Faithpoint Church

WOW! We are here!!! We arrived safely in Belize! We left home this morning, a couple of flights and a bus ride later, and we are in Orange Walk District Belize. So looking forward to the days ahead to see what the Lord will do in Orange Walk Baptist Church and the surrounding neighborhood.

It's a beautiful day for a church service in Orange Walk Belize! Chelsea and Jocelyn joined the team to lead our Sunday School service while the rest of the team worshiped with the congregation. The team really felt the presence of God in the sanctuary with them and loved to hear God's word through Pastor Leno.

After church, we went out into the neighborhood and invited the kids from the community to VBS. We were excited to be invited into people's homes and grateful to be able to pray over the families.

The rest of the day was spent preparing for the Youth Night Banquet. The ladies from the church worked with the team to transform the fellowship hall into a magical venue for the youth to enjoy. Everyone came together dressed in their best formal wear and ready to celebrate. We ate a wonderful meal and worshiped together. We had an amazing turnout of 36 youth from the community that came to spend time in fellowship and reconnect to the church. They loved our photo booth and each of them got to take a picture home to remember this night of celebration.

Burt put on a phenomenal show for us, and everyone enjoyed our time together. We are very grateful for today and for this beautiful, generous, and welcoming church family. We are excited about what God has in store for us for the rest of this week!

Our day today began with a deep connection with the ladies of the church.  Beth lead a study on Philippians that conjured a lot of emotion in the ladies, and called them to share their prayer requests for us to lift up to God.  The team surrounded these amazing church women who work so hard to accommodate and cook for us each day we are here, we prayed over them and called God to come now into the moment, and His presence was felt by all.

The men and the youth of our team were working diligently on the fence outside the churchyard, and preparing the pastor's office to be painted while the ladies met. After our study, the ladies were quick to prepare a meal for their soup ministry. We took the soup out into the community where it was most needed, prayed over their families, and sang in worship for the food prepared. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent preparing for VBS. Each member fell into place and helped bring everything together for the kids. We had a phenomenal turnout for our first day, everything went smoothly and God's word was delivered with joy and purpose. 

We are looking forward to our next 2 days of VBS and our trip to the Mayan temples tomorrow. Praise God for another beautiful day in Belize!

What a beautiful day at the Mayan Temples! The team traveled to Altun Ha to visit the temples and enjoyed learning about the culture and history of these people. Our generous tour guide hosted us at her house where we got to pick coconuts and drink the coconut milk. The youth created lasting memories climbing the temples and captured lots of photos to remember this special excursion.

Dennis and Jen worked hard in the pastor's office on our painting project in the morning, then we joined together after lunch to go on home visits and distribute food. We were met with so much gratitude and joyful hearts. We sang and prayed with the recipients of the food and spent time encouraging them. We were moved by the testimonies they shared and filled with their faith. It was a blessing to revive relationships we made on previous trips, and make new connections as well. 

In the afternoon we had another successful day of VBS. Most of the kids returned for our second day, as well as some new friendly faces. They came ready to worship and energized to show off the dance moves they remembered. A fan favorite for this day was getting to play water balloon games in the yard. We used all 465 water balloons that we had, every child and the whole team was soaked!

We ended our day with another wonderful meal prepared by our sisters in the kitchen, followed by a powerful women's Bible study with them. God spoke to us through Beth, her words elicited a lot of emotion in us and filled us with hope. Laughter was heard all around the table. This time in fellowship with ladies coming together from 5 different churches was so fulfilling. 

Right before bed, we went on a fun run to the 1-2-3 store for ice cream. Our youth ended up staying up late bonding over card games. But, we rested well and are hopeful for another great day of service!

Amy was overjoyed to reconnect with Sister Dell, an elder of the church who she has met every time we visit Belize. She touched everyone's hearts with her joy and heart for Jesus despite her declining health.

Jazmine has been braiding all of us girls' hair this week. Lexi loves her Jazmine so much that she was saying her name in her sleep last night!

Our last day of service was bittersweet. We were blessed to have such an amazing day that makes it so hard to leave. After breakfast, we seized the day by splitting into groups for women's Bible study, the work project in pastor's office, and food distribution.

The women sat down for one last time to replenish their faith. Beth led us in a study focused on continuing our work done this week, through prayer, service, and loving one another. They were grateful for our fellowship and looking forward to continuing to meet and study God's word. 

Dennis and Michael cleaned and repainted pastor's office, and installed new shelves. We appreciate how they have been an asset to this team with their talents and work ethic. 

After Bible study, the rest of the team joined those who had already begun distributing food. We visited with 27 total families over the week, and provided them with household essentials, which they were in great need of. On the way back to the church we picked up several kids for VBS who did not have the means to get there. 

This day of VBS started slow, but the kids were happy to keep worshipping with us while we waited for more kids to show up. They arrived slowly, but this ended up being our biggest group of kids yet! They were sad to see us go, but not as sad as we were to say goodbye. 

We ended our day strong with a moving farewell service. The church really came together and poured love into us, lifted us up, and even gave each team member a gift to remember them by. The youth performed a special song for us on handheld instruments and buckets, we joyfully worshipped without restraint.

A few members of the team shared with the church how they were changed and fulfilled on this trip, and thanked them for their hospitality. Burt ended the service with his own set of music, we were truly blessed to have him as our leader this week.