Score One For Jesus !! - Tea Time Reading at The Blue House in Ocho Rios Jamaica

It's Tea Time at The Blue House in Ocho Rios Jamaica and I just read this news article in the Gleaner and was moved to share it :

http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081019/lead/lead5.html

In case the link isn't maintained, I've cut and pasted the story below.

Long read but really uplifting. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.



Standing in a narrow dirt lane bordered by rusting zinc fences, Norman Lewin doesn't seem to fit in. His shoes are black and shiny and his long-sleeved shirt looks like something you would wear to a wedding. But here in the politically segregated Spanish Town community called Rivoli, Lewin is a beloved figure. He is pastor of the local Kingdom Builders Open Bible Church and his unorthodox tactics have won him the hearts of the St Catherine community's residents, young and old.

I don't believe that you have to stay inside the confines of the church building in order to get people over to God. I believe in taking a more hands-on approach, he said, standing near the fence of a home next to the church.

Three years ago, crisis brewed in the community. Political tensions had reached never-before-seen levels and residents were being killed every day. Because of this, even ardent Christians were staying away from church.

Something had to be done. It could not continue this way. As a church, we could not just sit and watch this happening around us without trying to do something to help, said Lewin.

Football plan
So, the pastor devised a plan. He had to somehow win over the minds of the young males in Rivoli because they were the ones being killed and in most cases, were the ones doing the killing. His method of choice: football.

Football is very big in Rivoli and nearly all the young boys play the game at some level, he said.

Lewin said he got a vision from God while lying in bed one night and immediately summoned his congregation to church for an extraordinary meeting.

This was a stretch, because at nights people were scared even to leave their homes. They would have to come out risking being shot, because gunshots were being fired all around, he said.

At the meeting, the pastor told the congregation of his vision. The next day, he and a few members of the church went into the community.

We were going to tackle the problem head-on. We challenged the community to a football match. At first they laughed at us and thought we were just trying to be funny. But we were quite serious. We told them we wanted to take them on, anyone from the community, against men from the church, Lewin recounted.

Budding ballers
Like many inner-city communities, Rivoli is full of budding ballers and so the challenge seemed more like a joke, especially in light of the fact that most of the men in the church were well over 40, with expanding waistlines.

The catch was that if we won, they would all have to come to church for a month. They laughed at us and asked what would happen if we lost. I told them that they would only have to come to church for a week, Lewin joked.

The community members, at first not sure what to make of the pastors challenge, decided to go along with it, if for sheer entertainment value alone.

On the day of the match, when the church members arrived at the football field in the community, they were surprised by what they saw.

There were hundreds of people there. People from all over Spanish Town turned up. Apparently word had spread and the whole community turned up to, I guess, laugh at our defeat, said Lewin.

On one side of the field was an impressive team made up of members of Rivoli United, the community's National Premier League team and other fit and ready-to-go young men all decked out in spikes and branded jerseys. One the other side were the middle-age men of the church dressed in whatever they could find. One portly deacon was dressed in pink tights, making him the target of several jokes from spectators.

Soon, the whistle was blown and the game got off to a start.

Everyone was busy staring and laughing at the deacon in pink tights, so they were off-guard and so we managed to score first! Lewin said, with eyes wide.

This created some amount of excitement among the crowd and perhaps dampened the spirits of the other teams players. Before long though, they equalised, but soon, the team from the church was at it again.

We scored another one and the place went wild. Our choir got behind our goal post and started chanting Jesus! Jesus! They would do this every time the opposing team came close. Before long, the entire crowd was chanting the name of Jesus, Lewin said.

At the final whistle, the crowd was left dumbfounded. The ageing group of churchgoers had managed to pull off a 4-3 win over the team from the community.

They couldnt believe it, but we knew we had God on our side.

Shared food and drinks
Lewin said that after the match, the church members shared food and drinks with the spectators and members of the opposing team.

We told them that we were going to hold them all to the terms of our agreement and that we expected to see them in church for a month. We were somewhat surprised by this, but they all honoured their promise and since then, our membership has jumped from 30 to nearly 300. Most of the people who started attending services because of the events of that day have stayed on. The one month came and went and the residents kept coming. It is truly exceptional, Lewin said proudly.

According to him, among the group of new church members are former drug dealers, gang members and murderers.

God doesnt discriminate. We are just thankful that these people all decided to turn their lives around and they have become active Christians who travel across the country preaching the word of God.

