OFF TO THE BEACH!

We are going to the beach! This mind blowing idea has been announced by Marla Fitzwater, the director of ACE, (American Caribbean Experience) who is our host in Jamaica. Marla has wanted to take some of the residents of the Infirmary to the beach for a day of fun in the water and picnicking which has never been attempted before, I might add. Dr. Steve Guy said the salt water would kill bacteria on the skin also, which will be good for the various skin infections and problems. So we pack up a lunch, and go up the hill to pick up our gang for the day. It's mass confusion as usual, and no one is ready, so we round up as many as we can, cram them into vans, and set out. The beach is only about a half hour away. The residents we learn later, have not been out of the Infirmary since 1991. It seems impossible that you can live in Jamaica, a mere half hour from the water...you can see it from the hill in some spots, and not be able to go. We go to a beach, which is a pay beach, but the attendant lets us in for free when asked since these are residents of the Infirmary. The first group is ladies only. We urge them into the water. There is some trepidation at first. They probably have never been to the beach to just play maybe. One lady, strips naked and starts washing her clothes! In fact a couple of them want to take their clothes off. (after all why would one swim in one's clothes!) We quickly get them covered, as the attendant and his friends watch with some amusement. We throw a beach ball around, splash the ladies gently, and try to get them to play. One very feminine and ladylike elderly woman in an old frilly dress, sits down in about a foot of water, and arranges the skirt of her dress as it floats on top of the water. I look over and Sweetie, is peeing through her pants, bent over watching as it mingles with the ocean. Oh well...everyone is entitled to their own fun.

Yvonne, a Downs Syndrome adult who is always up for fun and games, wants me to take her out deeper. We walk out up to about my rib cage and her neck and look at a boat anchored in the small inlet. She tries to tell me something pointing at it like she wants to go out there. Maybe her family had a banana boat when she lived at home or something. I told her we couldn't swim out there, but she just kept gazing at the boat and jabbering a mile a minute. I wondered what she was thinking of...home? Family? Good memories? Finally she just gazes in silence. I feel sad at the look on her face for some reason. I guess "longing" might describe it.
We started playing in the water, and I was holding her on my lap and "motor-boating" her around in circles. First slow then real fast....she was grinning and giggling. Then she stretched out on her back kind of lying on my chest as I pulled her backwards through the water. She got so quiet I wondered if she was scared, so I leaned my head forward to see her face. She was lying peacefully, eye's closed. While I'm looking at her, I think to myself, "is she ok?", and in my heart I hear the Lord's voice say, "she feels safe, Lisa...she's happy."

I close my eye's and lean back in the water floating with Yvonne on my chest. I will never forget the God moment I had right then. The peace that entered my body and my mind and the utter fearlessness. I don't know but I think God was allowing me to feel what Yvonne felt, and I remember thinking, it would be ok, if I died right at that moment...I'm not sure why...it wasn't what I was doing, it was just being so at peace. I don't think I've ever felt like that before. If we could only live that way all the time! Utterly content where we are, but fearlessly ready to go at any moment. Now, when I think of that moment, I wonder, what I was holding in my arms that day...."for thereby, some have entertained angels unaware."
I think that's when I started realizing that I was the one to be pitied...not the residents. I had material blessings, resources and opportunities, but they had God, unhampered by those same blessings. They simply had Him.
(That evening I'm telling the story about what happened in the water and I can't believe it, but someone had taken a picture of that exact moment. I know the Lord did that for me...so I would never forget.)
We had our picnic lunch of egg salad sandwiches, which I confess made me nervous after sitting in the heat all morning, but I prayed, chewed and swallowed. On the way home, one of the ladies got car sick...very..car sick. Marla is soon pulling over quickly and getting out and losing her own lunch! We were highly entertained!!(Sorry Marla), and grateful it was her van and not ours! Some heroic volunteers got the mess cleaned up and we were on our way, delivering the ladies home happy and tired. The Aids said they slept very well that night...no kidding...so did I.