Notes From My Journey

It actually works! In my last post I told you about my year-long process moving toward Cochlear Implant surgery on November 10, 2025. The surgery went well and then began a 3 week plus one day wait while everything healed inside and outside my head to the point the implant could be switched on. Switch-on was Tuesday, December 2, 2025 at 4:00 PM.

I was more stressed and nervous about the switch-on than I was over the surgery stuff! And the 3 weeks and one day wait after the surgery until switch-on was the hardest wait I’ve had in years. But it’s “on” and it works!

It’s hard to describe what it felt like when the audiologist began tapping away at her keyboard, then said, “Are you ready for this?”, and suddenly sounds – tones – started popping up in my head! The switch-on involved a process called “mapping” to assign different frequencies to the range of electrodes now threaded through my Cochlea, and to set the initial loudness or softness for the frequencies related to various sounds.

Today was my second morning of using the implant. I take the battery out of the charger, place it in the processor, and turn the processor on. Then I gently raise the processor to the side of my head just behind my left ear. As it gets close, the magnet in the processor pulls up against the magnet in the Implant inside my head and as it touches my hair/skin, suddenly I can hear! It’s so different from hearing aids I’ve had for the past twelve years! It’s like the sound isn’t coming into my head, but that it just is suddenly there in my brain.

Anyhow, now begins an intensive period of training: training me how to use and manage the implant and equipment, training my brain to recognize electrical impulses rather than nerve impulses as sound, and learning to make sense of words – speech recognition. I still have a hearing aid for my right ear, so that’s a tremendous help as I “train my brain”.

There are a lot of resources for people beginning the Cochlear Implant journey; on-line videos, on-line training sessions, even an on-line community of implant users including people who have had implants for years and newcomers like me.

I know people have been doing this Cochlear Implant thing for a long time, but I feel like an explorer discovering a new country. I’ll keep you informed of my progress!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

 Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

About fifteen years ago, I began noticing that people were tending to mumble a lot when they spoke to me. It wasn’t long until I realized that people weren’t mumbling (well, most of them weren’t) but rather my hearing wasn’t as sharp as it had been. I had a hearing test and discovered that I was losing hearing in both ears and the hearing loss was progressive.

In 2024, on my fourth set of ever-stronger and more-sophisticated hearing aids, my audiologist told me that I’d gone as far as conventional hearing aids would take me. My hearing loss was now in the “profound” category.

The hearing loss I experienced had accelerated slowly but steadily until I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma Cancer in 2021, began treatment in April of that year, then received a Stem Cell Transplant in February of 2022. The chemotherapy drugs that prepared me for the SCT and the maintenance drugs I’ve been on ever since to keep the Myeloma in check can permanently damage the hearing cells in the inner ears of some patients. Turns out I’m one of those patients!

For a couple of years, my compromised immune system from the Stem Cell Transplant and immuno-suppressant maintenance drugs caused me to isolate. I was at risk from COVID, Flu, colds, intestinal infections – you name it – and I had to be careful. But as my immune system strengthened and I was freer to get out among people, I still found myself isolating. I was isolating because I couldn’t hear! I have powerful hearing aids and apps for my phone and a little magic microphone that picks up sounds and blue-tooths those sounds through my phone directly into my hearing aids and I still can’t hear what’s going on and what people are saying. I get so weary of saying, “Sorry, would you repeat that? I can’t hear you!” and “Please speak slowly and distinctly and face me when you speak. I’m dependent on lip-reading to understand what you’re saying!” (And many other similar expressions of frustration).

So in late 2024, my audiologist referred me to be tested for a possible Cochlear Implant! The first round of testing indicated I might be helped by another set of hearing aids. That didn’t work. So a couple of months ago we did the testing again and there was no further question about it – it’s Cochlear Implant or nothing! It looked like it would be February before I could be scheduled for surgery and then there was a cancellation and suddenly I was two weeks from surgery!

The two weeks came and went in a flash and now I’m four days post-surgery! I have my Implant and in two weeks, after all the surgery-related stuff has healed, I’ll be switched on! I’m excited and hopeful and I’ll let you know what I hear! Switch on date is December 2, 2025.

A Cochlear Implant doesn’t amplify sound as hearing aids do. The Implant processes sound from an external mic into electronic impulses which are transmitted directly to the auditory nerve through a hole drilled in the Cochlea and a set of electrodes placed directly on the surface of the nerve itself. Different electrodes transmit different frequencies and the brain learns to interpret those electrical impulses as sound. It’s a three to six month process to learn to hear and differentiate the sounds and interpret speech. I’m ready to work hard and learn to hear again!

As I said, I’m excited and hopeful and I’ll keep you posted on my progress. If you’re interested, let me know and I’ll include some links about Cochlear Implants in the next update. The science of it is amazing!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

 Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

Happening Right Now – Tuesday, October 28, 2025!

Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica about an hour ago as I’m writing this, on the east end of the island, near Black River. Having just written about the churches we served in the Black River area and about Pastor Dorrell Wright and his donkey, this has really impacted me. So much convergence here as my most recent blog posts have been about our life and ministry in Jamaica in the 1980s, leading up to our move to the UK in 1992! I’ve changed topics for today and I’ll write about the beginning of our transition from our years as missionaries in Jamaica to our move to the UK to launch East London Bible Training Centre later.

