My Experience in Jamaica

My 2024 Jamaica Mission Trip: A Look Back

Before I share this, I want to say that this post is partly a personal journal—something I can look back on to remember the experience and the days that followed. But I also hope it offers a glimpse into the heart behind this mission for anyone unfamiliar with what we do.

In October, I traveled to Jamaica for my third mission trip with a specialized wheelchair team serving Mustard Seed Communities (MSC). I joined this team unexpectedly in 2022 after hearing they needed extra help. I had no mission trip experience—not with international service, medical equipment, or wheelchairs—but God opened a door, and I said yes. It has become one of the greatest honors of my life.

Who We Serve & Why

Mustard Seed Communities is a faith-based organization that provides lifelong care for children and adults with disabilities, as well as other vulnerable populations across Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and several countries. Many churches and volunteer groups visit MSC to help with projects like painting, building, landscaping, and assisting caregivers.

Our team is different—we come for one specific purpose:
to deliver, custom-fit, build, and repair wheelchairs for residents with disabilities.

Most residents cannot purchase or access specialized wheelchairs, yet these chairs are essential for posture, mobility, comfort, safety, health, and dignity. Without them, many residents spend their days in beds or on makeshift seating that doesn’t support their bodies.

Our team travels to all six MSC homes across Jamaica, twice a year, with the goal of ensuring every resident who needs a chair has one that fits them well.

The Work We Do

The trip is fast-paced and physically demanding. The clinical team spends long days evaluating residents, fitting chairs, adjusting parts, repairing older chairs, and custom-building solutions when the exact parts aren’t available. Breaks are rare, and someone usually has to force them to pause to eat, drink, or use the restroom because they are so committed.

My role is administrative support, which gives me the gift of spending more one-on-one time with residents—learning names, hugging necks, dancing, singing, laughing, and soaking in the joy they bring. I always say I get the fun job, while the rest of the team is elbow-deep in bolts, tools, and wheelchair parts for 10–12 hours a day.

Between visits, our team leader, Liz, works year-round to collect and store donated wheelchairs and parts, raise funds, order supplies, and plan for each trip. My school graciously stores equipment for us, and we hold summer workdays to break down, clean, and prepare chairs before they are shipped to Jamaica ahead of the fall trip.

It is truly a massive effort—logistics, inventory systems, travel coordination, fundraising, photography, documentation, customs regulations, Jamaican support staff, and the ingenuity required when a needed part doesn’t exist. What began with one person saying “yes, I can help” has grown into a beautifully functioning mission.

Highlights From This Trip

• Jerusalem (Spanish Town)
Our first day is always spent at MSC’s main property, where we organize wheelchair parts, tour the residence, and begin fittings. One of my favorite moments was giving a 3-year-old her very first wheelchair. Her smile was unforgettable—matched only by her tantrum when we took her back out to make adjustments! Once she got it back, she was off like lightning.

• Jacob’s Ladder (St. Ann Parish)
We spent two days here, and it’s a place that now feels familiar with returning faces and friendships. Some residents help us throughout the day, and I always leave with a full heart—and this year, a handful of handmade bracelets after being lovingly “hustled” by one resident who is an excellent salesperson!

• Blessed Assurance (St. James Parish)
This location holds many young residents, and we spent time holding children while their chairs were worked on. Friendships here run deep too, and I love the joy that fills the space. Midweek, we started hearing about a storm forming in the Caribbean. It delayed landfall several times, and while we left Jamaica safely on Friday, we grew increasingly concerned.

Hurricane Melissa

Within days of our return, the storm became Hurricane Melissa, reaching Category 5 strength. Communication across the island was extremely limited. For days, MSC could not reach Blessed Assurance, the last home we visited. Not until Friday did we learn the residents were safe—only after a priest drove as far as he could, abandoned the vehicle, and then walked nine miles to reach them.

Though lives were spared, the damage across MSC properties is devastating, currently estimated at over $1 million.

This trip—like each one before it—changed me. The work is intense, humbling, emotional, sacred, and filled with God’s fingerprints. I am grateful He brought me to this mission that I never knew I needed.