Many Hands Make Light Work

Many Hands Make Light Work

Many hands make light work

This old saying portrays a picture of what ACE has experienced this spring on the ground. For the first time in years, we have been blessed with many incredible volunteer teams in a row! Ranging from families, high school students, college teams, and a great mix of young adults, they came to help us get caught up on our many outreach programs. They worked tirelessly around St. Mary at the schools, on our farm, and even preparing for some new businesses and items coming online later this year. We’d love to highlight some of the many projects they worked on.

For those of you have contributed to many aspects of the Peace House, the update is that it’s almost complete! Yes, you have heard this before, but it’s true; we just had no idea how much back and forth it takes to complete a building like this. The final touch this week was the addition of the front doors. Thanks to some friends and donors of ACE, our doors were purchased and ready for painting. Granted, we still need a door opener and glass on the side, but just looking at these doors makes all of us swell with pride.

While all that was going on the Peace House, some of our volunteers focused on the Campus right next door, where our interns and long-term volunteers stay. It has been challenged for years with popping floor tiles and cracking in the main hall and the dining room. We decided to commission a group to chop it up and remove the tile, and what we found underneath was a beautiful terrazzo floor. It’s been there since the early 90s when the house was built. Anyone know how to make it come alive again? It’s dull but has potential. Every time we get this kind of help, we are pleasantly surprised at what our teams uncover. Thank you for making the old new again.

In the last few busy months, it’s been fun to see how our Jamaican ACE staff pulled together in such a great way to work with them and each other. Ms. Foster, our Executive Director, has done an excellent job training, teaching, and coaching all of us to work as a team. Charity and Brian Zalk and family have continually increased their availability on the ground with the ACE crew. Things are going so smoothly that Allen and Marla sit back and smile, pleased at how everyone is beginning to own their own lane. Keep all of us in your prayers as everyone is learning how to operate as a team.

Teamwork makes the dream work, another old saying… and in this case, we are so grateful for such a successful and fun start to the year!

Marla’s Minute –God Gives Me Grace

Marla’s Minute –God Gives Me Grace

This is the month of valentines! I can recall those paper valentine punch-out cards where you write on the back and then give to your teachers and friends. They always seemed to say the same thing: “from _________ “to ________ — Would you be my Valentine?”

A special valentine arrived this month from Virginia just for me. While it wasn’t a punch-out card or even chocolate – remember, Cloud 9 is already here — it was in the form of a sole intern named Grace.

ACE has never had an iQuest intern come in the winter. Grace just graduated from James Madison College and, instead of jumping into her career, she asked if she could join us for the winter season and become our first winter intern.

Grace is my Valentine. I have been without an assistant for four months with Sarah in the states, so administration tasks have been bogging me down in the office. Grace arrived in Jamaica with a big smile and lots of energy, saying “perfect” to every request I asked her to help me with. She loves collecting data and putting it in great graphs and excel formats. She thrives in math and can count money almost faster than a machine!

Grace will be in Jamaica until April, at which time, she will return to begin her career in… well, just about anything she wants, smart enough to master anything and eager to be wherever God leads her. Thank you, Grace, for being my Valentine for these 75 days. You are a blessing, and maybe, just maybe, I can convince you to be our house mother this summer for our new iQuest signups.

Which reminds me… I’m hoping we will get some summer interns who want to grow, thrive, and serve with ACE this summer. Now is the time to sign up and get ready for a season you will never forget in Jamaica with ACE. Teamwork makes the dream work and we need you on our team!

 

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A Visit with Marla and D’Vaun

A Visit with Marla and D’Vaun

Our very own Marla and D’Vaun were featured on a recent podcast!

Thank you to TJ Mauldin for taking time to talk with both Marla and D’Vaun to hear their stories and experiences with ACE and what led them to where they are now.  If you’ve never heard them speak or even if you know them well, it’s a great reminder of how God works through us all for the good of the world around us.  Give it a listen!

Gooden’s Good News – A Word from D’Vaun

Gooden’s Good News – A Word from D’Vaun

Any great undertaking doesn’t start where the results are seen; it starts with a spark of inspiration, a simple idea, a tiny prick that over time becomes a little more than a sensation to ignore. Then God confirms that He’s implanted destiny, and it so happens you’re carrying the seed.

The village has been ACE’s seed. If you’ve been around long enough, you’d have probably heard the pitch (more than once, too). God has inspired us after being his hands and feet in childcare trying and failing, being frustrated when our help only goes so far because we have limited access to our children and our parents aren’t equipped to follow up, God bless their hearts. The village was God’s light bulb moment to us (He has all the great ideas).

