Saturday: We arrived safely and are enjoying the palm trees. Our first stop in Belize City was to visit a retirement home. We chatted and sang songs with the residents. They greeted us with big smiles and warm hearts. Onto Orange Walk one and a half hours northwest via bus. After checking into St. Christopher's Hotel we had a chance to meet the others on our 32 person team. Blessed by an early bedtime we rested.
Sunday: We walked to Buen Pastor (Good Shepherd) Church this morning to lead Sunday School along side the worship team from Buen Pastor. After a great lunch we were able to explore the town. After ministry training this afternoon we'll have the opportunity to lead worship services at the church for all ages. Please check back for more details tomorrow!

Claire Livinstone & Laurane Harding from Ontario, Canada
Mary Chastain from Pacific, MT
Taysia Shaffer from Solana Beach, CA and
Alex, Tracy & Caleb Gonzalez from Rock Hill, SC

This morning we started Vacation Bible School with a church full of kids! We opened with worship, lead Bible stories with puppets, worked on crafts, and played games. Pastor Angel's wife Lianora provided a wonderful lunch. We then hit the streets of Orange Walk inviting children to VBS and the community to our Wednesday evening service. This afternoon we worked on the concrete addition to Buen Pastor Church. Tonight we'll dine out and have an early night.

More kids...more blessings! 65 children joined us this morning for Vacation Bible School. Yesterday we taught about Reaching Out. Today we talked about Love. Another great puppet show, music, crafts and games kept us on our toes this morning. The games are being played next door on the sports field at the Louisianna Government School. We then broke up into our small groups and this time did a Prayer Walk. We prayed for businesses, people, and the community of Orange Walk as a whole. Another great lunch and onto construction. We cut steel to make forms for a concrete beam as well as continued the paint job on the outside fence, also concrete. This evening our team will be leading an adult Bible study at Buen Pastor. Ryan will be leading the men and Mary the women. The whole team will join with the people of the Buen Pastor community for the study.

After a rousing morning of almost 100 kids at Vacation Bible School the team loaded the bus and headed to Lamanai Mayan Ruins. The hour and a half bus ride over rough roads lead to the beautiful rain forests. Incredible ruins and trails through 50 foot palm fronds led us to dueling howler monkeys vocally fighting above our heads over their territory. These monkeys can be heard 3 miles away with their deep growls. We heard the toucans as well but couldn't spot them. Several of the team climbed the tallest temple leading to a spectacular view. Another excellant dinner tonight and we're off to our final church service at Buen Pastor. Alex, our resident pastor on the team will speak tonight. We have been so thankful for Sarah and Ryan and their team of worship leaders this week.

Today is our last day in Orange Walk. We started with VBS and continued this afternoon with construction. A celebration with Pastor Angel & Leonora, the cooks, bus driver,and hotel staff took place at the church as well. The team presented gifts brought for the church and community. Excellant Chinese food for dinner! Tomorrow morning we head out to Caye Caulker leaving for Belize City via bus at 5:30 am! We'll take a water taxi to the caye and stay over night there. Snorkeling, swimming, walking along the ocean, great restaurants, shopping and relaxing will be on our agenda Friday into Saturday. Friday night we'll have a closing worship service for the team. This is always a meaningful time for the team to share their highlights from the week, worship songs, and prayer under the stars. This will conclude our blogging for the week so we all look forward to seeing family and friends when we get home on Saturday. Thank you all for your encouraging words, your help in preparation for this trip, and your continued prayers!!!