Jamaica, Part III.

      Wow, I totally meant to have this trip totally recounted in like three days, but all of a sudden I was making a 20 hour round trip to Oklahoma City for the Women's College World Series, one of my friends was getting married, and I was starting summer school.  More on all of that later though. Now, let's get back to Jamaica!

Day 4
      This day was totally incredible.  In the morning, we got to celebrate Mass with Father Hayden, one of the first men to follow Fr. Ho Lung on his crazy journey. I'll write more about this guy later - he's insane and amazing! After Mass, I worked for a few hours in the morning at Bethlehem, the children's home. It's probably a good thing that Saturdays are short work days because Bethlehem is definitely the hardest center for me.  There's something about bottle feeding a "child" that is so helpless they can't even bend their arms and legs on their own that gets to me.  I say "child" because here, there are residents who are in their teens and even twenties who fit into a child's crib. At one point, I was in the little girls' room, and I was spending time with a resident named Roxanne. She was in so much pain, and there was literally nothing I could do to take that away from her. There was nothing more I wanted at that moment than to help her carry her cross, and I couldn't! It was so heartbreaking.
      After finishing the work day and having a quick lunch, we headed to Mount Tabor!!! Mount Tabor is this beautiful home up on the top of a mountain where the brothers and retreat participants go for a time of silent prayer. Brothers live stay there for an entire year and are constantly in prayer! Props to them because I could hardly handle one day of keeping my mouth shut. Our bus ride wasn't nearly as scary as last years, but that one is really hard to beat. Right when we got to the top of the mountain, I saw a pig being slaughtered at the "zoo", and I knew it would be a very interesting day. Again this year, I was struck how purely and naturally beautiful everything was. It's almost impossible to let anything bother you when you're up at the top of that mountain surrounded by an environment that looks the way God intended it too.

It doesn't get more beautiful than this.

      After seeing all of the giant pigs and teeny weeny rabbits at the zoo, we went to visit the Beatitudes, the orphanage on the mountain.  These little boys are the sickest kids of all, and it's so hard to see them in this environment.  The brothers and the lay people take care of them so well, but as an American, it can be difficult to stop yourself from scooping them all up and taking them back to the states sometimes. I spent most of my time with a little boy who couldn't talk very much. I think he sat on my lap for at least half an hour pressing every button on my watch to see how it would change.  I think that was the most peace I'd felt within myself in a long, long time.

My sweet friend.

      Once we left the orphanage, Brother Christopher took us on an adventure into the woods. I think we were looking for a waterfall, but after what felt like hours, we turned back around and emerged from the forest with a couple of limes and cacao plants. When we got back to the house, we saw Brother Vincent! He was in charge of us last year, so we were really happy to see him again.

He might look serious, but he's a total goob. And an Usher look-a-like!

      Eventually, we made out way back to Jesus the Redeemer to have dinner with the brothers on our patio.  Caroline, Garrett, and I sat with Brother Ray. Little did we know this was the first of many crazy conversations we'd have with these MOPs! He told us all about how he pretty much snuck into this monastic order, and how when he left home, he told himself he wasn't going to go back...and he hasn't. For eleven years. I can't even imagine what that's like. I hate going more than a month without seeing my family, and I can talk to them on the phone as often as I'd like! As a brother, you write monthly letters, but that's it.  He also told us that when he was in charge of Bethlehem, he liked to take one of the residents and swing with him on the swing for hours when he was having a rough day.  He told us that when things felt difficult at Bethlehem, he would ask himself, "What would my mother do?" and he would be able to do what he needed to do. That really struck me, and for the rest of the week, I asked myself the same thing when I faced a difficult situation. My goodness, our mothers do so much for us! I mean seriously, I could spend hours thanking my mom for everything she has ever done for me, and I'd feel like I hadn't covered anything. Too blessed!

     Once we finished dinner, we made a huge circle and shared some of our experiences with the brothers.   To end the night, we sang Building Community together, and we all did the dance! Just typing the name has put the song in my head, and I'm sure it'll be there for hours. It's I...It's I...It's I who builds community!

Bro. Elijah and some of our girls singing Building Community!