We are in Jamaica! We have arrived at the hotel...that we are staying in only for tonight...it is called the Hotel Gloriana in Montego Bay tonight. We will eat dinner at 5:00pm and then head out to our first show already! As will typical, we have no idea where we are going, but Dick Dietrich told us to be ready to go. It's 3:30 our time, about 2 hours ahead of AZ time (we are in Central Time Zone)...

Our first flight was uneventful, and we landed just fine in Detroit at about 1:30am. After about 90 minutes we were on the plane for leg #2 but had to sit on the tarmac for about 20 minutes while the ground crew double-checked what the pilot described as a "strange noise that the wing walker didn't like in the landing gear"...awesome! But we were on our way without much further delay and a few of us were able to see a cool lightening storm out of one side of the plane. It's honestly one of my very favorite things to experience, watching a lightning storm from above the clouds. I don't know how anyone ever watching that could say there is no God...simply breathtaking

After landing in Memphis for and hanging out for about 90 minutes, we were loaded onto plane #3 and were again delayed for about 15 minutes because a groundcrew person discovered "a scratch on a maintenence door"...seriously...oh well...a few more bumpy-bumps than the first two trips but we were also pretty tired...I was able to get about 45 minutes of sleep somehow...

After landing in Jamaica, we had to go through customs, our official in line was a pretty uptite fellow and was a litte perturbed about something...this was no time for joking around and we were able to get through it with lots of smiles, though he never seemed to warm up to us...

At stage two, we had to have all of those school supply boxes (that we were asked to bring down at the last minute) opened up and inspected...I felt myself getting a little annoyed, because it wasn't part of our plan, and had to already ask for an extra dose of patience and grace...it took about an extra 40 minutes or so, but we made it through...our transportation was pretty much there to meet us, and we made it to the hotel...

We will get up tomorrow and head to our main ministry point Ocho Rios and we'll be staying at the Sunflower Villas, where I hear the rooms are a little bit of a downgrade, but apparently the food is the best that any of the teams will get, so we're looking forward to that...

I've seen some old faces from when I was here two years ago, so that's refreshing.

I'm just ready to be used however God would use me, and at the same time I'm still in ultra "dad mode"...things are VERY laid back here, from the culture to the group of people we've partnered with. While I really enjoy that (or I wouldn't have come back after being here two summers ago with the same group), it will probably take me a day or two to relax and trust the situation...It's not in my nature to NOT be in charge of every detail, so it's a good growth experience for me :)

Kids' attitudes seem great, some are in the pool as we await dinner...I'll try to write once more after our show in the next few hours, before a much needed trip to Sjleepville, Jamaica

Thanks for your continued prayers! Let's go GOD!!!!

TN