Monday and Tuesday March 26 and 27, 2007

On Monday the team worked on planning a VBS for next week. We put people in groups and assigned different tasks to the different groups. Things went really well. Everyone finished their tasks quickly and with success. I am looking forward to how things will run next week. Amy and I were in charge of overseeing everything. I was so happy when things went well because I wasn’t totally sure what I was doing!

In the afternoon Amy, Kathy and I did some errands. We got the passport visa stamps. That was a big blessing. In Belize you can only be a tourist for a month I think and after that you have to pay $50 American per month that you are here. We were expecting to get a student visa which would cost us $40 to get, but would be good for the rest of the time that we are here. Kathy went in and talked to the people at the passport office and they ended up giving us another visa that was free! Thank God for His favour up on us!

Today we worked on more preparing for VBS. The students did a lot of base clean up. This evening we will be packing ourselves up for a few days. We will be spending the rest of the week in Corozal. I think that we will be painting a school and doing some clean up. We will also be taking time to relax on the beaches there. Please pray for us as we go.

Again, I am sorry that it took so long for me to post. I hope that everyone is doing well. It is good being here, but I miss home! God Bless.

Saturday and Sunday March 24 and 25

Saturday was just a relaxation day. Thankfully we have the pool to keep people entertained. Amy, Kathy and I did some planning in the afternoon. Thankfully that didn’t take long.

Sunday morning I went to a church within walking distance of the base. The morning service was a youth group meeting basically. The youth there talked about a conference that they went to. Each one of them had to say how God spoke to them and what they took home from the conference. It was pretty good. It was hard to understand what they were saying some of the time, but it was good none the less. In the afternoon we did some relaxing, swimming, tanning, and house cleaning. We found out that we have cockroaches in our house so that was a good motivation for a lot of people. Right how we have the whole team home so the house gets very messy and dirty very quickly. It is a challenge for everyone to keep their stuff neat. I am proud to say that my stuff has stayed amazingly neat this whole time. For those of you who know me well… that is really quite impressive. :)

Wednesday – Friday March 21 – 23, 2007

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday went by quickly. On Wednesday and Thursday I just worked on the base. On Thursday one of my jobs was cleaning this grossly dirty house. I found a cockroach in there… I was not too overly happy about that! It wasn’t a huge one, but I still didn’t enjoy it’s presents.

Later in the afternoon I spent some time just sitting alone in the kitchen listening to my music. I was making pizza and I had to wait for the cheese to come so I just relaxed. It was nice to be able to just listen to my music and just be alone. Sadly I can’t really just play my music in the house. Every time I try it just gets drown out by someone else’s music.

As I was sitting in the kitchen I heard some yelling and commotion outside and I looked out the window to see five guys running around with ropes trying to lasso a bull! Two of the guys were actually professional cowboys! They were running around wearing cowboy hats and boots. It was quite entertaining. At first they were chasing after it with a quad and then they resorted to a horse. It took them about three hours to actually catch the bull… and they ran everywhere… even through the jungle.

On Friday morning we went out to the market and out for ice cream. We took all of the students who were working on the base and treated them. It was nice to go out. I actually got a little bit of colour that day!

Tuesday March 20, 2007

On Tuesday we went out with elderly people from Octavia Waight Centre. It was quite interesting! It took about 45 mins to load all of them into the bus. Some of the people were blind and many couldn’t walk. It took a lot of lifting, guiding, prodding and awkward positions to get them all on the bus. We first went to an iguana conservatory where we had lunch in a grass covered shelter. There was a man there who played some tunes on the keyboard and sang for us. There were a few elderly people who stepped up and danced. It was quite amusing to watch.

I went for a walk with some people to see the iguanas. There were lots there! And there were some pretty big ones that were more brightly coloured. I’m told that those ones are poisonous.

After lunch and some relaxation and some dancing we loaded back on the bus and drove to Spanish Lookout to the Western Dairies factory for some ice cream.

