Faith’s Jamaican ministry is a partnership between the women of Jamaica & the women at Faith. Several products have been developed that can be made by the women in Jamaica & then sold by our women to give a little financial support to the women at Golden Grove, Jamaica. Many of these women are single moms with no jobs & no way to support their children.
All proceeds from the sale of these products go back to these mothers. The first & most profitable item developed was the Jamaican bamboo/whiss cross. It all started with a hike up the mountain & through the bush with machetes in hand. We cut down bamboo, vines & anything with which we thought we might be able to create a product. After dinner one evening, we sat around the table & tried to decide what we could make from the items we had collected. There was a lot of trial & error but we finally came up with a 12 inch cross made of bamboo & loosely wrapped with a vine called whiss. The next challenge was to set up a production line with the women Christ Community Church, Jamaica to produce these crosses. The women were so eager to learn the process & caught on in no time. After these are brought to the Faith Community Church & dried, they are sprayed with a glossy wood tone & are ready for sale. On a later trip to visit Golden Grove, a smaller version – about 3 inches – was developed.
Since the development of the cross, we have produced note cards with envelopes featuring pictures of the scenes & faces of Jamaica. The beautiful faces of some of the children & the lush tropical foliage & flowers grace the fronts of these cards. The women are now also making flower pins for women in the US to wear on their coats & jackets.