For 25 years, ACE has offered what we call iQuest. As most of you know, this is a leadership course for young adults who are being guided to serve here in Jamaica. They participate, lead and serve in many capacities before finding their place in the world of “making a difference”.

Sometimes, I wonder how past interns are doing. Many check in at least once a year to say hello and give me an update. I’ve come to love these “kids” – now grown adults, some married, some with children, some single and thriving. Allen and I just came back from witnessing an iQuest wedding in Delaware. Kayla, our intern from last summer, married her longtime sweetheart, Thomas, and they will be moving to the Virginia area to begin his service in the US Coast Guard. It’s heartwarming to see and hear from these young men and women, knowing ACE has been even a small part of life’s journey. 

Recently, I received a text from Hannah, one of many former interns who found purpose through ACE, and I asked if I could share her words with you, especially for those who may be considering learning to serve first and lead later:

[After other doors closed for me], I really felt like the Lord was asking me to live in the present and focus on serving my family, being refined by Him, investing in my workplace and those around me. I just started praying over next steps this past fall again and feel so much peace about applying to work in mobilization full-time. I just wanted to update you because being in Jamaica with ACE and your reference played a big role in [my joining up with Center for Mission Mobilization in Fayetteville, AK]. I had the opportunity to visit their team a few weeks ago and it really confirmed how I’ve felt the Lord leading me as I left feeling so encouraged by how the Lord is working in and through their team.

I think I will learn and grow in this role immensely (preparing me to go overseas in the future, Lord willing) and it will be so life-giving as I get to walk alongside college girls and churches in living as world Christians. Thank you so so much for writing me a reference and being an example to me. I am so grateful for you and ACE. I’m honored that y’all are excited with me. ACE has played a big role in my life and walk with the Lord. 

If you feel like sweating, serving, putting yourself last to grow spiritually in ways you cannot by any other means, then think about signing up for the iQuest 2024 season. This is by far a very challenging course, but as they say in the gym, “no pain, no gain”. We can’t wait to see where the Lord takes you!

~ Marla

If anyone has ever engaged in building their own home, the dream of moving in on time quickly fades with the reality of what supplies are available, what didn’t arrive, misfit fixtures, and, well, just about anything that can keep a building from becoming a masterpiece.

Perhaps that’s why ACE named this place of meeting the Peace House. When you walk in, you are quickly reminded that our Jamaicans and our Americans all put their time and talent in creating a soon-to-be-completed house specifically for finding peace.

It’s been four years from the start of building, and thanks to so many generous donors and our Jamaican staff, we have electricity, water, and, yes, a front door! A partner of ACE for many years, Sugar Hill Christian Academy, will be pouring our walk up to the entrance next week. We are spreading love everywhere on this property.

While we still need a table and benches, we are meeting occasionally, and it’s so good to call this Peace House our own. Once we get the door handles on, we will send you a photo of our completed model (if we ever really are complete… you know we’ll keep tweaking). A little peace is in order for all of us after this! Thank you for being part of this place where all may come and rest, eat, worship, and enjoy a place our Jamaican family calls their own.

Every quarter, ACE staff plans a birthday celebration for your sponsored children. Like most birthday parties in the States, they are full of fun and games, and we make sure that each child gets a small gift. We are finding challenges accommodating the varying ages of the children. You can imagine what happens combining age groups at a party, like a six-year-old and a 13-year-old celebrating together. If they each get a bottle of bubbles as a gift, the six-year-old loves it while the 13-year-old may yawn and decide to start blowing bubbles in the six-year-old’s hair. Ah, fun times!

Because of this and the fact that we have a lot more teenagers in the program than we’ve ever had, we thought that instead of a trinket gift for this age group, we do something different going forward. Many of these young adults have never had experiences outside their area, so perhaps a field trip to the caves or an airport or a place like pantomime in Kingston, a unique theatre experience with a rich history, would be good. (Fun fact: one of the most famous Jamaican pantomime storytellers was Louise Bennett, who is affectionately honored at our own Galina Breeze Hotel with a conference room named after her – now you know!) The experiences, conversations, and time invested we think will be far more impactful now that these little ones are big teenagers.

We would love your thoughts on this topic. What do you do for your teenagers for their birthdays and how do you think that would translate to our students who have never left Jamaica or, for some, even the Parish of St. Mary?

As we look for ways to improve our sponsored children’s experiences, we still think our birthday celebrations went very well, thanks to our ACE staff mixing it up and using different music and activities. All ages were happy and grateful, including Ms. Foster who we think turned 14-years-old as well.