When we got to the ice cream factory we field of the bus with all of the people who could walk and had a tour of the factory. It was… interesting. We first had to cloth all of the people in robes, hairnets and plastic bags on their feet. Then we walked through a noisy place with several old people who couldn’t touch anything. The lady that I was helping asked that they never took her there again! The tour was kind of useless because we couldn’t even hear what the tour guide was saying.

After the tour everyone got some ice cream.

Over all the day was good. The elderly had not been out on a trip in eight months, so they enjoyed just getting out.

Monday March 19, 2007

During the week I spent most of my time at the YWAM base. Monday was a somewhat insane day. Mr. K. was out dropping people off at the airport. On his way home again the tire tread started to come off of his tire. He stopped and wanted to change the tire, but the jack wouldn’t work so he couldn’t. He got back in the van and prayed and prayed until he got back to the base. When he got back Ellis changed the tire to the donut tire. The donut tire had some leaks in it, though, so that wasn’t going to last long, but it had to last for a little while. Mr. K then went to pick up some of the students from the school that they were co-oping at. On his way home from the school the break failed on that same van. He was on his way down a hill and he knew that there was a curve coming and a narrow road. He again prayed and pumped the breaks and then they started working again.

On that day Mr. Rick was also out with Santi dropping off the other students at their placements. After dropping off the students the bus that they were driving broke down. They had to call around and find another ride home. Santi brother or brother-in-law drove them home, but on the way they stopped at many places and visited with many people and… because Sanit is so talkative… these visits too a long time.

That evening we finally got the ground ready for the pool. I spent some time in the evening with Mr. K. and Nathan spreading dirt and sand to make a level area for the pool. It wasn’t until after dark that we got to spreading out and pumping up the pool. That proved to be an interesting endeavor. We put the hoses in and left them for the night to start filling the pool. We knew that the pool filling would take hours because the water pressure is very low here.

At 8:30 we had devotions, but before we could do that we had some problems with and student being very disobedient and rebellious. It was hard to get into devotions after that, but we pressed in. After devotions we had a meeting with that student. The meeting was harsh and straight to the point. She really didn’t see at all how she was wrong and how selfish she was being. She came to the realization of what had happened and apologized.

Monday was a crazy day, to say the least. God was faithful, though, and He gave us the strength to make it through.

Sunday March 18, 2007

On Sunday we had some morning devotion, some relaxation time and some major house cleaning time. In the evening we went to church. No body really wanted to go to church at night. There was a lot of opposition. We got everyone to get on the bus and we headed off. When we go to the hotel where the church usually meets we found out that they weren’t having church there that night because some other people had booked their room. There happened to an elder there, though, who told us that church was meeting in the pastors house instead. We called the pastor and asked him if he had room for 22 extra people. He told us that he did! We drove to his house and packed ourselves in there. A lot of people had to stand… the actually congregation didn’t even fit in the main room. We tried to offer them our seats, but they insisted that we sat in their seats. God really met a lot of the students at church that night. He did amazing things in so many people’s lives. It was no wonder that there was so much opposition.

During the service I was thinking about how I went the orphanage on the Thursday before. As soon as I got there I didn’t feel that that was the place that God was calling me to. It was strange because I thought that God called me to Belize to go to the orphanage and give out my beanie babies. At first I thought that maybe the orphanage just wasn’t what I thought it would be and that was my reason for thinking that I wasn’t called there. I asked God what was going on there. Why was I called? Why didn’t I feel like I should be at the orphanage? If I wasn’t supposed to bring my beanie babies there, then where was I supposed to bring them? Then God brought to mind the kids that we had saw at the dump. I think that God is telling me that I am supposed to bring them to the kids at the dumps and the kids who live in the shacks along the sides of the roads with their families.

That night I was also feeling rather discouraged with leading. I kept on thinking that I wasn’t strong enough and I wasn’t “spiritual” enough. I felt like God wasn’t talking to me the way that He was speaking to the other leaders. I talked to a few friends about it and they reaffirmed me that I could do this. Then in Church I really felt God was telling me that I am where God wants me to be. That reaffirmed me God was speaking to me and He was with me. Sometimes I don’t feel like God is speaking to me the same what that He is to the other leaders, but He IS speaking to me.

