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CHRISTAFARI:
CHANGING THE WORLD, ONE RASTA AT A TIME!
KINGSTON, JAMAICA - Jamaica
for Jesus, “Don’t expect to change Jamaica, expect
for Jamaica to change you”: At the end of July a
few members of Christafari had the privilege of joining
Action House and 30 of our friends and fellow ministers
in a ten day missions trip to the beautiful island of
Jamaica. Most of the Missionaries on this trip had
heard about our venture to the island through my e-mail
updates and our ads in major Christian magazines.
God could not have chosen a better team for us to
minister. We set out to minister to Jamaica
through concerts, drama and skits, street witnessing and
visiting an orphanage and a children’s remand center.
Our goal on this trip was not to Westernize or
Americanize the Jamaicans, but rather to listen to them
and learn from them, and then minister appropriately
according to the context of their culture and the given
situation. At the morning Bible study on the first day I
told the team “Don’t expect to change Jamaica,
expect for Jamaica to change you”. It did.
The Orphanage, “Showing fatherless
children the love of our Father”: In
Jamaica 85% of all children are born outside of wedlock.
Most of these kids are raised by one parent but some of
them are not even that fortunate. One of the most
heartbreaking days was when we visited the Blossom
Orphanage. Upon arrival the team immediately
dispersed and everyone grabbed a kid or two to hold and
care for. It was a love-fest as we attempted to
give these children an example of the love that they had
never received from a parent and reveal to them the love
of Christ. There wasn’t a dry eye in our
missionary team as we went from one crib to another and
held the children. The hardest room to visit was
the one filled with kids that were born with diseases or
abnormalities. A few of the children had Cerebral
Palsy. Some of them weren’t even given names so
some members of our team gave them one. Outside of
the orphanage we played with the healthy children.
We gave all of them gifts (clothing, toys and hygiene
products), and blew up balloons and made animals out of
them for the kids to play with. One of the team
members brought a major percussion arsenal with him so
we played Jamaican rhythms, and those who didn’t get
an instrument banged on buckets or anything that made a
sound. The percussion proved to be a big hit everywhere
we went. Then Max pulled out his sax and the kids were
mesmerized. The hand drums were beating, Max played his
sax, and I chatted raggamuffin. The kids loved it!
I sang songs about Jesus and then led them in some
Jamaican worship choruses. At the end of our visit
I had everyone on our team lay their hands on the
children and we prayed for them. It was hard to leave
this place. We all wished that we could take these kids
home with us. We will definitely return again to this
place. In fact one of our missionaries stated that she
hopes to come back to the island to work at the Blossom
Orphanage. Please keep these children in your
prayers.
The Children’s Remand Center, “8
rasta youths in solitary confinement gave their lives to
Christ”: Another life changing experience was
visiting C.O.P.S.E. a children’s remand
center. This place is set aside for troubled
youths. Normally when a kid between the ages of 8
and 18 is caught breaking the law the police contact his
family and he is remanded into the custody of his
parents. C.O.P.S.E. is for those children who’s
parents refuse to take them back into their home.
Essentially, it is a children’s prison. While
the rest of the team ministered to the majority of the
children outside, I was given the opportunity to take a
few core missionaries into the solitary confinement area
to speak with the seriously troubled youths. There
were 9 youths in solitary and all claimed to be rastas
or sympathizers to it’s belief system. What followed
was a long and hard-core reasoning session with Bible
verses flying everywhere. As a result, the Lord
led 8 out of the 9 youths to Grace and Salvation in
Christ! After leaving solitary we went out and
sang worship, I chatted dancehall and the kids played
percussion. As we left we blessed them with gifts
and prayed in our hearts that God would turn their lives
around.
Action Houses, “Reaching them with
drama and equipping them to reach others”: One
of main ways that we reached the people of Jamaica was
through Action Houses. An Action House is a presentation
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through skits, drama,
music and dance. We call it a human video.
Almost everywhere that we went we held an Action House.
Whether it was at a church, a school campus or on the
side of a street, our muti-cultural and international
group drew a lot of attention. The last skit of
each Action House titled “The Puppet Master” always
had the greatest impact and prepared the audience for
the salvation message and altar call that followed.
