Day 7. On the Island

Friday morning, June 14th, I woke up feeling just a bit out of sorts. Not as bad as I had the morning before. But still, not as good as I usually do! 

None-the-less, today was our last day. Today we would go to an island and relax a bit before heading home.

We again were up early and ready to go. I think this time it was leaving by 6am! Funny thing is I hear my daughter, Tanise' alarm go off so we all started getting up. One of the girls in our room, Allie, said, "Beach day! Time to get up!" (Chipper is the tone I would use to describe it.) I looked at my phone and it said 4:30! UGH! We were up an hour too early! Back to bed and a sound sleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow!

We headed to the lobby, to the bus, and then to the water taxi. As soon as we boarded the water taxi, I felt a sense of relaxation I hadn't felt all week. I love the water.....it was beautiful! Blue sky, clear water and white clouds. The wind as we surfed the water was amazingly appreciated by me after all of the heat and sweat I had experienced through the week. We were heading for a day of fun!

Snorkeling.... This was something that amazed me! I was afraid to go under and try yo breathe through that little contraption.... but as soon as I put my head under and did it, I felt relaxed. Relaxed from floating peacefully in the warm water surrounding me and relaxed from the scenery, which made me feel as though I were in an aquarium. The rhythmic sound of my breathing was soothing and I began to think it was probably similar to what my babies felt in my womb while I was pregnant...... PEACE. I felt total peace in that water.

Sting Rays! We later swam with them. It was pretty cool, although, I never got far enough under to touch one. I enjoyed watching them under my feet and attempting to go far enough under to get a feel......

Lunch at a restaurant. We still had no ice in our glasses- but it was nice to sit in a chair at a table to eat. All week we sat in pews in the church and had foam containers..... this was more of a back to normal feeling for me! Funny thing, we had 11 people from our group at this restaurant and we ALL ordered BURGERS! I guess we missed our American food, as well! 

Time to walk around the island and do some shopping. This was fun and I witnessed just how good my second Daughter, Tanise and a young woman named Allie were at haggling! I wanted to buy a Hammock Chair for our family and the man told me it was something like $100. These two got him down to $35! Nice! I appreciated the hand made items being sold there. I knew that purchasing them was giving us a nice souvenir and helping some of the locals' businesses. Thankfully, a generous person gave us a little money to do some shopping on our trip and we got hand made jewelry, a couple small carvings, bags (girls love their bags, you know.) and now the hammock seat! 

A little team meeting and recap of the week. We got to hear from 2 individuals about each person in the group. Some encouragement from our peers! How nice! After, we went for dinner (another restaurant) and this time a buffet! Fish and Chicken and Shrimp and side dishes! Cold Lime drink! YUM! Our last meal together. This week had flown by! There were a few staff members from Praying Pelican that I wanted to share something encouraging with. I appreciate them leaving home and comforts again and again to help lead groups like ours in unfamiliar things in an unfamiliar place. We spent a week, but they would be spending their summer there with group after group.

One last game of Silent Football under a canopy of black sky and a Palm leaf roof over our heads outside the hotel.

This hotel had GOOD AIR CONDITIONING! I went in as soon as we arrived and turned it to the lowest setting! It was pretty clean- no ants marching around.....a carpeted floor and solid tiles....no holes in the ceiling, no exposed wires..... we were living a more comfortable life here.... more of the life we were all used to before this week. It was amazing how much I was appreciating it!

Outside of our hotel:

Entrance to our room:

Yes, this life was more like the life a tourist leads while in Belize.... a little blinded by the life of most natives of the place. 

If I lived here, I think I would want to be a captain or ship mate on a boat and take people snorkeling all day...... 

Day 6, Thursday, June 13th

The night had been extremely difficult for me. My stomach was crampy and nauseated throughout. I woke up, took my shower and then laid back down again and fell asleep. The girls got up and I lay there thinking, "This is our last day here and I feel like crap! How am I going to do this?"

So, about 10 minutes before we had to meet in the lobby of the hotel, I got up. We had to walk on this day as our bus driver, Vinson, was driving the other group to the water taxi for their day of R&R. We were up in the mountains and the hills were steep. I could do it. I'm a fitness instructor- let's see how I do in the heat exerting energy while feeling sick.

