Community | American-Caribbean Experience

The Tiny House

by American-Caribbean Experience | Oct 28, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

ACE built its first tiny House this month in Water Valley, a place well known to ACE Volunteers from pre-covid days.

Clive, pictured below, had a stroke several years ago and was left alone, in a yard with an old home that was falling apart and leaked when it rained (swipe past Clive’s photo to view his home).

Clive during an ACE Mobile Infirmary Visit

Thanks to Clive’s generous neighbors, we were made aware of his situation and decided we had to do something quick. The Connor/Hembree Family, ACE friends from Gainesville, GA, flew in as a family of five and went to work with our ACE staff. Building an 8×8 tiny home out of treated lumber was the plan.

To make it easier to put the home together, we carefully measured and constructed everything under the farm pavilion and then transported everything to the site. The one-room home for Clive was completed quickly thanks to our ACE friends. After the family headed home, all the home needed was painting, and of course, Clive. That’s when our ACE Board of Directors showed up a few days later.

With some yellow and brown paint, along with the help of Clive’s neighbors, we were able to complete the job in one day. We were also able to gift Clive with a single bed, a mattress, and sheets as a housewarming gift.

While the board members were here, they also ran a mini walk-in clinic as we painted, led by Dr. Guy. The doctor gave Clive orders to have plenty of ensure, food, and water.

Tiny houses may not be for everyone, but Clive is a big fan. Today, he has working electricity, and he is now clean and warm. The only thing left to do for him is transplant his lemongrass, the best mosquito repellant in Jamaica.

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More Appreciation & Celebration

by American-Caribbean Experience | Oct 28, 2024 | Community

We cannot express our gratitude enough for putting your all into helping ACE pay off the Green Life Llanrumney Farm. Now, ACE is able to move freely with our outreach programs, including providing neighbors in need with a place to stay.

Our friends and families came to Galina Breeze for the annual board meeting and to celebrate the farm payoff. We dedicated the property under the stars, hosted by our own Courtney Simmons. Thank you, Courtney and all of our ACE family, as we redeemed the land from centuries of pirate activities. It’s fantastic and historical.

2024 Board Meeting & Farm Payoff Celebration

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Marla’s Minute: Back to the Future

by American-Caribbean Experience | Oct 28, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community, Education, Outreach

Before COVID, ACE was rather successful in our community outreach in and around our four partner public primary schools. The model ACE created was based on “going deep and not wide.” First, we form a partnership with one of our rural primary schools in the area that lacks funds and opportunities for their students, unlike the city schools of Kingston, Montego Bay, Ochi, etc.

Second, ACE forms a 10-year minimum relationship with the principal and teachers at the school. ACE receives a list of all of the students in need of sponsorship, and the children get added to our Child Sponsorship Program. Through sponsorship, we dig even deeper into the students’ homelives, where relationships are formed with everyone living in the home. ACE can then also discover any medical, dental, or other healthcare needs of the student and their family members.

From that community, many elderly and special needs members are met by ACE volunteers and employees with a helpful and compassionate hand and heart.

All that and more came to a full stop almost four years ago with the COVID shutdown. Schools closed, infirmaries and hospitals closed their doors to visitors, and for the most part, ACE lost all progress we had spent decades building.

Then God did something fantastic! He opened a door to start creating businesses on a piece of property we now own call Green Life Farms.

For the past three years, volunteers have come to help us “work the farm.” Cutting bushes, discovering ruins, raising pigs and cows, picking fruit, and helping an old farm with history become a modern-day working property for our Jamaican community. With our food court, Buccaneers Jerk and Juice, Treasure Chest, and Cloud 9 Chocolate, we were able to survive the downturn in the economy.

During that time, many friends were probably wondering if we would ever “come off the farm” and get back to what we do best—“changing lives and transforming communities.” Even we wondered that at times. But the time has finally come.

Looking into the future and even starting right now, ACE is back in our communities with open arms from our teachers, neighbors, and infirmary patients. Unfortunately, the government-run infirmary still hasn’t opened to groups and has a strict policy of visitors. Interesting enough, we have found more “shut ins and disabled adults” living on their own and barely surviving right in our own community. So, we’ve started our own elderly ACE Mobile Infirmary (AMI) visits. That’s the silver lining behind the COVID closings of the infirmary.

ACE is now BACK to the FUTURE. We’re getting back into our schools and communities. Just this week, a family from Gainesville, GA, surprised us with a visit and built a homeless man a house, followed by our ACE Board of Directors finishing the home with paint and a single bed. If you are considering a trip down to Jamaica this coming winter or sometime in 2025, please prepare to go back to our communities, see old friends and meet new friends. We are thrilled. Yes, we like farm work, but ACE loves those relationships.

When you come down next, be sure to bring all the hugs and energy you can. We have three years to make up!

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Marla’s Minute: Paid In Full!

by American-Caribbean Experience | Sep 26, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

September was a month for the ACE record books. Because of the goodness of God and you, our partners, we can joyfully say that our Green Life Farm, where all the micro-businesses develop, has been PAID IN FULL!