Saturday March 17, 2007

On Saturday the 17^th we went to the Blue Hole. It was pretty there. We started by hiking along a trail through the jungle towards a large cave. We had a tour guide who told us about everything that was passed. We saw an “all spice” tree and everyone got to pick a leaf off. I never knew before that “all spice” was one spice… rather then all spices mixed together!

We went through the cave and could barely see anything because we didn’t have very many flashlights. I tried to take pictures in the cave, but they didn’t turn out very well. It was so dark in there! We saw cool formations on the roof of the cave; one was a “jellyfish formation”. We also saw some mien pottery.

On our way back through the cave we stopped and went swimming. That was interesting because it was pitch black so we had to swim with a flashlight and we couldn’t see what the water was like… or what was in the water. We didn’t swim very quickly through that water! Thankfully the water was shallow for the most part. It was a lot of fun.

After the cave we trekked back through the jungle and had lunch. At lunch we met a Jewish man. He was sitting at the table that we were eating at. The poor man was sitting there trying to fill out a survey and we were all making sandwiches and stuff practically on top of him. We told him that we were Christians… and his response was sad, and somewhat unexpected to me. He said “Oh, I didn’t notice.” It makes me realize that people really are watching and observing and our actions speak for us. We talked to him a bit and asked him to pray a blessing over us.

After lunch we went to swim in the blue hole. It was really pretty there. We had to decent down several steps into a valley. It was beautiful. The water was so pretty. We had a fun time just swimming and playing around in the water. We also went swimming into another cave. We couldn’t go very far in that one though.

On our way back home we drove passed a dump. We noticed that there were children there who were searching through the garbage for food. We decided to stop our bus and give the kids the rest of our bread that we had left over from lunch. As soon as the kids saw us slowing down they came running.

The day was an overall good day.

March 19, 2007

Another week has flown by! This week has had is its ups and downs, but over all it was good.

At the beginning of the week I worked on the base. In the mornings I spent most of my time in the kitchen. I learned how to make corn tortillas. Man, they take a lot of work! I am hoping that the cook here will give me the recipe so that I can make them when I get home.

I spent a lot of the afternoons in meetings. We are trying to nail down a schedule for the rest of our time here. We are trying to figure out all of the financial information and what we can all do with the money that we have. There are several outreach trips that we would like to do, but aren’t sure how much we can afford.

On Thursday I went to the orphanage with Hannah and Ben. It went well there. I was really tired by the end. I’m not sure if it was just from being at the orphanage, or if it was because of everything else that has been going on

Monday, March 12, 2007

This past week has been good. I worked at the placement on the base finishing the curtains for the first half of the week. They turned out well. On Thursday morning we finished the house for Mr. K and his wife.

On Thursday afternoon I went out with Kathy to run some errands. We went to the grocery store to get some food and cleaning supplies. Everything is really expensive in the stores. It is more expensive to buy things here then in Canada. They are always asking people to bring things with them when they come to Belize because it is so much cheaper. The only things that are cheap are fruits in season and chicken.

Kathy and I went out for lunch at this little international restaurant. The food was deep fried. A lot of things are deep fried here.

Later in the afternoon we went and picked up some of the students from their placement because they were having a really rough time there. They are working in a classroom of kids that are move challenging and the teacher wasn’t there because her father passed away. The students at the school had no respect for out students who were trying to teach them. We went out for ice cream with them… because as Kathy says, “everything looks better on the other side of an ice cream!” The students were roughed up, but determined to return again the next day and try again.

Mr. Vankampen and his wife Petra came on Thursday, as well at Mr. Kamphuis’s in-laws.

On Friday I was working on the base again. I did some cleaning and sweeping. At lunch time some of us went down to watch the Canoe race. There were several teams of people racing from one side of Belize to the other. The race takes a total of four days. The river that they go down goes right through the base so we could easily go and watch for a few minuets.

In the evening we went and picked up all of the students from their placements and then we went to In His Will Ministries where some of the students are staying and we had a BBQ. The land that In His Will Ministries has is amazing.