At the end of every Action House lives were changed for
Christ. It was great to see our whole missions
team participate in the skits and dramas; it created a
unity between the members. One of our main goals
with Action House was to teach the Jamaicans how to do
the skits themselves and to put on their own Action
House programs. It was great to see the Jamaican
youths do our skits with their own island flavor.
They did it better than we did, and with less practice.
They were well received by their audiences. It was
a blessing to see the vision of Action House spread
throughout the island. In the future when these
Jamaicans hold their own Action Houses they will be
writing their own material and will bring the gospel
across in a way that will get the best reception in
their culture. Our goal of equipping this younger
generation in Jamaica has already begun!
Rastafari, “Comparing Rastafarianism
to the Bible”: During our stay in Jamaica we
lived at the college campus of Caribbean Christ
for the Nations and I had an opportunity to teach a
class on Rastafarianism and Marijuana. I gave biblical
reasons why Haile Selassie is not Christ in His return
and shared scriptural, and medical reasons why we should
not smoke marijuana. I told the students my testimony,
gave a comparison between Christianity and
Rastafarianism and gave pointers on how to
witnessing to Rastas. Later in the week I was also
interviewed on camera for a documentary on
Rastafarianism. I am glad that God gave me the
opportunity to share my beliefs and convictions to
rastas across the world on video.
Midnight Ministry Team, “Street
witnessing and salvations”: For those die hard
evangelists who really wanted to experience the true
night culture of Montego Bay I led a
late-night ministry team. Virtually every night I
took a few team members into the center of the town for
one-on-one ministry. The women ministered to the
prostitutes and the men reasoned
with the rude boys (gangsters). Each night was a unique
experience with it’s own set of challenges. In the
early morning, by the time we packed
11 people into a 5 person taxi to go back to our campus,
someone had always come to Christ or been ministered to
effectively.
Spontaneous Performance, “Mashing up
the place at Pier One”: One night during our
midnight ministry everyone in town told us that we
should go to Pier One, a local club where they hold the
second night of Reggae SumFest. Since everybody else in
town was going I figured that we should check it out.
Besides, I wanted the team members to truly experience
the Dancehall culture. When we got there we found
out that it was a Dancehall DJ competition. The
place was packed with people and all of the
up-and-coming DJs were taking the stage and garnering a
mixed response from the audience. Suddenly I had a gut
feeling and decided to take a risk and follow it. So I
squeezed through the crowd and asked the MC if I could
go up and flash a piece. At first I could tell that he
was going to say no, but then he paused...... I was one
of the only white people in the place, was obviously not
Jamaican and yet I was speaking in patois? He said that
maybe he could fit me in at the end if time permitted.
Filled with confidence I said “No, put me on next for
one song, then I’m gone”. He
asked for my name and then went up on stage and to my
surprise he introduced me! With a split
second to respond I hollered at the selector to play the
“Badda Badda” rhythm. This crowd would make
singing for Showtime at the Appollo seem like a
pre-school class performance. As the rhythm played
I walked up on stage speaking in Patois. At first the
audience was shocked. I could tell that they were about
ready to start laughing, then I began chatting the song
"Best Friend”. It tore down the house! The
crowd’s response was so loud that I had to “Wheel”
and have the selector start the song again. I freestyled
about Jamaica and Montego Bay and then told them about
Jesus Christ in a Dancehall Style. With crowd
participation at it’s peak I left the stage to an
overwhelming response of applause, shouts and whistles.
I HAD ARRIVED! The rest of the week in Montego Bay
many people knew me by name and talked about how I
“mashed up the place.”
Gully, “All but one
dead or in jail”: Two times during our trip I
led my core team into the Gully, the worst and most
crime filled area of Montego Bay. It is similar to
Trench Town in that it is aluminum shacks built around a
polluted sewage flowing gully. This is the type of
area that the police tell you not to go into. They say
that if anything happens to you they will not come in
after you. The lower half of Gully kills people with
guns and the upper half uses ice picks and Machetes. But
I had friends in there and a reason to go inside. In
past years I have gone into the Gully and led rude boys
to Christ. Upon arriving in the upper part I was
disappointed to learn that all but one of the guys that
I had brought to Christ on my past trips were either dead
on in prison. Only
my one friend Mark remained. I got to minister to him
and he led us around the area and watched out for us. We
gave away more gifts of clothing, hygiene products,
crayons, pencils and Christian children’s books.
Everyone in the gully was grateful for our gifts and God
kept us safe.