In my middle-class world growing up in the U.S., my mother and grandparents made sure that Easter was a big deal around our home. There was a big Easter basket full of all the great things a child loves that today are considered toxic to the body… chocolate eggs, hollow bunny, plastic colored straw, cellophane around a colorful straw basket. It was great! Then there was the church service where my mom dressed me and my two sisters alike with white patten leather shoes with the pop-off bows. Remember? And the hats… we can’t forget the hats.  Our Easter bonnets were our pride and joy.

This month, we celebrated Easter at the Campus and Peace House with our closest friends and employees. It was a real tradition we plan on having every year. While we didn’t have the Easter baskets or the white patten leather shoes or Easter bonnets, we had a true Jamaican feast consisting of chicken foot soup, rice and peas, cabbage salad with no dressing, and wonderful chicken and pork.

Everyone came dressed in their Easter clothes while we watched the Passion of Christ in Italian. Not sure why English didn’t happen, but it didn’t seem to matter with the guys. They liked it anyway.

Since the Peace House was a little warm that day, we put up tents in the front yard with chairs. Friends moved out of the house to their table of choice and began to enjoy themselves off the clock. Babies, moms, dads, distant families, and grandparents seemed to forget all the challenges from the days before and the days to come to think about the why Easter was so peaceful. I think it was because of the constant unchanging love of Christ for all of us, believers or not. When we intentionally focus on the facts about Easter, there is a certain settling in all of us that causes us to rest, knowing that God’s got the whole world in His hands. And just like that simple song we all learned as children even in Jamaica, we finished the day with simple fun games like Go Fish, Crazy Eights and Pick Up Sticks.

It was a great time! No one will miss out on our Easter next year. Come join us! With simple childlike faith, we all can be part of a great experience as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday.  

Do you have experience in organic greenhouse gardening? We have recently been given the chance to purchase two brand new greenhouses that a local farm operation can no longer use. This is an amazing opportunity for Green Life farms to grow food not only for our community but also as a potential new business to supply hard-to-get produce to local hotels and restaurants on the island. 

These greenhouses come with full scale irrigation systems and electrical setups that would give our farmers more control over the growing environment. Of course, all of this comes with a cost. We are hoping to raise $60,000US for this project. This would include both greenhouses and the professional set up of the systems. Buying just one of these greenhouses in the US would cost $85,000, so this is a deal we don’t want to pass up.

We are so amazed at the doors that God is opening for us on our little farm in Jamaica. Can you help us step through and finalize this opportunity?  We see great things growing for us in the years ahead!

We were blessed to have Lynne, a former volunteer, come out to housesit at the Campus. She was a Godsend to us for being present and willing to help us in whatever ways He led her. Thank you, Lynne, for sharing your talents, your time, and your kindness. Here are a few of her thoughts from this experience:

I prayed for peace of mind and clarity for guidance on what to do in 2023 in my new role as a widow. I participated in a couple of medical mission trips to ACE in the past, so I receive the monthly newsletter. While reviewing the prayer requests, my interest increased after reading about the need for adults to housesit at the campus. The person or persons would need to take care of the house, the dogs and possibly do light gardening. When the same prayer request came again the following month, I responded. I accepted this wonderful challenge… and it turned out to be a blessing for me.

I arrived in the middle of a busy week, with a large mission trip of high schoolers and college students. It was wonderful listening to their stories of how they came to be here and what they wanted to do with their lives. Some had been here before.

House sitting at the campus house is very similar to taking care of your own home. Dusting, cleaning, finding things that need repaired or replaced. On the grounds of the campus house, there are trees and plants different from my part of the US. Almond, coconut, guava, ackee, bananas and plantains. The dogs are amazingly well behaved. They just want attention, companionship and of course food!

But I am not a sitter. I like to be busy, and I wanted to learn more about Jamaican life. I met with and worked with the ACE staff and some long-term volunteers. They do amazing work. God is working through all of them in everything they do. I helped with folding donated clothing and participated with staff on home visits to sponsored children. These visits are heartbreaking to see their surroundings but also joyful witnessing their thankfulness and prayer.

Easter brought on added activities. A community meal for families on Good Friday that included a viewing of The Passion and some games. On Easter Sunday, there was a festival for the community on the property. Lots of people came to have fun.

The surprise for me was how valuable my gardening skills were for my trip. Several plants needed pruning and sprucing up, and many of us worked around the campus and Buccaneers cleaning up the gardens and grounds. Additionally, I was able to tutor a young girl.

There are also relaxing days going to the beach, going grocery shopping, and going to the various churches in the Port Maria and Ocho Rios.

Overall, this was a wonderful experience in all aspects, and I do hope to repeat it someday soon. If you’re thinking of it all and you would like a challenge such as this, open your heart and look forward to an adventure – I dare you!

~Lynne