Going To Church In Jamaica

As if There’s Not Enough Heaven in Jamaica Already….

I have ALWAYS wanted to do this and I can’t believe that over nine years of traveling to Jamaica I haven’t once gone to church. Maybe it’s because I’ve never had such a gracious invitation until this year. The thought of going alone completely intimidated me in the past but after being welcomed with such open arms by this church in Flower Hill, St James I’m not sure what I was so afraid of.

Bear with me while I explain how this all came about. I had been graced with 4 free nights at two different resorts which is SO out of my element – that blog post is still to come. Coincidentally the location of the resort we got in Montego Bay was only 5 minutes from where I lived at the time. And amazingly, my most awesome travel agent friend who put this all together managed to get us upgraded to a butler suite. No really, you WILL laugh at the resort post coming in the future. But anyway, I’m getting to the point here. Through random conversation we found out that our butler was also the drummer in his church band and naturally my next comment was that I would LOVE to watch him play at his church. As he explains later in a video segment we’re lucky we were able to join him because had we not already checked out of the resort he couldn’t take us. Strict policies prohibit resort staff from taking tourists off property. Hmmmmmm. No matter, we conveniently checked out on Sunday!

Fast forward: Our new butler friend told me to park at a gas station and he would pick us up because we’d never find it alone. Halfway there, I totally agreed I would have never found it. It’s located in Flower Hill – the highest point in Montego Bay. After the 20 minute trek on roads that didn’t really exist I wondered how this could even still be considered part of Montego Bay, it was so high and far.

We drove up through Ironshore, through Torada Heights and past the Teamwork Christian Center and just kept on going through some really desolate country roads until we reached the very top of the world – Flower Hill. It is a beautiful and quiet community, and very welcoming. The video below shows pieces of the journey up the hill, some of the massive houses we passed in Torada Heights and the view from way up there.

We finally arrived at the church and our escort left us to go assume his position on his drum set at the front of the church. The elderly lady sitting outside the church door had a guest book for newcomers to sign in and I thought this was really nice….until later in the service when I realized the purpose of the guest book was to individually call out our names in church, make us stand up and welcome us. Sneaky LOL. Although by the time they did that everyone in the building already knew we were there because of the color of our skin. The drummer already told us on the ride up that no foreigners have ever been up here, we were the first.

Now you can watch the video of the Jamaican church experience and when it’s finished please read on to find out some of the awesome, touching, and funny moments we had that Sunday afternoon…..in a 2.5 HOUR church service!

NOTE: We got permission to take photos and video and use them for this purpose. However we didn’t want to be complete church heathens and set up a tripod and document every personal detail of the members so my apologies for the sometimes shaky/discrete looking footage. It’s not easy to be steady with a camera while dancing to church songs! THANK YOU Irene for capturing most of this footage! I love you!

Interesting / Touching / Funny Stuff About This Service

1. Our host was the drummer in the church band and his wife was the main singer (lady in orange in the video). They were wonderful to us and we’re lucky to have met them.

2. When the pastor was trying to deliver a clear message in part of his sermon he called anyone in the church with a Blackberry to look up the definition of a word and bring the phone to the pulpit so he could read it out loud. I actually had mine and looked it up but was too shy to bring it to the front. The ladies sitting around me kept urging me to get up and go to the front LOL!

3. The money collection was very different to back home where we just pass a collection plate through the rows and toss our money in. At this church you have to take your money to the front of the church. AGAIN I was too shy to walk up to the front so we asked the little girl in front of us if she would like to make the donation for us. She loved being able to take our contribution up front.

4. The 10-year old girl sitting in front of us was such a sweetheart! The minute we sat down in our row she turned around and whispered to us, “If you need the washroom it’s out that door, up the stairs and around the corner”. She was SO hospitable!

5. One lady in the row ahead of us and at the opposite end passed her hymn book down and back to us so we could sing along with the church. I was touched that she even noticed us trying to pretend that we knew the songs LOL.

6. Irene, my friend, has the bible downloaded onto her Iphone – we were the only people reading the scriptures along with the church using an electronic device. I felt like we stuck out like a sore thumb…but they knew we had the right intentions so it was all good.

After two and a half hours the service ended and I felt more uplifted than I’ve felt in a long time. If you couldn’t jump up and down singing in this church you’d have to be a corpse, the energy was real and it was big. The pastor was the one you see on TV screaming at the front of the church, jumping up and down with hallelujahs, wiping his sweaty face with a towel and singing to the crowd. It was overwhelming but inspiring at the same time. Church here is like an event, not just a Sunday outing.

When patrons started to leave after the service we hung around for a while because all the children came to us to talk or just look and smile. Our host had to attend a short meeting upstairs so we had plenty of time to hang out. Church members all came to shake our hands and welcome us and one lady brought a tray with two ice cold bottles of water for us. How sweet! And finally the pastor, Vincent, came to sit down with us and chat for a while. He also welcomed us and we chit chatted for a good while. He actually told me that if I was interested in coming the following Sunday he would come to my house and personally pick me up. I was all for it! Unfortunately we never connected the following Sunday and I felt sad because I had told the little 10 year old to save me a seat right beside her.

I would sincerely like to thank everyone in the community who made us feel welcome that day. If not for them I still may feel intimidated by the lively church experience in Jamaica. A special thank you to Phillips and his wife, and the keyboard player for giving us a long ride home afterwards. I had a fabulous day and came away feeling totally uplifted.