At this time, I would like to reflect on my personal experiences, rather than the details of the trip. In many ways, the trip was very similar to the 2009 mission. However, I am a different person in many ways. I have grown more accustomed to my role as full-time pastor, growing more comfortable and confident in that role. Nevertheless, I have also grown aware that the role of pastor is more challenging and offers more opportunities that I ever imagined. In 2009, I was already somewhat comfortable in my role of preaching and providing pastoral care. To be honest, however, I was not confident in my role as a resident theologian and as a leader to the congregation and the community.
In 2009, I went on the mission trip simply to watch and learn. I did assist the group with prayers and devotional readings, but to the Jamaicans, I was just one the pharmacist's assistants. I ended up preaching to one of the smaller churches in Carron Hall charge, but I kept my expectations low. I let the local pastor, Rev. Davis, take the lead, and again I was mainly there just to watch and learn.
Looking back at the 2009 visit, I felt I should have been more assertive in getting to know the Rev. Davis and in general in spending time with the Jamaicans, trying to understand their experiences and worldviews. I also felt I could have better represented the UCC and EUCC to the Carron Hall United Church. I therefore resolved to (1) emphasize to the Jamaicans my role as a pastor and preacher, and (2) spend as much time as I could with a variety of Jamaicans listening to their stories and opinions.
Well, it is great to have a plan, but as they say, “The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men Gang aft agley.” It must have been one of the first days of the clinic, and the crowd at the door waiting for treatment was for some reason in a very unsettled mood. There was lots of pushing and shoving going on. The local leader asked me to say a prayer for the crowd. I picked up the microphone and improvised an adequate but uninspired prayer. The mood of the crowd got worse. Two of the team members getting ready to leave for the dental clinic, Steve Chapman and Pastor Loren Boettcher (the retired pastor from Trinity Lutheran) noticed what was going on and took charge. They led a prayer for the folks inside the church and then went out into the crowd and led a powerful prayer for the folks in line. The effect was immediate, powerful, and beneficial. I realized that I had dropped the ball. I was still not thinking of myself as a pastor. Thank God for that lesson!
The next day I was again asked to do the prayer. I opened my heart to the Holy Spirit and delivered one of the best prayers of my life. For me, this prayer was one of the high points of the trip. When things were not busy in the pharmacy, I started going out and chatting with those in line, kidding and explaining that we were doing our best to see everyone.
I also started to notice people with special needs who were having difficulty standing in line. One was a hemophiliac using a cane, another with myasthenia gravis using a walker, a third with a wheel chair. Another man with a large growth on his arm, an excellent candidate for Dr. Gibbs, was sitting in the shade, unable to stand in line in the hot sun. A woman brought a very elderly lady to the pharmacy door who also obviously could not stand in line. I enlisted the cooperation of the folks in the line to bring these special needs folks into the clinic. Once the Jamaicans understood that we wanted to get those with special needs into the clinic first, they actively helped, moving aside, supporting the weak, and helping to lift the wheel chair over the threshold. Instead of mob pushing at the door, we were building a community helping each other to get needed care. This was a new experience for me, and I thank God for it!
With some progress on the pastoral front, I turned my energies to preparing to preach at Carron Hall United Church. Because I was the only pastor on the trip who could speak from the pulpit at Carron Hall United Church, I knew from the start that I would be delivering a sermon. Although I always try to do a good sermon, I knew that this one would be very special. Most of the mission group members and the local congregation members had never heard me preach, since I preached in the little Cedar Valley Church in 2009. Another difference between 2009 and 2011 is that the pulpit of Carron Hall United Church is vacant. They have not had a pastor preaching in their church since the last pastor departed, some months ago. For some reason, that made me feel that I needed to do an extraordinary job in my preaching. Since the medical mission goes to Jamaica every other year, I have been nursing the idea of going to Carron Hall for a week during the off years to preach and teach Bible classes. I felt that if this idea was to bear fruit, I had to establish myself as a good preacher with the leaders of the Carron Hall Church.
John 20:24-29, “Jesus Appears to Thomas” was my focus scripture. Even before the trip began, I was reading and reflecting on this scripture. I continued to reflect on the passage through the week and finally sat down to write down my sermon outline on Saturday afternoon. After breakfast on Sunday morning, I went to the church before the rest of the group. The church was open but empty except for a member doing some final straightening up—hard to believe 24 hours before the clinic was still going full steam—and some little boys who kept asking me if I had any “sweeties.” I had a few and I gave them about half my supply. I was nervous and did not know what to do. As I looked around, I saw a copy of the “Elmhurst Hymnal.” Standing in the pulpit, I began singing through the hymnal, singing a verse or two of each song I knew to that empty church. Good acoustics. Something about that singing calmed my spirit and when church started, I felt ready.
