JAMAICA | Sandy

Our church started in the mid 2000’s going to Harmons, Jamaica.  I have been on every one of those trips, (plus a few more without our church), and this was one of the craziest ever!

We were so excited to have our group of 21 (which only included 6 returnees) with new people ranging in age from 20-70ish.  It was going to be a great trip! We had prepared the group as well as could be expected; however, we were not in charge of the situation.  As we all know, God controls it all. We sure saw his evidence in this situation.   As Jamaica prepared for Hurricane Melissa, (5 days before our expected departure), it was to be catastrophic storm, Harmons was in line for a direct hit.  As of Monday October 27th, we expected the worst.  As Melissa continued her path, the storm shifted slightly on Tuesday and missed Harmons from the direct devastation as we had seen all over the island.  Who else could have made that happen but God!  We had so many people praying for Harmons and our prayers were answered.  Unfortunately, the areas around Harmons were not so lucky.  This storm was one of the worst in history of Jamaica.  The worst one prior to Melissa was Gilbert in 1988.  It was that hurricane recovery effort that birthed Won by One to Jamaica.  Henry Shaffer, the founder, wanted to make a large impact in a small area.  He went out on a motorcycle and found the community of Harmons and decided that this was where that was to happen.  

God took control of the whole situation.  We were scheduled to leave on Saturday, November 1^st.  That flight was cancelled due to the airports not being open.  We were rescheduled to go on Sunday, November 2^nd and again we were cancelled.  Finally, on Monday, November 3rd, we were able to depart.  Not one of our amazing team members dropped out!  We were all in it together!  I finally relaxed when I was on the last leg of the flight to Montego Bay, Jamaica.  God made a way for us to go and to be able to serve our friends.  Our Jamaican friends could not believe that we would still come during a cat 5 storm.  It is because of our love for our friends that we do what we do.  God wanted us there that week and made a way for that to happen!  and made a way for that to happen!

Sandy Riggle, Jamaica 2025