After a long day of travel, we made it to Belize! The excitement kept most of us awake...even for the long plane ride! Judah made it on his first couple of flights just fine today! Who knew that after all that traveling, our day was just beginning!?! We all got together for a quick pic outside the airport, dropped our luggage off at the hotel and headed to a Children's Home where we raced around the building with the children, had our hair braided, played some basketball, and made pizza out of tree leaves. Brady did his object lesson using toothpaste and talked about how we speak to each other. We saw all kinds of new things today. Bits and pieces of Belize. We know we are in a new place. We know that God is doing big things. We are excited to see how God surprises us. Now, it's time to rest before we make the trek to Sarteneja tomorrow!

We woke up to a bright sunny day in here in Belize and had a good night of rest! After a long day of traveling, rest was necessary...although...some of us did get good rest on the plane! We will be traveling up to Sarteneja today with the JOY team! We are excited to meet them! More later, but now it's devo time!

We met the rest of our team and are excited to serve together! Ready-set-UNITED in Christ! Ready to serve!

The road to Sarteneja was an interesting one to say the least! We had a couple hours of travel and then got to visit Santa Clara where we stretched our legs, kicked around a soccer ball, and had some relief. We had dinner shortly after that...yummy fajitas with some fantastic fellowship getting to know our new friends! Back on the bus...and ready for a fun ride! We were driving along on a super bumpy road when we came to a river. The road stopped. We watched as the trucks in front of us drove on to a ferry that looked like half of a bridge. A hand cranked cable was what made the ferry go from one side of the river to the other. Colton really wanted to crank the bus across. We got off the bus and walked on the ferry when it came back to pick us up. Some of the guys took turns cranking the ferry across the water. From what it looked like is was hard work. We landed on the other side, loaded up the bus, and continued on our way. We had to cross two rivers that way and it was an experience we will never forget!

We arrived in Sarteneja after dark, so we settled into our guest houses, had our team meeting and a time of worship, and got ready for bed! We woke this morning to many different sounding birds, dogs, and the sound of the breeze through the trees. We got to see Sarteneja in the daylight for the first time. This is what we saw! Now, it's time for work! Painting the church this morning, doing VBS this afternoon, and having a Youth Service this evening! We are so psyched to start...

We spent the morning yesterday at the church scraping (inside and outside), taping, laying down plastic, and finally painting the inside of the Sarteneja Nazarene Church! We were making sure to drink plenty of water while we were working so hard! We spent right around 4 hours working on this project and PRAISE GOD! we were able to bless the church with brightness! We finished the inside of the church! It is bright white and looks beautiful! Pastor was pleased with what was accomplished and we are hoping to get so much more done in the next couple of days!

We really did enjoy our time working at the church! Depending on what we were doing, some of us wore masks to keep from breathing in the dust…

After spending some time sharing our “Life Stories” with each other, we loaded up and headed over to VBS where kids were already waiting for our arrival! This was day one of VBS and we had around 65 children learning about creation, singing songs, making crafts and playing sports! The children moved from station to station with their “shepherds”. Some marched in a straight line, some just ran, but all had a great time! Our prayer is that God would let us be lights for these children so they would learn to follow Him.

We had Youth Night last night and enjoyed a time of singing—some in Spanish, some in English—and some testimonies. People could just share from their hearts, share what God has been doing in their lives, and testify of His greatness. We had several people from our team share and a few from the church. Some of us prepared “Cardboard Testimonies”. This was such a powerful testimony to how God is faithful in keeping us safe, in loving us, and providing for our every need. He is so good and we have learned how He reveals Himself in each other’s lives. Praise Him!

Another morning of being wakened by the birds, dogs, and each other! We had Fry Jacks and beans for breakfast this morning. And, of course, fresh watermelon, pineapple, papaya, and bananas! We have had such amazing fruits and juices since we have been here. Yum-my! We walked over to the church and enjoyed a time of singing in Spanish, then English. We broke into our classes and taught a lesson about the resurrection story. Some of the kids even sang to us in Spanish. The children here are so precious! We will be seeing them again this afternoon when we have sports time!

