May Jamaica Update

May 2009 Jamaica update
Who doesn’t love the moment when the question that has been itching at your mind for months finally gets scratched. Last month, I alluded to the fact that Keri and I were beginning to look into God’s call to living out a life that exemplifies “justice.” Through several conversations/emails, we came to the understanding that the place to start thinking about this issue is first found in the fact that God is Just. And second of all, God has experienced the greatest act of injustice through the necessary sacrifice of His son for our sins. With that as our foundation, we have continued to try to get a grip on our understanding of the extent that God desires us to pursue this characteristic of His in our daily lives. Last week, I had that “aha” moment. I was listening to a message regarding Jesus baptism and more specifically the old testament reference for the phrase God spoke after the baptism, “Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” One of the connecting references is the messianic prophecy in Isaiah 42 that declares Christ as the One in Whom the Father delights. He goes on to explain the character of Christ as one of perfect mercy who will not break the bruised reed and of perfect Justice in that he will set His judgment (justice) in ALL the earth. With this description of Christ in your back pocket, read on past Jesus baptism, specifically in Luke’s gospel, and you will find Jesus laying the groundwork for His ministry by again referencing Isaiah by saying “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” When the messianic prophecies, Jesus “Inaugural address” in Luke, and our common understanding that we are to be His ambassadors all came together, I had the “aha” moment. While there are many other scriptures that call us to “just living,” it was this moment with the Living word that affirmed in me that my heart needs to be beat for justice as God’s heart beats for justice. May God’s grace draw us to a further understanding of His heart for justice in the world.

After our relaxing month of April we are back into the swing of things. “Where are you now?” is the common question we hear from our family and friends. The month of May we have been settling back into our home at Knockpatrick and traveling only one week this month to Montego Bay campus for a team. Knockpatrick campus will be becoming our more permanent home. Kirk will be starting up an agriculture program for this campus with hopes of developing the farm and the land. The expectation is that this program can provide more produce and income for CCCD, bring education and farming experience to the students, and future employment of a Jamaican to manage it. This will mean less of a focus on leading work teams, but we look forward to serving in this new ministry. We also look forward to being more settled at one campus though we will miss our relationships that have grown at the Montego Bay campus.

We’ve served three different teams this month all with the flare and influence of the South. This brings a whole new culture into our lives and we’ve enjoyed its flavor. The first was a team from Southside Baptist Church in Virginia. This was followed by our week in Montego Bay with a team of high school youth and parents from South Carolina, and finally a team the last week of May of youth and adults from Georgia. Along with the teams we’ve lead, we were able to enjoy a very special team lead by Ted Herstein. Each year Ted puts together a team of college and working singles from all over the US to serve out at JDV. It is always a blessing for us to host teams from our church because of the unique fellowship that it brings. We were also very blessed by Ted’s presence as he serves as our liaison between us and the ACWR Caribbean Committee. They had a wonderful week as three young men on the team came to the Lord.

Probably the second most commonly asked question, whether by work team or our loved ones back in the States, is, “Where will you have the baby?”. As many of you know, as a couple, we suffer from indecisiveness. This has plagued us with our decision of where to deliver, but we were able to overcome, and we have made that decision to fly back to the States for the delivery. This comes from the fact of better health care and a realization that nothing compares the fellowship of family, especially with the arrival of our third born. Drew has only confirmed the importance of this as he reminds us daily of his excitement to go to Grandpa and Grandma Plattner and Kaeb’s. We were just discussing the things that we look forward to the most about being back. Drew most often comments about Lucky Charms and tackles, Keri has been dreaming about apples and seeing the boys play with their cousins, and Kirk’s mind goes straight to pizza and big, juicy pieces of meat, and of course, family time. My guess would be that Truitt’s most excited to be with his Papas as they both have become his favorite people. We plan to fly out June 16, as this will be four weeks from the due date.

We continue to give God thanks and praise for the ways he continually provides for us. As we are less than 6 weeks from the due date, the little life is constantly “on the move” and Keri has felt well throughout the pregnancy. We know we are very blessed to have had healthy pregnancies though we are never promised anything. Our friends from Montego Bay, Karen and Glenford, a young deaf couple, have had a miscarriage this past month. We ache for them as they desire to have children. Please pray for them! We also see God’s goodness in the growth and development of Drew and Truitt. They are fascinating to watch as they’ve grown from that toddler stage to little boys full of adventure and curiosity. Something mommy is learning is to let boys be boys. Thanks again for your love and support and we look forward to seeing many of you soon.

Love,
Plattners