That’s right, we no longer have a mortgage to pay on the land! For the past five years, Allen and I have been sharing our vision and heart with so many of you about the importance of having land to use as ministry outreach for the local community, like the Peace House and the ACE Office. A location where many micro-businesses can be incubated so that Jamaican families can earn a living and get out of the generation of poverty.

We are thrilled to reach this milestone, and we are so grateful to each of you that have given their treasure and prayers to this legacy campaign. We made it, and we did it together! ACE now has the foundation we needed to ensure the land is ours for generational building and demonstrating to the community just how active God still is among His people.

Please join us in celebrating these moments in ACE history as we now move forward with the Fosters at the helm of ACE. We are excited to see what else God will add to this property as a witness to His goodness. Plans are in the works to build a professional stage on the farm, where performers will be able to share the Gospel through music and talent. The greenhouse is being rebuilt to supply pure, clean food to the community, as well as hotels that have a large demand. And there’s also going to be a Green Life Learning Center for high school students who have come through our program but still need help getting up to par in reading, math, english, and the arts. This last phase of development is only possible now that the farm has been paid in full.

Thank you, friends! Truly, thank you for believing in the vision of hope and opportunity in St Mary, Jamaica through ACE. Now, let’s continue to pray for a pastor to come along at the Peace House and help guide our staff to reach the next level.

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Twists & Turns

by American-Caribbean Experience | Sep 26, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community

Jamaica does have a fall; it’s called hurricane season. The storms off of West Africa roll out into the ocean and forms sandstorms, which stay in the air over Jamaica and cause more heat than normal. Or the storms become hurricanes, which we pray for everything but the rain to stay away.

As you know, Jamaica got hit by Hurricane Beryl in June. It was a very early storm for the Caribbean. No one was hurt, but our property suffered intense damage as the roads were completely destroyed and our soon-to-be completed greenhouse was leveled to the ground.

We wondered if this was just a small picture of how the summer was going to be, one unexpected storm after another. Thankfully, we were wrong. Our volunteer teams that arrived just after Beryl barreled through were quick to help us with the cleanup. They cleared roads on the farm for the cattle, dismantled our poor greenhouse, and visited our many elderly and disabled neighbors who were without water and food.

Surprisingly, the theme for this summer’s VBS program was “twists and turns.” ACE touched over 300 students during our VBS outreach programs, and yet, the theme was very fitting for us as well. Our staff was reminded just before the hurricane that God always has a plan for our lives, regardless of the “twists and turns” that life brings.

Now, as more twists and turns come for the States by way of Hurricane Helene, we want to extend a heartfelt prayer to our ACE family. You were there for us in prayer and physcially to help restore ACE’s damaged property after Hurricane Beryl. We are here for you and praying for your safety. May God protect your family, your home, and your community.

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Marla’s Minute: Beryl, Blessings and Beets

by American-Caribbean Experience | Jul 29, 2024 | Book A Trip, Community, Outreach

All we can say here on the ground at ACE in Jamaica is……whew!!! What a surprise hit we received from Hurricane Beryl. Who would have thought, this early in the summer? As we watched Beryl coming towards us, all hands on deck began preparing for the storm. God answered all our prayers throughout the Nation by turning Beryl slightly away from us getting a direct hit at the last minute.

We were fortunate the 97-year-old hotel stood her ground and only a few trees and small roof tiles went down. However, the generator that sustained a fire almost 10 months ago was no help. We sat without electricity for over a week. The fortunate part is that we had no guests or volunteer teams the week Beryl went through Jamaica.

Green Life Llanrumney Farm, on the other hand, took a greater hit of destruction than we expected. As Beryl passed by Jamaica south of Kingston, the rain poured into the downtown area, but St. Mary and the farm seemed to have caught mostly wind. All our inside and outside roads to the pastures, Greathouse, village etc., disappeared into the thickness of bamboo. It was a reality check for all of us as we realized we had no place to go with cattle and other livestock. And then…

God showed up with shovels of favor. Friends of ACE from all over the US and Canada began asking our US office, how can they help. What do we need? And funds helped us get going with parts for the tractor and chainsaws that we desperately needed. Most of all, ACE friends helped us get a team of three men down to help Allen begin to clear the inside roads. As I write this, there still isn’t any power at the farmhouse. Huie got the pump working again down by the river, so we can pump water for the cattle.

Our greenhouse was destroyed, but we didn’t have any growing towers installed yet which could have been devastating. While we are praying for more manpower to help us, we have our summer volunteers coming in to help Allen and Foster clear the roads, repair the fences, replace broken tables and, yes, even help us begin our mid-summer planting. This time, in addition to the above ground crops, we are going under with planting our beets. At least they can go through a hurricane without much damage.

So, yes, we had Beryl early, but we got to see how God blesses us with our friends who care and love ACE. Needs? Oh yes, we have lots of them. Please see our prayer requests and know that we are so grateful for you all and the generosity you have given ACE.

Keeping up the God work,

Marla and Allen