The order of worship was in the Presbyterian style, which means that the pastor did not have to say anything until the sermon. I did know that I was expected to sit on the platform throughout the service. I just wasn’t sure where I was supposed to sit. There were three seats available, with the one in the middle being much grander “pastor’s seat.” I took the advice of Jesus and I deliberately chose the lesser left-hand seat as described in Luke 14:
8 “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honor, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. 9 If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. 10 But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all the other guests. 11 For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Soon, the lay leader asked me to move over to the “big chair.” As I felt more welcome, I relaxed and began to enjoy the service. One of the Elders gave me an old Presbyterian hymnbook (lyrics only). On the anthems, I went and joined the choir…about the same size as our EUCC choir. The worship was a traditional Presbyterian service with the addition of praise songs before and during the service. The praise leader was a woman with a very strong voice who was also one of the Carron Hall school cooks. Kevin, the young man who hosted those of us sleeping at the empty pastor’s house, accompanied us on keyboard, with the help of another young man on drums. The service reminded very much of a service I attended at Berea Presbyterian Church, an African American church in St. Louis some years back: lots of spirited singing, “amens,” and outbursts of prayer from the congregation.
I had volunteered to read the Gospel, to which I gave a detailed introduction. After the Gospel reading, the lay leader leaned over and whispered to me, “That is not all you are going to say, is it? You will elaborate a bit in the sermon?” I comforted her with the news that I would have much, much, much more to say. Surprise!
I have the sermon on video and I would say that it was one of my best. The “amens” and other expressions of agreement by the congregation spurred me on to a more energetic style than usual. Some mission members noted that I was preaching in the “bapticostal” style, pounding the pulpit like a Baptist and waving my arms like a Pentecostal. When I will be able to return to Carron Hall Church to preach will depend on my relationship with the pastor they are now recruiting. Regardless, I am confident that I have established myself as a competent preacher who they will welcome back to their church.
Another idea, however, was not as fruitful. On the first day of the mission, I went to some of the Elders of the church and offered to teach a Bible study in the evenings after the clinic. They reacted with disbelief. “You want to do a Bible study after we have worked in the clinic all day?” Enough said. That idea will have to wait for a visit in a non-clinic year.
I think I did a good job of carrying out my plan get to know more of the Jamaicans. I spent time with the cooks outside the kitchen, showing them my wedding pictures. I had a good talk with the pastor from the neighboring Highgate United Church about the challenges of recruiting a new pastor for Carron Hall and the plans for a capital campaign to put a new permanent roof on the Cedar Valley church building. I had long discussions with Kevin about his life, faith, and his love of music. I also had a great discussion about God and world events with Henry, another one of our local hosts. Kevin and Henry were friendly, thoughtful, well informed about world events, and insightful in their opinions and observations. However, I was not able to spend as much time, as l would have liked, speaking and listening with the church Elders, the staff at the Pringle Home, or with the leaders of the Carron Halls schools. That will also have to await the next visit.
I will admit that having a plan for the trip made it less fun and relaxing than in 2009. In fact, I will admit that I never really started to relax until the R&R period at the Holiday Inn Resort when I started goofing around with the UMSL optometry students (“the eye boys”) and Dr. Gibb's kids. Wading, playing basketball in the pool, and making sandcastles allowed me to exit the pastor role for a time. While I built a sandcastle of a starfish, and the students created sand sculptures of a lion and a Rastafarian, Dr. Gibbs sculpted a large and anatomically correct sand brain!
I have puzzled over why I feel so much “at home” in Jamaica. I have enjoyed visits to Florida and California, but have never had any desire to linger in the “Sunbelt.” The only theory my counselor and I could come up with is that Jamaica reminds me of my visits to my grandparents in Miami, Florida during the early 1960s. My Williams grandparents had a great tropical back yard with a big mango tree and many other tropical plants. I vividly remember the quick tropical downpours during my visits. The old Florida houses had colors and a general atmosphere much like the houses in Carron Hall. The country people in Jamaica have a way of talking (when they are speaking English rather than Patois) and a genteel charm that somehow reminds me of Miami people in the 1960s. In rural Jamaica, far from the tourist zones, there is something reminiscent of the old South. After all, the ladies still wear hats to church! Fortunately, it is an old South without segregation and Jim Crow. After all, everyone in Carron Hall, rich and poor, is of African descent.
Although I will never live in Jamaica (It's OK Michelle!), I hope to visit Carron Hall as long as I can be a useful part of the JCMM. In a small way, I hope to become part of the Carron Hall community. The people of Carron Hall are a blessing to me, and I pray they will continue to help me deepen my faith and grow in my service to Christ. May we be angels to one another!
Hebrews 13:1 Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. 2 Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Dan
