from...
God’s Miracles at Long Road Clinic
It had been a full year since any medical or dental team had been able to make the hour-and-half-long journey to the Long Road Clinic in St. Mary. So when our ACE providers recently made the trip, they were met with many grateful smiles and sighs of relief. We were...
Marla’s Minute: Unto the Least of These
The heart of ACE has always been and will always be focused on people. We call Jamaicans “our people,” “our seniors,” and “our extended families.” When you come to Jamaica to volunteer, you can rest assured that one of the days, if not two, will be spent in our...
Back in the Saddle Again
This month seems to be all about using farm verbiage to express how the beginning of 2025 is going for ACE. We mentioned last year how we are all relieved to know the COVID years are now behind us and we are now positioned to do what we do best in St Mary once again....
Now That’s a Bunch of Bull!
Starting a micro-enterprise going into the cattle business was no joke, as we knew nothing about raising cattle. We went in blind. The lessons taught were hard to swallow. We made plenty of mistakes; but now, we are reaping the “beef steaks.” Growing the herds, as...
Marla’s Minute: All I Want For Christmas
The economy has been skyrocketing to the moon these days. A single head of cabbage is approximately $20 US at the grocery store. While our farm staff plants as much as possible in the rich soil, ACE and its micro-businesses consume every vegetable grown. We even make...
It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas
So many miraculous things have happened at ACE in 2024 that listing them all would turn this last newsletter of the year into a novel. Instead, we decided to share highlights with pictures below, since photos tell a thousand words. Starting with the most recent...
Let’s Put Love In Action
The Christmas season is a time for reflection, gratitude, and giving. As we approach Giving Tuesday, we’re reminded that love isn’t just a feeling—it’s an action. At ACE, we’re committed to putting the love of God in action every day by serving the community of St....
Vision Casting Into Reality
November started with some spectacular visits to Jamaica by our ACE friends and new leaders. If you recall from our October Newsletter, ACE is literally “back to the future” with our outreach efforts. For the first time in years, two vision trips were scheduled for...
Marla’s Minute: Thankful for the Equipment!
Being thankful comes in many forms this time of year. With the rains coming late to Jamaica, poor St. Mary was flooded with water. Too much water. Our creeks and rivers were bursting with fast-moving streams that caused bamboo and muck to collect and clog our bridges....
The Tiny House
ACE built its first tiny House this month in Water Valley, a place well known to ACE Volunteers from pre-covid days. Clive, pictured below, had a stroke several years ago and was left alone, in a yard with an old home that was falling apart and leaked when it rained...
More Appreciation & Celebration
We cannot express our gratitude enough for putting your all into helping ACE pay off the Green Life Llanrumney Farm. Now, ACE is able to move freely with our outreach programs, including providing neighbors in need with a place to stay. Our friends and families came...
Marla’s Minute: Back to the Future
Before COVID, ACE was rather successful in our community outreach in and around our four partner public primary schools. The model ACE created was based on “going deep and not wide.” First, we form a partnership with one of our rural primary schools in the area that...
Marla’s Minute: Paid In Full!
September was a month for the ACE record books. Because of the goodness of God and you, our partners, we can joyfully say that our Green Life Farm, where all the micro-businesses develop, has been PAID IN FULL! That’s right, we no longer have a mortgage to pay on the...
Twists & Turns
Jamaica does have a fall; it’s called hurricane season. The storms off of West Africa roll out into the ocean and forms sandstorms, which stay in the air over Jamaica and cause more heat than normal. Or the storms become hurricanes, which we pray for everything but...
Marla’s Minute: A “Full Court Press”
In high school, I was called “Roberta Rebound” by my basketball team. While I would have rather been called “Hanna Highpoint scorer” for my ability to put points on the board, I recognized I had a keen ability to retrieve the ball after a missed shot or a long-court...
Displays of Gratitude for Backpack Distribution Days
Long-time volunteer Arlene is currently in Jamaica helping ACE with our annual Backpack Distribution Days as we kick off a new school year. The following article is Arlene’s recap of this year’s event. If it’s mid-August, then it must be time for me to journey back to...
Marla’s Minute: Beryl, Blessings and Beets
All we can say here on the ground at ACE in Jamaica is……whew!!! What a surprise hit we received from Hurricane Beryl. Who would have thought, this early in the summer? As we watched Beryl coming towards us, all hands on deck began preparing for the storm. God answered...
A Sponsor’s Story
BY TINA STUBBS In 2011 the school where I worked, Heritage Academy, began sponsoring Anthony, or Antonio as he was known then. He was ten years old, and we were told he was very shy and hesitant to speak. He was at Hampstead Primary School and eventually began...
Barrels of Bounty
BY AMBER WENDLING SMITH I have experienced cheerful giving both while living in Jamaica and as the Stateside Sponsorship Coordinator. To give an unexpected gift and see faces react with gratitude fills the giver’s heart with much joy. I often get asked by sponsors...
