Education | American-Caribbean Experience

ACE’s Four Impact Buckets Unite for Spring!

by American-Caribbean Experience | Mar 26, 2025 | Community, Discipleship, Education, Outreach

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 the States, helped feed and care for many elderly and special needs neighbors who lack support. They also helped clean their homes. It was inspiring to see college and high school students make such a significant impact in the lives of the lonely and hungry. In just four days, we received an overwhelmingly positive response to our staff and volunteers’ loving hospitality.

The Ricardo Ranch

While love, care, and support are essential, nothing compares to the impact of a dedicated team like the one from Ringgold Baptist in Ringgold, GA. Each year, they generously offer their construction skills to address a critical need: providing safe, dry housing for those in need.

This year, they supported Ricardo, a construction worker who suffered a life-changing accident when he fell from a roof and broke his neck. Despite being paralyzed from the waist down, Ricardo’s spirit and hope inspire everyone around him, making it hard for anyone to complain.

Thanks to ACE’s commitment and the many hands that joined in, we built Ricardo a new home. Just today, Ricardo moved in and can finally call this place home, all thanks to the generosity of those who dedicated their time to make a difference in his life.

Education & Edgehill

Many of you may remember that ACE is the primary sponsor for helping Edgehill School of Special Education meet its specific needs outside the classroom. This year, we aimed to transform a large closet into a computer lab, where 13 donated computers and a whiteboard will enable special needs students to access the world beyond their reach.

Construction began one day and was completed by noon the next. All that remains is for the electrician to install the electrical outlets, and then we’ll be ready for the students to embark on their journey to explore the “safe web.”

Our volunteers enjoyed reading, singing, and interacting with the classes during construction. It’s hard to say who had more fun at Edgehill—us or the students.

Help for Hampstead

Volunteers can’t discuss ACE without mentioning the “bucket brigade.” It’s true—ACE is known for tackling challenging projects in just a few days.

This week, Hampstead Primary School, one of our sponsored schools, requested our help to finish their multi-purpose court, which will be used for sports events and general assemblies. This month, we began constructing the seating for attendees.

This will be a full summer program, as it takes more than just a few days to complete. ACE is committed to our students and schools. If you’ve never participated in a “bucket brigade,” there’s still plenty of time to sign up. Many hands make the work light!

Hampstead Elementary School Construction Project

Fun and Discipleship during the Hampstead Elementary School Construction Project

Bucket Brigades at Hampstead Elementary School

Pigs & Microbusinesses

What do pigs and microbusinesses have in common? In some businesses, the answer might be a lot of fat. But not with ACE! The Green Life Farm pig pen business is thriving at Buccaneers, where Jamaicans flock to enjoy delicious jerk pork sandwiches and ribs.

Our pigs have outgrown their pens. So this month, with the help of volunteers from Kansas City Christian School, we tore down the old pens and constructed new ones—all in one day! This is what happens when you have seniors in tip-top shape doing the work. Our farm staff truly appreciated the assistance.

While most of the work is completed, we still have a few posts and some painting left. The pens almost look nice enough to spend a little time with the pigs… almost!

In other great news, we recently received a call from a couple we’ve come to love, Marty and Christa Bevel from Kentucky. They asked if they could assist on the farm for a month. Our answer was a resounding YES! We met Marty and Christa years ago and invited them to visit ACE about four years back. This time, they felt called by God to help us, and we couldn’t be more grateful. God always brings us the most incredible help!

Spiritual Development

Marty and Christa are knowledgeable about pigs, chickens, cows, and all things farming. More importantly, they have an incredible love for Jesus, which shines through in everything they do.

The Jamaican staff at the farm has fallen in love with them and even asked them to stay longer. Marty leads daily staff devotions to start the day, while Christa invests in the ladies on the farm and our ACE staff. We have all come to love them and will miss them when they return to Kentucky. But we’re keeping the lights on for them and expect a return visit. Please pray for a longer stay!

