Guest Post by Julian Burwell: Jamaica Trip 2011. June 7th-11th. Montego Bay, Jamaica.
Week 2 Update
“Thanking God is easy when things go as planned”
In America we have the benefit of planning ahead. Our whole lives we plan for the most desired outcome. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Many times we have the resources to accomplish the goal that we have set out ahead of us and so we become sure of ourselves. Yet most of our lives are spent dealing with circumstances that are beyond our control. The Bible says, “Give thanks in everything” (1 Thessalonians 4:18). This was one of my Great-Grandmother’s favorite verses and I was privileged to be the one who read it at her memorial service.
Give thanks in everything? “Of course!” we say, “That’s not really hard to do, after all, I thank God in church, before meals, in songs, and plenty of other times. Right?” Not really.
The night before we flew out we did not sleep much. In fact, i didn’t sleep at all and our team arose at 3am to get ready for the flight. Because we were bringing gear enough for an entire summer camp and for future Next Step trips we found that we had more gear than the cars we had been given to drive to the airport could hold. This was unfortunate and we had to take another driver on our early morning venture and we were forced us to leave late. When we arrived at the Milwaukee airport we had to check a lot of baggage on the airline and I ended up debating with the site director whether she or I should be the last one on the airplane since the two of us were still stuck checking bags while the remainder of the team had traveled through security. I made the flight by a mere 5 minutes after TSA had run my guitar through the scanner three times.
Upon arrival in Jamaica we had another set of disappointing circumstances; about $2500 of music equipment was taken from us at Customs. Unfortunately in the hustle of things we had left a good portion of the music gear in the original boxes for ease of transportation. We had nothing to declare but when the airport officials saw seven white americans dragging twenty-five boxes and pieces of luggage through their airport the forced us into the “Something to Declare” line. We spent 2 hours trying to get them to let us bring our bags into the country, but they took all of our boxed gear hostage. Essentially, they did not want us to merchandise into the country to sell.
Leaving the airport was relieving, but when we arrived at the our summer home the humidity combined with a lack of sleep really hit. We had gone to the market earlier to get a group sized portion of Jamaica’s national dish, “Jerk Chicken”. The majority of the team was feeling crumby. In addition to the spiced chicken we were given a side of hot sauce that burned like nothing I have ever tasted before. Our Jamaican friend David told me the name of the sauce, it was called, “Welcome to Hell” which seemed to be emblematic of my own experience at this point.
When I went to bed that night, I questioned whether I really wanted to be here. whether I had made a good decision coming. If I had tricked people into supporting something that I wasn’t committed to. At this point I felt no reason to thank God other than for our safety. Which was a good thing considering the roads in Jamaica.
I was feeling a little more positive the next morning, still tired but some of the weight had left my shoulders. We had my guitar and a few cables and could not claim our gear until we went to a Customs Broker. To add insult to injury our team traveled to the main job site that morning to find out that none of the work that had been promised to be done was completed. The local construction company was supposed to have excavated three shelfs on the hillside and laid the foundation for the first level so that we could began construction as soon as we got there. Instead we found that only one shelf had been excavated and there to be additional broken parts on the excavator (construction tool) than we had been informed of over the phone. The man working the site had not finished nearly what he was supposed to.
Things were not looking good. Our morale was not helped by the twelve hours spent waiting in lines to get the correct forms all across town to reclaim our music gear. In this way we were overwhelmed with bad circumstances. On top of that, I was helpless. I wasn’t really contributing anything to the team. I felt useless, watching my team suffer and struggling myself. I could do nothing those few days. I filled my time with wireless routers and video editing. As the music director for our site, my role is really just useless until the students arrive.
In his letters, Paul thanked God all the time. This is shocking considering his circumstances of imprisonment and beatings that he could begin and finish all of his letters with thanks!
Something that we have found comfort in over the last few days is an old Bob Marley song that goes, “Don’t worry about a ting, cause every little ting is gonna be alright”. We keep singing it over and over. Everybody needs something to hold onto. Everyone needs hope. We as Christians have that hope and can give it to the world. We do this through everyday practices like thanking God. Think about how a simple “thank you” can mean so much to another individual. Now think of how our Heavenly Father hears our every word, thought and how he sees our motives. When we say ‘thank you” to God, we are praising God.
When things seem to be going bad I am beginning to find peace when I simply say, “Thank You God”. It’s a way to say, “Your will be done”. I want to live this out more this summer. It is easy to thank the Lord when things go as we plan them, but that wouldn’t really be asking the Lord’s will to be done. I know I need to have this attitude regardless of the day, circumstance or weather. I am going to feel useless and unhelpful at other times this summer. But still, we serve God and others around us by having an attitude of Thankfulness.
Until then, Lord show me the way.
—Julian
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thes 5:16-18, NKJV)
(June 11th, 2011…Montego Bay, Jamaica)