We were living in Jamaica in September 1988 when Hurricane Gilbert, the first hurricane to make a direct hit on the island in over 50 years, rolled over Jamaica as a category 3 hurricane, and caused incredible, unprecedented devastation. There have been a couple of hurricane strikes since Gilbert: Hurricane Ivan (2004) and Hurricane Dean (2007) both category 4 hurricanes, didn’t strike Jamaica directly but passed close enough to do significant damage, then in 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall as category 1 storm and caused serious flooding and landslide damage.

Now Melissa! On October 28, 2025 (Today! Right now!), Hurricane Melissa is rolling north from Black River on the south coast, across the east end of the island directly toward Montego Bay on the north coast. Melissa is the strongest storm to hit Jamaica in recorded history! I just saw some TV video footage from Mandeville, just a few miles east, and there was catastrophic flooding already as well as severe wind damage!

Here’s some quick information about Jamaica and some comparisons to Oregon, where we live in the USA to help put things in perspective:

• Jamaica is 4,411 square miles in size, with a population of 2,837,000. Oregon is 98,379 sq miles in size, with a population of 4,270,000. That means that Jamaica would fit over 20 times into the state of Oregon and has two thirds of the population of Oregon.

• Jamaica is 146 miles long from east to west and about 50 miles wide at its widest point near Mandeville in Manchester parish. Highest point is 7400 feet, Blue Mountain Peak. From Blue Mountain Peak, you can see both the north and the south coasts of the island (it’s only about 10 miles from the sea to the peak!) and you can sometimes see Cuba in very clear weather.

• From Black River where Hurricane Melissa made landfall this morning straight across the island to Montego Bay, where Melissa is likely to exit into the sea toward Cuba is 43 miles. That’s the same distance as our frequent drive north from Bend to Madras, OR.

• The distance from the northernmost point in Jamaica to the southernmost point is almost 50 miles, the same distance as our equally frequent drive through Madras, to Warm Springs, on our way to see our kids in Gresham, OR, a suburb of Portland. Our drive from Bend to see the kids in Gresham is 150 miles, four miles farther than the entire distance from one end of Jamaica to the other!

It’s been a couple of hours now since Hurricane Melissa made landfall near Black River and began to tear north across Jamaica. I’ve been trying to get some information on the Weather Channel about the current situation and conditions but power and communication networks are failing across the island. They’re estimating that 53% of Jamaica Power System is down at present and the hurricane hasn’t even left the island yet. Some of the greatest damage is forecast to occur after the winds reverse direction as the hurricane leaves the north coast and moves out across the sea toward Cuba.

I’m going to go ahead and finish this and send it because I’d like to enlist your prayers for Jamaica, for our friends there, for the nation, for the impact of the damage still to come and for the long recovery period after the storm has gone.

When Hurricane Gilbert swept across Jamaica in 1988 we were without electricity and phone for more than six weeks after the storm was over. That was before Internet and cell phones. Things are better now, because much of the infrastructure is much newer than it was then and the use of cell phones makes it possible to get communications up and running more quickly. But this is a bigger and more powerful storm.

So please pray with us! The Weather Channel has pretty good coverage for those reading this here in the US. I’m sure that there’s accessible news on the internet wherever you are reading this.

I’ve tried contacting folks in Jamaica this morning, but without success so far. I’m sure they’ve got their hands full anyhow!

We (and they) really would appreciate your prayers and cares! I’ll plan to give an update in the next post as I get back to the story of our transition from serving in Jamaica to beginning something new in the UK.

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

1989

I’m going to shift gears at this point because in 1989 the Whole Life Ministries Bible Training Centre was going really well, we were enjoying developing the material for the course, we had a good team of teachers, our work with the churches in the Black River area was challenging and satisfying, but in spite of all that, we were beginning to feel sort of restless and unsettled.

Then it was time for the Yearly Anniversary Celebration of the founding of Fellowship Tabernacle, a local church in Kingston that we had the privilege of helping launch and lead. We were part of the original group of sixteen people who met in Al and Melody Miller’s living room to discuss the establishing of a new church in Kingston, a non-denominational church that would bring together the solid foundation of teaching with the life-giving experience of the Holy Spirit’s presence in worship, celebration, and the Gifts of the Holy Spirit operating freely.

Anyhow, plans were being made, invitations were going out to people who had been involved at any level in the development of the church, and Al Miller’s brother George was invited to come to Jamaica from the UK to be the featured speaker for the Celebration services.

George Miller is a Jamaican Evangelist. There was a time in the 60’s when the entire Miller Family moved to England for a season and when they moved back to Jamaica, son George decided to stay on in the UK. You see, George had found the love of his life, a young English girl named Hazel, and married her. George was becoming a well-known teacher and evangelist in the Elim Pentecostal denomination in the UK (a group that had grown to around six hundred churches across England, Scotland, and Wales) and his ministry was much in demand for events and preaching and inspiring churches to growth.

So George stayed in England, became a citizen, and he and Hazel raised their family there. And now he and Hazel were coming back to Jamaica to minister at the Fellowship Tabernacle Anniversary Celebration. Everyone was excited to have George coming for the event, but little did we know that having George come to Kingston was going to be a turning point in our lives!

