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!

Mothers in Poverty

I hugged a mom the other night.  It was out in her front yard, in the dark, surrounded by her family.  We didn't know each other and Dennis and I were actually there for her grandchildren whom we know and love.  We were there for a wake.  This mother's son had been murdered in a terrible way and we were there to convey our sadness to them.  The family knew who we were and offered us chairs to sit in for a while.  We felt awkward as we looked around with the porch light in our eyes.  It was hard to see people in the dark.  Tonight was the first of three days of mourning and many people were expected.

I had asked people the day before about the young man who died.  Many of them had fond memories of him. Some were sad because he had spent time in prison and although they did not have the words, I could tell their hearts were heavy because of the wasted life.  I could tell that they wished things were different.  I could see that there was a feeling of hopelessness.  A pastor friend had a conversation with the mother the day before and what she told him made my heart hurt.  She said that she had expected an ending like this for her son.  She had tried to get him to change his behavior, others had too.  But the dark world had a tight grip on him and his death came as his mother expected it would.  He left behind beautiful children who loved their dad and many other family members who will miss him greatly.

I have spent time with another mother in Buena Vista. Dora has a great sense of humor and  laughs when she tries to teach me Spanish.  She is an excellent cook and recently she came over and we made donuts for the whole family.  We had a lot of fun.  Dora works very very hard.  A month before school got out she had to leave her family and travel to Orange Walk to work in the cane fields.  Dora tried to make it home as often as she could but you could tell her absence was taking its toll on the family.  I stopped by one afternoon and noticed that she was walking in a painful way.  She told me that the sugar cane was very heavy.  They have to harvest it by hand and then carry bundles to the carts.  Dora is like all mothers and she wants her children to have a better life.

I have been praying for Blanca.  She is a mother of at least two beautiful young ladies, Tanya and Jennifer.  They are very smart girls and they both can read very well.  As a matter of fact, Jennifer was in the district spelling bee this last year.  Blanca has some form of cancer that has recently been causing her much pain.  She wears a bandanna that covers her forehead and one eye.  The sun really hurts her eyes.   She will be away for a while.  I think she is seeking long term care but I'm not sure.  I asked the girls if they will be alright without their mother and they didn't seem to worried.  Her cancer had taken her away from them so much that they didn't know any different.

Today I was working at the school and another mother stopped by when she saw me there.  She is a very determined mom who is very proud of her youngest daughter who caught the bus for high school this morning.  We talked for a while and she asked if we could help pay for Susana's lunches at the school. This mom had asked us before for help with her children.  As I said, she is a determined mother.  She is doing all she can to help her children attain a better life.  I will not fault her for that.  As a matter of fact, I admire her strength as much as I admire her humility.

Poverty is at work here.  She is cruel and heartless.  If Satan had a favorite mistress, she would be Poverty.  She steals dreams from mothers.  She creates desires that are unattainable for young people.  Then they give themselves over to her through addictions, prostitution, stealing, jealousy and many other immoral behaviors. Poverty eats away at fathers who are desperate to feed and protect their families.  Poverty takes the health of the elderly and the very lives of babies.  Poverty creates evil in the hearts of men who know they can gain what they want by manipulation of the hungry.

 And one of the worst things I have seen Poverty do is harden the hearts of families toward each other.  It is easier to not feel the pain.  Tenderness towards each other is a rare thing with these families.  There is an outside toughness that looks a lot like apathy towards each other, but it's not.  I don't doubt that they love each other but they must use toughness as a form of self-preservation.  They cannot spend the time and energy it takes to coddle children.  That would only make them susceptible to the influences of Poverty.

God is all about relationships.  Dennis and I came to Belize for this reason.  We love these people and we want them to know that there is hope.  We know what Jesus has done for us and we want people to know the hope that we have is available to them also.  Only the hope that Jesus provides can overcome the darkness of poverty.  Light will always overcome darkness.

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the Lord.  "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29-11

These are the things that people in poverty need to hear.

We love you guys.  The next blog will have  Dora's donut pictures!