Women’s Soccer Jamaica Blog III

It is strange to think that day three in Jamaica is coming to a close. Honestly, at this point the days all seem to be running together. Today's whirlwind began with breakfast at 8 a.m. We got to try the national dish, which is made with salt fish. I can honestly say I have never had fish that early in the morning, but it was good.

Sophomore Corrine Roberts provided this blog...

Afterwards, we did our devotional while waiting for the bus to arrive. It dealt with the concept of faith as described in Hebrews 11:1-3, 6, and 13. That first verse is actually one of my favorites, "Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see." In this day and age that concept is often hard for people to grasp because we have a mentality that requires us to see it before we will believe it. Accepting some biblical truths requires us to set aside the critical eye we apply to the world and simply have faith. From an athletic standpoint we often need to have faith that the grueling practices we endure will lead to the result we want. Even though we cannot see the finish line or raise the championship trophy in that moment, we have to visualize it and truly believe it in order to achieve it. As it was put in our devotional paper, "If you truly believe in something then you will give it your best effort. You will play using your heart as well as your God given abilities." I would say those are wise words.

After our devotional the bus arrived so we climbed aboard and headed out to visit the Mustard Seed again. There was still a lot of painting left to do so we all grabbed our brushes and got to it. After a few hours we had finished painting the outside of three buildings and the inside of a classroom. If you need any professional painters I am pretty sure we qualify at this point. To wrap up our time at the Mustard Seed we joined in afternoon prayer with some of the leaders. They started with a few of their traditional worship songs and then we sang one that was more familiar to a few us (it is called Marvelous Light in case you wanted to know). However, my favorite part was when we sang a song together (Open the Eyes of My Heart). Looking around and listening to the blend of voices struck me with the fact that we can live thousands of miles away and be part of a completely different culture and yet we can still be connected. From a faith standpoint we are connected because we love and serve the same amazing God. From a service standpoint we are connected because we are all there to help the kids, give them a beautiful place to live/learn and to show them that someone truly cares. After worship we read a passage from Matthew 20 and then closed by joining hands and praying together. We said goodbye to our new friends at the Mustard Seed and got back on the bus to grab some lunch.

After eating at the mall we headed back to the hotel to change for some much needed chill time at the beach. I personally have never seen water that beautifully blue in my life. We spent the rest of the evening swimming, taking pictures, making some new friends, and just enjoying the atmosphere. We tried some local fruit called gunep which tastes similar to a grape, but is about the same consistency as an eyeball (sorry to gross anyone out). A few of us made purchases from local vendors, everything from CDs, to jewelry, to hand carved bamboo money jars. Coach Ken even gave away a soccer ball to a boy at the beach, he was holding on to it so tight it looked like he was never going to let go. We rounded out the day by eating dinner at a local seafood place. We were served some bread called bammy and a mix of boiled/fried parrot fish. In my opinion it was delicious, but a few of the girls held out for Wendy's after we headed back.

Well that just about wraps up today. It is so difficult for me to capture every moment of this trip because it is unlike anything I have ever experienced, but I hope you can at least somewhat visualize it. Thanks for checking in on our journey, if you would like to please keep us in your prayers!