February 9-12, 2020 I (Sean) went to Kingston, Jamaica to meet with the national staff and national board of CEF Jamaica. They have been actively working a five year plan to reach over 200,000 children by the year 2022!
And they are well on their way to reaching that goal. To give comparison, in all of 2018 their local staff, church partners and volunteers reached over 86,000 children. However, just in this past quarter alone they reached over 65,000 children!
Over the few days, I worked with them to analyze where they are in the process, attend a national board meeting, and reverse engineer the 200,000 figure with them to see which areas of ministry need to be strengthened and which areas have the most long-term fruit. Myron Tschetter, the CEF director of leadership development for the region, joined me for this time in Jamaica.
Jamaica and Belize have been recently added (as of January 1) to my North Caribbean area of oversight (the specific countries fluctuate periodically), so this also gave me the opportunity to meet the national board in person which is helpful for our communication. They (CEF Jamaica) also have 15 full time staff members!
Sunday was a travel day, and I overnighted in Miami, FL. All the more reason why we were moving to Pensacola, FL! I could have arrived same day and came home same day if I had flown out of PNS.
Monday I arrived in Jamaica and went immediately into meetings with the national director! Due to different calendar requirements, Myron Tschetter had arrived into Jamaica earlier so he and Michael Scott had already spent the morning meeting.
As previously stated, CEF Jamaica has a bold five year plan to reach over 200,00 children. As their Area Director, my role as a missionary is to do everything within my power to serve them through that plan and to help them make it happen. They have been a thriving and sustainable national chapter for decades, in fact Jamaica was one of the very first nations that started with CEF way back in 1946!
That evening we made our way to where I would be staying over the next few evenings, couldn’t help but notice the price of gas!
On a personal note, it was deeply encouraging to stay with friends that I haven’t seen in a few years, the Lewis family. Neil & Jan are Jamaican and the parents of a past member of our church in Montgomery, and their family became extremely close friends of ours while they lived in town. They live in a different city now but Mandi and I had the privilege of meeting Neil and Jan and two of their other children a couple of times when they visited their daughter and son-in-law. So it was amazing to see them again! Unfortunately with all the busyness and the late arrivals/early departures we all forgot to take pictures together, but I took some pictures of their beautiful home in the mountains that was built in 1774! They do weddings there, so if you ever want to do a destination wedding in Jamaica, be sure to check them out!
Horatio Nelson even stayed there!
As the next day began, I was able to spend one-on-one time meeting with Michael Scott. He was a banker for many years and the former national board chairman for CEF Jamaica. When the position of national director opened up after he retired from banking, this proven and capable leader stepped up to the plate!
Afterwards, we started off our set of meetings with the Kingston parish supervisor. This position is similar to a local director position in the USA, the position I held when I led the Central Alabama chapter for over five years.
As you know, our home church in Turks & Caicos is Harvest Bible Chapel TCI. When I was in TCI last, Pastor Kenyatta and others were in Spanish Town, Jamaica to celebrate the one-year anniversary of a new HBC church plant there! We prayed during that Sunday service for the church there in Spanish Town. What a joy to just a few months later in God’s timing to help connect the new church and CEF Jamaica together!
As Michael prepared for the evening national board meeting, I was able to meet, pray, and plan with the national and local Spanish Town staff there.
As we then met with the national board, the evening became very late but it was a productive and enriching time of discussion and decision making as CEF Jamaica is a large-scale operation. As I serve national boards throughout the Caribbean, it was deeply encouraging to see such a healthy board. We are praying for more board members to lead CEF Jamaica, will you join us in praying for this to take place!
The next day we had time in the morning to meet with another CEF parish chapter, so we made our way to the St. Ann parish.
Lornalee (below) is an incredible new worker for CEF Jamaica. She has a big vision and has cast that vision before the churches of St. Ann. There are 53 Good News Clubs now taking place there due to the Lord blessing her leadership! I was honored to meet with her, pray with her and discuss with Michael and her how we can take these ‘best practices’ and scale them nationwide and region-wide.
Later that day, I headed to the airport back home. But not before I had my hands on $1,000! 😉 (remember that is only about $8USD!)
Will you pray for CEF Jamaica as they seek to reach over 200,000 children by the year 2022? Please join Mandi and I in praying for Jamaica and all the needs of the country in light of the next generation. CEF Jamaica reaching 200,000 children means 50% of the primary-aged children will be reached. What could happen to the future of Jamaica with 50% of the children being reached with the Gospel, being discipled in the Word of God, and established into local churches? I am excited that this is not just an idea or a dream, it is an action plan that is taking place!
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