What Can One Do During the LockDown?

Courtney's Farm

Well, many of you who have traveled with us to Jamaica in the last 10 years have probably met Pastor Courtney Spence. Courtney is a special person to whom God gave the gift of Evangelism. Courtney is a fun guy and a very hard worker. He has two teenage sons. Last summer, he said he took his sons into "the bush" (to his farm or garden) to work so they would not be spreading the virus with their friends. Well, Courtney had about 2 acres where he was growing pumpkins and sweet potatoes. We had on several occasions had to help him with insecticides and even seeds after floods for this garden.
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Well, this summer, he contacted us requesting help buying some insecticide and herbicide for his farm. We thought the request was too much, so we asked him how big was his farm? He borrowed someone's smartphone and took a lot of photos. Courtney had approximately 20 acres of bananas, plantains, coconuts, and other things planted. I asked him many questions, but I asked why he planted so much. He said he just got started and kept on planting since they could not do anything else.

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Bananas (left) and plantains (right)

Well, we commissioned some of our friends, Audrey, Tamaula, Ewuan, and Devin (Ruffy) to go out and investigate. Everyone was shocked like we were. We gave Courtney some money to help with his needs, but far less than he requested. Courtney has always been a very giving generous person who has given food to the soup kitchens mentioned above and he helps a lot of poor in his community and his separate church community. So, it was a rather atypical use of our funds, but he has demonstrated his generosity. I would truly love to go back down there to see this and discuss it with him further. I would like to see how it has changed his life and his community.