On Saturday we went to the Cayes for the day. It was so pretty there! The boat ride was kind of long, but enjoyable. On the way there we passed by this bird island. There were a few kinds of birds there. There were these male birds that had this red sack thing that they poofed out really big when they landed. It was their mating dance thing I guess.

We went snorkeling off the island. That was amazing! They have the second largest reef in the world in Belize. We got to see so many beautiful bright fish and a lot of coral. I found snorkeling a little bit scary at first and I often got some water in my snorkel and had to stop and empty it out. My lunges are still sore from the way that I was breathing while snorkeling. The Caye that we were on was very small. You could walk from one side to the other in about five minuets and from end to end it took about half an hour maybe. I was hoping to walk all the way from end to end but there were some fences up so we thought that maybe it was privet property and so we thought that it would be best if we didn’t. I wish that I had had a disposable under water camera so that I could have taken some pictures of the fish and coral reef. We might go back there again later in the trip, so maybe I can get one before then.

On Sunday we went to church on the base because they were doing a youth retreat called Legacy. The worship was amazing. I have not been in worship like that in a long time. . In the evening service I was really able to meet with God during worship. It brought me to tears to see so many teenagers worshiping so passionately. They were all up at the front together, singing and jumping and just totally excited about God. The whole building was shaking!

Today I went along to drop all of the kids back off at their placement. We first dropped off about half of the students at Kings Children’s Home. Then we went and dropped off the students that stay with different families. It was good to be there. It really makes me want to have a placement off of the base and in with the people. It was nice to meet the families that people are staying with. When we were in Spanish Lookout we went to this farmer’s market store thing. They call it the Walmart here. It is a lot like a Walmart, but it is run by the Amish people.

After dropping everyone off we went out for lunch at this really nice hotel. And, Mr. Vankampen and his wife Petra paid for the meal!

Dropping everyone off at their placements took up the whole day. We went back and picked up the students that were at Kings Children’s Home and then we went to The Art Box. That was a really neat store.

This past week has been good and bad. The students are doing fairly well in their placements. Those that have had a hard time aren’t allowing that to break their spirits. They are willing to go back and keep on pressing on until things work out well.

As far as leading goes, it has had is rewards and its difficulties. As leadership we still need prayer. We need to make sure that things are communicated properly and we need to make sure that we are staying united. Please continue to pray for us.

Monday March 5, 2007

Today was our first actual work day. Most of the students were off at their different placements. I was here at the YWAM base working. My first task is sewing curtains for a new house on the base. I have never sewn curtains before so this was a somewhat scary task. The instructions that I was given were fairly basic, though, so it wasn't too bad. I finished the bedroom curtains and they seem good. I tried out the "White" sewing machine that was donated to me. It works very well. It took a little while to figure everything out, but once I got going it was good.

Sunday March 4, 2007

This morning we went to a church that is walking distance away from the YWAM base. The service was good. There was no worship team; they just had a tape playing with one man leading with that tape. Everyone was very lively. After worship the pastor invited people from the congregation to come up and share things that God was doing in their lives and what God was speaking to them. Several people went up and there was a common theme. The theme was the bondage of un-forgiveness and being set free from that. The pastor decided not to preach after these people shared because he felt that if he spoke it would be over kill. He decided to just share a passage with us and then open up the alters. Over all, the service was good.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

Yesterday in the morning we had time to relax and settle in. We met Kathy, who has been organizing everything for us down here. She is an amazing lady! We had orientation and a tour and we were told where our first placements will be. I found out that my first three week placement will be here on the base. I will be working with Kathy a lot. She wants me to sew curtains for a new house that they have built. I will also be working in the kitchen.

I am not sure when I will be going to the orphanage. I will be going there for one placement, but I am not sure which one. If you plan to send me letters, then send them to the YWAM Belize base. :D

I am not feeling homesick yet. The fact that I am here and that I will be here for three months hasn't really hit me yet. Everything feels surreal.

