christian | American-Caribbean Experience

Christmas and Celebrations

by American-Caribbean Experience | Jan 27, 2022 | Book A Trip, Community, Education, Outreach

Thanks to ACE’s dear friends, Tina and Luke, all of our sponsored students and friends celebrated Christmas in style! As the COVID syndrome continues globally, the Rebel Ministries team came through unafraid, full of life and energy. The last week of 2021 ended with lots of laughter and smiles as our team and staff hosted several separate parties across a few days.

The farm was our background for open air fun and storytelling. Students had cards and gifts from sponsors, and the celebration of Jesus’ birth was at the forefront! Most of all, it was such a “shot in the arm” of encouragement for ACE. Beyond the partying, this team worked so hard every single day, and it gave us hope for what 2022 will look like. Thank you all for making our end of year and first of year so fantastic

As for the rest of you considering coming to Jamaica, well, come on… we’ve got work for you and our staff is ready for some American humor! Are you ready for us? Let’s make it happen!

Click image to scroll through gallery

RETURN TO NEWSLETTER

New Year, New Faces

by American-Caribbean Experience | Jan 27, 2022 | Book A Trip, Community, Discipleship, Education, Outreach

ACE is always changing! That is to be expected when people are involved in the lives of others, and this year will be no different in Jamaica.

Remember our own Anthony, the beekeeper? Well, Anthony is all grown up, out of school for the moment (he graduated), and he lives with his sister in nearby Hampstead. Always ready to learn a new skill, Anthony works with one of our men who repairs our pumps at the farm and makes a nice living. But what about the bees and the honey he left behind?

Introducing Romario, our new beekeeper! Romario was just beginning to start his own beehives in the Bonney Gate community, close to where Pastor Kermit lives. As Anthony was transitioning to a full-time job outside of ACE, he and Romario started working together at the Campus. While Anthony has the long-term training, thanks to local and foreign volunteers, Romario has learned to breed queen bees at lightning speed. We’ve been told by Mr. Haywood the Bee Master that this is quite a skill to do as the production of honey triples.

All we know is more bees means more honey and more honey means more sweetness pouring out of ACE! The business of bees continues for another passionate young man, and we already see him buzzing with success!

Thank you, David and Valerie, for donating the extractor. We have it set up in the Campus living room looking like a new piece of furniture. You get the first bottle we will harvest this spring.

This is what Changing Lives is all about for ACE. We are so proud of these young men growing up and pursuing their passion, learning new skills, and always changing for the better. And thank YOU for supporting our honey business. It’s just sooo sweet!

Click image below to scroll through photo gallery

RETURN TO NEWSLETTER

Marla’s Minute: The Widow, Flour & Oil

by American- Caribbean Experience | Mar 24, 2021 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

The other day I was reading a story in 1 Kings, Chapter 17, about the widow who, when the prophet Elijah asked her for a drink and a piece of bread during a severe drought and famine, her reply was “I don’t have any bread – only a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I’m gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it- and die.” The story goes on to say that Elijah asked her to take what she had for herself and make a small cake of bread for him to eat and then make something for herself and her son. Elijah then added this one sentence that changed the widow and her son’s situation instantly… “For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: the jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the Lord gives rain” on the land.

The widow went away and did as Elijah had told her. Sure enough, there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. The jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah.

This past month, God sent us, figuratively speaking, a jar of flour and a jug of oil in the form of fifteen volunteers to supply us with encouragement, help, and unconditional love. In the midst of the “famine” of visitors we have been experiencing (thanks to Covid and the lining of fear in the mix), God sent us exactly what we needed, as ACE knows He always will.

On February 20th, these fifteen American friends (and new friends!) arrived into Galina Breeze Hotel with much excitement, big smiles, and lots of needed supplies for us and our many neighbors who were living on that last drop of oil and flour. They came to serve and not be served. And serve, they did!

I often think about the widow story; to put it in real time, what if we believed ACE won’t make it through this famine and we were all going to die from Covid? Do we ignore God’s promises that He alone controls our future and is waiting for us to step out in faith and trust Him? It’s a challenge to overcome the fear of travel, the fear of stepping out and yet every time we “do it afraid”, as ACE says, we see a miracle happen right in front of us! The sheer joy of being part of that miracle God is working through us is exhilarating.