While George and Hazel were in town, Jean and I invited them to come and have lunch with us at our home in West Armour Heights. It was great getting to know them and they both had great stories about their life in the UK, about what it’s like being a white English woman and a black Jamaican man raising a family in England, and about George’s travels and ministry in Guyana and other parts of the Caribbean. And we talked a lot about the Bible Training Centre.

George and Hazel had visited the school to observe the evening classes. They saw students from Fellowship Tabernacle, but also from Baptist churches, Pentecostal churches, and Anglican churches. They saw business people, salespeople, nurses, school teachers, people who worked for the government in various capacities, all drawn together by a common desire to grow in their faith and to discover their giftings and callings for service. People wanted to learn and grow and to represent Jesus and his Kingdom in their workplaces and communities. George and Hazel were really impressed by what they saw!

So while we spent the lunch hour and long into the afternoon talking together, the conversation focused more and more on the need for discipleship and discovery and development of ministry. And at one point, George said to us, “You need to come to the UK and bring us what you’re doing here! We have Universities and Bible Colleges and Seminaries everywhere, but we don’t have anything like this!”

As we interacted with George and Hazel during the remainder of their stay in Kingston, George continued to bring it up; “You need to come to the UK! We need what you’ve got! Pray about it! Consider it! We need you!” Then George got Al involved and together they suggested we make a visit to the UK, travel among the churches, see the situation, and see if it was the right thing for us. The Bible Training Centre in Kingston was doing well, and it could continue to do well with or without us. The churches in the Black River area were making progress and Al said that they could send people down to minister and to keep in touch with the churches and leaders there. And the idea was growing on us!

George would set up opportunities for us to visit and minister in churches in England, Scotland, and Wales. We could meet denominational leaders and pastors in urban and rural parts of the UK. We could visit churches that were made up of people from across Africa, from India, and from several nations in the Caribbean. We could travel, meet the people, and even see the sights as we went! It was exciting and a little scary!

So before George and Hazel left for the UK, we said yes! George would schedule a month of ministry for us, find places for us to stay in each of the communities we visited, and introduce us to key leaders as we traveled. We would see what God would do – how God would lead us – and whether that is what we should do for the next season of our lives.

The time was set for late March and early April 1990. We’d go to Atlanta where Stephanie and Melissa and our friends Phil and Pam Underwood were located. We’d get preparation made for about four weeks in the UK, and we’d go see what would happen. Then we’d come back home to Kingston and talk with Al Miller and the team and see where we go from there!

That’s it for this one! In the next post I’ll tell you about our first visit to the UK and what we saw and learned and how the process developed that would lead to the next decade of our lives and ministry.

You know, it’s so good for me – for us – to go back over the events and stories of the seasons of our lives. And it’s so much easier to see God’s leading and God’s hand at work in the rearview mirror than when you’re looking through the windshield into an unknown future!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

 Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

1987

In 1987, Jean and I were assisting the Calvary Ministries team with the development of Christ to the World Bible Training Centre in Kingston in addition to our work with churches through Whole Life Ministries. Calvary Ministries had missionary teams in South and Central America, as well as Jamaica. This meant that occasionally team members from various places as well as pastors from the US visited the school in Jamaica from time to time. We love to meet people and to host people in our home so when we heard that a pastor from the US and his wife, and a missionary couple from Costa Rica were coming to Kingston to visit the Bible Training Centre for a few days, we gladly offered to host one of the couples at our home on West Armour Heights.

When the airport van pulled up in our driveway on the afternoon of Monday, March 2, 1987, we were watching from the front veranda as people began to disembark the vehicle. The configuration quickly resolved into two couples, one with a daughter about four years old and one with an infant child, which was making loud sounds typical of a tired and hungry infant, as the dad unloaded pack after pack of disposable diapers into a pile on the ground. When we offered to host one of the two couples, we had no preference which one we’d get, but when we heard the sounds the infant was emitting and saw the stacks of diapers, we both said a quick, silent prayer something like, “Please, Lord, not the diaper couple!”

God’s gracious answer to that prayer helped to shape our lives and the lives of our daughters from that day forward to this very day! We got the non-diaper couple, the couple who were the pastors from the US (Atlanta, GA) and their four-year-old daughter. And I can’t remember in whose home the other couple stayed, but we’re forever grateful it was someone else’s, not our own! It’s not just the diapers and the infant audio emissions. That would have been less than a footnote in our story and long forgotten. It’s that the pastor couple from Atlanta became close and dear friends, and their friendship and generosity helped us to establish a new home base in the US, a network of friends and churches, and a place for both Stephanie and Melissa to settle in the US when Melissa graduated from high school at ICHS a year or so later.

The couple who stayed with us for a “few days”, which turned out to be about a month, were Phil and Pam Underwood and their oldest (at that time only) daughter Andrea. During their stay with us, something good began to develop, a mutual affection and appreciation, a mutual respect, and the beginnings of a deep and lasting friendship. We spent hours in conversation. I had ministry commitments in churches in villages and in the bush outside the city and Phil accompanied me. Phil and I spent hours one night under the stars on a jungle road when the old car belonging to one of the pastors broke down and we waited hopefully for a passing vehicle that could get a message to a mechanic somewhere to come and repair or tow the car.