I lagged. Took my time. Kayla walked with me. She mentioned that she was kind of glad I wasn't feeling 100% as seeing me have so much energy and doing so much was somehow making her not feel as positive about what she was giving or doing on the trip. Something like that. I didn't take offense. I actually understand it. I have been told similar things before. Sometimes, people are somehow intimidated (not sure if that's the best word) by a person with my personality. I am a "go-getter". I make lists and check them off. I give as much as I can to whatever I am doing, or to me, it isn't worth doing. I don't care what other people choose to do- but I somehow can cause others (unintentionally to feel like less- or be intimidated by). I was once a Strength's Coach for Gallop. This Coaching helps people see the way they "do life" in a positive light. It isn't uncommon for people to hear negative comments from others who don't understand how they operate and when you can get an appreciation for how you operate and how others do it helps teams work together, people feel better about how they are and helps people take on roles and jobs that best suit them. My top five themes (which make up how I do life) are "Achiever"- list making and checking off then starting a new list, "Maximizer"- make good better or best- don't bother if it isn't going to happen or isn't a strength of mine- let someone else, "Relator"-relating to people- do well one on one or small groups, "Strategic"- always thinking "what if" looking at possibilities, "Responsibility"- If I say I am going to do it, I am going to... or I will kill myself trying! Now, don't get me wrong. I also relax and play with the same passion and conviction as I work. When I take a day off- I DO NOTHING. AT. ALL. When I play, I PLAY HARD! I say all this to say- no matter how you are made- you have been made in such a way to do whatever is in front of you to do in a unique way! Being different from another isn't bad- it's actually very good as it helps give well-roundedness to the world or project and more completion than if it was only one way accomplished from one viewpoint or one standard or one way of doing it. BE YOU! YOU are NEEDED!! :)


Kayla and I stop at the store right before the church and she buys me a ginger ale. I am trying to feel good and have energy!



So, we get there.... I am giving it the best shot I have. I DO NOT WANT TO MISS THE LAST DAY!
However, I couldn't eat. I was forcing pieces of breakfast fruit down my throat little by little- but it was VERY little. Ginger ale....that was good. Canada Dry- just like at home. I helped put the frames together for VBS. This require little from me. I wouldn't help finish painting today. I would keep laying low and see how far I could push myself. I soon found myself exhausted. I would succumb to it from time to time - but tried to deny it as well. I joked with the students... slept. Tried to do the Cha-Cha slide.... slept. Weird thing was I was sleeping on the tiled floor with no pillow or blanket, loud music playing and people all around me talking loudly. (Totally out of character for me. I usually need complete darkness, no noise and comfort.)



So, eventually, it was time for lunch and I just couldn't bring myself to eat. I kept making myself drink water. I was extremely tired of the water. Jen, one of the PPM staff asked me what I would be able to consume. I needed to have SOMETHING. I said, "Chicken Noodle soup, saltines and ginger ale- but I already had ginger ale- gatorade was probably a better choice." She did what she could to get me some! Along with her air mattress and a fan so I could sleep more comfortably until the bus arrived and could take me back to the hotel and the air conditioning.

Sleep. That was all I could do.



We got to the hotel and I went to my bed right beside the window air conditioner. I slept another couple of hours before I was finally able to sit up and eat the Ramen noodles and the crackers Jen brought me. I also drank the gatorade she got and then I finished off the water I had in my bottle. Water had to be filtered there. I didn't dare walk outside to go find some or get more Gatorade. What if I was too weak? What if I fainted? I took a quick, cold shower to ensure I was cooling off. Then I decided to lay down and sleep more- after I emailed home to have some human connection. I didn't feel well and I think I was alone for about 5 hours.... I needed some human companionship- and reassurance. Tired, I fell back asleep. Around 9:30 my daughters came in with more Gatorade and filled my water bottle with more water. This was some sort of heat exhaustion, I was suffering from. I had every hope that when I woke up in the morning I would feel much better. Have I ever slept so much in my life? I don't think so. But, again, I went to bed and didn't wake up until the alarm sounded the next day!

My comfort foods from Jen-

 

Our room-



Bathroom-

 

The hotel "kitchen" - the family that owns it also lives there- they let me make coffee in the morning :)



Hotel Hallway to the rooms and balcony-

Wednesday, June 12th Day 5

Per usual we wake up and get ready to arrive at the church by 8am for breakfast.
I am not looking forward to this day as much because I realize that it is our last day working with St. Richard's Church from Jackson, Mississippi.

The whole trip- outside of the day we arrived- people have been saying that you cannot tell us apart. We really teamed up right from the beginning. They are a GREAT group. They have more girls represented, just like us, their teens were about the same ages as ours, they also brought three leaders. The difference was- they were Catholic and we were Protestant. But, that never got in the way. We talked openly about our differences and they were gracious as our students asked questions about their theology.



