Sunday, March 20, 2011

we are home

Thank you so much for your prayers and support!

The 2011 Belize Team

Made it through customs

We are in Houston, we made it through customs safely. Please pray for a smooth last leg of our journey

The Belize Team

Connected by DROID on Verizon Wireless

heading back to TX

Thanks for your continued prayers. We had a wonderful, meaningful time of
debriefing, and can't wait to share more.

Loading up in the van and heading to the Belize airport now. We will go through
customs in Houston, and then will arrive at DFW at 10:18pm. Please pray for
safe and smooth travel.

Blessings and love, the Belize team

Friday, March 18, 2011

Thur Pictures

Wed Pictures

YES in progress from 2010 - 2011

When we looked at the pictures, we were blown away at the changes to the
physical facilities to the YES campus over the last two years. We've also been
awed by the changes in the girls and how they have grown and changed.

update from Thur

Yesterday was an amazing experience! A group took the girls out for a field
trip in Belmopan. Most of the girls went horseback riding, and then all of the
girls went swimming. For a day, they all had a chance to just be kids! For
many of them, their days start at 4am when they wake up to catch buses to
school, they live in houses that are barely standing, and they have their quite
a few adult responsibilities on their plate. And they had the chance to relax,
be kids, try something new. Actually, one of the best parts, was the van ride
up, as the girls wanted to share stories (alternating between them and the
FPCAers, sing praise songs, and dance.

The part of the group that stayed behind worked on getting the awning up on the
classroom building. Starting to look really good!

Prayer Requests for Today:
- we are going to do an extended devotion time this morning, and really spend
some time praying for the girls by name.
- we are going to wrap up the sewing classes for those who haven't finished
their projects and the computer classes for those who still have questions.
- Today is our final day of working with the girls. It's only been a week, but
there have some powerful bonds established. Pray for a sweet parting, and that
we may continue to spread His Word even in our final day at YES.

Thankful for each one of you,

The Belize Team

(we will send pictures soon for Wed and Thur)

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Update from Wed

We had another wonderful day at YES Wed. We once again started with a time of
devotion/worship with the girls. They have really opened up, and asked if they
could share some of their songs with us. We sang for awhile, and then Presley
led is in a time teaching. We did small small group discussions after that and
some ice breakers. But at this point the ice breakers are just mainly for the
girls to have fun - we're mixing up the groups each day so different people from
the FPCA group can get to know different girls better.

In the sewing room, the bag project was finished yesterday. So Jennifer stepped
in to teach them how to make decorative flowers. Michelle was her main helper.
The YES girls had a blast! Some of them were able to try a more complicated
stitch, and they were all able to complete a fun project. Judy and Stacy were
able to move over to the construction project and help with the painting. The
building is now green with pink trim (and doors). And Lew and his crew have
started building an awning for the building. By Friday it's going to look
amazing.

We glanced briefly at the pictures of what the YES campus looked like in 2010,
but neither building had been painted, and before the edition had been built on
the education classroom. It's amazing difference.

Suzie continues to do amazing things teaching in the computer classroom! She's
taught the students how to use word, email, excel, publisher (and all this with
them having little to know education about computers).

Later in the day, Sophie took Yolanda back to the open air market so she could
get more food for one of our dinners. Several of our group members who had
never been came so they could experience what an open air market was like.

Today our group is splitting up for the first time all week. Part of the group
is staying behind at YES to continue the awning project. The rest of the group
is taking the YES girls on a field trip, a true treat for them!

Appreciate your prayers and each one of you!

Blessings and love,

The Belize Team

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

More Tuesday Pictures

Update from Belize and Tuesday Pictures

What a day!

The team headed back to Belize this morning. Lew was busy leading the painting
crew. Pastor Ruth (who leads a couple of classes at the school) had picked the
colors for the building. Last year we had painted the office building pink with
green trim. Well she liked that so much she decided to paint the new classroom
building green with pink trim. Her face lit up when she saw the color go on the
building. The church where she is a pastor is the same color green, and
everyone knows her church as the "green church."

In addition to the painting project, Lew and the crew found a few projects to
work on, including replacing a few boards on the classroom building, and
replacing the door on one of their bathrooms. We're hoping to help with
whatever minor repairs need to be done along with the larger projects they have
given us to do.

Stacy and Judy continued spearheading the sewing project (they were teaching the
girls to make bags). By the end of the day, the girls had each made two bags
(and were very proud of their accomplishments). Some girls were able to add
their own flair to the bags and others were able to figure out how if they were
to do a sewing business after school they could market something similar. We'll
introduce a new sewing project tomorrow, led by Jennifer.