We watched sunsets from my veranda and talked about ministry, the Kingdom of God, and life itself. When the time came for Phil and Pam to return to Atlanta, they invited us to visit them in their home. Soon Phil became pastor of a church in Tucker, GA, a suburb of Atlanta, and invited me to come for a visit to meet the church and the leadership and speak at the church. The church began to support us financially and in so many other ways!

Melissa graduated from high school in 1988 and she and Stephanie needed a place to be and to belong in the US. Phil and Pam invited them to come to Atlanta, and to stay in their home while they got settled and found jobs and an apartment together. Jean and I came up to help them get into an apartment, find a car, and get their household established. The people of the congregation made room for them to belong to the church! They became part of the youth group, the young adults of the church, and they found ways to serve and participate. They made friends. It was good!

The thing that stood out to me then and still stands out to me now, is the generosity Phil and Pam and their church showed to us back then, to Stephanie and Melissa in an on-going way, and to all of our family as the months and years passed. It was a generosity not only with finances and material things, but with giving us a sense of belonging, a sense of place and home. And Phil and Pam were generous with their relationships! They generously shared with us their own family, their personal friends, and their relationships with other churches and pastors.

We finally had a place to call home in the US! We made visits to Atlanta and traveled from Atlanta to visit churches that supported us across the US. On one occasion, Phil purchased a very nice late model conversion van and loaned it to us for a trip all the way across the US and back. We made the payments on the van while we used it and then dropped it off at Phil and Pam’s house with many more thousands of miles on it than it had when we picked it up! That wasn’t the only time that Phil loaned us a vehicle. And when we needed to make another cross-country trip to visit supporters and raise additional support for our move to London to start East London Bible Training Centre, Phil’s dad helped us find a minivan to buy for our travels. We were able to leave it with Stephanie when we made the move to the UK.

A few years later, when we had handed over the Bible Training Centre in Kingston to the Whole Life Ministries team and were preparing to move to London, we rented a house in in Tucker, GA, a suburb of Atlanta, with Stephanie and Melissa during the transition between Jamaica and the UK. Atlanta had become our home and base of operations in the US and when the time came for the actual move to London in March 1992, Phil drove us to the airport for the flight to a whole new world of life and ministry! In fact, the last stop we made on the drive to the airport was at the church office where Phil picked up a check for us that became the deposit with which we opened our London Barclay Bank account for East London Bible Training Centre!

That van from Kingston airport showed up at our house 38 years, 7 months, and 12 days ago today! You know, people who serve outside the US as missionaries for a couple of decades can sort of miss out on long term friendships with people they grew up with, on high school reunions, on watching the families of friends grow up. Nearly four decades ago the act of hospitality of opening our home to visiting strangers led to the development of a life-long friendship! And the generosity of Phil and Pam Underwood gave us a place and a people to belong to, to be part of. And best of all their generosity gave us another Phil, our first son-in-law Philip Smith who married our daughter Stephanie. They met and were married in the church Phil pastored in Atlanta! Amazing! God is so good!

Generosity with our lives is a very Godly characteristic!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

 

 

Early 1989

Last week I told you that in the late 1980’s Jean and I met a group of pastors from Kentucky and Ohio who had the responsibility for a group of churches in the southwest part of Jamaica, near Black River, in the parish of St Elizabeth. The organization was called Lighthouse Christian Fellowship and there were about eight churches active in the group.

After visiting the churches in St Elizabeth and getting acquainted with the pastors and leaders, we accepted the task of providing oversight for the churches and began traveling once each month to the area to meet with the pastors and begin to train and care for them. We ministered in the churches as often as we could and helped with their conventions and other gatherings. We held the monthly gatherings at the village of Crawford, on the main east-west road along the south coast. The Crawford Lighthouse Church was right on the highway and was the most easily-accessed of the churches by car and public transportation.

It was during the season we worked with those churches that Hurricane Gilbert hit Jamaica with devastating force and caused much damage and loss across the island. Because Whole Life Ministries, the organization that sponsored our visa and work permit, had the task of overseeing distribution of relief materials following the hurricane, we were able to arrange the donation of building and roofing materials, and food and clothing for the people of these churches to a degree they would have completely missed due to their isolation and distance from Kingston.

Pastor Dorrell Wright was pastor of the Petersville Lighthouse Church, high up in the mountains several very challenging miles from the road. There was no electricity in the Petersville District, and no paved roads. It was quite a challenge to make it up there in my little Ford Escort Station Wagon loaded down with relief supplies!

Pastor Wright had become somewhat of a favorite to Jean and me. He was a gentle, unassuming man who made his living by subsistence farming and led his congregation with compassion and care. He was not a reader. I guess the technical way to say it is that he was illiterate. But he was intelligent, wise, sensitive to the Holy Spirit, and a good pastor to his people. During his church services he would have one of the high school students read a verse or two from the Bible, then he would preach on the verses. When he finished, the student would read another verse or two and Pastor Wright would preach on.

