January 2005

Dear Pastors, Friends and Family:

David told me that I could write and give my views on some of the events that have taken place in 2004. The Bible said for us to boast not thyself of tomorrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. I can surely say this, for the year 2004. 2004 has quickly come to an end and I am praying that next year will be much easier. One of our American friends told us he has been in "Crisis Management ever since he came to Jamaica. When he said that I realized that for the last 15 years that is how we have lived. We never know if we will make it through the day and see tomorrow. It seems as though we are always living on the edge.

We have a woman who works for us as a helper. Her name is Dawn. She helps us with everything and when we are gone she guards the house during the day. Dawn has been helping us for about 10 years. Last April we took the youth from the church for an all day trip to Ochio Rios. Dawn stayed to guard the house. We also have a man by the name of Shawn, who lives near by and does some work around the house and church from time to time. He attends our church. Two days after we returned from our outing Shawn came to David and told him that Dawn had a taxi driver in our house for a long period of time while we were gone. I was upset and questioned her. I never told her who told us but I think she knew. After thinking this over I realized she had never done anything like this before but Shawn was well-known for causing trouble. We never thought anything else about it. I might add here that Jamaica is a dangerous place to live. You have to watch every move you make. Thieves and Robbers are everywhere and one must take every precaution. That is the reason we leave someone guarding our house when we must leave. They don't just rob, they murder. I told the Lord if I have to die in Jamaica to please let them shoot me and not chop me into pieces. The thing that makes my blood run cold is that when someone gets angry with another they throw battery acid in their face. This makes the skin melt and run. It is the most horrible thing that I have ever seen. This is life in Jamaica. But safety is of the Lord. The Lord has watched over us and protected us and we have had many close calls, but we are safely in the hands of the Lord.

Anyway, back to my story. Shawn had been helping us clean up after Hurricane Ivan. He was helping to cut up the trees and pile up all the debris to be burned. We have a lot of fruit trees around our house and Dawn and another man, Stitchie, told us that Shawn was stealing the fruit and taking it to sell. Shawn is a big strong man. More that 6 !/2 ft tall. No fat, just muscle. Dawn is small. Maybe 5 feet tall. Weighs about l00 pounds. David and I were in Montego Bay the whole day on Thursday. We came home in the evening and saw the entire hillside just below our house had been burned instead of chopped and piled. Shawn has done this before when he wanted to get paid but didn't want to work. Needless to say, we were not happy. When Shawn came to the house I asked him who set the fire. We had a little heated argument and I told him not to steal the fruit.  I told him that we had all seen him including Dawn and Stitchie. He said he did not steal the fruit.  I told him to go home. This was Thursday.

The following Tuesday I told Dawn to go and ask Shawn if the shop lady had any Chicken backs for the dogs. She came back to me and said Shawn told me not to send her to talk to him any more. I shook my head, forgot about it and went on with my work. I was on the other side of the house when I heard loud voices out by the garage. Shawn has a voice so loud, he can be heard over on the next mountain, so I ignored it. In just a few seconds things had gotten completely out of control. Shawn had come into the garage for tools and started to quarrel with Dawn about the fruit. Dawn still remembered the lies from April. Shawn pushed Dawn and things went crazy. She threw a bucket at him. He picked up a piece metal and hit her in the head. She grabbed the machete and stabbed him in the hand.  He ran. She threw the machete at him as he ran. I came running to see what was happening just as she threw the machete at him and missed by inches. I saw David running from the office and Stitchie running up the hill. This little woman had found her another weapon, a pair of hedge cutters, and was chasing him through the yard. He stopped to pick up stones to throw at her and hit her with several. She picked up a large stone and threw and hit him and was going after him with the hedge cutters for the kill. Shawn had blood running and dripping and Dawn had blood all over her shoulder and the front of her blouse. I didn't know what damage they had done to each other.  David reached Shawn about this time. I yelled for Stitchie to help Dawn before I reached her myself. Stitchie just looked at me.  I know he was wondering if I wanted him to help Dawn kill Shawn.  I grabbed Dawn by the arm and had to almost drag her back toward the garage.  They were yelling and screaming at each other during this whole scene.  We finally got Shawn out of the yard and Dawn back to the garage.  David just stood and looked at me and I'm trying to decide if I'm having a heart attack.  I take the hedge cutters from Dawn and hide them.  We have known this woman for 10 years and I had no idea that underneath that quiet little woman lived a pit bull. Things have quieted down somewhat.  all except my blood pressure.

