Sunday, March 20, 2016

Sunday

 We were up early today to enjoy the sunrise and are now back home in Texas!


What an amazing week serving a big God!! Already on the flight home were we talking about all the seeds God has planted and are praying over the fruit He will bear!



Friday, March 18, 2016

Friday

Field Trip Day at Banana Bank!!

Tam-Meya horseback riding for the first time! She was quite terrified at times but overcame her fears and in the end enjoyed the experience!

Moesha, Lenicia, and Karla ready to ride!

Caroline and Michelle saddled up and ready to go.

The horses cooling off in the river.

Celine


Karla

Rich and Caroline

Lenicia

Coleman

Shelly

Michael ready for his first horseback ride!

Betsy encouraging her ride.

Shentelli was one our cooks at YES all week. We're so glad they were all also able to join us for the field trip!


It's hard to believe our week in Belize is ending soon! We were sad to say goodbye to the girls and staff and friends at YES. They are all very much looking forward to the camp in June that will be hosted by some of our team with Fellowship Bible Church of Kansas.

Tomorrow we will spend time with just our team debriefing the week and how how God was at work. Please pray for safe travels, fruitful discussions, and the Holy Spirit's presence. Pray also for safe travels as we return home to Texas on Sunday night (and to much colder temperatures than expected!).


Here is most of the team in our team meeting room where we spend time together debriefing the day together and learning the logistics for the next day.

Thursday 

More fence stretching! Each roll of chain link is about 70 feet long and gets stretched and nailed to posts.

Fence mending is how two sections of chain link are joined. A single piece of wire is effectively woven through both sides. When finished you can't tell where the mending was done!

Caroline

Betsy and Coleman...looking for instruction from Chepito perhaps?

Suzie

Sweet Sulemi gave Michelle her canvas painting.

Both fences were finished!! Approximately 600 feet of fence were set on the east and west side of the lot. Every team member worked on the fence and everyone flowed in and out between fence and spending time with the girls.

Tim Tam took Rich on a tour of the prison and then introduced Michelle to someone with connections to the first ever Belize flight school.

Michelle led the girls in a craft to turn t-shirts into bags. The girls loved the bright colors that we brought for this activity.
In addition to t-shirt bags, the girls were able to take home with them several items from our week - a Good News Bible, an adult coloring book with Bible versus, color pencils, and their canvas paintings.  Here Sulemi and Jenna pose for a picture with Colton looking on.

What a great team!

And a silly team!!

Our green shirts were given to us from Mrs Karen, the Director of Youth Enhancement Services (YES). YES has three branches to the organization: Teen Pregnancy Center, the Training Center (where we work), and the Advocacy branch. "Sexual Violence is No Joke" is YES's current campaign to bring awareness to the people of Belize that Sexual violence is not OK. YES goes throughout the country, talking at schools and educating young people on such issues.

At the end of the day we went through the Burial Grounds. This is a very poor community of shanty shacks built on a swamp around the cemetery. The "bridges" shown here are made of wooden pallets and other scraps of wood. One can see right through many of them and great care must be taken when walking across as they are not all stable. 

There is about a mile of pallet bridges through the community.




Wednesday

Stretching the last corner of the fence on the east side!

We played a nice game of kickball with the girls. Here's a great action shot of Jenna!

All the posts in for the west side fence.

Rich leading a Bible study and introducing the girls to some of the women in the Bible,

Today we studied both the Parable of the Lost Son and the story of Lydia in the Bible. Other activities included worship, praise singing, kickball, sewing wallets, letter writing to a group of girls in Kansas, and Origami.

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Tuesday

 The posts are all in and now ready for the chain link. The fence is about 330 feet long on each side and it looks like we will be able to get both sides completed this week.

Betsy pounding the dirt firm around the post so it is stable.

After the chain link is nailed to the posts, a string of barbed wire is added to the bottom and top of the fence for stabilization as well as added protection.


Michael, Chepito and Colton hard at work on the fence. 

Caroline and Colton with Tam-Meya. Praise God for answered prayer...the girls were very open and accepting right away on the first day. In previous trips, it has been several days before we get the same level of interaction and fellowship. This is a wonderful blessing!!

Colman, Laura, Shelly, Caroline, Michelle, and Betsy stretching the chain link so it can be nailed to the posts. It takes quite a crew to stretch!

Our whole team at the end of a great day!
Rich taught the girls how to juggle.  Karla was great!  She was even able to get three balls in the air successfully!!
 Isobel, Laura and Caroline worked with the girls on the sewing project - wallets. This is Tam-Meya finishing up her colorful wallet.
 Another view of the fence...You can see Betsy up close and way down towards the opposite end, there is Michael!
 Betsy nailing the barb wire to the bottom of the new fences.
After a long day of fence building, Bible study and activities with the girls, here Coleman and Kurt are resting in the shade before we head back to our hotel for the evening.  Please continue to pray for growing relationships with the girls, as well as energy for the team members working on the fence. It is very warm and humid here, we are drinking lots of water, but would appreciate prayer for continued strength for the team.  ...More to come for Wednesday's post.


 After our work day we made time to go by 8 Mile (otherwise known as Western Paradise), where we have worked in years past. The progress on the community/worship center is exciting! Who knew you could make a building out of shipping containers!

The floor beams laid and half of the flooring down.


Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Monday


Betsy, Coleman, and Michelle make a trip to the market to buy supplies so our friend Yolanda can make us her specialty burritos for dinner.


Colton and Chepito pound the dirt firm around a new fence post. 

Suzie playing the "question" game, painting canvases, and making origami butterflies.

Some of our team with the YES girls :).