One time as we leaned against the hood of my car in his yard, he told me the story of how God had called him to pastor the little church in Petersville. The church was without a pastor for several months and one day as he was walking from his house to his yam plot on the mountain he felt very strongly that God spoke to him and told him to “pastor the flock and feed the sheep”. He protested his lack of education, his inability to read, his shy personality, his lack of skill at speaking, managing people, and leading. But the sense of calling grew stronger. Finally, one day as he stood in the shade of a mango tree, he looked down at some stones at his feet. He said, Lord, if this is you speaking to me, if you’re really calling me to be the Pastor of the Petersville Church, then please move these little stones by my foot. No sooner had he said this, than three of the stones vibrated a little, then scooted across the dirt until the three stones were together, touching each other, right in front of him.

That’s all it took! He began to re-gather the little flock and lead the church. He learned from other pastors in the area. He watched what others did and then asked God to show him how to do the work of a pastor-shepherd. His little church grew as he served the people of his district and preached, prayed, and pastored. He still farmed to take care of his family’s needs (as well as the needs of others in his flock). Petersville had no industry or business, so everyone in the area farmed or fished to survive.

One day when Jean and I were visiting at Pastor Wright’s home, enjoying a cool drink of coconut water in the shade of his mango tree, I asked him what one thing would help him more that anything else in his ministry to the Petersville District and his church. His response? A donkey! Not a car (roads too bad) Not a motorcycle (fuel and repairs too expensive) Not a TV, a sound system, or a refrigerator (no electricity). He would be best helped by getting a donkey to plow the soil and haul his produce, and to ride on the mountain trails to visit his flock.

As Jean and I made our way back down the mountain to the main road, we resolved to get a donkey for Pastor Wright. We enquired about the cost and where to find a donkey. It only took a few days to raise the money. Everyone who heard the story back in civilization wanted to contribute. So the next time we visited for the monthly pastors’ meeting we gave Pastor Wright the money for a donkey. We insisted that he buy a quality, low-mileage, good condition donkey. Not a worn-out, used up donkey, but a good one!

On our next visit, a few weeks later, Pastor Wright invited us to his home. As we made our way up the last hill to his place, there in front of the house, tied in the shade of the mango tree was the finest young reddish-haired donkey you would ever want to see! As we exclaimed over the finer qualities of the donkey, Pastor Wright proudly informed us his name was “Harry” and with some training, Harry would soon make his life a lot better and his ministry more fruitful.

After we left Jamaica in the early 90’s and moved to the UK, we lost track of Pastor Wright. I often thought about him and his little church and his family and of course, Harry the donkey. I wondered if he was still alive, how his family and church were doing. I wondered if Harry the donkey was still alive after all these years. After we were settled back in the US, one morning at coffee I told my friend Gary Burton the story of the pastor and the donkey. About two weeks later, out of the blue, I received this email:

Greetings Jim and Jean, This is Keisha, Pastor Dorrel Wright’s daughter. My dad always talks about you and was hoping to get in touch with you. He was a part of the Lighthouse Ministries in Petersville, Jamaica. I just found you on the internet and I feel excited to give my dad this great news! My Dad would love to get in touch with you. God bless you.

I replied to Keisha right away and asked how her Dad was, if her Mother was still living, how the church was doing. Here’s the note she sent back:

Greetings Jim and Jean, I’m so happy that you replied to my email! I couldn’t wait to tell my dad, in fact I just got off the phone with him! He was extremely delighted to hear that I got in touch with you. He sends his love for you both. He always speaks of how kind you and Jean were to him. I am now living in the US, in Massachusetts. My most vivid memory of you and Jean is you people sitting on our verandah drinking coconut water that my dad would get for you and how excited I felt whenever you would stop by our house. I was a toddler then but I remember it as if it was yesterday! I am so happy to hear that you guys are doing well. My mom died in December 2003. Dad still hasn’t remarried. Daddy’s ministry is still going strong. He has three churches now. I’m so happy to know that you are still in the ministry and doing the Lord’s work. God bless you. Keisha Wright

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

Early 1988

We had been working with Al Miller and Whole Life Ministries since we left Linstead and moved to Kingston in 1986. The Bible Training Centre was now Whole Life Ministries Bible Training Centre and it was flourishing. The teaching team consisted of Al Miller, Melrose Rattray, Pam Johnson on the Jamaican side, and Jim and Jean Stephens on the “missionary” side. We also had gifted ministers from around Kingston who volunteered to teach special topics, and occasionally, “hand-picked” visiting ministers from the US, Canada, and the UK who came in for one and two-week sessions on a subject of their special knowledge or giftedness. It was really working well! Coordinating the schedule for local teachers and visiting teachers sometimes got pretty interesting, but the product the students were receiving was amazing! And it wasn’t just academic information they were getting. Lives were being changed! Our motto was “It’s not what you know, it’s what you do with what you know!”

Then in late 1987, we were contacted by Pastor Gene Weaver from a small Kentucky town near Cincinnati OH. He led a fellowship of churches in his area who had become responsible for the care and feeding of a group of churches in St Elizabeth parish, about three hours drive west of us on Jamaica’s south coast. He asked us to be their representatives in overseeing and caring for the group of churches in St Elizabeth.

