Jamaica: Poverty in paradise

Usually, when people think of Jamaica, they think about the glamorous luxury resorts and vacationing in the Caribbean. They forget Jamaica has impoverished citizens who are holding on for dear life.

Kevin Zarate, a Texas A&M University-Kingsville student, talks with a man in Harmons, Jamaica, duing a Go Now Missions trip.

I was able to serve in Harmons, Jamaica, which is considered the valley of the country. The view of glorious mountains looked as if God hand-painted the scenery, but I also saw poverty. Houses that were being constructed for a family of four are smaller than my dorm room.

I went to build houses for families who may have not had a decent house or even a roof over their heads. Our team spent a week in Jamaica, waking up early each morning to roosters crowing. Service projects ranged from working at the green house to hauling cargo up hills, doing construction, sorting clothes and even going to the infirmary to offer some of the locals a listening ear so they could tell their story.

The building project was hard labor in intense heat. I was tremendously tired, but what kept me pushing forward and kept me from giving up was thinking about the people I would be helping. They live for days not knowing what they will eat. One person told me, "If you don't go out and look for food, you'll die here." That broke my heart.

Kevin Zarate and some of the Jamaica Go Now Missions team members

In America, we open a full refrigerator and say there's nothing to eat when some people in Jamaica literally have nothing to eat. There is no running water, so people travel into the center of the city to pick up water from barrels and carry it up hills and hills. They just keep going.

I was so blessed to be there and experience God's glory through the island, because although the people absolutely had nothing materially, they had God. They had the most extraordinary faith in God, to provide them shelter and just the basic needs. How many people in the States can say they have everything and still depend on Christ? It was just so uncanny to see these people raise my spirit and learn to depend on God, not just in school or selfish reasons, but to depend on him in every aspect of my life.

To allow God full control of my life is what the Jamaicans taught me. They have a saying: "No problem." Maybe some of us should learn from that saying and know that there should never ever be a problem when God has us in his hands. It's like I told the team I was serving with, "We come into the country with the mindset of serving, but what is remarkable is that we are the ones being served. We are the ones that are privileged to be there, not the other way around." 

Jamaica will always be in my heart, and I will continue to pray for them. 

Kevin Zarate, a student at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, served with Go Now Missions in Jamaica.