Greater Life Mission Team Part 2

While our team was here from Tennessee they were able to have a very unusual Thanksgiving holiday!  Not many can say they have spent their Thanksgiving swimming in  the Caribbean!

Way in the back in pink is me, then our girls Lauren and Imelda, Carol is in the blue,
Ann is standing, then Jamie, Amy, Katie, Micah smiling and Tom leaning.  Tom
is wet cause it was a rainy day, but warm.

Lauren, Dennis and Imelda

This is looking back at Robert's Grove.  It is a wonderful resort with a kind and
generous staff who treated us very well.  

Look how pretty our Katie is getting to be!

Our Pastor Jamie, Lauren, Amy and Katie

Pastor Jamie, Imelda, Amy and Katie

This is Imelda's first time at a place like this.  Look at that cake!

Ann and Amy, mother and daughter.

The girls were getting shells from the bottom.
Katie, Amber and Micah

One of our favorite shots of Imelda.

Trying on the mask.

I have no idea what they are looking at.  Carol cracks me up.

There were three pools at Robert's Grove!

Katie and Micah

Beautiful shot of Lauren.

Amber and David, cute...

Pastor Jamie and Amy enjoying the day!

Yea, I think they had fun!

Many things happened during the ten days my friends were here.  No mission trip goes without hearts being changed and one never knows who benefits the most.  We were all blessed and the Kingdom of heaven once again touched the earth.

Love you guys!

Greater Life Church Mission Team--November 2014 Part 1

Our home church came for a short term mission trip between November 21 and the 29th.  Greater Life Church from Lexington, Tn is a wonderful church, full of great people, and Dennis and I had a fun time while they were here.  There are a ton of pictures to share so I will just put those on and tell you all about the visit.

Attempting to go from left to right, starting at the back we have Gary, Pastor Jamie, Amy, David, Carol is in the pink, Steve with the beard in the middle, John with the cap, Beate, Mary, Mike, Connie who is hiding Tom.  The three ladies in the middle are Mary in the red, Ann and Sharon.  In the front is me, Vicki, Katie, Micah and Amber.  Poor Dennis is the one absent because everyone knows the photographer is hardly ever in the shot.

 Home base for the team is Bridge the Gap Ministries, where Dennis and I live.  It is in the Cayo District of Belize, in a town called Blackman Eddy.

This is Katie, her mom Amy and Mary and Mike.

This is Beate in her kitchen.  She loves the grill!  We loved the pancakes!

Mary and Gary with Ann.

Hanging around before breakfast.  Beautiful jungle view in the background.

Everyone took turns on kitchen duty.

The team spent three days at Buena Vista Government School.  But the visit wasn't just about building and improving the school.  We took great efforts to create an atmosphere where relationships could be developed.  For the whole year before our team's arrival God had been working on us and what it means to be a missionary here in Belize.  It didn't take a whole year to understand that it is about discipleship and relationships.  Dennis and I have had the privilege to spend the last year getting to know the students and staff at the school.  We have gotten close to many and have fallen in love with them all.  So now that our team is here we wanted to share what we could in the three days we had them at the school.  Not really possible, but we gave it our best shot.

Fifteen people from Lexington, Tennessee spent time in the classrooms playing.  They played three different kinds of Bingo, Uno, Boggle, singing, performing Reader's Theatre, giving a puppet show, making paper plate angels and handprint Christmas trees.  While all that was going on some of them were installing white boards and making tables for the infant classrooms.  We had chapel every day and then the entire school came together for one huge chapel on Wednesday.

Katie surrounded by little girls playing Bingo.  For many of
them this was the first time they played Bingo.

Love the little guy next to the precariously stationed fan.  I don't remember his name, but every time
I go into the Infant 1 Room he gets my attention.  Check out the little girl with the pony tails.  

This is the two Infant classes together.  That is Ms. Evette on the floor and Carol doing a very good job
calling out the Bingo letters.

Loved the reactions here!

Diego, Elil, Jose and don't remember.
Having fun learning how to play Uno.

The teacher is Ms. Danelly, along with Christina,
Carol, Kayla, Gabriel and Andy.

Gary has his hands full here.

I think most of them enjoyed the game.  They caught on very quickly,
including how to cheat!

One of the projects for the school was sanding and painting student's desks.  The kids took their jobs very seriously.  There was about fifty students sanding their desks at the same time.  We had a kind of sanding fog occur.  That was alot of dust.

Christina looking so cute with Justin who is apparently taking
this sanding thing to a whole new level.

Boys are competitive no matter where they are. 

Ann found a happy place in Belize.  She really worked wonders with the kids on voice lessons.  They all sounded so good.  Yes, Ann really shines when it comes to music and singing!

Anderson is the big guy in front and Laura is in front of him.
Manuel and Yulmar are a little behind them and to the right is
Yeslin and Louisa.

Gisela was cracking me up!  That is Mr. Mefi next to her.

This is only a start.  I think the blog system doesn't like too many photos at one time.  So, for now I am done but there is a lot more coming.

Love you guys!

And Jesus Smiled

Every once in a while God says to me, "Look!"

There has been much commotion here at  Bridge The Gap lately.  People are everywhere.  They are hanging around, they are coming and leaving, they are talking and laughing, they are learning and listening, they are sitting and praying, they are walking and talking and listening.  There are people hammering, sawing, painting, welding, sewing, cooking, chopping, babysitting, computering, fixing and sharing.  There is just no escaping all this caring and sharing and loving...John and Beate has their home team here.

Hebrews 13:11  And do not forget to do good and to share with others,
for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

1Tim. 6:18  Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be
generous and willing to share.

