We
always felt that one day we would be involved in mission and that it might be
in Jamaica. That thought remained in the back of our minds as our lives and
relationship progressed.Graham and Katrina Palmer have had mission in their hearts since they began going out together back in 1992. They tell their story here:
We
always felt that one day we would be involved in mission and that it might be
in Jamaica. That thought remained in the back of our minds as our lives and
relationship progressed.
We were married in April 1995 and honeymooned in Jamaica. We tried to go to three other places, but for various reasons it wouldn't work out. We finally came back to the idea of Jamaica, went to the travel agent the next day, and booked exactly what we had chosen. This gave us a taste of the country, but the timing wasn't right for our return.
Everything we were involved in, whether at work or in the church, we saw as a preparation and build-up to overseas mission. In 1998 we left our church and went two miles down the road to help boost a small, sister church. We felt that this would be the last training ground before a mission trip.
At Easter 2002 we looked around the church and saw that what was once a congregation of around 30, mostly older, experienced English Christians, had now become a church of around 70 with a range of ages—from baby to elderly, as well as a range of nationalities and Christian experience. It seemed like our time working at this church was complete.
We began looking into the idea of going to Jamaica. We were given a contact, who told us that two friends of his, Pastors Bruce Fletcher and Bobby Wilmott, were coming to the UK to speak. We went along and met the pastors, who told us about the work of OSJ in Jamaica. Impressed not only with the strategy they were adopting but also that they were actually doing it, we emailed Pastor Bruce to see if we could come on a 'fact-finding' trip. We wanted to see what was going on and if we could be a part of it.
Having spent two weeks in Jamaica in September 2002 we decided to commit a period of six months to work with OSJ from late January until late July 2003.
Before Christmas we were able to organise a JamPak project to send shoe boxes packed with goodies to children at the Operation Restoration school, one of the projects OSJ supports in Trench Town.
Since we arrived in Jamaica we have been working on this website and we are looking forward to being involved in other aspects of the work, including database and community work.