Marla’s Minute: Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

Marla’s Minute: Saying Goodbye to an Old Friend

It’s never easy to lose a foundational pillar in any organization, but since Jesus loves Mr. Myers more than we do, He decided to bring him home for company last month. Mr. Myers was 89 years old, still riding a motorcycle to work, and kept an incredible work ethic going for ACE working at our farm. On January 20, we honored him by being a big part of his funeral, which was held at his home church in Port Maria. We will miss Mr. Myers, his singing, his encouragement, and the way he served alongside many medical teams so well.  

However, in true ACE style, God had two wonderful employees waiting to tend the gardens that Mr. Myers did such a wonderful job preparing. Stephanie and Orain picked up the important tasks of planting, weeding, and reaping of food Green Life Farms produces for Galina Breeze and Buccaneers. While no one will be able to fill the shoes of Mr. Myers, we are certain he is smiling as his legacy continues to be filled with young people from his community.

We love you, Mr. Myers! Keep the lights on for us! In honor of the 19 years he worked at ACE and became a part of our family, we’ve put together a video of just a few of the countless memories we have with him.

A Child Sponsorship Heart Warmer

A Child Sponsorship Heart Warmer

As most of you are aware, ACE’s Child Sponsorship program strives to not only give every child a step up in their education, but also help grow them into young adults who contribute to their community and society in Jamaica. This is the case with 22-year-old Anthony Hucey, who joined our child sponsorship in 2011. 

After ACE learned that he had a learning disability, we helped him get accepted into Edgehill School of Special Education. And once he graduated high school, he received ACE’s Apprenticeship Sponsorship, where he was able to get a job on the Green Life Farm (GLF).

Anthony has been working with the GLF team for over a year now and is loved by all. In fact, he has actually become one of the best GLF employees according to his supervisor. That’s because he is always stepping up to learn a new way to serve on the farm, and showing up early to work every day and every week.  

We recently learned that there was one thing Anthony has always wanted more than anything…can you guess?

A TV!! ACE provides every employee with a savings plan where they can put a certain amount away each month for an emergency, or even a TV! Anthony was so happy to know that he had enough money to buy the TV of his choice.

He absolutely loves his TV. He doesn’t have internet or cable, but he can still get local channels and borrow others’ internet for limited use. In addition to the new TV, Anthony is also excited to be able to have his own bed, thanks to his two sponsors coming together and chipping in to gift him one for Christmas. 

Anthony is one of many special needs adults who are truly wonderful men and women who enjoy entering into new stages of life by working and earning their living. And our team at ACE loves getting to see these accomplishments and celebrate their victories with them!

4 Ways to Give Hope on Giving Tuesday

4 Ways to Give Hope on Giving Tuesday

As we enter the “Giving Season” and Giving Tuesday draws near, we can’t help but think about how thankful we are to have a community of supporters that don’t simply give during a season of the year, but they give of their time, talents, and treasures throughout the year, every year. 

Thank you for believing in the mission and vision of ACE and helping us see lives changed in St. Mary, Jamaica. 

As always, we have big dreams and plans for 2024 to continue living out our Faith through our four main spheres of influence: education, wellness, micro-enterprise, and spiritual development.

But we can’t do it without you. Will you continue to partner with us in both prayer and financial support as we prepare to complete the following 4 projects that are currently under way at ACE?

1. Our Second Children’s Village Home – Thanks to a generous donor, we’ve met the financial needs to complete construction on the second Children’s Home. However, we still need about $3,000 to build kitchen cabinets and bunk beds in each unit of the duplex. 

2. Digging a Well on the Farm – Thanks to a recent tropical storm, we received an abundance of rain! Yet we still have a huge shortage of clean drinking water, and our surrounding communities are not receiving water at all. We need about $25,000 to dig a well for better access to clean water.

3. Installing our Greenhouse & 150 Aeroponic Towers – We are in the beginning stages of installing our greenhouse! To save room and maximize how much food we can grow for our community, we also need about 150 aeroponic towers. We are hoping to raise $60,000 to complete the rest of this project.

4. Paying Off the Green Life Property – The mortgage on the Green Life Llanrumney property is due September 2024. Through our Legacy Campaign, we have already raised about half of the funds, but there’s still about $350,000 left to pay off the banknote so we can keep the farm. This is a huge need for us, as the property has already helped us create several new micro enterprises and dozens of new jobs for the community. 

As you prayerfully consider how you and your family might support ACE here at Giving Tuesday and as we near year-end, please read more about our Legacy Campaign here. You can also make a donation through that link, or by contacting the ACE Stateside Office at 877.500.5768 or office@acexperience.org. 

Together, we can continue to create lasting change in a poverty culture by empowering people to reach their full potential and become self-sustaining.   

*ACE is a 501c3 non-profit organization and all donations are 100% tax deductible. Annual giving statements are mailed out at the end of the year.

Many Hands Make Light Work

Many Hands Make Light Work

Many hands make light work

This old saying portrays a picture of what ACE has experienced this spring on the ground. For the first time in years, we have been blessed with many incredible volunteer teams in a row! Ranging from families, high school students, college teams, and a great mix of young adults, they came to help us get caught up on our many outreach programs. They worked tirelessly around St. Mary at the schools, on our farm, and even preparing for some new businesses and items coming online later this year. We’d love to highlight some of the many projects they worked on.

For those of you have contributed to many aspects of the Peace House, the update is that it’s almost complete! Yes, you have heard this before, but it’s true; we just had no idea how much back and forth it takes to complete a building like this. The final touch this week was the addition of the front doors. Thanks to some friends and donors of ACE, our doors were purchased and ready for painting. Granted, we still need a door opener and glass on the side, but just looking at these doors makes all of us swell with pride.

While all that was going on the Peace House, some of our volunteers focused on the Campus right next door, where our interns and long-term volunteers stay. It has been challenged for years with popping floor tiles and cracking in the main hall and the dining room. We decided to commission a group to chop it up and remove the tile, and what we found underneath was a beautiful terrazzo floor. It’s been there since the early 90s when the house was built. Anyone know how to make it come alive again? It’s dull but has potential. Every time we get this kind of help, we are pleasantly surprised at what our teams uncover. Thank you for making the old new again.

In the last few busy months, it’s been fun to see how our Jamaican ACE staff pulled together in such a great way to work with them and each other. Ms. Foster, our Executive Director, has done an excellent job training, teaching, and coaching all of us to work as a team. Charity and Brian Zalk and family have continually increased their availability on the ground with the ACE crew. Things are going so smoothly that Allen and Marla sit back and smile, pleased at how everyone is beginning to own their own lane. Keep all of us in your prayers as everyone is learning how to operate as a team.

Teamwork makes the dream work, another old saying… and in this case, we are so grateful for such a successful and fun start to the year!

Paying off the Farm

Paying off the Farm

Remember the ask ACE made to all of you the last quarter of 2021 to help us pay off the Green Life Llanrumney Farm? As you know, the farm is the place where all our micro-businesses will flourish to keep us hiring more and more Nationals. We want to keep you posted on how we are doing in raising the $700k needed by 2024.

Take a look at the graph to see how it’s going. Pretty impressive, we think. It’s also a faith-builder for ACE and, hopefully, for all of you who gave the funding to help us reach these goals. So far, with the help of many generous sponsors, we went over the $100k mark in 2021. Thank you!

If you are led to help us get to the $350k mark by summer and $500k by December, we would be grateful. After all, seeing is believing – and seeing is always a confirmation that it was completed in the supernatural world before it became visible in the natural.

Just watch what God will do this year… and it’s all good!

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28