12/28/2019
Jamaica Report 38
December 3, 2019
Hello from sunny, warm Jamaica:
On Mondays the school starts with chapel. We have combined chapel for the basic school and the Academy. Yesterday to my surprise it was led by one of our new students. When I interviewed him when he enrolled he was not a Christian. I presented the gospel and asked him to invite Jesus into his heart. His answer was a very clear no, so I was surprised to see him up front talking about faith. I asked him later if he had given his life to Jesus and he assured me that he had. Praise the Lord. The school is progressing slowly but surely.
Most of our students don’t have a father figure in their home. They have not been taught how to respect anything, not everyone but most. From the beginning I have taught “If you don’t respect others you can’t respect yourself”. You must respect the teachers, the school property, (it belongs to God), the other students, and yourself. I have tried to model what I teach. If I make a mistake I say I’m sorry and ask for forgiveness. I use demerits, detention, writing lines etc. for correction. I hand out treats for good things when I see it. Slowly they are learning how to behave.
Yesterday Paul had a birthday he’s 12. He hasn’t been able to read. His mother brought ice cream and cake at lunch time and we had a Bday party. I asked her if he had showed her what he was learning and she held up a paper saying He read me all of this. It is the first time he has read anything to her. We use star charts to track progress. When a student gets a new pace workbook the pace number is written on the chart. When they take the final test and pass it they get a star over the number. The passing star is red, the star for 100% is gold. If we don’t get the stars up right away they tell us about it. At the morning devotions we celebrate good things. Passing paces is a big celebration. They are learning to work on their own. They have worked as a group for so long they keep looking to others for the right answer. No one around them is doing the same thing they are doing so there is no one to copy from. They call the teacher, we don’t give them the answers but ask questions to steer them to the right answer.
Slowly they are building confidence in their ability to learn. When you don’t learn to read and then are passed to higher grades you learn almost nothing except how to cover for failings. Some are getting excited about learning but others don’t want to do anything but sit at their desk and color or draw. A few try to do anything to provoke the teacher, break the rules, disrupt the class, etc. When I think of what it was like when I started teaching and what it is now, I realize it is much better. We are making a difference in the lives of these young people.
Last week one of our students went to Kingston to the hospital for surgery. He had been out of school for a few days. I called his guardian to check on him and found out the surgery was the next day. I was able to talk to him on the phone and pray with him. I don’t know what it wasfor but Wednesday this week he visited the school and was OK. I expect him back in school next week. Pray for Kaheel he has no mother or father. He is truly ADHD, he has a hard time focusing for very long at all. He is in trouble just because he can’t sit still. He is a quick learner but gets a lot of wrong answers because he won’t slow down and do it right. I could talk about the challenges of each one but you get the idea.
I finally found the cause of the alternator problems on the new bus. The battery
hold down is missing and the battery moves around when going over bumps or around sharp corners. Occasionally the positive terminal was touching ground. This short circuit would overload the alternator momentarily taking out the voltage regulator. I found a shop in Ocho Rios able to repair it. I fixed the battery so it can’t short anymore. In all my years as a mechanic I never had a problem keep coming back like this one did. Thank the Lord it is fixed.
I’ll let Celeste tell you about what else is happening here now.
God Bless you, Ed Hobelman
From Celeste
Good Morning from beautiful Jamaica!
Practice His Presence
Do you ‘practice the Presence of God’? What a joy to invite Him into every single part of your day/night. He loves to be included, told things and asked what His thoughts are on anything. When we choose to recognize His Presence, embrace His Presence in the midst of our busyness….whether it be cleaning, laundry, building, teaching… He makes all the difference in our attitude, our strength and endurance, our joy. He is our joy, our peace our strength. Practice His Presence.
Stay in your Lane
My biggest ‘take away’ this last three weeks is ‘STAY IN YOUR LANE’. You know, some of us are fixers. We want to fix everything, everyone and every situation. We veer out of our lane, our gifts, our calling, our strengths, to fill some void left wide open by another person. It obviously needs to be filled. It can’t be left undone or unattended. We must fill it, fix it. Well, guess what, no we don’t have to fill all the voids left open. We can stay in our lane. Stay in the gifting, calling, and anointing that God has for you to operate in. You will experience such liberating joy and peace. Give God all the voids all around you, trust Him to fill them. Enjoy your lane. Flourish in your lane. Grow in your lane.
