Thank you for your prayer for safe travel; we have made it to the beautiful country of Belize! Today we had a chance to go to Golden Haven Rest Home to visit and sing some songs with the people there. We had a fabulous meal at Cheers that consisted of burritos, nachos, and lime juice. Our ride to our hotel in San Ignacio (a couple minutes from Santa Elena) took about an hour. We had some time to settle into our rooms, then had a team meeting to hear about what tomorrow may bring!

We have a couple individuals that have joined our group! Marceia Duhm and Dana Jarrard have become part of our group. They will be ministering to the people of Santa Elena with us this week.

Yesterday we had church in the morning at Santa Elena Baptist Church, where we will be serving at this week. Some of us went with the children for Sunday school and the rest stayed back with the adults for a lesson from 1 Thessalonians. After Sunday school, we started off the service with a welcome by Pastor Manny and some worship. We listened to a sermon about the finding peace through God and we closed up with some prayer, worship, and a few more words from Pastor Manny. Afterwards, we headed out into the community to pass out flyers and spread the word about the week’s upcoming ministries.

After some missions training, part of the group headed out in the evening to Santa Elena Baptist for another church service. This time, we listened to a message about the Parable of the Hidden Treasure and a moving testimony. The group was invigorated by some closing words by Pastor explaining how excited he is to have us all here. The group from St. Brendan’s got a chance to go to Sacred Heart Parish Church where they attended mass. Kat gave the first reading and the priest, who was just learning English, gave the homily in Spanish. It was an incredible opportunity to experience something so similar in a different culture.

This morning we roamed around San Ignacio to find some breakfast. We walked to Santa Elena church to prepare for Vacation Bible School. The children made necklaces, played games on the field by the church, watched a puppet show, and sang a few songs. For lunch we had chicken, rice and beans, and watermelon juice, a true Belizean meal. After lunch some of us went out to the field to play soccer; we were joined by forty Belizean children. The rest of the team stayed at the church to lead a Bible study to which fourteen youth attended. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, we got on the bus on headed over to the Belize Faith Missions children’s home. The home had several preteens and teens that we sang with, made balloon animals for, and played volleyball with. We got to spend quite a bit of time talking to the children, getting to know them and the lady in charge of the home, Christy. We got back on the bus and went to the hotel to change before leaving for supper. For dinner, we walked to Sri Lanka restaurant and had our meal by candlelight outside on a patio. We started our walk back to our hotel for a little break before our evening meeting in which we discussed how we saw God moving today, sang a few songs, and went over tomorrow’s schedule.

This morning we had breakfast on our own and then headed out to the church to get ready for another day of VBS; children started coming a little earlier today. VBS consisted of a few songs, a puppet show, red light green light, Frisbee, a creative Zacchaeus story, and an object lesson. There were about one hundred and fifty children that came out to VBS today! Praise God! After lunch, there were a few teens that came to the Bible study. We were able to go back to the children’s home this afternoon. A few of us played soccer while quite a few females had a bonding time of painting nails and braiding hair. We returned to the Santa Elena Baptist church for some tortillas with refried beans, avocado, and lemonade. Our evening service went well with about sixty Belizeans in attendance. A couple guys, Jake and Collin, from another team played some music before we started the night to get people interested in checking out the basketball court. A woman, Heather, from the same team joined them in singing and the evening was started with some worship songs. Kristen, another lady from the other group, shared a couple life experiences and discussed the topic of fear that everyone in the world shares. Mary Beth, Chris, Becca, and Nicole shared a prayer and Kat talked about how we should love others. The leader of the other team, Lee, closed our service by inviting everyone back tomorrow night. Before we left, we had the opportunity to talk with some teenagers, kick a soccer ball, or run around with the children. We then headed back to the hotel for our evening meeting, after a couple quick showers. Our meeting was not too long, leaving us time to get to bed early.

This morning we set out in groups to find some breakfast. We then walked to the church to start our third day of VBS. The children arrived even earlier today, so we started off with some Simon says, Father Abraham, and a clapping game. There were about one hundred forty children at the church for VBS. After lunch, we hopped on the bus and headed to Xunantunich to see some Mayan ruins for a midweek recreation. We rode a ferry across the river and rode in trucks to the site. Climbing the ruin was a bit more work than it would seem; the steps are quite steep, and there are a lot of them. After two and a half hours of exploring and enjoying the amazing view of Belize and the border of Guatemala, we headed back to the hotel to change for the evening service. We got to the church and had some tamales and lemon meringue pie; our cooks are so fantastic. For the evening service, three team members from another group, Jake, Collin, and Heather, led us in worship. A couple of siblings from the other group shared their testimonies and how they are able to build each other up in their Christian walk. The pastor of the other group also shared from his heart; he talked about a mountain bike race and how we can all relate to getting lost and afraid. The service was awesome! We got to talk to so many people, to hear their stories, and to share our own. God was there; there was no doubt that this service was supposed to take place!

We started our last day of ministry after we had a chance to get some breakfast. The VBS morning went very well; all the children stayed together rather than rotating two different groups to different places. We enjoyed our lunch of meatballs, coconut rice with split pea soup with dumplings in gravy, and plantain. Our teen Bible study had a few teens while the soccer field had a good game going for the younger children. When our game and study were over, we said our goodbyes to the children. Then we worked at the church to clean it up after a full week of use. As soon as we finished cleaning, some of us did house visits. We had a ceremony at the church to thank the church for having us, to thank the cooks (Yolanda and Lisa) for the amazing food, and to give Santa Elena Baptist a few supplies. There were many heartfelt thanks and hugs before our time was over. Kat got to say a word of thanks to Pastor Manny, his wife Yolanda, and our cook. She also presented a cross to the church. Becca and Nicole also shared their thanks. We returned to our hotel and had a little break before we went out to dinner at Hode’s for burger, cheeseburger, chicken burger with cheese, chicken without cheese, or chicken burritos. After a wonderful meal, completed by some with ice cream, we headed back to the hotel for a meeting of affirmations, schedule, and details for tomorrow.