We finally did get the trees cut up and piled in piles ready to burn.  God gave us some sunshine and rain and everything is looking beautiful again after Ivan.  Our chicken house was almost blown away but the chickens stayed inside the wire. We have, however, lost several of our chickens because Blackie acquired a taste for chicken when one flew over the fence and he decided they tasted quite nicely and ate all but four. Since that time our dog population has decreased by one.

I left this letter for a week and decided I would finish it on Monday and write only the good things that have happened this past year. But! After visitation on Saturday we ha to go into Montego Bay and while we were there we picked up our loca1 newspaper. The headlines told about a cousin who had beheaded his cousin in our area. The details were so horrid I couldn't finish reading it. Everyone was talking about it. The next morning we were up early and prepared for the day .We went to check and see if the goat population had invaded the church and make sure everything was in order. David went in one direction picking up people and I went in another.  Crowds of people were gathered at the bottom of our road. David picked up our neighbor and heard that the councilor's son had chopped off the head of another man. Everyone was upset. This is 2 in 2 days. We all arrived back at the church and everyone is discussing the murders. One man said you can either go to Iraq and get beheaded or come to Jamaica. We have our preaching first and then Sunday School afterward.

After Preaching I went to my class and had about 30 children. I was just starting my class when I saw this man coming in the church yard with a machete. He called for me to wait because he needed to talk to me. I waited because I knew the man. He came to me at the door of my class and started to tell me how our dog had gotten out of our fenced yard, gone to his house and killed his goat.  He was yelling and screaming at me and threatening me with the machete. All I could think about was the two people with their heads chopped off. I tried to tell him that it wasn't our dog and this was not the time to talk. He would not stop yelling at me. My thoughts were "help Lord " I finally walked into my class room and left him. He started up the steps to the auditorium where David was teaching the adult class. I told my class to bow their heads and pray for the Lord to remove the Devil from the church. We prayed and I went around the sidewalk to see if he had entered the church building. I couldn't see him but I heard David still teaching. I went back to my classroom and asked the Lord to take care of the problem

I learned later that the man came to the door of the church and called for David to come out and waved his machete at him. David ignored him and continued teaching his class. The man finally went into the church and sat on the last bench with his machete and waited. When the class was over he made for the front of the church to confront David. He told David we had to pay him $10000 Jamaican dollars for his goat ( Normally a goat sells for about $2000) David wanted to get him out of the church and told him he would meet him the next day to discuss the situation. We found out later that day that we were the third on his list of visits. He had visited one man and threatened him. He had gone to our neighbor's house and beaten and cut him and taken his machete, which was the one he was carrying when he visited us. He then left us and went to our neighbor's below the church and threatened them. Monday, David told the man's family he was going to make a report to the police station. He took our neighbor who had been beaten by the man and they made a report.  While they were at the police station the "mad man" came in and threw a fit on David and the police. The police told him it wasn't our dog. David told him it wasn't our dog because our dog has been sick and chained for 4 months. When David left the police station the "mad man" was still yelling and screaming at the police. The church people told us not to worry, it's Christmas and everyone is desperate for money. They will do anything for money for Christmas. While David was taking care of this problem, I was in hiding, trying to preserve my head.

Thank you all for praying for us. May the Lord bless you.

Love to you all,

David and Dottie McClure

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