We are on our way home. Praise the Lord for the safety that He has given us so far! [As of 8:45pm Thursday ET], we are in Miami waiting to board our plane for Chicago. We are bracing ourselves for the snow and cold! We have been getting used to 75-85 degrees…now we’ll have to adjust back to the frigid Illinois weather.

We praise the Lord for a successful trip. Thank you again for all of you who have been faithfully praying. We finished Violet’s roof, electrical, and outside bathroom. Violet was extremely thankful for the work that was accomplished. It is a great feeling to give a “cup of cold water” in the name of Christ.

James 1:27 says, “Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” It is Global Grace’s privilege to fulfill this mandate to His honor and glory.

A special thanks to Terrell Goodwin, Jason Kors, Bill and Nancy Hunt, and Mike Moore for their hard work this week.

Praise the Lord for the safety and guidance that He has given us so far while here in Jamaica. We have definitely felt the Lord’s presence with us and the prayers of the saints as well. I know that many of you have been praying for our team. Let me give you some brief updates.

Saturday was our play day. We had to take advantage of the beautiful weather so we traveled northeast to Ocho Rios and spent about 5 hours at the small swim area and Dunn’s River Falls. We climbed the falls! It took us — Nancy, Jason, and Chris — about an hour to climb from bottom to top. We had a blast!

Sunday was a great day which we spent with the believers at United Evangelical and Missionary Outreach Church. What a sweet time of fellowship we had together! We worshiped together in singing and in ministering the Word. I had the privilege to preach to the people of Pastor Perkin’s church and our own group. In the afternoon, we traveled to Hope Worship Center in Old Harbour, which is about 1 1/2 hours from Top Hill. We sang “My Jesus Fair,” and Bill Hunt prayed a great dedicatory prayer asking God’s blessing upon this new ministry. It is such a joy to fellowship with the universal Body of Christ around the world.

Today (Monday) we went back to Violet’s house to pull the cement forms and clean up. The Lord gave us another productive day free from injury! Violet is full of smiles and hugs…she is overwhelmed with gratitude for all that we are doing.

It is overwhelming to us to be used of the Lord to meet the physical needs of one who has experienced such damage from Hurricane Dean. I can’t help but think of Matthew 10:42 – “And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.” We also, I believe, are preparing the way for future ministry in the country of Jamaica for the glory of Jesus Christ. Please pray that we will continue to build relationships with the people of Jamaica.

We have also been experiencing some interesting Jamaican dishes. Tonight we enjoyed Oxtail Stew. It was delicious! What a blessing our sisters Joy (from Jamaica) and Nancy (one of our own ladies from our church) have been in preparing the daily delicious meals. Tonight we are off to Junction, the closest town to Top Hill, to pick up some needed groceries and to get internet service to give updates about our trip.

Please continue to pray for our team as we work to finish this project. If you would like to donate to this project, please visit the main Global Grace website for more information.*

Serving a Sovereign Lord,
Chris Metras

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* Learn more about Global Grace at the main Global Grace website. If you would like to donate directly toward the continuing hurricane relief and ministry work in Jamaica, you may do so by sending a check to Global Grace, or initiate a tax-deductible monetary gift by credit card, online bank transfer or PayPal via the PayPal venue.

At last! I found an internet cafe where I can access wireless internet! Just a brief update of our trip:

We arrived in Montego Bay airport Tuesday evening at about 9:30 after two flight delays, but nothing serious. We had a little trouble going through customs, but we could feel the presence of the Lord and the prayers from back home. Each officer wanted to see the leader of the group (oh, boy!) and ask him questions about the visit. After a little more information, they allowed us to go through. Pastor Perkins met us, and we loaded up and travelled the 2 1/2 hour road trip down to St. Elizabeth. Again, the roads were very bumpy, and, after a long day of travel, our group was exhausted.

We began prep work on Wednesday by laying sheeting and nailing up the forms for the cement. It was a tiring day after a long day of travel, but the Lord gave us grace. Thursday was a long and hard day. We worked about 11 hours, and it was probably the hardest any one of us had worked for a long time.

