Friday, June 26, 2009

Hello everyone for our last update from Belize. What an amazing week. Today was a great day of fun and continued ministry here in Belize. Several of our folks had an opportunity to share their faith with the river guides and with the workers at the hotel and everyone is already depressed to say goodbye to all of our new friends and to our home away from home here at the Inn. Cave tubing was a unique experience and everyone really enjoyed it:

It was a much deserved day of relaxation. The week finally caught up to us on the bus back as everyone pretty much looked like this:

It’s been an amazing week and we are so ready to get home to our families. Stay tuned tomorrow for our twitter updates as we fly into Houston and Atlanta. We’ll be at church in Macon on Sunday, so if you’re in the neighborhood, be sure to stop by and say hello. Have a great day.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Our teams worked so hard the first three days that we were almost finished with all our projects, but as you can see from the picture above, there were plenty of needs in the neighborhood where we were working. A group of guys finished off the ceiling at Mrs. Rita’s house while another group finished off the trim and stain at Nomar and Nicole’s. The rest of the group visited a school for devotions and then bagged rice and sugar to be passed out at Mrs. Rita’s after our final VBS session tonight.

Our students got really attached to the kids at Mrs Rita’s church. We had about 130 for VBS tonight. Since it was the last night of VBS we handed out all the stuff we brought, hats t-shirts, watches, sunglasses and the sugar and rice.

It was another great day. Overall the week was a huge success. Hundreds of kids came to VBS, we hung out at several great churches, we painted a house for some wonderful servants of Jesus and we put a ceiling in Mrs. Rita’s house and church and painted the house. We accomplished a lot in a few days because of the dedication and hard work of our students. Tomorrow they will get some much deserved R and R as we go cave tubing and visiting the city. Our students were sad to say goodbye to the kids at Mrs. Rita’s, and as you can tell from this picture, they were pretty sad to see us go as well:

I cant wait to tell you all about our day tomorrow. Until then!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

After three days of hard work at Mrs. Rita’s house the construction crew finished spreading the two tandem loads of dirt and painted the entire house.

Our folks moved some serious dirt:

The paint team almost completely finished off Nomar and Nicole’s house, a couple folks wil finish staining doors and doing some trim tommorow and the house will be finished. In the afternoon we continued VBS. The numbers leveled off at just over 100. The kids love crafts, snacks and Bile Story and our folks are doing a great job. Today was even hotter and more humid than yesterday, so they were dealing with some tough circumstances. I have been so impressed with our folks and all their hard work. Here are some great shots from VBS:

I got to preach at the Open Door Chapel tonight which was a great experience. Seven of our folks tagged along while the rest finished up at VBS. It was one of the larger churches in Belize City with over 200 folks on a Wednesday and we had a great time worshiping with them. We have one day left and are excited about making the most of it and finishing strong. We are exhausted, so keep us in your prayers. Talk to you tommorow (oh, and thanks to Christie Johnston for tonights high quality pictures).

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

It was a lot hotter today!! Hot and really humid. Our kids worked like champs hauling dirt, painting and putting up ceiling. A large part of our group did school devotions this morning while others got straight to the manual labor. Here is the dirt crew hard at work:

Meanwhile the other crew was back at Nomar’s house painting. We almost have that project done with. Here is the paint crew on the scaffolding we were balancing on all day:

Afterward we had a fast lunch and break and were heading back to the site for VBS by 2:45 PM. We had over 100 students tonight at VBS and are expecting even more tommorow night. I tried to capture a sense of the crowd, but I don’t know if this picture does it justice:

VBS went great. The kids are really bonding with the Belizean boys and girls at the VBS and it will be hard to leave them behind. Sorry this post is a little shorter, I’ll try to do better tommorow. Good night!

Monday, June 22, 2009

It’s been a long day! It was our first full day of work and our kids (and leaders) did a great job. 11 of us went to paint a house for a seminary student and his wife. The man’s name is Nomar and he works for the government rescuing troubled youth. He could get into trouble, but all his entire programming is Christian based. He told me that he is willing to be fired from his job because only the gospel will rescue the growing number of kids addicted to drugs, the Rastafarians, Voo Doo, Gang bangers and AIDS carriers. He is a great guy training to be a pastor and his wife is 7 months pregnant. Here is some of our work on his house:

We got half the house done. Hopefully I will be able to show you an “after” picture tommorow. Some of our kids went to a school today and others will go in the morning to visit with the children. While we were painting a lady brought us a sack full of mangoes from the tree in her yard which were one of the best things I’ve ever tasted:

The other folks were over at Mrs. Rita’s cleaning up trash and covering up refuse and sewage with dirt so that they wouldn’t be in danger to paint her house. They also put a large portion of the ceiling into the church and some in her house. We had a quick break in the afternoon for lunch around 1:30, but by 3:00 we were back to Mrs. Rita’s setting up for VBS (which runs from 4:00 to 6:30 each day). Some of our guys worked hauling dirt straight on through VBS. The neighborhood kids loved flipping off the dirt and even helped shovel and haul it. We had around 70 or 80 kids tonight and Mrs. Rita thinks we will easily top 100 tommorow night. These kids are the poorest of the poor who live in hovels in the marsh with bridges made of trash to get to their front doors. A few of them stole the luggage tags off our folks backpacks and said “I’m coming to visit” or “I’m coming to stay with you!” Our kids did a great job with limited space and we literally had to drag them away at the end of the day. Here is the church during VBS (you can see the progress on the ceiling at the top):

This is a glimpse at the front yard and the street just before sunset. Our folks did a great job with very limited space:

All of the kids love Mr. Rodney Allen (he loves it when I call him that) here’s a great picture of them with him at the end of the day:

I want to upload all my pictures, there are so many good ones, but it has taken me an hour and a half to upload these and I’m tired!! we’re starting again in six hours. Everyone sends their love. Continue to pray for the safety of our students in some tough areas, for a couple of men from the City I have met and am trying to talk to about Jesus and get to come to church, for the impoverished children we minister to at VBS each night and for stamina. We’re tired, but it’s definitely a good tired. Talk to you soon!

Message for Someone?

I forgot to mention, If you have a message for someone, leave it in the comments section below and I’ll pass along the word. Thanks for praying for us.

…And We’re Back

…I finally figured out how to get the computer ready to go and have a few pictures to upload. We arrived safely yesterday and checked in at the Coningsby Inn. This morning we went and worshipped with Mrs. Rita at the Children’s Church where we will be working this week. Here’s a picture of our students before most of the kids came for curch:

I got to preach there this morning and we learned lots of songs from the kids. We will be back every day for VBS. It’s on the south side of Belize City, which isn’t the safest, but it’s a place with a lot of need. I got surprised with a fun father’s day present:

Our day was spent planning and making adjustments. Our space at the church is extremely limited, so we had to scratch our original VBS plans. This evening we worshiped with a local Weslyan Holiness Church which was a fun experience. Here is a picture of us totally taking over their tiny church building:

Tomorrow is going to be a hectic day. We have to get some more supplies, get projects started, adjust to limited VBS space, but we’re all excited to roll up our sleeves and get some work done. Pray that we have patience, that supplies get delivered (and our 2 extra cots) on time, that our kids drink enough water and avoid bad neighborhoods, stray dogs (literally everywhere you look) and injury from construction work. Pray that we get good rest and are refreshed in the morning. I’ll write tommorow.