Belize: Part Two

Ok, so in Part One I only made it through the day of arrival and our first day out ministering to the people. On to Day 2 Sunday morning. I woke up to that lovely rooster singing his song nice and early. So it became routine to take a walk with Nicole. On this particular morning it was very foggy but it made for beautiful scenery that just can't be captured.

 We saw lots of chickens wherever we walked. It took us more than a few moments to figure out what the local people were calling the chickens when they were talking about setting up the coops. Some are called layers and some are called fryers. I am sure you can figure it out from there :)

 Lots of baby chicks!

 We were walking along a path when I turned to Nicole, "I wonder what this fence is holding behind it!?" and at that exact moment we heard a very low and very deep MOOOOOO! Can you spot the fella?

Back at Camp we had my favorite breakfast by far....flap jacks! It was a fried tortilla folded over. No one is surprised that it's my favorite because it tastes like one of those elephant ears at the carnival. I definitely helped myself to seconds or thirds that morning.

We headed back to Shawville for a morning of worship with the children. They were able to use our bus to drive around and pick up the children rather than use their family truck for multiple trips.

 

We all started to gather together outside the church since there was a bee's nest that had to be taken care of first inside.

 This church was given to the Salazar family just days before our arrival. Talk about a God thing. To have a building to worship in for these children, under the roof, away from the hot hot sun. Praise God for those who were willing to hand over the keys to those who needed it most.

We sang songs and danced our hearts out. There is nothing you can say to describe how it felt to sing at the top of your lungs and to dance freely with the children. It's only something to experience.

After worship, we put on a skit for the children. This was the story of how Jesus asked his disciples to get him a donkey to ride into town. Jason or on this trip, they called him John Cena (professional wrestler) was involuntarily offered to be Jesus. The seniors on the trip were all about seeing him dress up and ride the "donkey".

Here is our resident donkey

This is the crew of disciples, townsmen, and Jesus. Not to be confused with a frat toga party.

This is the part where I about peed my pants. Jeremy (playing the part of 1/2 the donkey) was begging for Jason to actually ride on him. He was sure to make the story as literal as possible. No Jesus was going to walk next to the donkey. So of course Jason hopped on and the kids LOVED it!

After our hilarious skit, we were able to feed everyone rice and a cup of juice. It wasn't a lot but it was something. Hard to post these pictures and not get that feeling in your stomach. The one that tells you that back here in our home, we waste too much food. We let our children get by with not eating everything on their plate. We fix them 5 meals in one sitting just so that they will eat something because they are such picky eaters. Nothing else to say except .....ugh!

 

We ate another amazing lunch prepared by Pastora Salazar and got ready for our first medical clinic right there within the church. We probably saw about 150 people within a few hours. We had Dr. Mike as we called him and myself set up at each station with translators and nurses to help triage. We saw hypertension, diabetes, anemia, malnutrition, ear aches, stress, headaches, and much more.

 Our goals were to help those get medication that needed it, along with education on health and hygiene and how to manage these diagnosis without many resources.

We hurried back to camp after clinic to take a quick cold shower and change for church service that night. Pastor Tom from Dexter spoke followed by a few testimonies from the high schoolers. Pastora then spoke. Although she spoke Spanish and her daughter translated, we all talked about how you almost didn't need the translation. Her passion for Christ and spreading His Love is so large that you could feel it pouring out of her as she preached the roof off that place. Many people that night rose their hands to ask for us to pray with them so they could invite Jesus into their hearts. I just got goose bumps typing that. It's not everyday you watch people get moved through the Word of God right before your eyes. It was moving to say the least.

How did I only make it through ONE more day!? More to come....stay tuned!