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Marla’s Minute: Back to the Future

by American-Caribbean Experience | Oct 28, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community, Education, Outreach

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 lacks funds and opportunities for their students, unlike the city schools of Kingston, Montego Bay, Ochi, etc.

Second, ACE forms a 10-year minimum relationship with the principal and teachers at the school. ACE receives a list of all of the students in need of sponsorship, and the children get added to our Child Sponsorship Program. Through sponsorship, we dig even deeper into the students’ homelives, where relationships are formed with everyone living in the home. ACE can then also discover any medical, dental, or other healthcare needs of the student and their family members.

From that community, many elderly and special needs members are met by ACE volunteers and employees with a helpful and compassionate hand and heart.

All that and more came to a full stop almost four years ago with the COVID shutdown. Schools closed, infirmaries and hospitals closed their doors to visitors, and for the most part, ACE lost all progress we had spent decades building.

Then God did something fantastic! He opened a door to start creating businesses on a piece of property we now own call Green Life Farms.

For the past three years, volunteers have come to help us “work the farm.” Cutting bushes, discovering ruins, raising pigs and cows, picking fruit, and helping an old farm with history become a modern-day working property for our Jamaican community. With our food court, Buccaneers Jerk and Juice, Treasure Chest, and Cloud 9 Chocolate, we were able to survive the downturn in the economy.

During that time, many friends were probably wondering if we would ever “come off the farm” and get back to what we do best—“changing lives and transforming communities.” Even we wondered that at times. But the time has finally come.

Looking into the future and even starting right now, ACE is back in our communities with open arms from our teachers, neighbors, and infirmary patients. Unfortunately, the government-run infirmary still hasn’t opened to groups and has a strict policy of visitors. Interesting enough, we have found more “shut ins and disabled adults” living on their own and barely surviving right in our own community. So, we’ve started our own elderly ACE Mobile Infirmary (AMI) visits. That’s the silver lining behind the COVID closings of the infirmary.

ACE is now BACK to the FUTURE. We’re getting back into our schools and communities. Just this week, a family from Gainesville, GA, surprised us with a visit and built a homeless man a house, followed by our ACE Board of Directors finishing the home with paint and a single bed. If you are considering a trip down to Jamaica this coming winter or sometime in 2025, please prepare to go back to our communities, see old friends and meet new friends. We are thrilled. Yes, we like farm work, but ACE loves those relationships.

When you come down next, be sure to bring all the hugs and energy you can. We have three years to make up!

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Marla’s Minute: Paid In Full!

by American-Caribbean Experience | Sep 26, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

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 land! For the past five years, Allen and I have been sharing our vision and heart with so many of you about the importance of having land to use as ministry outreach for the local community, like the Peace House and the ACE Office. A location where many micro-businesses can be incubated so that Jamaican families can earn a living and get out of the generation of poverty.

We are thrilled to reach this milestone, and we are so grateful to each of you that have given their treasure and prayers to this legacy campaign. We made it, and we did it together! ACE now has the foundation we needed to ensure the land is ours for generational building and demonstrating to the community just how active God still is among His people.

Please join us in celebrating these moments in ACE history as we now move forward with the Fosters at the helm of ACE. We are excited to see what else God will add to this property as a witness to His goodness. Plans are in the works to build a professional stage on the farm, where performers will be able to share the Gospel through music and talent. The greenhouse is being rebuilt to supply pure, clean food to the community, as well as hotels that have a large demand. And there’s also going to be a Green Life Learning Center for high school students who have come through our program but still need help getting up to par in reading, math, english, and the arts. This last phase of development is only possible now that the farm has been paid in full.

Thank you, friends! Truly, thank you for believing in the vision of hope and opportunity in St Mary, Jamaica through ACE. Now, let’s continue to pray for a pastor to come along at the Peace House and help guide our staff to reach the next level.

