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!

Thank You Church of the Incarnation for the New Library!

Part of what I am doing at Buena Vista Govt. School this year is getting the new library up and running.  The school had a beautiful library donated by The Church of the Incarnation out of Dallas, Texas.  The library now has lovely wooden shelves full of over 2500 books.  As a teacher who loves reading, I must say this is a huge blessing for me personally and of course for the school.

I wanted to share a photo from last week.  It is me reading to Standard 1 students who are around seven or eight years old.  I am reading a book that has pages that flip open to reveal animal's tails.  The pictures fill the pages and are very bright and colorful.

Most of these children do not have access to television and media like in the States.  They are not constantly inundated with commercials and outside influences that tell them they "must have" things like eight pairs of shoes, a new dress every holiday, five different kinds of cereal, McDonalds every week,  huge birthday parties, and everything they see on the shelves in Walmart.  Some of these kids have never had a birthday cake and most do not "have" Christmas.  

Look at how they react to the story book!  These kids have not spent hours in front of the television watching Dora or whatever the latest cartoon fad is.  They spend a lot of their time helping with siblings or working in the house or the fields or gathering wood.  When ever we ask them what they did over the weekend they always say "nothing".  The other day I asked the older kids if they had ever been to a public library and three students out of two classes raised their hands.  The following pictures are not posed, these guys do this every time they come into the library.

Thank you Church of the Incarnation in Dallas!!!  You have made a difference in  Buena Vista Government School in Belize.

Vicki Lucas

New School Year at Buena Vista!!

        

The 2014-15 school year has begun here in Belize.  We didn't start until September 1st, just like when I was a kid.  Of course, we won't be done until late June.  The buildings at the school survived the summer without damage.  The grounds were a little abused over the holiday but they are back in shape now.

This is Mr. Mefi, he is the Standard 5 teacher.
He is always trying to get me to have this whole Spanish
conversation, but it usually doesn't end well.
He is a lot of fun.

                                                                   

Mr. Mefi had all of his students sanding their own desks.
He wants them to take ownership of their classroom.

All of them worked hard!

Mrs. Betty in her room.  She is the Standard 6 teacher and the
principal of the school.

Dennis and Mr. Uck (pronounced ook).  Dennis has already started
repairing desks.

Mr. Uck's classroom.

Mr. Jimmy is Standard 1 this year.

It seems that I left out all the women teachers this time.  I will get some pictures of them soon.

This is Sulma, she graduated last year and is now attending
Cayo Christian Academy just down the road from us.  

Imelda Garcia and Lauren Campos.  Both of these young ladies go
to Eden High School.  Thank you to Greater Life Church for
making that possible.

Standard 6 is the last year of public school here in Belize.  After that any further education costs quite a bit of money.  Students are constantly looking for sponsors to help them get through high school.  Many times they can find sponsors to pay for tuition but they still need money for supplies, lunches and transportation costs.

On the back porch.

These are some more of our friends who come to visit at the house.  Ingris, Glendy and Herson.

The kids always love the binoculars!

Dennis and I are looking forward to our church team coming down in November.  We look forward to your company but will have much to do when you are here.

Love you guys! 

One Year Anniversary Celebration

To celebrate our one year anniversary here in Belize, Dennis and I took a little day-trip to Big Rock Falls in the Pine Ridge Mountains outside of San Ignacio.  We had recently heard about the falls from our friends Dee Dee and Charlie and they kind of told us how to get there.  There are not many road signs in Central America.  But we found a map on line and made our way there without any problems.  It was much closer than we thought and it was free!

It took us about an hour to get there on some very interesting gravel roads. We drove passed a place called Blancaneaux, which I guess is owned by Francis Ford Coppola. We were the only people there and it was wonderful.  The falls were spectacular and the water was beautiful and not very cold at all.  In these photos  I am about as far as I could go because the rocks were too slippery.  Right below the falls is a perfect round pool.  It almost looked man-made.

I really like this photo.  It should be in a brochure for Belize!

I thought that this looked like someone put this rock here.

Dennis likes this one because of how the lines work their way out
of the photo.  Also you can play "find Vicki".

This was only one set of steps out of about seven.  It was a little
rough getting back out.  I guess you can compare it to a trip down
to Fall Creek Falls in TN.

I can never jump in without holding my nose.
The water was perfect!

Yes that is Dennis jumping into the water!  It was the kind of place
that just asked you to take a swim.

It was a perfect get away and we hope to go back again some time.  If any of you wants to go we can take you!  We are very blessed and just happy to be here, and looking forward to another year!

We love you guys!

The Castillo's Visit

After having their children come to visit us numerous times we decided to invite Dora and Julio to come over and spend some down time with us.  They are always working and it was hard to get them over, but we are so glad we did.  

Dora taught me how to make homemade donuts!

Julio wanted to watch Thor while we cooked. On the floor are Christian and Alfredo, it was nap time.
Poor Julio was so tired that he slept through most of the movie along with the little ones.

This is Lucia the oldest daughter.

Dora and I relaxed with our delicious donuts on the back porch.
She actually smiles alot but she is not fond of having her picture taken.

We had a great visit and through the kids we chatted quite a bit with Dora and Julio.  He gave us a lot of advice on growing things here in Belize and she is always teaching me some sort of cooking.  They are just fun to hang around with.  It was a great visit!

Love you guys!