Sunday, June 9th!
Wake up time for this camper is 6am! Getting the rest of the room up at 6:30. My room-mates are Tanise and Shyanna (my daughters), Allie and Kayla (another leader).
Last night wasn't the best night's sleep of my life- but not the worst either. Plus, I am super excited about this day and all that it holds!
BREAKFAST:
First thing is first, we have Sunday School. I am looking forward to this! Our little group is teaching in the teen room. Last night I was able to help Mia put together her lesson. I have full confidence in this young lady! She is so bubbly and compassionate. She is determined to let God use her to reach out to others. Beautiful!
She is talking about the Church being one body and every part of that body being important and useful in ministry!
We had a great time at Church- and then at the end of service, we played some games in the back yard with the students from St. Richards and all of the kids at the church who wanted to. Red Rover Red Rover.....I remember being completely impressed by the manners of the children from Belize. They each said, "Please send ______ right over." It was so cute!
After church, we had lunch - a real Belizean experience! Plantains with coconut rice and beans! (we would have this everyday for lunch with a different meat and vegetable.) I added hot sauce to mine- some of the hottest hot sauces I have ever had. YUM!
We played a game (introduced to us by one of the team leaders from Praying Pelican Missions, Andy. It was called Silent Football..... I think. Anyway. This is a hilarious game which really allowed everyone to get to know people's names and had people getting up and sitting down doing hilarious activities! I must admit I didn't play until the 3rd day. But I watched and laughed until my cheeks hurt!
We also did a training time with Denny- the head leader from Praying Pelican. We learned about talking with people and used an illustration of a house, people standing on the roof, reaching into a glove, which was holding an airplane, with a tennis racket for a propeller, a light bulb in the racket netting, a PFC officer standing on top of the plane with a goal on top of his head and between the goal posts were praying hands instead of a football. This illustration was to remind us of conversations we could strike up with toal strangers in an effort to get to know them. Where do you live? Tell me about your family. What do you do for a living? Have you traveled or lived anywhere else? What do you do for fun? What kinds of ideas do you have about life- your passions? Is there anything you fear? What goals do you have for yourself? Your family? Your community? Can I pray for or with you?
ANDY and DENNY:
Then we went out to the community and we talked to people- and they ACTUALLY ANSWERED THEIR DOORS! AND TOOK TIME TO TALK! :) (So un-American.)
I had been looking at the scenery of Belize since we arrived. Trying to take as much as I could in. Trying to learn about the people and their culture through what I saw. I continued to do this as we walked about San Ignacio. This place is more in the mountains of Belize. There are typically two kinds of homes- wooden ones built on stilts and cement ones built on the ground. The people hand their clothes out to dry.... I am imagining many of them hand wash them as well. The stores, for the most part are cement buildings with garage door type entrances- they have refrigerated sections but the heat here is unreal and so nothing seems that cold. Not as cold as the refrigerated section back home. People are friendly- but women and children seem a bit more shy. Men are very forward. They do not seem to mind blurting out comments like "Hey baby..." Hi Mami".... etc and they smile and sort of stare from what I have been noticing. We are always in groups of at least 3- and always try to have at least one male with us anywhere we go.(On a side note, I think it's important to mention that I notice signs in the city of Belize the day before. Many billboard that said things about AIDS and HIV. I saw one sign that actually said something like "I Have to Have Sex to Have a Home. Help." My heart was just about ripped out of my chest.)
After a time, we head back to the church and from there decide to go down to the river where we hear a lot of people are gathered on this hot afternoon to cool off! A dog that had followed us around earlier in the day was at the river and believe it or not, this same dog would make a few more appearances at various locations we visited. There are LOTS of stray dogs in Belize. One of the PPM team members told me there were like 7 dogs to every 1 person! That's a LOT of dogs!
We went to the church again for dinner and visiting with each other and then prepared for Church Service.
This church service is pretty neat as our Rocky Mountain Group put the service on. (St. Richards went to a mass at the Catholic church down the road.) Conner a young man who just graduated high school led worship. Ben- our Youth Pastor gave the message. A few of our teens gave their testimonies. One of them was my daughter, Tanise. She told them about her cousin dying and how that caused her to live in fear and have anxiety for a while- she shared how she got through it with God's help. I was very proud of her! I believe when you tell your story- it brings freedom to you and to others. You don't have to hide or feel ashamed. We all struggle with the same kinds of things and after hearing your story, another person can experience the freedom that comes from knowing they are not alone and that they, too, can share.
I personally, also enjoyed worshiping in Spanish. Even though I knew not all that I was singing, it was fun and freeing to sing to God in another language!
At this point in my trip, I was a bit emotional from just being tired and I was feeling a bit awkward. I was one of three leaders and was feeling like I was not really leading. I have a different style of leading than a lot of people. I learned this style of leadership at Vineyard Church in Columbus, Ohio. It is called being a "Servant Leader" and it falls more in line with my gifts and my love language of serving. Since, I was busy being with the students and doing what they were doing and I didn't really know the other two leaders from my church, I just felt kind of out of the loop. I was the oldest person on the trip- but not really hanging out with the people closer to my age much. (Story of my life! lol). We have 2 campuses and as it turned out, I was the only adult from my campus going- it all happened kind of last minute as well, so there wasn't much time to get to know each other before our trip!) I used my Bible study time to remind myself that this trip was not about my feelings or me. It was about whatever it was God wanted..... this was a good thing. I am thankful that Ben brought it along! My moments of feeling awkward didn't last long. Through this Bible Study time, I was reminded that whatever was happening was a part of God's plan. His plan is always the best plan! So, I smiled and really began to savor the time I had with the students and the work I was able to do. It truly was such a blessing to just trust that what was going on was exactly what God wanted!!
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