One of the children at Sunday School...

We were blessed with a cooler day today to have sports at the field. We had groups of kids playing basketball, football (soccer), kickball, and parachuting!--the colorful kind that you stay on the ground with!. Some of us watched and took pictures and played with some of the other children. It was a great time of fellowship and fun!

The theme of tonight's service was God is our Provider...along with the theme of thinking before speaking. One way God provided for us today, the sun came out so we were able to go swimming! Another: the power went out for a few hours but came on just before our evening service...and just long enough...as we were going to say goodbye to the pastor, the power went out again, but only for a little while. Bruce taught a message about how when God calls you to something, He will see you through! AMEN! We had several students share testimonies and music...God is good and He is moving here!

Yesterday morning we woke at our usual time and had banana custard for breakfast! So GOOD! Then we jumped into the bus to go to Cerros Mayan Ruins. Our bus driver, Remmie, became our tour guide as well after our hour long journey. We walked along the coast and into a wooded area. We got to hear stories about the Mayan Civilization and see what they left behind. We climbed the look-out tower and another one of their structures. It was so neat to be able to see something so ancient. We had lunch, got to play in the water or play volleyball, and came back to Sarteneja to get ready for VBS!

VBS got underway again by starting off with some singing—even “I’ve got the joy, joy, joy” en espanol! The kids love to sing and do the actions! There were 85 kids at VBS yesterday, some of them only made it to the sports field, but we are still praying that we truly are a light to them! We are learning the kids’ names and they know ours. It’s been fun to see the kids smile, laugh, and learn about who God is. We gained new friends and are excited for more fun.

We've been playing and sharing the love of God with many children this week...

Last night we enjoyed tamales for supper. They were so tasty! Our cooks have been so wonderful this week!

It’s hard to believe our week is already over. It’s amazing that in some ways it feels like we’ve been here for a long time because of the relationships we have formed with the local people, but in other ways it feels like we just got here ten minutes ago. We packed a lot into our final day of ministry…keep reading to find out what we did!

Here we thought we were on spring break, but we went to school! We were greeted by kids who were excited to see us. We stood in front of them and did a couple of songs, then we acted out the story of Joseph and his multicolored coat….then off to go paint!

We opened the cans of paint and the colors were a Honey Mustard for the building and Tomato Soup for the trim! We got our rollers and brushes and went to work! And we worked HARD! We had so many people working on just one side of the building at one time…we just had to pause for a picture!

What fun to paint paint paint and then clean up with WD-40, paper towels, dish soap, and water! We enjoyed our painting time and two sides of the building (the ones that are most visible) are COMPLETED! Woot! People from the church watched us work and really liked what they saw then it was finished!

128!!! For VBS on our last day we had 128 lively children come to see us and hopefully catch a little of God’s love! We told the story of the lost sheep, made cross necklaces, and played cops and robbers before handing out snacks, water, bracelets, books, and bouncy balls to the kids. The local women helped us keep it all orderly and we had an assembly line to hand out all the things to the children. It was so amazing when we heard how many kids came to VBS today! We prayed for them after they left…that they would grow in their love for God and seek Him.

We found that we can build relationships in just a few days...God, be with our new friends...

Many tears were shed last night by the children and by us…it’s incredible that we got so close to these children and they got so close to us. We will miss them dearly. As well as the members of the church and the community. We had a closing meeting with the pastor and several others from the community who wanted to thank us for coming. So many people showed up and what an amazing time we had one last time of fellowshipping together! Pastor Alonzo made it back to greet us from Belmopan where he works. It was so good to see him again…We have loved our time in Sarteneja, but we know that it’s time to say goodbye.

We left Sarteneja by boat this morning bright and early and headed for the caye. We spent a couple hours getting there, grabbed our snorkel gear and headed back out to sea! After that we had the afternoon to enjoy the island and each other. It’s meeting time and then some rest before we head home tomorrow. We can’t wait to tell you all kinds of stories about the things God has done here in us and through us! To God be the glory!