The Concerts, “Reggae in a Christian
style bearing fruit”: We rented the amphitheater
in downtown Montego Bay and set up a stage, sound and
lights for two nights of ministry. This was the weekend
before Jamaican Independence/Emancipation and Reggae
SumFest, the world’s largest reggae festival.
The Amphitheater was in the center of a major
round-about, so we had traffic driving around us the
whole time. Many pulled over and parked and each
night the crowd that attended witnessed an Action House
and a reggae concert. For the first night we were
blessed with a performance by the Christian reggae
pioneer Lester Lewis and his band. This guy has been
doing Christian reggae music in Jamaica for over 25+
years! He was well received and Max and I were
called up on stage and had an opportunity to perform
some songs with him. The second night we had
another Action House followed by a Christafari concert.
Max, Vanessa and I were backed by some local musicians
and performed a set that was primarily dancehall (given
the audience). I finished up the concert with the
message of salvation and an altar call. Many lives
were transformed by Christ that night including some
rastas!
Baptisms, “Fulfilling the Great
Commission”: On a Sunday
after Church we went to a local beach for a baptism. I
had the privilege of baptizing one of our team members
who had never been baptized before. Throughout the
previous week everywhere that we went we had a group of
kids following us around. We spent some quality time
with them and bought them dinner each night. One of
these kids came to Christ at our concert in town the
night before. So on that Sunday I also had the
privilege of baptizing him in the aqua blue Caribbean
Sea.
Trials and tribulations, “Robbery”:
In addition to all of these positive
experiences in Jamaica we also faced our
fair share of trials an tribulations. It seemed like
every time we took two steps forward, we took one step
back. One day while two of our team members were on the
beach relaxing, one of them was robbed at knife point.
She ended up chasing after the thief rebuking him and
commanding him to give her the
money back in the name of Jesus. Two times while running
away from her, he ended up giving her a portion of the
money back to appease her incessant demands. When all
was said and done he ended up getting away with over
$100 US. Talk about being bold. You go girl!
“Injury”: At the amphitheater
we had major problems with our power source for the
stage. With no sound and lights for the
majority of the first night and part of the second we
were forced to improvise using flashlights, car
headlights and a portable stereo. During one of our
performances an Action House leader fell into a hole in
front of the stage and punctured her shin to the bone.
As she was rushed to the hospital to get stitches she
insisted that the show must go on. It did, and the power
finally came on in time for the Gospel message to be
amplified throughout the streets for all to hear.
“Comedy”: To add humor to our
trials was my experience while performing on stage:
It was in the middle of our song “Best Friend” when
I had the band do a hard mix and I jumped up and down in
a frenzy delivering rapid fire lyrics. While I was
leaping higher and higher I came down harder and harder
and then all of a sudden “CRACK”! I broke the stage!
It was hilarious, this 4 foot high stage was cracked
like a “V” in the middle. While laughing under my
breath I continued to sing the song without skipping a
beat. Meanwhile the stage crew crawled below to repair
the damage. Perhaps I need to ease off on the Jerk
Chicken and beef patties?
Come Again, “Our return”:
Towards the end of the trip I got to go to Reggae
SumFest for Legends night and I also had the opportunity
to meet with some concert promoters. They drove
all the way from Kingston to meet with me. They
are working on bringing the whole band back to Jamaica
this November for a major ministry outreach concert with
Judy Mowatt and Papa San at the University of the West
Indies. Please keep this in your prayers.
Conclusion, “Over 40 Saved. Praise
God!”: I praise God for bringing such a good
team together for this year’s Jamaica for Jesus trip.
I have never worked with a team that was such a great
representation of all of the parts of the Body of Christ
and had such unity. They took all of the trials in
stride and truly gave God the glory for all the
wonderful works that He accomplished during our visit.
I am especially thankful to Action House for all of
their hard work and great administration. It was 9
years ago when I first went to Jamaica as a missionary.
In my last 8 visits I had always dreamed about taking a
large team to the island. It was this Summer
through our partnership with Action House and the
provision of the Lord that all of this was made
possible. Most of all I am grateful to God for
changing all of our lives and the lives of those that we
ministered to. We estimate that over 40 people
gave their lives to Christ for the first time on this
trip. Praise God! We will definitely be back
again!
In His Steps, Mark Mohr
Christafari/Jamaica for Jesus
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