So Gene Weaver and a team from his churches came down to Jamaica and we accompanied them to the Black River area in St Elizabeth to have a few days of special services at the main church in Crawford, and visits to the towns and villages where the churches were located. When we met the pastors and their congregations, we felt an instant affinity and we saw the hand of God at work with them. We agreed to do it and that set in motion a whole new set of adventures!

The plan we developed was for Jean and me and sometimes another member of the Whole Life Ministries team to travel to the Black River area once each month for a day meeting with the pastors and leaders and an evening meeting at one of the churches that had electricity and could be accessed by car. It was about a three hour drive each way, so it meant an early start from Kingston for a 10 AM meeting at Crawford and then a long, late drive home after an evening meeting ending around 9 PM. Sometimes we stayed over in someone’s home or in a little motel on the outskirts of Black River. We brought a team from the churches in Ohio and Kentucky twice a year and had a week-long “convention” with classes and teaching during the day and services at the Crawford church in the evening. And some really great Jamaican food! Most of the families in the churches were subsistence farmers and fishermen. The meals were “sea and soil to table!”

I developed a good friendship with Dorrell Wright, the pastor of the church in Petersfield, in a village up in the hills above the coast. His church sat on a ridge and the village sort of spread out around it. There was no electricity at the church, and Pastor Wright’s and most of the members’ homes didn’t have electricity. A few had wells, all had rain barrels, and some got their water from one of the streams nearby that fed the Black River below. Dorrell Wright was a subsistence farmer who also had some skills in building, making rustic furniture, and fixing broken things. He made his living by the skill of his hands and the strength of his back. His salary from the church was mostly yams and vegetables and fruit and chickens. It was pretty basic!

There wasn’t really a road to or through Petersfield, more of a trail or track. A couple of times when the weather was dry I was able to get my car up to Pastor Wright’s home. On one of those occasions I remember standing under a mango tree in Pastor Wright’s yard having conversation and building friendship. I asked him how he came to be pastor of the Petersfield Church. The story he told me was unusual enough that I asked him some questions so I’d be sure I had it right and wouldn’t forget it!

A few years earlier, when he was a deacon in the church, the pastor became ill with the disease that eventually took his life. I’m not sure what the disease was, as it was never diagnosed by a doctor or treated medically. With prayer and faith, the pastor was able to carry on with some of the duties for a season and asked Dorrell to shoulder some responsibility as well. That involved visiting the members when they were sick, praying, and assisting in leading the services. And it involved a little preaching. Actually, because it wasn’t preaching the main sermon in a service it was called “exhorting”.

And then the pastor died, and there was no one to be the pastor. Dorrell had been doing a lot of taking care of people and helping and serving, and the people wanted him to be the pastor. He felt very unqualified for the position and responsibilities of the role, and Dorrell prayed and questioned and struggled with the “call”. This all took place in a fairly short period of time because there was no one else to turn to for direction and life was proceeding forward, a Sunday at a time with 6 busy days in between!

So Dorrell was standing in his yard, pretty near where we were standing under the mango tree talking, and he heard God say to him, “I’m calling you to lead this church, to shepherd these people, to feed this flock!” He thought about all his limitations and lack and began to make excuses for why he just couldn’t do it. And he heard God say to him again, “I’m calling you to lead this church, to shepherd these people, to feed this flock!” Dorrell said, “Lord, if you are really calling me to do this, to be the pastor of this church, then I’m asking you to take these three little stones lying on the ground here in front of me and move them together into a pile!” No sooner had he said it than the three little stones wobbled and danced and slid across the ground into a little pile at his feet! And that is how God called Dorrell Wright to be the pastor of the Petersfield Church! And I can’t argue with that!

When I think back to that day in the yard under the mango tree, I can’t help but think I was standing on holy ground. And I often miss the simplicity of faith that Gideon in the Book of Judges and Pastor Wright in the yard under the mango tree and Jim Stephens walking it out a day at a time were living, all of them in way over their heads! It’s not completely gone, though. As long as we’re moving through our days with the understanding that God is still God and we’re still dependent on him for the very breath we breathe, it’s still holy ground we’re standing on.

As I said, Dorrell Wright and I became good friends and it was always a joy to see him and his family and spend time with him. I loved visiting his church! I’ve got another Dorrell Wright story to tell you, two more in fact, but I’ll save those for next week! Thanks for reading my story!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

 Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

1987 and 1988 were very busy years for us in Jamaica. We had kept the Bible Training Centre going after the Calvary Ministries team left. We were developing curricula and training material for Children’s Ministries and the course material for the Bible Training Centre teaching. Additionally, we had gotten to know a lot of missionaries across the island, many who were independents, not sponsored or sent out by an organization, and who had very little support, care, and fellowship. So we started hosting Fellowship Gatherings for the missionaries, first at our home in Kingston, then at the Bible Training Centre, then at Christ For The Nations in Montego Bay. We were able to bring in mature pastoral, prophetic, and teaching ministries for these occasions (by God’s grace and the generosity of the ministers we brought in!)

In late 1987, we were contacted by Pastor Gene Weaver from a small Kentucky town near Cincinnati OH. He represented a fellowship of churches in his area who had become responsible for the care and feeding of a group of churches in St Elizabeth parish, about three hours drive west of us on Jamaica’s south coast. He asked us to be their representatives in overseeing and caring for the group of churches in St Elizabeth. We agreed to do it and that set in motion a whole new set of adventures!

