Winter may be cold, but ACE Wellness teams were just warming up…

Winter may be cold, but ACE Wellness teams were just warming up…

We are not sure if you have ever experienced winter in St. Mary, Jamaica, but if you haven’t, you might want to consider coming down this time of year and joining a wellness trip!

Thanks to our ACE Board Chairman, Dr. Steve Guy, we were all fortunate to receive another team of medical and dental volunteers this winter to keep us all feeling great, both physically and in spirit. This trip not only gave our health professionals a chance to make a difference, but it gave their family members (who might have thought they were just tagging along for the good weather) the opportunity to serve in other much needed outreach areas all week.

Medications were administered, counseling was given to the low in spirit, and teeth were extracted, along with many teeth cleanings. All in all, so many of our community families were relieved of pain and experienced the love only our ACE healthcare professionals could give.

During the middle of the week, our friends helped out on the farm and we have begun to uncover the old ruins on the property where Captain Henry Morgan built a home. While it may be years before we can fully uncover the whole house, we are getting lots of potting soil for our chocolate trees. Who knows, we might start another business called Pirates Potting Soil!

Thank you to Dr. Guy and the incredible health professionals who worked long hours to ensure we were all left happy and healthy.

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MARLA’S MINUTE:  After 32 years, she found us!!!

MARLA’S MINUTE: After 32 years, she found us!!!

Right after the first of this month, I was cleaning out my emails, and out pops one from someone I wasn’t expecting… and what a surprise!

The email was from a young girl named Evete, a name I hadn’t thought of in 32 years! 1988 was not only the year I arrived on the island, but it also saw one of the worst hurricanes to hit Jamaica, Hurricane Gilbert, in September of that year.

I happened to be back in Atlanta when the actual hurricane hit due to a root canal I had scheduled. Who would ever credit a root canal to being a good thing, helping me dodge a hurricane? Upon my return, I was shocked to see the devastation. It was a month before the airport could be opened to receive commercial flights outside of military help. Within a short time, roads were finally opening up.

Just a few months before the hurricane, our NGO had been working in an area called Ft. George where a small church and community had needed a lot of help. I remembered a young girl and her family being so helpful to us as we built and repaired homes and churches in their community. Evete was that teenage girl.

To make a long story short, I went back to Ft. George following the hurricane, and I brought Evete a suitcase of clothing and toiletries from our group in hopes it would help in a small way. Now, after 32 years, I received an email from this woman who found me on Facebook and wanted to say thanks for that small token of love. With her permission, I’m sharing some of her email. She’s now a surgical nurse in England, married to a husband who loves Jamaica and they have two wonderful children.

“We met in 1988. I hope its you anyway. I’ve never ever forgotten when [you] came back shortly after the Hurricane and Donated a Suitcase of Clothes and Shoes to me, to share with my Friends, I will never forget.

I always thought about you, Especially since I’ve grown much older, You’ve made a Great Impact on my Childhood and that I will never forget Thank you and God Bless”

Evete hopes to come to see her family this summer… and us! We can’t wait!  You never know what an impact you can make in someone’s life by serving in big and small ways. Make your promise in 2020 to never stop loving and serving the people that God puts in your path. You might have a great story to tell like this one day!!

Do You Zelle?

Do You Zelle?

Instead of mailing ACE a donation or trip payment with a check through the USPS, you can Zelle!  With Zelle, you can send and receive money with peace of mind. Safely and easily transfer money to people you know through your trusted banking app – or the Zelle app if your bank doesn’t currently offer Zelle.

 

STEP 1

Access Zelle

If you already have your banking app on your phone, there’s no download necessary.  You can find Zelle as an option in your bank’s mobile banking app.   If your bank or credit union doesn’t offer Zelle yet, just download the Zelle app to get started.

STEP 2

Once you enroll, all you need to do to send money to ACE with Zelle is use accounting@acexperience.org as the recipient email address

STEP 3

Enter the amount you want to send, and the money will go directly into their bank account, typically in minutes.  There is a comment section where you can note how you’d like your payment allocated: as a donation (please specify “child sponsorship” or other designation) or as a payment for an invoice (please specify the invoice number).

In this age of quickly changing technology, we encourage electronic payments and donations for the quickest, most secure transfer of funds. We hope this additional option will make it easier!

He’s Back!

He’s Back!

We haven’t updated you recently on Pastor Kermit! We are happy to report that he is back! That’s right… you can never retire at ACE! He’s a little thinner but happy to be back on the job!

When Marla and Pastor Kermit were at the hospital to pay the final bill, he was amazed and humbled that we had enough money to cover all his medical costs, thanks to the generous donations that came in for him over the last few months! Everything is paid in full! And his gratitude toward the hospital staff for taking such care of him was overflowing. He shook hands and thanked all those he could, handing out Cloud 9 Chocolate bars to them as a parting gift. No doubt he made friends there, as he does everywhere he goes!

On the way home, Marla joked with him, “Well, you better get back to work quick! We need you!” And he didn’t miss a beat, meeting with the male farm and construction crew for morning devotions before Marla could even call all the staff with the news that he was home! What a blessing it was to have him back with us, sharing the Good News and reconnecting with everyone again.

Thank you for all your prayers and monetary support for Pastor Kermit’s healing. He is incredibly grateful to all of you and to God, and we can’t imagine a better way to start our year than seeing his smiling face!

Happy Fall & Thanksgiving!

Happy Fall & Thanksgiving!

Last night, D’Vaun asked a funny question after we had returned to Jamaica. His question was “Is it still fall?” We knew why he was asking; every time we landed or drove to a new city last week in the states, D’Vaun seemed to bundle up more and more in loaned-out clothes. While winter officially comes December 21st, many people in the North are experiencing those temperatures that remind us that winter is just around the corner. 

At ACE in Jamaica, it generally means cooler temperatures and rain. In fact, it’s raining right now. No one here is complaining as we have been in a very long drought and the farmers have been praying for relief. At Green Life Farms, we plan on replanting what we already planted a few months ago, starting next week.

Jamaica doesn’t have an official holiday called Thanksgiving like Canada and the U.S. However, there is no doubt in our minds that every single one of our sponsored students, their parents, our farmers, infirmary residents, hotel staff, honey bees, chocolate trees, and employees of ACE are very grateful to be part of something much larger than themselves. They are all part of the ACE network of “Changing Lives and Transforming Communities”.

We, too, are so grateful for each of you – our volunteers and donors – for sowing into ACE this year with your treasure and time. As we finish the 2019 year in just a few months and welcome 2020, please consider sending in a financial gift to help us over the hump of Christmas. With a lot of movement forward comes a lot of expense. Helping at this time of year will give us a big boost forward for the upcoming holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving and please know that all of us at ACE are thankful for you.