Marla’s Minute: Let’s Hear it for the Boys
Let’s hear it for the Boys……. Remember last month’s Marla Minute when I said I was getting old? Well, this proves it. One of my many favorite songs during the 1980s (and many of you weren’t born yet!) was a song called “Let’s Hear It For The Boy”. Since Father’s Day...
30 Years of Growth
"30 years of growth and some things never change”. That’s the thought I had this past week as I mixed concrete at GLLF with my team of 27. You may be thinking that I was bemoaning the opportunity that lay ahead of me, but I really wasn’t. I actually love cooking in...
The Harvest is Great
Before 2008, my perception of Jamaica was based on the cruise ship port in Ocho Rios and commercials for the huge all-inclusive resorts. All of that paints a picture of a thriving culture where everyone is living the dream life. It was not until June of 2008 that I...
Althia’s Angle: Preparing for a Full Summer of Teams
Last month, my husband, Foster, and I came up to the States for a much-needed break before we hit the ground running with a summer full of mission teams. We spent our time resting, gathering essential supplies, and preparing for the busy season ahead. Summers at ACE...
Trust God’s Calling
Chelsea Peterson served on ACE’s iQuest internship program in 2014. But the journey to get there brought about its own set of challenges and need for dependence on God. The following is her story that she shared with our team. This month marks the 10-year anniversary...
God’s Expectations Vs. Mine
Long-time ACE volunteer Tina Gerke shared the following story with our team after her recent trip to Jamaica. It’s been almost 23 years since I first stepped foot in Jamaica. I would have never believed all the changes and lessons that I was to learn along the way!...
Protecting Donor Gifts Amid USPS Issues
It is always ACE’s top priority to protect the gifts we receive from our donors. That’s why we want to make you aware of recent issues that we’ve experienced with the Atlanta USPS and offer alternatives to continue supporting ACE in timely and secure ways. In recent...
Marla’s Minute: Still Seeing God At Work 36 Years Later
I’m Old…. That’s what I was thinking inside my head as I was standing beside a group of teenagers and college students this spring. We began the famous bucket brigade slinging gravel onto ACE’s greenhouse floor. The fact that ACE has aged about 36 years since the...
The Lord’s Garden
Former ACE iQuest intern Audrey Renner recently came back down to St. Mary, Jamaica, with her husband and father. After her trip, she headed back to the States and shared the following letter with our team. I’ve always loved springtime in Ohio. Suddenly, after months...
Marla’s Minute: Reaping A Harvest
The manual for life, The Bible, continually says that sooner or later, whatever choices we make in our lives, we will see the results of these choices come to light in our lives or the lives of others. “Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap...
We Are Warriors
Tina Gerke has been volunteering and leading trips with ACE for 23 years now. After her latest trip in March, she shared the following story with our team. My recent two weeks in Jamaica were another amazing time of watching God work. I never cease to be amazed at how...
A Lent Devotional
ACE volunteer Christina Kershaw came down on a mission trip with Bethel Baptist Church in 2018. As she was recently reflecting on her time in Jamaica, she wrote the following devotional. May her experience and reflection bless you during this Lent season! READ: John...
Marla’s Minute: A Home Run For Lashauna
Last week, ACE had our annual Men’s & Women’s Conference in St Mary. However, unlike the past 16 years of holding the conference at Galina Breeze Hotel, we moved the conference to an outside event space, Buccaneers Jerk & Juice Centre. When some very...
Answering The Holy Spirit’s Call
In 2009, my wife and I took our first trip to Jamaica to serve with ACE. I recall our uncertainty on the long roller coaster ride from Montego Bay to Galina Breeze, survived only by the assistance of Dramamine. The main highway looks a lot better now than it did back...
Marla’s Minute: Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend
It’s never easy to lose a foundational pillar in any organization, but since Jesus loves Mr. Myers more than we do, He decided to bring him home for company last month. Mr. Myers was 89 years old, still riding a motorcycle to work, and kept an incredible work ethic...
The Smith Family Next Door
ACE hosts site trips, which invite leaders to experience what ACE does and our “why” in Jamaica. Our most recent site trip happened last October, where we met Jennifer and Mitchell Smith. They are just starting a much-needed ministry called Wet Feet. But in the...
A Child Sponsorship Heart Warmer
As most of you are aware, ACE’s Child Sponsorship program strives to not only give every child a step up in their education, but also help grow them into young adults who contribute to their community and society in Jamaica. This is the case with 22-year-old Anthony...
TRIP COST
There is an old proverb, “If you give a man a fish, he’ll eat for a day, but if you teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” History proves that lasting change in a poverty culture is achieved by empowering the people to reach their full potential and become self-sustaining. ACE is invested in our community long-term and in conjunction with our partners in the US, we are identifying the circumstances of those around us in order to find real solutions for their unique needs.