You’ve already met Latoya Newel and her family (if you haven’t you’ve been neglecting the newsletter; God’s watching you), For those of us whose memories aren’t as great (I gave you an out), Latoya’s family experienced turbulence after turbulence in their life. All this meant ACE had to go deeper in trying to help. We gave her a job, she stayed with us a while, living in several houses on our property. But nothing can replace a home of your own, and that’s when God reminded us of that brilliant idea He gave us all those years ago.

We’ve made so many attempts to start building the Village for so many others; however, as they say in Jamaica, “Wherever God is, the devil presents himself thrice as much.” We decided that God’s ability to help is greater than the roadblocks that came up. We stepped out in faith and started the process again to make sure that this mom with her five kids had a home., Though the journey was long (with lots of help from sponsors and teams) and we didn’t always follow the route we started, we are beginning to see where God wants to take us. Our first family is in the Village – home, sweet home.

One of my now favorite verses, Romans 8:38-39, speaks to God’s faithfulness and commitment to us, in the same way neither red-tape nor limited resources nor forces of darkness can stop God’s plan to water that seed of faith, a seed that leads to the fruits of our labor and the love of Jesus Christ.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” – Romans 8:38-39

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Samaritan’s Purse and ACE: Partners at last!

Samaritan’s Purse and ACE: Partners at last!

Have you ever seen the shoeboxes in the lobby of your church or school marked “Operation Christmas Child”? Those red and green boxes are for a program facilitated by Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational outreach organization that provides spiritual and physical aid to people in need around the world. You may have been on the preparation side of this program, filling up boxes with toys, hygiene products and school supplies, helping to ship them off to more than 100 countries. https://samaritanspurse.org/operation-christmas-child/the-journey-of-a-shoebox/

ACE was honored to team up with Samaritan’s Purse on the other end of this event to distribute boxes to some of our very own children in St. Mary, Jamaica. It’s never just “drop the box and go” — Samaritan’s Purse has developed a beautiful multi-faceted program with stories, booklets and songs to truly show God’s purpose in the children’s lives and in the gifts they receive, helping to create life-long relationships with Jesus Christ.

The boxes are given out in conjunction with a 12-lesson series called The Greatest Gift over the next few months. This long-term program helps the children learn more about Jesus and to create opportunities for discipleship, not only for the students but their whole families. Even more special, for all the children who complete the twelve classes, ACE will have a graduation, and each will receive his or her very own Bible, provided by Samaritan’s Purse!

What a wonderful experience it was to be a part of this, to see their smiles upon receiving their boxes and to know the Bible stories and prayers will continue to surround them as the days go on. Thank you to the Jamaican chapter of Samaritan’s Purse for allowing us to work with you. We look forward to each and every opportunity to come!

 

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A New Dawn, A New Day in Child Sponsorship

A New Dawn, A New Day in Child Sponsorship

Most of you know or have heard us mention Dawn, our Child Sponsorship Stateside Coordinator. She has worked diligently for nine years with our Jamaican staff via email and phone calls, coordinating sponsor/child relationships, home visits, and learning about the needs of the children in our program.

What’s amazing about Dawn is that you can mention a student’s name and she will know every detail about that child and his or her sponsorship. She’s a walking Child Sponsorship encyclopedia. Marla mentioned in a previous newsletter, how, even during a hospital stay, she had her computer open, keeping the sponsorship program current, without missing a beat. She has taken this role into her heart and truly makes this impact area of ACE shine.

So, we are so sad to announce that she is retiring in the next few weeks. While we know many great things await her and her husband as they plan their own adventures, we will miss her deeply. Transition is hard, but, in this case, the job is staying in the family in the best possible way — not just our ACE family but Dawn’s family!

Remember Amber, or rather Ms. Amba?  She is Dawn’s niece and an integral part of ACE’s history. Seventeen years ago, she came to ACE on a short mission trip, came back as an intern, worked on our Stateside staff, then volunteered full-time with ACE in Jamaica for five years, leading the iQuest program, teams and education initiatives. Amber has seen and done just about everything ACE-related, even helped with the initial setup of the Child Sponsorship program, as she saw the needs of kids and families through her interactions at the schools, even sometimes taking a child into her home.

The Child Sponsorship program and its processes have been streamlined over the years by all who have had a hand in it, both in Jamaica and in the states. How fitting it is for Dawn to hand the baton back over to Amber, now a mom herself, well-versed in the needs of the children of St. Mary and the workings of our ACE ministry. Welcome back, Amber, and best of luck, Dawn! We love you both!

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