Celebrating Two Years In Jamaica
An update from Joel Bain, Senior Pastor of Grace Family Church, Caymanas Estate, St Catherine, Jamaica…
On Sunday, January 3, Grace Family Church celebrated our second anniversary. The fog of daily life that has been a feature of living through the COVID pandemic here in Jamaica meant that we’ve arrived at that milestone without much anticipation. For most of 2020, we were glad to make it from Sunday to Sunday, grateful to be able to gather to encourage each other with the unchanging truth of the gospel as we all walked through uncertain times. But the landmark of two years as a local church was a surprising and delightful shock that opened my eyes to the tremendous grace of God to us in the midst of his bitter providence.
In God’s kindness, we’ve been able to have in-person worship services between June 2020 and now. When we were resuming after an enforced break, we expected our numbers to be lower and for people to be tentative about gathering. But much to our astonishment, our numbers have grown and people have been enthusiastically attending, with many inviting friends and neighbours to come with them.
In December, we received our second cohort of members. We’re now 30 adults and 15 children, and our Sunday attendance is averaging close to 80. The strangeness of this time is captured well in the fact that since we resumed services we have met, gotten to know, and received people as members and yet we have never once hugged them! But our friendships are genuine and our fellowship is joyful and we’re learning to pray for one another and to meet each other’s needs. Our relationships are deepening and God has been graciously leading us to face struggles and sin and suffering. As pastors, we have become aware of our insufficiency and helplessness, but more aware of and thankful for the sufficiency of the gospel and the help of the Spirit.
The reality that God has stripped away so much from our lives serves to highlight the gifts he has continued to generously provide. Gathering has become more precious to us, we have become more precious to one another, and His word has become more precious to our hearts. Recently, as we’ve been preaching through the gospel of Mark, one of our new members shared with me how he was being impacted by the consistent, faithful, expository preaching and our connecting the dots in the text as we go, and how much his appreciation for that particular gospel has grown. Together, we really are seeing how God is slowly and steadily shaping in us the image of Christ as we grow in understanding Jesus.
Recently, our elders had a one-day retreat. Sean, Sheldon, and I were able to take stock of our journey so far, and to pray and plan for the coming months. We’ve recognized that even though it is still a difficult season, we need to be deliberate in our efforts to lead our people towards maturity in their faith and faithfulness in their witness. Please pray for us in this. We are once again heading into a new lockdown, for most of this month of March (at the very least). Please pray that the Lord’s will be done here in Jamaica.
