Calvary Baptist Church sent 18 to Jamaica: Wade, Courtney, Gabe and Jacob Wallace, Donna Wallace, Sarah Terry, Sherry James, Rex Mayfield, Jarett Hovater, Morgan Hovater, Laura and Ashleigh Morgan, Taylor Hollimon, Robbie Richardson, Ally Willis, Neil Rogers, John James, Sandy Evans.

By Alison James

alison.james@fct.wpengine.com

A recent trip to Jamaica wasn’t a luxurious vacation for 18 people from this community. It was, instead, a mission trip aimed at helping people and spreading the gospel.

In the Falmouth area of the island, the group of adults and teenagers from Calvary Baptist Church executed children’s activities, giveaways, constructions projects, Bible studies and more for fellow Jamaican Christians as well as members of the community.

This was the church’s first trip to Jamaica, although it send a mission group somewhere every year.

“We’ve been to Nicaragua three years and sort of felt like (this would be) a change,” said minister Wade Wallace. “We just felt like there was a great need there. I guess it was a new challenge for us.”

The group left out July 4 and returned July 12.

“I just feel like I have a huge calling for missions in my life,” said Ashleigh Morgan, 17, for whom this trip marked her first mission trip experience. “It was just a great experience for me to go over there and be able to share God’s love with everyone over there.”

Sandy Evans was also a first-time mission trip participant. She said she has wanted to go for years but could never afford it.

“Brother Wade told me to hang in there and God would provide,” Evans said. “God made a way, so I went.”

Jacob Wallace, 18, has been going on mission trips since he was young. He said one difference in this year’s trip was a lack of language barrier, as compared to previous trips to Nicaragua.

“I got to build relationships,” he said. “You could just talk one-on-one … that made it so awesome.”

Daily activities included door-knocking, and each night included an evening service. The group worked with minister Stephen Henry, who works in a circuit of three churches in the area, the largest of which is Webb Memorial Baptist.

Morgan said her favorite activity of the trip was door-knocking and sharing the gospel message. She particularly remembers their interaction with a woman named Sarah.

“She was a lot older, and she was having knee problems,” Morgan said. “She really wanted to go to church, but her disability stopped her from being able to go. She was just asking us if we would pray for her to be healed and if we would bring her something from our eyeglass clinic. I just remember she held my hand and looked me in the eye and said, ‘Please don’t forget about me.’”

The mission group also had a special giveaway day, sharing flip-flops, T-shirts, hygiene items and eyeglasses with the community and church members.

“The Jamaica you see at the resorts and in brochures is not the Jamaica that’s really there,” Wade Wallace said. “We were literally down a little ways, probably 20-30 minutes, from the main resort area, and there was a resort there. We were at the back door of a resort, and (the people) were very, very poor.”

As part of a special ladies event, several of the women from Calvary Baptist shared their testimonies and Bible verses, encouraging the listeners in how to live the Christian life.

“Iron sharpens iron – I keep thinking of that verse,” Evans said. “It was awesome.”

The other aspect of the efforts in Jamaica was a construction portion, in which six of the group members helped to renovate the church’s 100-year-old Education Center. The mission group replaced rotten wood and old and missing windows in the structure. They focused in the building’s “kitchen,” repainting, redoing the cabinets and improving the space to make it a usable kitchen: it previously did not have a refrigerator, stove or running water.

“We are extremely wealthy compared to the majority of individuals there as far as belongings,” John James said.

James said, and other participants agreed, that going on a mission trip is something everyone should do at least once.

“The greatest impact for us is to think we changed their eternal destiny, for some,” Wade Wallace said. “We’ll never see those people again, but one day in eternity, we will.”