For me, I was raised in a crazy environment. My dad was Jehovah's Witness. My mom took me to all kinds of churches on her weekends so I could see what else was out there other than JW's as my dad took me to the Kingdom Hall on the weekends I was with him. Then, when I was about 11, my mom married a man who was Catholic. Back then, I despised religion. Everyone thought they were "right" and others were "wrong". I thought it was a bunch of garbage because from what I read- Jesus wanted us to live in peace and be unified.... I called it hypocrisy and stopped going. But, that is another story! Let's just say, though, that my opinion never changed. Unity was where it was and is and I was glad we were at a Baptist church working with a Catholic church and we came from a Christian church! ;)

So, today, we had some training time with Praying Pelican on sharing our testimonies. One of our leaders, Andy, shared his with our whole group first. We had some similarities in our stories....I knew I liked this kid! He had a little bit of a rough road and now look at him-he was working with youth and reaching out to others. A tattoo on his foot said Romans 10:15. He was living that life. :) After he shared, we broke into groups of 3-4 and shared our stories. It bonded us even more! I had 2 young ladies from St. Richards in my group and 1 of their leaders. Hannah had been a Christian always and yet she had never grown stale- she is very passionate about her faith and sharing it- not common for a lot of the whole-life Christian kids I know. Ramsay- she was a compassionate soul and some of that has stemmed from having a sibling with some kind of disability. It was a privilege to hear them both.I was proud of them, and I barely knew them! Amelia- their leader. She was one that I really felt closer to at the end of our sharing time. I wished we had done this activity earlier in the week!

Next up- The nursing home! I adore elderly people. This would be one activity I had been looking forward to all week. I used to visit and take care of my grandmothers quite a bit. They have been gone for a while now and I miss having them around. The were wise, funny and SO loving.









We begin by talking with the residents of the home. I talked with about 8 of them and each one shared that they were so happy to be living in this home. I was happy for them and a bit perplexed... in the US, you seldom hear about people being happy living in a nursing home!!





We sand hymns with them. Mostly we sang- but some of them joined us and others just sat back and  enjoyed the music.... Thank goodness for Conner- he lead our group well! Our church doesn't sing hymns often. We are more contemporary.







Next, we danced for them using some of the songs we were dancing to at VBS. To my surprise, they really enjoyed this! A couple of them joined us in dancing! This made my heart happy!









Finally, they played some of their music and low and behold- more joined in! A lady grabbed a hold of me and started dancing with me! I was in heaven!

They were holding our hands, kissing our cheeks, the out-pour of love was overwhelming to my heart! It was soon time to go and as we got on the bus I placed my sunglasses on my face so my tears wouldn't be so noticeable. My heart was deeply touched that we had gone there to be a blessing to them and yet they had blessed us SO MUCH!

We came back to lunch and VBS. We seemed to grow more each day! Amazing since it was exam week at the schools! I was feeling a little off today. I had been taking my vitamins. But, got dizzy a couple times. I was forcing myself to drink the water which I was actually very sick of by now. It was always warm and had additives I could taste. (The clean, crisp cold water of Colorado had spoiled me, I decided) I also continued to try to make myself eat. Although I liked the Plantains and Coconut Rice we had each lunch, I was tiring of having them each day. I guess variety is also something I am spoiled by!  It's always the little things that matter, isn't it? The humidity and heat wasn't bothering me as much anymore. The sweat sort of felt good. I am crazy like that, I love to work out, sweat and feel the burn.... lol.


This evening after dinner, we left the church as they had a Men's Bible Study. We went down town again and this time, we were allowed to do some shopping and purchase our own snack! PIZZA!!!!!!

 

(I am thinking back and I don't know how it happened....but somehow, we left on a bus away from the St. Richard kids.... maybe only our group went downtown. I was with the other female leader from my team and the female leader from PPM, so it is hard for me to say. But, I remember lots of hugs and gathering all of their first and last names so our group could find them on Facebook, etc.  We made them a big picture with little sentiments and signatures....It was hard to imagine going to the church the next morning and them not being there with us. We were blessed that this group ended up being placed with us kind of last minute!)

After our big meeting time together, we went back to our hotel and it was my turn to lead our study with our team of 16. The reading was Matthew 3:1-17. I had someone read it out loud to the group as not everyone had done it in the morning. I liked this study, although the questions just seemed to review what you read and that bored me some. So, I made some of my own questions.

1. What do we have in common with John?
 Some answers:We left comforts of home. Left relationships- understanding our mission for the week we aren't looking back. Leaving internet, TV, ice....

2. Why is what we are doing here on this mission important?
Some answers: Church from different places working together. Poor area- painting, cleaning, making life better. Body of Christ coming together. Telling about Jesus' love at VBS and sharing life with natives.

3. Why do you think God included this Scripture in His word? (This one is from the book)
Some answers: Shows us to tell people about Jesus. Prepare people to know God. My biggest take- John saying that the work he was doing was nothing compared to the one after him- Jesus. We do what we can to plant water a seed- but ultimately it is GOD who makes things really happen! What we do is nothing compared to what He does and is doing!!

We prepared for the next day- planning session.

I was feeling pretty queezey. It would not be a good night of rest for this girl!

Day 2

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!

I'm pretty sure that we went back to our hotel then and did our team Bible study time that Ben had for us. We were all so tired....but it was good to reflect and prepare to be improve in the next day.

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!!