Tend Your Sheep
I read a post from a friend last week about a character who was in the narrative regarding the birth of Jesus. A character we never think about. He isn’t even named in the story and we are not told who he is. But he heard the grand singing and announcement of the angels. He was with the shepherds that starry night, and he either volunteered or drew the short straw. For what? To stay behind and tend the sheep while the other shepherds went in search of the baby King. He was faithful and stayed behind, stayed by the stuff you might say. Can you imagine him replaying again and again the announcement of the angels, wondering what this all meant? Wishing he could be with the others experiencing the glory and wonder of meeting baby Messiah, Immanuel… Do you ever feel like you are overlooked, left back, maybe under ~ appreciated?
Are you left to ‘tend the sheep’ while others get to go, experience? Well, that shepherd… unknown, un-named, un-thought of, not even put in the Christmas pageants, held a very important position. So do you. Don’t ever underestimate your position in life. Shine in your spot. Bloom where you are planted. Tend your sheep.
On November 25th, Marty and Onda Moran arrived in beautiful Montego Bay. Jeannie Lemmons came in on the 30th . We have been so blessed by their friendship and ministry. They have spoken to youth, young adults, couples and old geezers like us. Their time here has already shown evidence of bearing fruit.
One Friday, we went to Pastor Benaiah’s church. They also have an accredited Skills School for nursing, hospitality, chef etc. The students, ranging in age of 18-25, all came upstairs and Marty and Onda shared their testimony of broken life, broken marriage and the healing that has taken place. It was so well received.
Then Pastor Beniah spoke to them, driving home the truth of what had been shared, in vivid and descriptive verbage. They got it! He said that what Jamaica is experiencing now isn’t just from the age of the internet, although that has not helped. These mindsets and strongholds and generational curses come from 400 years ago, during slavery days. The more he spoke of the families being separated, the strong being used as studs for breeding, generational curses being handed down….my heart ached.
At the conclusion of his talk I asked if I could come up. I said with heavy heart that I had never personally been involved in slave trade….they had never personally been involved in slavery. Daniel, after they all were taken into captivity, began a long prayer of repentance. This was not for his sins, but for the sins of his people. Standing there, I said I wanted to do what Daniel did, I wanted to say how sorry I was for all the evil and hurt put on them, and would they please forgive me? Then I said if they were willing, the generation curses could end, today, with them. If they were willing to be used to end it right now, come forward. Every seat was emptied.
They filed past each one hugging my neck saying, “I forgive you”. Something changed that day. Strongholds in the spiritual dimension shifted. Pray for these young people.
One night Marty and Onda spoke on forgiveness. Onda made the statement, “Unforgiveness is like drinking poison, hoping the other person dies”. Wow. Again, strongholds were BROKEN! God is at work. We see a cloud the size of a man’s hand. Pretty soon we’ll hear the sound of abundance of rain!
Our prayer and promise is for Jamaica to become a righteous nation, for revival to spread over every inch of this Island. Keep us in your prayers.
If you would prayerfully consider helping build the kingdom of Jesus Christ financially here in Jamaica, you can easily do so. Click on: www.paypal.me/Hobelman and designate any amount…and any amount is a real blessing. Thank you.
If you are planning a Missions Trip, Retreat, or even a Wedding, we'd love to host it! Let us know. 1edsangel1@gmail
If you want to see more in detail what is happening on all the campuses Click on: www.ReviveJamaicaMinistries.com We will be updating pictures and stories from Nov/Dec shortly.
Side note: Pastor Moses’ church got broken into again and they stole music/sound equipment. Prayers appreciated.
Blessings,
Celeste
Our new address stateside is Edward/Celeste Hobelman, C/O Joy Elliott, 8753 N 1000 E, Colfax, IN, 46035.
For tax deductable donations to the mission make check to CCC, (put Jamaican Mission on the check lower left)
Send to:
CCC
13151 Cyntheanne Rd,
Fishers, IN 46038
You may email us at [email protected] or 1edsangel1@gmail
Go to paypal.me/Hobelman and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.
