Friday, July 24, 2009

Wrapping Up

Hey all. So, I'm wrapping up my fifth trip here in Belize. This past week was intense. The team and I had the project of digging a seven by seven by seven foot hole to serve as the foundation for a bathroom behind a church. This would have been easily accomplished in three days, but for the fact that we were on a mountain. Mountains are made of rocks. Yes. Jackhammer. It was hot. But for me, this past week, the hole wasn't my big project.

I met this family this past week...five kids..Hilberto, Karina, Ricardo, Christina, and Orlando. And their mom, Catalina. Cati's husband just lost his job a while back. This family has nothing. The kids wore the same tattered clothes each day...but they were precious. For some reason they just took to me, and we became friends. I talked to Cati one day, and after some prodding, she shared with me her fears. She's afraid that she won't be able to pay for the kids schooling this fall. They have nothing, and she needs to buy uniforms. The kids aren't allowed to go school without uniforms. By the grace and goodness of God, we were able to pull together enough money so that all the kids can go to school this fall! I'm so excited. These were Cati's words: "I just want them to be able to read and write. I can't. My husband can't. I want them to read the Bible, and get a good job. And have a better life than this."

I gave the oldest boy, Hilberto, a Bible later. I've never seen a kid so attached, excited about, or proud of his bible. He wrapped it in a towel to bring it to church to keep in nice.

This was so good for me. People are so good. To touch them and know them. Trips can start to feel routine if all I focus on are the projects and logistics. But, when I sit with the people and know them, and listen...nothing can be routine...everything is suddenly full of pain and reality, and joy and hope. God is moving!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Catch Up

Hey all! I am SOOO sorry about the lack of an update here. I promise to give a full recap.

To begin--My third week trip in Libertad was one of the most intense trips. We did a VBS and home visits. We saw a very broken place. A place where there was a lot of substance abuse, and physical abuse of women and children. It was heart-wrenching. I met a woman named Diana. I and some others sat down with her at her home and made casual conversation. But then I asked her about her husband. She was disheveled looking, but had seemed proud of who she was, until I asked her about her husband. That's when her shoulders slumped, her eyes looked down and glossed over, and her breathing became weak...She went on to explain that her husband had been addicted to drugs for fifteen years and has left her to fend for herself and their eight children. She said she is exhausted, and wants to feel what she knows Christians feel, she said sometimes she cries to God to take her away from this life. Steven Inman got to share his testimony to her and give her hope for her husband. We got to talk to her about the love of God. And she expressed a real desire to come to Jesus. She didnt' want us to go. She just wanted us to be with her, to share in her struggles, and to love her. That's what compassion is--it means litterally, to suffer with. To truly identify oneself with the sufferings, oppression, distress, hurts of another. That's what Christ did.

Libertad was set ablaze. I saw young men--young men, hardened by the world of alcohal abuse and drugs--come to Jesus and hunger for his word. I saw a blind baby with a tumor on her neck who was abandoned by her mother receive nourishment thanks to the love of our group that week. I saw Jesus walk amongst Libertad.

After my time in Libertad, I moved to Red Bank, in the far south of Belize. Red Bank is a unique community in the mountains. They are Mayan! Still speak the language actually. One of the coolest moments of the week for me, was a day when I was helping the cooks prepare snacks or lunch or something. (Mind you, cooks cooking over open fire on the floor of thatched-roof hut. Oh yes, and did I mention the jaguars??) And, they wanted to teach me Mayan. I was shocked. A people so reserved, wanted to invite me into their world...to speak their language. To talk with them, like them, be a part of them. I was touched. How often do I invite people into my world??

In Red Bank, we painted the inside and outside of a church, did VBS, and prayer minsitry. My team was amazing...God was growing them up in their faith for sure. But God was also convicting me of my own pride and sin in my life. I have so much more to learn. So must to let go of. I am not God, nor do I understand His ways. I am just a broken vessel...and it needs to be that way.

This week, I'm serving in another southern rural community called Armenia, but we're staying in Belmopan, the capital city. We are putting a ceiling on a church, and doing a lot of sports ministry. I'm excited to meet this community. I'm learning to be more and more open to the peopel I'm serving. They have so much to teach me.

I love and miss you all at home! Please pray for me to be receptive to God's truth in my life, and for me to have renewed strength and energy!

Love.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Preliminary Thoughts

So, I'm at the beginning of my third trip here. This week I'm in Corozal, which is far northern Belize. I'm leading in a village named Libertad. Completely non-coincidentally, my church, Liberty, is here this week. This trip is a lot different than others simply because it doesn't involve construction. It's all purely relational ministry. That being said, I sense that it's going to be an intense week. According to the pastor's wife in Libertad, it's a rough village, very poor. Drug use, alcohol use. Last night we held a church service in the village and man, the Spirit was there. I know...I know without a doubt that God wants to move this week. The village just feels dark. And we've got light. Last night during the service, people in the village just started gathering. As I stood in the back of the church (which is actually just a tarp...) I had this snapshot vision of what it was like when Jesus was just in homes talking with the disciples, and people started to come. I feel like Jesus had parts of his ministry that were holistic, dealing with the physical needs of people, but then other times it was about healing them spiritually, emotionally...I feel like that's our ministry this week. Pray for strength, and that we would all be in tune with the Spirit!

Friday, July 3, 2009

Breathing

So! I am at the completion of my second trip. It was a very trying trip. We had three groups come together to complete a project. The weather was hot, the work was hard, and there were a lot of obstacles. Last night, I felt pretty dejected and exhausted...I hadn't been in the Word yet and so it was late, and everyone else was asleep but I knew I needed to just listen to God. As I opened my Bible, I read in John, in the last chapter, about the disciples having fished all night and caught nothing. I sort of felt like that. And then Jesus comes and tells them to cast their net again. AGAIN. Even after nothing all night. To cast the net again so that he can work. Only when we cast our net under his guidance and power, can we really do anything.

In regards to our progress, the roof on the church was a success and the yard for the parsonage got completely cleared. It was a mess tho! Our VBS resulted in some wonderful relationships with the kids. One little girl especially for me. Her name is Kiyana. She wrote me a note the last day, telling me how much she loved VBS and me. I was so humbled by her kindness and sweetness. I want to be kind and sweet like her. Like a child. She has a sister and they live in BZ city, and I'm going to try to visit her before I leave.

Another incredible thing that happenned last week--I was reunited with my family from last summer. Last summer my crew built a house for a family in the Poverty Alleviation Projects in BZ city, and I had been waiting to go see them because I was so nervous and afraid that they wouldn't remember me. But I went anyways. It took me a while to find the home...but I finally did. I pulled up and was really afraid. I looked around...everything looked the same, except the house we had built was decorated. But the shacks in shambles were still everywhere, trash and kids everywhere...but I got out of the car. Thoughts were racing thru my head. What if they don't remember me? This will be lame...but they did. The moment I stepped out of the car, the mother jumped up and ran to me and started crying. Then I started crying! She said that they missed me so much and they didn't think I would come back and that they talk about me all the time! Then her kids saw me and man...then the waterworks started. Vanessa, Jessica, and Marvelli...oh man. It was beautiful because we have a real relationship. I feel like I am part of their family. That's what missions is about. Growing the family of God. Teaching people to live in beautiful comunity together. It's hard. But reunions like that...no matter how blubberingly tearful they are...make it worth it. God is at work.