...with someplace to go. Church, that is!
Because we wanted to be respectful of the customs of the local church, we all dressed up for church like the people of Belize do. For the women, that meant dresses.
I figured it was not every day that we see all these young ladies together in a dresses, so I asked them if I could take their picture.
This is the result. It's one of my favorite pictures of the trip.
Waves of tiredness again today, as well as waves of worry. The week seems so long—the end so far away. I find myself asking, “How will I make it?”
Those are the initial lines of my journal entry from our first full day in Belize. As I approach my 50th birthday this year, I found myself wondering if I was just getting too old for trips like this.
But then… all of a sudden the week was over. I did not want it to end, was not ready to go. How did that happen? What made the change?
I think it was our deepening relationship with our brothers and sisters in Belize. Because we went to the same village last year, we could skip the awkward preliminaries, the doubts and insecurities, and jump right into enjoying each other's company.
From the very first, they welcomed us so warmly, with such open arms and open hearts. It was like seeing much loved family again. And just like when much loved family comes to visit, the time has a way of flying by much too quickly, of being over way too soon.
I had planned on writing a little bit about our Belize trips and my reflections on it. The only problem is that I haven't really had much chance to do any reflecting, and the chances that I have had I've just been too tired.
So tonight I'm just going to post a picture and go to bed. These are kids from the village of Pomona where we worked all week. It's easy to see why we have grown so attached to them, isn't it?
We're back from Belize, safe and sound. The trip far exceeded my expectations. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. More to come this week.
Today we take the water taxi back to Belize City. We fly out around noon, and hope to arrive back at Dulles around 7PM.
What memories will we bring back with us this time? What new friendships will we have made, and what old friendships will have grown deeper? How will we have seen God work? In what ways will this trip change us?
One of the haunting memories that remains with me from last year’s trip is this one. A delightful group of ladies cooked simple but delicious meals for us while we were working in the village. With hearty appetites form all the work we were doing, we gratefully ate pretty much everything they cooked for us and thought nothing more of it.
Later in the week when our meal was done I saw the women feeding their own children. They were eating crackers with ketchup for dinner. There was no meat for them; that was a special treat reserved for us.
It broke my heart. I take so much for granted. I consume so freely. I often eat like a pig. And all around me are people going without if only I had eyes to see it.
Caye Caulker is our destination today. Some folks will go snorkeling and others will go fishing, but the plan is for all of us to relax and unwind before heading home tomorrow.
One of the things I remember from Caye Caulker last year was a boy on the dock with a shovel. Some large sting rays were swimming near the dock, and he was trying to spear them with his shovel. Rays are supposed to be good to eat, and I’ve heard that what is sometimes sold as scallops are actually pieces of meat punched out of ray’s wings.
Anyway, he was having little success, so he asked me to try. What a dilemma! If a ray meant food for a poor family, it seemed only right to help. But I kinda like rays, and thought of skewering one with a shovel was a bit much.
What would you do?
Today’s is our last day of work in Belize. Hopefully we’ll have made good progress on the second story of the school. I expect hundreds of kids, from all over the region, will have made their way to our Vacation Bible School (VBS). We’ll be deeply honored by the effort they’ve made to come and how grateful they are to be there—a far cry from the often over programmed, under engaged, and very bored kids of America. Privilege does have its price.
We’ll all gather to say good-bye when VBS is through. It will be a very emotional day.
Today is my wife's birthday. She's home alone (well, she does have the cats), no doubt missing us terribly (ha ha!), so please take a moment to wish her a happy birthday if you get a chance.
Linda's going on a mission trip to Philadelphia in August, which may well be even hotter than our trip to Belize. Our church's other two mission trips are a trip to George, South Africa, where they will be part of ministry that sees 18,000 kids a day (how do we even begin to get our mind around a number like that?), and a trip back down to Long Beach, Mississippi, where we'll continue to help rebuild in our ongoing commitment to that area. BTW, that trip is in October, and anyone who wished is welcome to join us.
We are scheduled to get a little break today, and are planning on going cave tubbing in the morning. Might be a good place to find another snake!
Today will basically be a repeat of yesterday. We’ll keep working on the second story of the school, do VBS, and playing sports. Last year we tried to teach the Belize kids American flag football, with mixed success. Like with soccer, they wanted to keep moving the ball down field by passing the ball to each other when they were about to get tagged. We ended up playing a sort of hybrid game, but what I remember most was how much we all were laughing.
In fact, that was one of the things that really struck us—how joyful the people of Belize. Our kids in particular noticed that though these people were quite poor, they were far happier than most of the people they know in northern Virginia.
Today the plan is to be at the village by 8 so we can start construction on the second story of a small school. Should be interesting, as last year we mixed all our concrete by hand. Shoveling sand and stone to mix in with the cement, lugging concrete block and buckets of concrete up to the second floor, all in unrelenting heat and humidity will likely be something of a challenge. I’m looking forward to it.
In the early afternoon we are schedule to visit a local citrus plant where many people in the region work. Then it’s back to Pomona where we’ll be doing Vacation Bible School to dinner. After dinner we do a sports ministry, basically playing games with the villagers and talking and praying with them as we get a chance. Last year that was a lot of fun, and provided some of the best relational time of the week.
In the evenings we have a team meeting to talk about the day and do some journaling. Last year the hotel had a bar that had bottles of ice cold coke. In Belize it was made with real sugar (not corn syrup), and that made for a delicious treat at the end of a long day.