Since that fateful football match, the police in Spanish Town have confirmed that crime in Rivoli has decreased significantly.


robert.lalah@gleanerjm.com.

26 Angels Came To Visit at The Blue House In Ocho Rios Jamaica

When potential visitors to our various tourist towns tell friends and family about their desire to vacation in Jamaica they, most times, find themselves bombarded with stories about the exploding violence here and how undesirable and unsafe Jamaica is.

If there are any die hard Jamaican fans reading this, you will no doubt feel the urge to quickly point out that the tourist towns are safe, it is Kingston you have to avoid, in particular Kingston ghettos. Places like Riverton City and Trench Town.

Surely you would agree with me then, that it would take a very Powerful Spirit to motivate a 26 strong, mission trip team to volunteer to come to Jamaica, walk thru Riverton City and set up and run a week long sport camp for kids from this Kingston ghetto. A very, very powerful Spirit ! Maybe, too, they were 26 angels in disguise. :)


It was a real treat having these 26 stalwart angels turn up on the doorstep of The Blue House 3 weeks ago. They travelled from Kingston for a day and night of fun and frolic with sleeping bags and pool floats that served as miniture air mattresses. I smile every time I remember in my mind's eye, these high school youth from McQuaid Jesuit, in Rochester New York, sleeping scattered around my poolside curled up on lounge chairs, a flattened float that leaked air during the night, sprawled out in gazebos, on the couch, and any other surface they could wiggle into :).

It was my pleasure to arrange a 'Real Jamaica' vacation experience of a chilly, early morning plunge into the neighbouring White River


followed by breakfast on the river banks




before we all had to scramble to attend the rousing 10:30 worship service at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Ocho Rios.

Chris, JASY's Christian Service Director, popped me a thank you email on his return to the US saying, "We spent ten days in the beautiful island of Jamaica. We had catered meals, we ate out, and we ate in. By far the best meal we had in Jamaica was at the Blue House. The Blue House is a hidden treasure. The catered breakfast on the White River was a highlight of our trip. I give a huge endorsement to the the Blue House, and if anyone wants an inside testimony, please let me know."

My heart, my prayers, my thanks goes out to all 26 angels who, despite the numerous warnings and reports of violence, came to serve my fellow Jamaicans in Kingston. I am humbled by their willing spirit and eagerness to serve our less fortunate brothers and sister by providing sports training as a vehicle for 108 of Jamaica's disadvantaged youth. These angels worked hard, using sports to teach self-steem and improve physical well being and cross-cultural learning.

God Bless you all and the children you ministered to. May their lives be forever changed by the love you showered on them, the team spirit you instilled in them and the Christian values and beliefs you fostered.

May you all continue to run the good race, knowing what is important in life and keep on reaching out and touching souls.

Wishing you all God's Peace and Love !

Real Jamaica - Reach Out And Touch Someone Via Bread Basket Ministries In Ocho Rios Jamaica

My day to day world of Real Jamaica Vacations pretty much tends to revolve around The Blue House Luxury Bed and Breakfast Villa, our guests, their interests and their vacation experiences.

My day to day living also includes heading a Christian Non Profit Charity in Ocho Rios, Bread Basket Ministries. Volunteers at Bread Basket Ministries follow the lead of The Holy Spirit and reach out to help very destitute families in nearby villages who struggle each day to survive. Families who are faced with the choice, on almost a daily basis, of either eating or sending their children to school. Families who live in unimaginably hovels and deplorable, heartwrenching squalor with no sanitary conveniences. Elderly who struggle to survive on almost next to nothing.

The vast majority of visitors to Jamaica's sundrenched shores have no idea that as much as 17% of our population of 2.75 million people live below the poverty line, but quite a few of our guests at The Blue House have ventured out with me when I go Bread Basket-ing. http://www.breadbasketministries.com/

Through the support of these few generous Blue House guests, the support of a few very caring Spirit led individuals who find and support our non profit Christian charity thru online donations, the support of a couple of local and international businesses, a portion of the income from The Blue House, a recent donation from JASY volunteers (a wonderful group of 26 Christian youth and their leaders/chaperones who recently ran a summer camp for inner city children from a war-torn ghetto in Kingston) and the promised help of a couple of soon to arrive mission trip teams from the US, Bread Basket Ministries will be building their first house for a poor single mother who is in jeopardy of having her children taken away from her because of their extremely dire living conditions.

A Bible verse that speaks strongly to my heart is Isaiah 58:10-11

"If you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."

I pray that these words will penetrate your heart as they have mine.

God Bless.