Called to Serve: A Week at Mustard Seed, Jamaica

Each summer, a group of high school students from Brookewood School and The Avalon School trade their summer break for service that requires physical, mental, and spiritual labor: a week of service at Mustard Seed’s Jacob’s Ladder community in Jamaica. Led by Cherie Walsh, Assistant Head at Brookewood, and Tom Stroot, Upper School teacher at Avalon, this Catholic mission trip is about more than service;  It’s also about a formative encounter for these young adults.

Mustard Seed Communities is a Catholic nonprofit that cares for some of the world’s most vulnerable—children and adults with disabilities who have nowhere else to turn. Jacob’s Ladder, nestled in the Jamaican hills, is one of their most vibrant homes, and for one week each year, these eighteen students call it a home. 

The days begin before sunrise. Some students are up by 5AM—not because they have to be, but because they want to help prepare breakfast. By day three, they are touring the facility, doing farm work, making bracelets with residents, and playing with the little ones. By day five, they are running a field day, playing soccer with Haitian community members, and making friendships that cross every language barrier.

What strikes the chaperones most is not the work the students do, but the joy they receive. The residents of Jacob’s Ladder welcome this small group with open arms, enormous smiles, and an infectious gratitude that reframes everything. Students who arrived uncertain leave transformed.

The last day captures the spirit of the whole trip: an early Mass of Thanksgiving, an afternoon snorkeling in the Caribbean at Ocho Rios, and an evening talent show at Jacob’s Ladder that dissolves into dancing, laughter, and hugs on a makeshift stage. Students who arrived as strangers hold babies, dance hand-in-hand with residents, and share moments they will carry for the rest of their lives.

Exhausted? Yes. Fulfilled? Absolutely.

This is what nolite timere and duc in altum look like in action—not just classroom teaching, but lived-out service, one day at a time. 

To learn more about Mustard Seed Communities, visit mustardseed.com.