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Displays of Gratitude for Backpack Distribution Days

by American-Caribbean Experience | Aug 26, 2024 | Education, Outreach

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 Jamaica for our annual Backpack Distribution Days. It’s that hectic, crazy, fun three days when we give our students their new backpacks, complete with school supplies, ready-made uniforms, and/or fabric for ones that need a seamstress. Despite the heat–and yes, it’s very hot this time of year–it is something I look forward to every year.

The process starts with the students expressing their gratitude to their sponsors. We alternate each year between having them make a Christmas gift and writing thank-you notes. Our primary students are given a card with a picture to color and then inside, they write their thank you note. Our Second Story students, high schoolers grades 7-11, write their thank you notes on a store-bought note card. When they have finished this, they go to the next station to have Mr. Gooden review our contract with their parents. This contract lists our requirements for the students in our program and helps hold them accountable.

The next stop in our Backpack Distribution Days event is always the childrens’ favorite part—getting their backpacks. (See below for a couple of photos showing the children’s delight when looking into the backpack.) Of course, my favorite part in all of this is that I get to interact with each of our students while I take pictures of them including full-body photos for their personal page in our database and head-shots for their sponsors’ Christmas gifts.

Out of 157 students, there are always those reluctant few who just won’t smile, no matter how hard I try! And on the other side of the spectrum, we always have those charmers who want to do some extra poses. But the most noticeable takeaway each year is how tall they’ve grown. Some of our young men are now so tall that I jokingly said I might need a stepladder next year to take their head shots.

This year, in addition to the school supplies, each family went home with peanut butter, jelly, and two packs of fortified rice. We are so grateful to our friends in the States who purchase these rice packs for us. They are definitely a gift of mercy and love.

What stood out to me most this year was the overwhelming gratitude of our parents for our assistance in helping them care for and educate their children. One mother was so grateful that she had her child put on his school uniform to have us take and send pictures of him to his sponsors thanking them.

I am so thankful to God for the strength and stamina He has given me that makes it possible for me to return each August to be a part of Backpack Distribution Days!

Backpacks lines up for our Backpack Distribution Days

A Student in our ACE Child Sponsorship Program Receiving a Backpack

ACE student in our child sponsorship program

Student in our ACE Child Sponsorship Program

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Marla’s Minute: Beryl, Blessings and Beets

by American-Caribbean Experience | Jul 29, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

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 all our prayers throughout the Nation by turning Beryl slightly away from us getting a direct hit at the last minute.

We were fortunate the 97-year-old hotel stood her ground and only a few trees and small roof tiles went down. However, the generator that sustained a fire almost 10 months ago was no help. We sat without electricity for over a week. The fortunate part is that we had no guests or volunteer teams the week Beryl went through Jamaica.

Green Life Llanrumney Farm, on the other hand, took a greater hit of destruction than we expected. As Beryl passed by Jamaica south of Kingston, the rain poured into the downtown area, but St. Mary and the farm seemed to have caught mostly wind. All our inside and outside roads to the pastures, Greathouse, village etc., disappeared into the thickness of bamboo. It was a reality check for all of us as we realized we had no place to go with cattle and other livestock. And then…

God showed up with shovels of favor. Friends of ACE from all over the US and Canada began asking our US office, how can they help. What do we need? And funds helped us get going with parts for the tractor and chainsaws that we desperately needed. Most of all, ACE friends helped us get a team of three men down to help Allen begin to clear the inside roads. As I write this, there still isn’t any power at the farmhouse. Huie got the pump working again down by the river, so we can pump water for the cattle.

Our greenhouse was destroyed, but we didn’t have any growing towers installed yet which could have been devastating. While we are praying for more manpower to help us, we have our summer volunteers coming in to help Allen and Foster clear the roads, repair the fences, replace broken tables and, yes, even help us begin our mid-summer planting. This time, in addition to the above ground crops, we are going under with planting our beets. At least they can go through a hurricane without much damage.

So, yes, we had Beryl early, but we got to see how God blesses us with our friends who care and love ACE. Needs? Oh yes, we have lots of them. Please see our prayer requests and know that we are so grateful for you all and the generosity you have given ACE.

Keeping up the God work,

Marla and Allen