Suzie is continuing to do a great job with the computer classes. Sophie and
Michelle joined her today to help give a quick lesson in Publisher to a few
people, and Presley has shared her computer knowledge as well over the last
couple of days.

One of the highlights is our devotional/worship/sharing time in the mornings.
Emma led us as we got started today, and it's been amazing just to see the
girls open up. Presley will be leading the devotional time tomorrow.

Jim is pitching in the kitchen, helping to get the midday meal ready. The woman
in charge of cooking the meals at YES said this was the first day she had fun
while cooking. I guess having Jim as your sous-chef definitely makes life more
fun!

Another highlight of the day was our amazing dinner, homemade by Yolanda.
Yolanda and Oscar is a couple we have known since our first trip to Belize in
2009 when we worked in the Burial Grounds section of Belize City. Oscar makes
the word work (bowls, crosses, etc) that so many of our team members buy while
we're in Belize - and one actually hangs on the cross wall at FPCA. Often while
we're here in Belize, Yolanda will made dinner for us. It's a win for us,
because we get an amazing meal, with things like homemade tortillas, for a very
very reasonable price (and we get to see her, Oscar and her kids), and it's a
win for Yolanda because she gets more work.

It was another great day. We did have a lot of heavy rains tonight, so we are
praying it dries out so we can finish painting tomorrow.

Please pray for good weather, continued good relationships with the girls at
YES, opportunities to share God's love with them (there have already been some
open doors which is very excited), and for our hearts to be open to what God is
doing.

Thanks, blessings, and love,

Sophie

a few more Monday pictures

Monday Pictures

Monday, March 14, 2011

End of Day Monday

What a day! We headed out to YES first thing Monday. We started of the day
with the students at YES with a time of singing a few worship songs and Sophie
leading a time of devotion/small group Bible Study (we're going to rotate who
leads the Devotion time all week. Tomorrow, Emma is taking the lead.). The
students and the FPCA quickly bonded. After awhile we divided up into groups.
Suzie took the lead on leading a computer class, Judy and Stacy took the lead
on leading a sewing class, and Lew took the lead on painting one of the
classroom buildings (the one we built last year). Everyone else filled in as
they were needed.
Later in the day, after the students had left, and the worsksite was being
cleaned up, part of the group had the chance to visit an open air market to get
fresh food for our meals. It was a wonderful and different experience for
everyone who got to go. That same group was also able to drive by the Burial
Grounds School/Church where we worked in 2009. The school was out for the day,
so we didn't get to see any of the teachers/students that we know. But, it was
great to at least see the progress on the building/grounds.

Pictures to come. It's been a non-stop day, and we haven't had a chance to
upload any to the computer.

We are excited to return to YES tomorrow and continue building relationships
with the girls their and continue our work on the school grounds.

We appreciate your prayers so much!

The Belize Team.

checking in from Belize

Good morning prayer team!

After breakfast we're headed out to YES for the day. We'll start with a
devotional time with the girls (some singing, a devotion). We'll begin our
construction/painting projects, and we'll also start our sewing and computer
classes with the girls. Most of all we're praying for a good start to
relationships with the girls and the staff.

We had a great day yesterday. Since the school isn't open, we made the 2+ drive
up to Northern Belize to visit with Moises and his family (check the
fpca.missions.blogspot for former posts if you don't know the story of Moises
and his family). We had a great time. They live about 1-2 miles from the bay,
but they never see the way, much less get to put their feet in it. We ate a
hamburger restaurant (which they LOVED) right by the water and then explore
since Mayan ruins just a few miles away (which they had never been too). We
ended the day worshipping/praying/sharing together as a group, before we heading
to bed.

Thank you all for your prayers.

Blessings and love,

the Belize Team

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Safely in Belize

After a smooth day of travel, we made it safely to Belize. In about an hour
we'll head out in dinner with the leaders of Youth Enhancement Services (YES).
YES is the school where we'll be working this week. (this is same place we
worked last year, so it's exciting to have the chance to see everyone again and
for new members of the team to meet the leadership for the first time).

The picture is from the DFW airport early this morning - the first of many group
pictures.

Blessings and love, the Belize team

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Ready to Go

The 2011 Belize Team is making final preparations (packing our personal baggage) for our March trip to Belize! We leave this Saturday, March 12th on a 6:55 A.M. flight. We will have a brief lay over in Houston, and will arrive in Belize shortly after 2 P.M.

Please be in prayer for the 15 members of our team. Pray for safe, smooth travel. Pray that God continues to prepare our hearts during these last few days before our trip.

This blog will be updated on our regular basis during our stay in Belize.

Thank you for your prayers and support!