Then Hurricane Gilbert pounded away at the island for a few days in 1988. Hurricane Gilbert was the first major hurricane to directly hit Jamaica in over fifty years and there was huge damage all across the island. The jungle and agriculture and building construction and infrastructure hadn’t been tested by really severe weather for more than a generation, so the damage was devastating! Much of the island was without electricity for months. Even in Kingston, the capital city where we lived, it took six weeks for our power to come back! So, as you can see, there are some great stories in store!

We’re discovering some interesting things as we intentionally set ourselves to remember experiences and events in this season of our life. One of those things is the memory process itself!

When we began to try to remember and capture these stories, we thought it would be best to approach it in more or less chronological order. That’s a good way to do it, but we’re learning that’s not always how memory works. Memory is more often built of events and experiences than of calendars and schedules. Some things stand out in memory but it’s hard to remember when they happened and when they happened in relation to other events.

One of the first things we did is list some major events and occurrences, things we had actual dates for: When we left Oregon for Missouri and then on to Jamaica, when we moved from Linstead to Kingston, when the Bible Training Centre started, when the Hurricane hit Jamaica, when Melissa graduated from ICHS… that sort of thing. We put the most accurate dates we could on those events, then began to think of things that happened before or after or between the major mileposts. It’s surprising how many things we remember clearly but don’t remember just when they happened or how they fit with other events.

Jean and I spent time talking it over, again and again, telling each other the stories as we each remember them. We brought Stephanie and Melissa into the discussions to get their perspective on the things that happened. Each conversation allows another little piece of the story to surface. We each remember some events differently, so we have to talk it out and see which is correct or if each has a piece of the “true story”!

Photos can be very helpful to stir memories of people, places, and circumstances. Google Maps turns out to be both a friend and a foe! Forty years of growth and development changes the map and some things simply aren’t where we remembered them to be on the map! It’s an adventure!

And here’s another thing we’ve discovered over the past few years as we’ve worked at building an origins story for ourselves, our kids, and our grandkids: Some information is simply irretrievable because there’s no one still living that has the answers we’re looking for! So don’t wait too long to find out stuff. If you have parents and siblings still living, initiate conversations, ask questions, listen to each other’s stories. Look through old photographs and find out who’s who and why they’re in the picture. Get started with the remembering process. Tell the stories as you remember them and they’ll develop as you go along. But don’t wait too long!

I’m convinced that Intentional Remembering should be one of our Spiritual Disciplines! I’ve written a recent GraceNotes devotional on this topic. You can find it here: https://www.resourceministries.org/devotionals/grace-notes/tell-the-story/

4 Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. 7 Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness. (Psalm 145:4,7 NLT)

I’ll be back next week with another story from our Jamaica years! As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

 Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

 

Recently my friend Rod Kirk texted me and said, “Do you want to go fishing on Monday September 8? Loren Hamman will be going along too.” I eagerly replied, “Sure. I’d love to!” and it was set. So yesterday morning at 5:00 AM, Rod and Loren picked me up in Rod’s truck with the boat on the trailer and we headed south. It’s about an hour’s drive from Bend and it was still dark as we arrived at the lake and prepared to launch the boat. By the time the boat was in the water and the truck was parked, it was light enough to see the far shore of the lake.

The boat was in the water by 6:30 AM and we had lines in the water by 6:40 AM. The first fish bit on my line and was in the boat by 7:00 AM! It was a chilly morning on the lake, but the sun came over the mountains about 7:30 AM and it started to warm up a bit. By a little after 8:00 AM we had three fish in the boat. Then things slowed down but by about 10:30 AM we had three more fish. That’s six so far if you’re keeping track.

It was a pleasant morning and early afternoon and the time passed fairly quickly. We had periods of warm sunshine and chilly clouds, of breeze that made the lake choppy with little whitecaps, and calm that made the lake a mirror of the mountains that surrounded us.

As the hours passed, between calls of “Fish on!” and “Come on fish! Where are you?”, I talked with Loren about gardening and his machine shop and fabrication work and about a performance car he’s building, and with Rod about past fishing trips to the Washington Coast and about motorcycle rides together when we were a few years younger.

We had four lines in the water and as the day wore on it slowly began to dawn on me that every time a fish hit one of our lines, Rod or Loren called me over and let me bring the fish in. We’d caught at least one on each of our four lines and doubled on some of them. But I’d brought them all into the boat!

Anyhow, just about 2:00 PM (by this time we had nine fish total – seven Kokanee salmon and two trout), after quite a lull since the last “Fish on!”, Rod said, “I’m gonna call it!” So we started breaking the poles down and putting away the tackle and we headed across the lake to the boat launch ramp.

It was a nice drive back to Bend with lots more conversation. What a nice day of fishing with friends! We pulled up in front of my house at about 3:30 PM and Loren climbed up on the boat and said, “Bring me your cooler.” I went into the garage and brought out a small cooler and handed it up to him. He started putting my fish in the cooler. When he got my three fish in the cooler, he kept on putting fish in until all nine fish were in my cooler! That’s when it finally hit me!