Today is a quiet day. Most people are gone for the day. They are all being dropped off at their first placement. It is nice to have some time to just relax.

I saw a pretty bird today. It was so brightly coloured! I didn't get a picture of it, sadly, because I didn't have my camera with me at the moment.

There is a large fire outside right now. We are a little worried about it. We smelt it and heard it a few hours ago and now we are starting to be able to see it through the thick jungle behind out house. We aren't doing anything about it. Rick and I said that we would save our laptops first. We were told that it is common to see grass fires in the fields because they light the grass on fire before they harvest the gain out of a field. I'm not quite sure how that works, but that's what they do.

Tonight we are going to have a bonfire. Santie says that it is a sin to waste the full moon. Tonight is going to be a full moon, so we will be outside enjoying it. Last night the moon was nearly full and it was very light. Once the moon gets smaller we will be able to see the stars better.

Well, that's all that I have for now. I hope that things are going well in Canada! I heard that you're storm was pretty bad!

Please pray for us here. Pray for the leaders that we will be able to lead the students well. We need God's grace, mercy and strength.

Thank you.

The Journey There - Thursday, March 01, 2007

We arrived! God has blessed us with safety and heath so far.

We started our journey at about 1:15 AM March 1, 2007. The HD part of the team began by meeting at HDCH. Mr. Vankampan met us there and prayed over us. From there we headed to Grimsby where we met up with the TD part of the team. We left Grimsby with our last Tim Horton's beverages in hand. When we got to the US border we had a little trouble crossing, but nothing to serious. Everything went well at the Buffalo Airport. I found two kind boys who packed light and therefore where able to take my sewing machines as their luggage.

We flew to Atlanta where we had a stop over. We had to circle around for a bit in Atlanta before we could land because of the weather. The Atlanta airport is HUGE! Our next flight was on the other side of the airport so we took the monorail to the other end. In the airport we saw a vending machine type thing that sold iPods!

Our flight to Mexico was good. It was quite warm when we got off the plane and we got to go off using the stairs! Then we took a shuttle bus to the airport where we went through customs and got out baggage. We had a hard time with the sewing machines there. They wanted the invoice and proof of purchase and stuff like that. We told them that we didn't have it and we weren't sure how much they cost. They let us through this time, but they said that if we wanted to take something again then we have to have that information. When we were leaving the airport we had a lot of stuff to take out so we were going to take things out in stages. We when we went to go back into the airport they wouldn't let us. Thankfully the people still in the airport discovered that they couldn't leave and come back so they paid a Mexican to bring a cart with the rest of the suitcases. The Mexico airport was pretty. There were palm trees everywhere.

We met Santie, who is the director of Belize YWAM. He led us around. We had to take a coach bus from the airport to where our bus was parked. We ended up moving our luggage SOO much! I think we probably had about 60 or more pieces of luggage between all 22 of us. We moved our luggage from the coach bus to this one corner, then we were told to move it to another corner, and then we had to take it across the street and to this other corner and then we had to take it down to street to the bus. There was this Mexican guy who helped me cross the street and then he just stood there and watched us. We weren't sure if he was waiting to steel stuff or if he wanted to help. Eventually we gave him some money and then he helped us move some of our baggage. At 4 PM we boarded the school bus that we had bought. Our bus is quite interesting. The front half of the bus has seats, but not the back. We put all the luggage in the back and some people sat on it. The bus ride to Belize took about 10 hours. We had to stop at the side of the road for a pee break and we stopped at Burger King for dinner. When we got to the Belize border we had to unload the bus again. We brought everything inside and they checked through our bags by actually opening them and rummaging through. We had to pay duty on the sewing machines. It cost $72 American. Santie said that they were very gracious. They could have charged us duty on all of out laptops and cameras and everything, but they didn't. They didn't even look through our bags very thoroughly. We had another two hour bus ride from the Belize border to Belmopan. We stopped on the side of the road for a min to dip out feet in the warm ocean water. We finally arrived at out base at 3AM Belize time, which is 4AM in Canada. Our journey took a total of 27 hours. We were all tired, to say the least.