“A world of hurt.” It’s a phrase that comes to mind when I think of the many people I have spoken to in Jamaica over the last couple of months. Here are just a few of the hurts that people have been telling me about lately:

• There’s the man who says his landlord demands his rent on time but his government job is behind in paying him. So he has to borrow money, going farther in debt, to simply pay his rent.

• The government has recently laid off at least 200 experienced workers from their jobs and has warned that more are to be laid off soon. What’s worse, the government is in debt in a big way. Figures show that at least 65 cents of every dollar goes to reducing the [national] debt. And the government is talking about more belt tightening that will have to happen long before it gets better! One man, who was recently laid off, has had to stop payment on his house. Without next month’s mortgage payment he is going to lose his home to the bank.

• A homeless man wanting to be self-sufficient tries to make a living selling his artwork of pencil sketches. He is an educated man, with a degree in architecture, and classes and experience in engineering. But drugs and alcohol changed his life for the worse. Now he is on the long road to recovery, but life is rough when you are living on the street.

• One of our members has lived in a squatter’s community for years now. When a squatter lives on a piece of land owned by the government, they can count on certain rights if they have lived there long enough. But here of late, the government has been getting out of that responsibility by selling these lands to private owners. Squatters who live on privately owned land have hardly any rights. She and her son have been asked to leave, along with the rest of the community, within a couple of weeks. When their time is up, the owners have threatened to send a bulldozer to come and smash-up everything to hurry along their leaving. The squatters have been offered land but it is far from town on an unzoned, undeveloped, piece of drained swampland. 

• A lady I was talking to the other day that told me that her common-law husband was openly committing adultery and then had the gall to bring that other woman into their home! He is telling her that she has to leave after nine years of faithful commitment to him. There are no common-law marriage rights for people here, so she is without any recourse.

• A single woman lost her job due to illness and has been living off her savings for the last two years, but they are finally used up. She came to us recently crying for help as she contemplated suicide. PRAISE THE LORD she listened to the message of Godís never ending love and His salvation through His Son Jesus! Now she is not considering suicide as an alternative. Jesus changed her mind. She still doesn’t have a job but she is worshipping with us regularly. She has professed her faith in Christ and knows that God will always be with her, whether she has a job or not. In the meantime, she will get through with the help of God through His children.

Hurt! “Yes, mon,” there’s a lot of it here in Jamaica. Almost everyday I meet a new person with new problems, new needs and heavy burdens that only one Person I know of can cure. How can I help them?!? I CAN’T. I can’t solve all their problems. Sure, God uses me as His instrument to help them in some ways, but the solution to all of their problems really lies in Christ Jesus, and He’s the one to whom I ultimately need to direct all those in need. 

Thank God for that ONE solution. Christ is the answer. He will not let us down. May we all have the grace to look to Jesus as the beginning and end of a solution to any problem we encounter. For He reminds us, ìMy grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.î 

In His grace,
Bruce, Amy, Abigail, and Gabriel

Gabriel’s Galley (7 months old) Gabriel is trying so hard to crawl, but hasn’t quite mastered it yet. However, he can travel an amazing distance in order to reach a forbidden piece of paper that has been accidentally left on the floor, despite not being able to crawl! 

¿¿¿Did you know??? Life in Jamaica is hard, but how did it get to the recent economic problems? Here is a summary of what one newspaper said: A few months before the national elections of October 2002, the ruling People's National Party (PNP) made some fiscal faux pas. To assure re-election, the national financial minister of the PNP abandoned promises and policy and spent government funds on projects to gain the favor of voters. After the party was reelected, despite the worsened fiscal situation, no other sacrifices were made to make up for unbudgeted spending. In fact, the first order of business of the reelected government was to award hefty pay increases to parliamentarians. And, when faced with the worsening situation in February 2003, the financial minister ignored his advisors and refused to take out more international loans. Instead he chose to miss loan payment deadlines, thereby causing those loans to carry interest higher than what the government could afford. During this fiscal fiasco, the S&P downgraded Jamaica’s outlook from stable rating to negative. A negative rating means higher interest rates on any future loans that the government will (and has since then) receive from foreign countries. This only exacerbates the countries already huge and worsening debt.

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