I thought Rod and Loren had planned to go fishing today and had graciously invited me along! Suddenly I realized that the whole fishing trip had been for me! They had chosen to devote the whole day to taking me to the lake and letting me fish! That realization was a quite moment for me!

Then handshakes and hugs and a couple of slightly choked, “Thank you so much for today!” expressions of gratitude from me to two good guys, and they drove off. And I carried the cooler with nine fish into the house and proceeded to show off “my” catch of the day!

On Sunday, Melissa had said that if I got a lot of fish they’d love to have enough for a meal – four Blacketts, four fish. I messaged them and said I had four fish for them and if they’d send over a designated fish cleaner I’d give instructions on cleaning the fish. Grandson Jude was here in half an hour! It was a delight almost equal to the catching of the fish to teach Jude how to clean them. I did one while he watched. He did one while I watched. He did the other two completely on his own! Very cool!

Then I cleaned the other five fish and Jean prepared two nice Kokanee for our dinner.

What a great day! What great friends! For me, there’s a great distinction between, “Hey, we’re going fishing. Wanna go along?” and two guys who spent a whole day to take me out on the lake to fish. I’m very thankful!

I’ll be back next week with another story from our Jamaica years! See you then!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

 Grace to you today, Jim Stephens

1987

I can still picture clearly one morning, leaning against the front of my little Ford Escort Station Wagon under a big mango tree outside my office at the Whole Life Ministries facility in Kingston, listening to Larry Bridge excitedly sharing with me a verse from 2 Samuel that he had “discovered” in his Bible Reading that morning: Is not my house right with God? Has he not made with me an everlasting covenant, arranged and secured in every part? Will he not bring to fruition my salvation and grant me my every desire? (2 Samuel 23:5)

It’s from a chapter that gives us the “Last Words of King David” and it’s a poem/song of gratitude and praise to God. Larry had read it earlier that morning and this verse was dancing in his brain and heart.

Larry was one of four of us who taught regularly at the Bible Training Centre. Larry’s teaching consisted mostly of Larry excitedly telling the students about his latest revelation of God’s goodness and grace. While these lessons probably didn’t go far in terms of a systematic study of the Christian religion, they were encouraging, inspiring, and faith building for the students and for the rest of the team. Larry had a signature saying that he mostly began and ended every conversation with… the phrase “Grace to You!” He was definitely a Grace Guy!

Larry and his wife Debi and kids left Jamaica when the rest of the Calvary Ministries team moved back to the US (see last week’s story, “Don’t Let The School Close!”). But we stayed in touch as well as we could. This was before emails and text messages, but we stayed in touch. Then three years later, in 1991 when we were traveling in the US to reconnect with supporters and inform everyone of our plans to move to the UK to begin East London Bible Training Centre we stopped and spent a day or two with Larry and Debi at their home in Boulder, CO.

When they returned to their home and church in Colorado, Larry had joined the church staff as Missions Director. He graciously gave us an opportunity in an evening service at the church (my first experience speaking in a “mega-church”!) to present our mission to the congregation. The church gave us a generous offering which helped with our expenses as we continued on to churches in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

I never saw Larry Bridge again after we drove out of their driveway that morning, but we kept in touch. Email came along and we corresponded fairly often. He died unexpectedly of a heart attack a few years later while boating on the lake near his home in Boulder. Friends sent me an audio cassette recording of his funeral service. He was loved very much! I’d really like to hear him once again say, “Grace to you, Jim!”

But actually, Larry still speaks to me from beyond the grave. The verse Larry shared with me under the mango tree that morning really struck me and stuck with me! I felt as if the Holy Spirit had inspired the words of David not only as he spoke them, and not only as they were recorded in the annals of David’s life, but personally to me that warm sunny morning in Kingston Jamaica. I wrote the verse on a slip of paper and kept it in my Bible. Every morning as I did my Through The Bible In A Year reading, I read that verse and thought about its application to my present life.

This began a new thing for me! Over the next few months when we faced challenges and obstacles and victories as we developed the Whole Life Ministries Bible Training Centre, the Children’s Ministries Resource Centre, and the National Prayer Letter we called Prayer Towers, I would “capture” verses that the Holy Spirit inspired to me from my daily reading and prayer and keep them in a list that I named “Verses for Daily Reading”. (Pretty catchy name, don’t you think?).

That list grew through the months and years in Jamaica, during the transition season between Jamaica and the UK, and during our years with the Bible Training Centres in London. It continued to grow as we began taking the course to Ghana and Uganda and beyond, through the transition season back to the US, and during the time we’ve been living and serving back here in the US.

Some of the verses were very specific to a situation we were facing. Some were specific to a season of life and ministry or to a transition we were facing. Some have served their purpose and life has moved on, but I’ve kept them around because they were precious gifts from God, given just when I needed them.

My “Verses for Daily Reading” list has grown to a list of thirty-one verses or short passages of Scripture, and each one has a story of how the Holy Spirit gave application of that ancient text to my present-day life. But it all started that morning thirty-eight years ago under the mango tree with Larry Bridge!

Some of the Verses for Daily Reading will show up in stories about the next four decades of our adventures and I’ll mention them when I tell you those stories. Thanks for reading my memories!

As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have a question or a comment simply reply to this email or if you’re reading on the blog, comment below.

Grace to you today, Jim Stephens