1985
Now for a quick leap forward from last week’s story (The Funeral – 1978) to an experience in late 1985, after we’d been living in Linstead for a year; pastoring Bread of Life Church, and training leaders! Don’t get whiplash from the time travel! I’m trying to keep these stories more or less chronological, but we get to talking and remembering stuff that happened and it’s like: “We can’t leave that one out!”, so here’s this:
In the 60’s and 70’s, Jamaica had come under the influence of Cuba and the USSR to a significant degree and the socialist party, the People’s National Party was leading the country. The US was much less an influence at that time. Then, in the 80’s, as the USSR sort of lost momentum and influence, more missionaries came into Jamaica, more interaction with the US began to develop, and the Jamaica Labor Party gained popularity and strength. Jamaica had a JLP Prime Minister (Edward Seaga) and government for the first time in a while.
When we moved to Linstead, St Catherine, in 1984 there was still a significant amount of tension between the JLP and its supporters and the PNP and its supporters. In fact, the PNP boycotted the 1983 general election, and there was a significant amount of tension and more than a little political violence. Strikes took place across the country over a range of issues from the price of fuel, to workers’ pay, to government spending cuts, and because Linstead is located on the primary north-south highway across Jamaica, we saw our share of strike activity.
When strikes occurred, they often involved blocking streets, roads, and highways with vehicles and piles of old tires and, inevitably, those vehicles and tires would be set afire and then police and military would arrive eventually and attempt to clear the blockades and break up the gatherings. Stones would be thrown, bottles of flaming gasoline would be tossed, and before long bullets would fly. When this happened in the neighborhood, it was wise for white foreign people to stay home and stay out of sight!
The Bread of Life Ministries property where the church was located and where we lived was right at a complex intersection of King Street, the main thoroughfare through Linstead, the north-south highway, the road to the village of Time and Patience, and the railroad. So this spot was a common target of strike blockade activity and we quickly learned when to lay low!
The current strike had been going on for a few days and we were running low on groceries, so our friend Andy came to the compound in his juice delivery van and picked us up to go into town to the grocery store. Relatives of our local church leaders had a store in Linstead and they had set aside some rice and flour, tins of corned beef, and some other things for us.
So Jean and I got in the back of Andy’s van and he covered us with a couple of blankets. Then Andy and his helper drove through the blockade of burning tires at the intersection, parked in the alley behind Azan’s Supermarket, and waited while we went inside for coffee with Adib and Maria and picked up our groceries. Then we got back in the back of the van, and crawled under the blankets. Andy ran the gauntlet back to our home at Bread of Life and delivered us and our groceries safe and sound! So, as you can see, getting groceries delivered from the supermarket has been around for a while. It’s not just a COVID-era development.
Our “under cover missionaries” experience happened when we were forty-two years old. It didn’t really seem all that dramatic at the time. Now, at age eighty-two it would probably seem really scary! And at this age it’s hard enough getting in and out of the car, much less climbing into the back of a van and lying down on the floor!
As always, I’d love to hear from you. You can simply reply to this email or if you’re reading this on the website, just leave a comment.
Grace to you today, Jim Stephens