So, I went down the driveway among all this commotion and took some pictures the other day.  As I was observing God says, "Look closer."  I saw different ages of people.  I saw different colors of people.  I saw them interacting.  There may have been a language difference but it wasn't a barrier.  There was teaching and learning, sharing and receiving.  It was beautiful.

 And then God took it a step further and spoke to my heart.  The giving and receiving was going in both directions.  When people come here for short term mission work it is always two sided.   God sends many here and it's not just for the Belizeans.  Let us not perceive ourselves to be any higher than another.  I am sure that if you ask Jim or Brian or Roger or anyone else on this team, they will tell you that they have been touched by what they experienced here.

I stood in the driveway and imagined that Jesus had just walked up the hill and was standing next to me.  He didn't say a word, He was just smiling.  (I think he especially liked the wood working.)

2 Thess. 2:16

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.

May God continue to bless Bridge the Gap and John and Beate Vandermark.

Speak Life, Don't Wait

On Saturday morning Dennis and I went to an event at Cayo Christian Academy. One of our girls from Buena Vista started there this year.  The high school has a yearly praise event as a fundraiser.  They sell yummy food and the students perform songs and dramas for everyone.  They also invite area churches to come and give performances as well.  It was like a mini PraiseFest.

We had a good time but had to leave early to go pick up some other kids who were coming over to draw with Dennis after lunch.  It was a fun afternoon spent with young ladies who rarely ever have the chance to do anything for themselves.

It was around 6:30 and I was almost done cooking dinner when we got a phone call.  It was Brian, Sulma's little brother.   "Is Sulma there with you guys?"

It was one of those moments when the brain has to take a few seconds to compute, quickly followed by an increase in heart rate.  I explained that we had seen Sulma at the school earlier, but she did not come home with us.  Brian said that they were worried because she should have been home already.

Dennis jumped in the Bronco and drove down to Sulma's school but no one was there.  As he was out driving around Sulma's older brother Melvin called.  He told me that they had checked with an older sister who lived by the school but she had not seen Sulma.  The family had a motorcycle and one of the other brothers was out looking like Dennis was.  We all just decided to keep looking and waiting.

I will be very honest here.  It was all I could do not to cry.  My only thought was that our Sulma had not accepted Jesus as her Savior.  I thought, "There is a really good chance that I might not ever see Sulma again."  Human trafficking is a big problem in Belize and the danger is very real.  But, even though I had this thought I knew that I was not a helpless person.  You are never helpless when you have the ear of God.  I prayed and prayed.  I just prayed until the phone rang again and Melvin said that Sulma had arrived at the junction.  Thank you God!

Dennis and I have been talking with Sulma about who Jesus is and what He did.  She always listens very closely but has told us that she is not ready to trust.  Sulma goes to a Christian school and some in her family are Christ followers.  But still she is reluctant.  We have done our part, now the Holy Spirit is left to work as we pray for our girl.

This incident has given me the realization of the importance of sharing our faith.  God made it very clear that this life is fleeting and we must speak while we can.  We have been given the gift of heaven.  Why would we not share it with others when that is exactly what our purpose is?  The world has twisted things around to make Christians look foolish and naive.  But, I don't listen to the world I listen to God.  I encourage my fellow Christ Followers to be bold in your words.  Don't let others make you feel inadequate or silly.  Your voice can be the only thing that determines if a person will be seeing you a hundred years from now.  Open your mouths and speak life.

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart please God, not the world.

Love you guys!

P.S. There was a time when I would have apologized for being "preachy", but not any more.  There is too much at stake.

Who Will Be At Your Funeral?

Dennis and I had the privilege of attending a funeral service today for a friend who went to Fountain of Life Church and had a ministry out in Buena Vista.  Dale Loy was a little older than Dennis and I, and left behind a very nice wife and four red-headed children.  He passed away suddenly from what must have been a massive heart attack.  (Not totally sure that heart-attack was the final word or not.)

Dale spent a great deal of time out in Buena Vista because he loved the kids and wanted to provide a place that was safe for them to spend their Saturday and Wednesday evenings.  He had a sort-of church service for them and then some activities to keep them off the streets as much as he could.

Many of the kids at the school wanted to go to the funeral today, so we helped some friends arrange for that to happen.  We ended up taking a small bus load of about 35 students and 10 more older kids over to the service in Spanish Lookout.  We decided to take only the older kids because of space.  There could have easily been 60 going instead of just 35.  They were so well behaved and we were very proud of them.

As we walked toward the front door of the church Dales wife came out and hugged my neck and then she just cried when she saw all the kids from Buena Vista.  She told them how much it meant for them to be there and how much Dale loved them all.

Dale and Mira, she interpreted for him.

On this Saturday night these kids had fun, were safe, and heard
about Jesus.

Dale having fun with the kids.

As we sat in the service I wondered who would be at my funeral.  And as I was thinking about it I thought this was a very good question.  What if everyone asked themselves, "Who will be at my funeral?"  Who are the people whom you have shared your life with?  Our lives on this earth are very finite and the time we have is overwhelmingly short.  If everyone could make it to your funeral who you touched in this life would it be a crowded place or maybe not.  The point to walk-away with is, your life is meant to be shared with others.   The love that you possess has always been meant to be shared with the people that you see every day of your life.  God puts us together for this very reason.  We really are our brothers keeper, God gives us the Holy Spirit to enable us to love those within our grasp, even those who aren't exactly lovable.  What a better place the world would be if we (especially Christians) would step out of our comfort zones and start to love how we are meant to.  Dale was a person who did just that.  Thank you Dale for your example and Thank you God for Dale!!  He must be having the best time ever right now!

1 Corinthians 13:13 "And now these three things remain, faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love."  The world needs to "know we are Christians by our love."  That's a worship song from a while back.  Good words to consider.

Love you guys!