We are feeling the aches and pains of mixing concrete, carrying buckets, and lifting the buckets on the roof. They do everything by hand. We had no electricity and made all of our cuts with one handsaw! We praise the Lord for the 4 Jamaican men who helped us! After working the long day, we felt a sense of accomplishment when we looked at the completed roof.
We will take Saturday to do some sightseeing, and Sunday to attend services; but then we will go back to work on Monday. Please pray for continued finances for the rest of the trip.* We know many of you are praying for us…please continue to pray! There has been great fellowship among the group, as well as with the Jamaican people.

Today we visited the children at the First Step Basic School. Our group sang for them, they sang for us, and I talked to the children for about 5 minutes about how they can please God, even from age 2 1/2 to 6 years old! It was a sweet time of fellowship for the group…we even held hands with some of the Jamaican children while they sang a song to us about meeting together again in heaven someday. Hopefully, we will see them again in August, since we are planning a VBS, Bible Conference, and medical missions team to minister in August in that same area of St. Elizabeth.

Grace and Peace to each of you!
Chris

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* If you would like to donate toward the continuing hurricane relief and ministry work in Jamaica, you may do so by sending a check to Global Grace directly, or send a tax-deductible monetary gift by credit card, online bank transfer or PayPal via the PayPal venue.

The Jamaica team has begun our trip. We are headed for Top Hill, St. Elizabeth, on the southern coast of Jamaica. The prep work has begun and all of the materials are there waiting for us. Our flight left from Chicago, O’hare airport at 1:00 PM Tuesday, and our Montego Bay arrival time will be at about 8:30 eastern time, although our flight out of Miami was delayed. We were going to attempt to take the 2 1/2 hour from Montego Bay to St. Elizabeth, arriving sometime around midnight–but we’ll see how it goes!

Please pray for our entire team as we travel to Jamaica as well as form and pour a concrete roof for Violet, a widow who attends the Missionary Outreach church in Top Hill. We want to be an encouragement to Violet, her family and the congregation under the leadership of Pastor Bill Perkins. We are anticipating good work weather there on the island. I have been keeping a close look at the possibility of rain on the island which would bring our work to a standstill.

We will be working the old-fashioned way: Mixing concrete by hand, filling 5-gallon buckets with concrete, and pulling the buckets on the roof…of course, by hand. This will be some intense physical labor. Please keep Nancy & Bill, Jason, Mike, Terrell, and myself in your prayers over the next 10 days.

Please also pray for continued financial support for this project. Please also consider whether God might be enabling you to give toward something like this project, if not now then maybe in the future.

God is a merciful and gracious God, and we are grateful for this opportunity to serve Him in this way! May the fame of His name be spread abroad, especially in the country of Jamaica this week.

Dear all,

I want to give some information concerning the Global Grace trip to Jamaica.

We will be leaving Tuesday, February 19 and returning Thursday, February 28. Many have expressed an interest in going, and it’s not too late to help.

Please consider if the Lord would have you travel with us or perhaps support one of the team members financially. The total cost for the mission trip will be $500 for adults and $300 for any young adults who might want to go. The money would be directed to Global Grace, and then Global Grace would cover the following expenses:
1) Airfare
2) Meals on the island
3) Transportation to and from Montego Bay to St. Elizabeth
4) Lodging

This cost does not cover meals on the way down or if we “eat out” while on the island. Also, you may want to bring some “fun money” if we get a chance to do a little sight-seeing or shopping.

Pastor and I brought back photos and an explanation of what we would like to do for a Christian widow named Violet. She is part of Pastor Perkin’s church, in Top Hill, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica. Violet’s home was severely damaged in Hurricane Dean. Our goal is to re-roof her house and build out an inside bathroom facility. Listed below is some of the work that we will be doing:
1) Mixing cement (with a shovel)
2) Carrying cement
3) Forming cement
4) Fixing meals
5) Lots of clean-up

Please pray for me as I finalize the trip details. Please call (815.209.8367) or email me (chris@wordcentered.org) if you are interested in going, or in helping someone else to go. Four people have been able to commit, so far, and we are excited about this project for both Violet and Pastor Perkins’ benefit.

Serving Him,

Chris