That week, the last week of February, was normally our annual Men and Women’s Conference, where Jamaicans come to us for praise and fellowship. While it didn’t happen the way it has for decades and we upheld all the Covid rules it was exactly the way God set it up to happen this year. Take a few minutes to watch this incredible video made by our ACE friends when they returned to the U.S.

We hope this will encourage you to see all that needs to be done – and that CAN be done – and to get on a plane and get here! That oil and flour goes a long way, as one team builds on another and God always provides what we need when we need it. If you hear that call to come down, perhaps you are part of that miracle!

Thank you, friends and families, for the love!
Marla

(click image to scroll through gallery)

RETURN TO NEWSLETTER

Marla’s Minute — Holy Cow!

by American- Caribbean Experience | Feb 22, 2021 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

Whenever Allen and I travel to KY to see my parents, we usually go to a place my dad loves to go for breakfast. We don’t have these restaurants in GA anymore, but Bob Evans is our place and their slogan used to be “Down on the Farm.” To me, that phrase meant eating fried food and delicious pancakes. Now that I’m on a farm every day, that phrase means a lot of work!

ACE/GLLF is not trying to create another Bob Evans in Jamaica, but we are definitely learning a lot about what it means to be down on the farm, with pigs, horses, all the chores and that good tired feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Most recently, we are excited to see how our own cattle will start another micro-business for Green Life Llanrumney Farms. Thanks to some wonderful donors, GLLF is now the proud owners of 26 heifers (that’s baby female calves). These calves will grow up to produce calves and beef for the buyers who want grass-fed natural beef meat. That’s one side of the story. The other side is, after our calves calf, we will offer employees and sponsored families the opportunity to purchase a cow. This will begin the legacy for their children to not only own their own herd on the GLLF but to learn about how to be sustainable and make a living as a farmer.

This concept is very important to ACE as our focus is always to be self- sustainable and to teach this to our National friends and families. Want to be part of the investment? Let us know.

(click image to scroll through gallery)

RETURN TO NEWSLETTER

Marla’s Minute: How The Pieces Fall Together

by American- Caribbean Experience | Jan 27, 2021 | Book A Trip, Community, Discipleship, Education, Outreach

ACE always has a great impact story every month. Personally, however, I often wrestle about how much to share. So many things happen on the ground that change our lives and my perspective daily that I struggle to give the details of how ACE made a particular person or family’s life better, safer, healthier. It’s important that we protect the privacy of our families and individuals and not exploit them for the sake of the story. Every day is filled with specifics but we try to talk in generalities. I preface with this because I’m going to keep names out of this story in order to protect this family, but I still want you to see how, even in adversity, God shows up.

A mother with her two sons, one of whom has special needs, called our office in a hopeless state. This mother had taken care of a senior for many, many years when his own grown children did not. It was understood by everyone in the community that, when he passed, she and her boys would have a place to live as payment for her years of committed care for him.

After the older gentleman passed, the family decided that they wanted the space and caused a lot of strife in order to force her and her boys to leave. One day while she was out seeking work, they burned down the house. As a result, she and her two sons built what we would call a shell of a home to live in, with a dirt floor and no utilities or furniture to speak of. Because the special-needs teenager was sponsored by a neat couple in the States, the mother felt her only avenue for help would be to call ACE.

Fast forward… a home that ACE built (thanks to another supporter) for Indian, our GLLF farm hand, was currently empty, clean, and ready for move-in. We had moved Indian to an apartment at the front of the farm for security duty. ACE created a job for this mother cleaning up at Buccaneers three days a week so that her sons can come to work with her and so her youngest, who is five, has access to internet for school at the ACE office.

Isn’t it amazing how the pieces fall together when God is involved? I often tell our friends who feel bad about not being able to physically be here to not sell themselves short. God loves the orphans and widows, and He certainly loves a cheerful giver. Thank you, cheerful givers, for changing the lives of these three individuals. One act of kindness (for Indian) ended up providing a life-saving opportunity for a family in need, a mother whose own act of kindness in life becomes repaid even when it seems hopeless. When you can get boots on the ground, you will meet our new family and, perhaps, she can tell you the story herself with all the details. As they say, God is good ALL the time.

click image to scroll through gallery