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Easily one of the highlights and unique elements of a mission with MSC is the daily interaction with residents.  At Sophie’s Place apostolate only 1 of the 20 some residents was not in a wheelchair.  Moses was the oldest at 27.  He loved to get tickled.  Candidly, everyone on day 1 took a deep breath when first interacting with the residents, likely because we don’t often seen such severe mental and physical handicaps.  It didn’t take long however for all of us to see through these ‘limitations’ and witness the beauty in these men and women, boys and girls.  They gave us perhaps what we couldn’t possibly receive in any other way.  They often smiled laughed when we physically engaged with them.  I think we all learned more about being in the moment.   

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Road side scenes

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Ok, I had to ask...I saw this growing near the chicken coops at Jerusalem apostolate.  Leroy, our senior mission rep assigned to us, said it wasn’t the real thing.  

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At every MSC apostolate there’s a house of worship.  It is typical that residents worship 2-3 times a day.  

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Our driver Webb in green.  He made it look easy navigating the roads throughout the city.  He used the horn about every 15 seconds.  Tavares in yellow, one of two mission reps.  He had a wonderful, charming personality.  Tavares and Leroy, our senior mission rep, accompanied us on every excursion every day.  Leroy said that Tavares’ nickname was ‘the mayor’ because he knew everyone everywhere we went.  

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 Brian Haney, and Mark and Patrick at work at Jerusalem.  One of the dads said that if he drank this much water throughout the day he’d be peeing every 15 minutes.  As it was, we mostly sweated out the water.  

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On Tuesday night we ate fabulous Jamaican jerk chicken and pork at Pepperwood in downtown Kingston.  Tavares, one of our MSC mission reps told us on the way to the restaurant that if anyone found the food too hot and spicy he was to smother it in ketchup. 

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Lots of hard work in the hot, humid sun at Jerusalem apostolate, building the flower beds.  I think we went through 6 cans of 70 block sunscreen. 

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Michael, Zach, Max and Dr Matt doing a little O-H-I-O

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This was very funny.  Tony in the Lee t-shirt was playfully accusing Michael, sitting between Max and Patrick and Liam of licking him.  Michael had the lowest, gravelly voice I’ve ever heard.  He should be in radio!

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The group at Jacob’s Ladder, an apostolate sitting on 152 acres.  They just dug a well on property and won’t have to bring in 6 trucks of water every day for drinking, laundry and cooking.  

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What’s a mission trip without taking in all that Jamaica has to offer?  The dads cooled off with a few Red Stripes on our one off day at Ocho Rios beach

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Thursday was our off day after attending church, so they took us to the beach at Ocho Rios, east of Montego Bay.  Brian captured this neat shot of a guy trying out water jet boots

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Dad Brian and son Liam attempting to assimilate into part of the Jamaican culture

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Liam Haney showing off his and his father Brian’s repair job on a hoe we worked a little too hard on the garden at Matthew 25:40.  Zach and Patrick swung the hoe so hard that the handle separated from the metal.  We then searched for the nails that held the metal piece in place.  Liam and Brian used a large rock as a hammer to pound the nails back in place to wedge the neck of the metal to the handle.  No Lowes or Home Depot nearby.  Impressive ingenuity and resourcefullness guys.  

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Zach, Mark, Dr Matt, Patrick, Max and Michael waiting at Matthew 25:40 for someone with authority to come by and tell us what to do!

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This is Mark haggling with a shop keeper over the price he was charging for a Bob Marley coffee mug.  Man, his salespeople were good!