Saturday, March 18, 2017

Some pictures...

As we are packing this morning, I wanted to post just a few more pictures...

Ishell and her daughter (2 yrs. old) going for the horseback ride...


Here is the group getting onto the horses. We had 18 people and two 2 yr olds for horseback riding..


And they are off....


Here are four of the young kids having fun in the pool!


On Friday Ms Vinney came to visit us at breakfast. How wonderful to reconnect with old friends!


Here are the new rooms at the Training center!  Next year they will be able to support 10 residential students. Each student will have one of these rooms. Soon they will have the beds and chests of drawers.



Here is Mimi with Celine.  It was wonderful to see Celine again - for the 3rd year. God has increasingly granted us the ability to see some of the past students even after they graduate.



Another picture of the Mayan ruins. The four people standing at the top of the stairs are speaking in a normal voice and those of us in the plaza below can hear them as if they were standing right beside us!!  The entire plaza has limestone buildings and it creates acoustic chamber. So the priests or kings could address all of their people at once.



Wonderful picture of Moises's mother (Magdalena), Chepito (our fearless Word at Work leader), and Moises.




Friday, March 17, 2017

More pictures...

Some additional pictures from the last few days...

A wonderful sunset....


Some of the team at the top of the Mayan tower at Altun Ha


Altun Ha...the tower was very high!!



Our group with 10 family members from Moises's family ... we had a wonderful dinner...




Today was a busy day traveling to several unique places here in Belize. We woke up early and head to the YES school for a traditional Fry Jack breakfast. We left there and headed to Altun Ha Mayan ruins. This was an amazing field trip with lots of walking and learning about the largest jade carved head found weighing just under 10 lbs. We then had a delicious snack lunch that the wonderful YES school provided for our trip. After some shopping we headed off to the north to the town of Corozal. This is the town where Moises and his family live. Moises is now a 15 year old boy who has five other brothers and six sisters. You would never know that he had a near fatal experience almost 10 years ago. We all went out for dinner for pizza and burgers. The children enjoyed the time out and couldn't wait to eat the pizza. We left dinner and headed back in the van for the drive back to Belize City tonight. Tomorrow is going to be an early day because we are headed to the island. We are all looking forward to time to review the week and relax. Please pray for Moises's family and his desire to continue to study. He is an excellent student!

We were having issues with pictures earlier...so here are some pictures from the last few days...

This is the building on Monday.... The BEFORE Picture...


This is the building on Wednesday ... The AFTER Picture....




We visited 8 Mile to see the progress on the building (we worked on part of this building in the past)..




We joined Covenant Presbyterian from Austin Texas for worship and group sharing time on Wed night..




Enjoying the horseback riding on Thursday....








Thursday, March 16, 2017

These past two days have been very busy so we will do our best to recap from both days.  Wednesday started with a beautiful breezy cloudy day that was perfect for doing projects outside. We had lots of new smiling faces and teen moms bring their little ones with them today.  The morning was spent with 1/2 of the time canvas painting and the other 1/2 decorated wooden crosses. Most of the crew spent time outside painting or helping to babysit the youngsters. We had an amazing lunch of what I like to call Belizean Nachos. They were delicious and it was great to share company with an entire room full of young ladies. After lunch we flip flopped the activities and finished painting the administration building including the sign! It looks amazing and we all took part in that project. We celebrated with some delicious ice cream from the Western Dairy. That evening we enjoyed food and fellowship at Old Belize with Covenant Presbyterian. We had a wonderful time hearing what they were doing and sharing what we were doing here in Belize.

Today we enjoyed a relaxing field trip with the girls to Banana Bank.  It was a beautiful place just outside of the capital of Belize. Many of us went on a horse backing riding tour, swimming and enjoyed seeing all of the various animals in the "jungle". We had to get 3 vans because there were so many girls on the field trip. It was a fun ride down as we learned how to make survivor bracelets and got to learn more about each other and the girls. The little kids loved the water and horseback riding. We headed back to town just in time to to drop the girls off and head over to Yolanda's for a delicious meal that included tortillas, of course. Now our long day has finally come to and and it is time for some much needed sleep.

We are having some technical issues with uploading photos and will try to post some tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will travel north to Corozal to visit Moises. Please pray for safe travels and fellowship with Moises and his family!

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Day 2 at YES Training Center

Today we had a great start with an amazing breakfast of "fry jacks" with all the fixings.  It fueled us up to prepare us to start the day!  We had a beautiful morning with a devotional lead by Abby and Presley about forgiveness.  More of the teen moms joined us today and we had fun getting to know our new friends.  The new girls who came today decided to take up sewing with Mimi and Jill while Caroline V. headed up making prayer boxes with the girls.  Lunch came quickly while many of us were finishing the green trim paint on the building.  The afternoon was spent enjoying the company of the girls and Samuel even was able to teach the girls some concepts about computer programming.  The rest of us finished projects such as sewing and lots of painting.  We even got ambitious to paint the sign (this was a lot harder then it looked!)  We are about to head out to try some famous Belize pizza.  The day started out raining, but God came through and shined bright and gave us a wonderful day. 

Here are a few pictures....

Moesha and Karla at the sewing machine making their colorful pillow cases...


Leshelle, Lenicia and Jill sewing...


Presley and Sulemi in conversation while coloring...



The team painting...yes, that is Jonathan on the roof, Caroline N., Michael, Caroline V. and Abby helping down below...


Michael is a two-fisted painter!


Caroline V. and Abby painting and remembering to drink their water...

Samuel with some of the teen moms working on the computer...


The team repainting the Youth Enhancement Services sign....


Monday, March 13, 2017

The group at the airport in Dallas...we are starting our trip...

Dinner at Old Belize Restaurant on Sunday night..


Monday was our first day with the girls at the YES camp.  We had a wonderful time interacting with the girls and playing ice breaker games getting to know each other. We had a delicious breakfast and lunch with the staff and girls at the YES staff camp.  Caroline V. and Ann Marie had a great time teaching the girls how to make tie die shirts and Caroline N. and Presley helped teach the girls how to make headbands.  Mimi, Jill, and Rene sewed some beautiful pillow cases with the girls. We all stepped in some part of the day and scraped and painted half of the administration building. It is hot pink again!  We are about to head off to dinner at Yolanda's, and are all anxious for a good night sleep. 

Some pictures from Monday....

Met Karla, Sulemi and Kimberly...some of the women of YES.



We began our painting project by first scraping off any loose paint from the last paint job. This building was last painted by our group in 2010.


Jonathan, Samuel and Caroline N. are putting on the first coat of new pink paint.  The color is selected to keep the building as bright as possible in the punishing sun.




Here is the start of the sewing project - we are sewing pillow cases...The fabric is very bright and fun!


Mimi and Abby work with Kimberly and Sulemi on a pillow case...



Caroline V. and Ann Marie worked with the girls to tie dye some shirts...


Celine stopped by to say "Hello" to Mimi and Caroline. Celine graduated last year! It was wonderful to see her again!


Sunday, March 12, 2017

We arrived safely here in Belize. We enjoyed a nice dinner in Old Belize under the full moon. Please pray for us as we meet the girls tomorrow and interact with them. Sleep tight!

Friday, March 10, 2017

Belize Mission Trip March 2017

The 2017 Belize Mission Team has been busy preparing for our trip this year. We have 13 members plus our resource from The Word at Work, giving us a total of 14 people on the team.  We will begin our travels on Sunday, March 12th and return on Sunday, March 19th. Please follow us here. We will plan to post at the end of each day with news of the day and any new prayer requests.

The team has been meeting together for months in preparation, taking short term mission training, and praying for the people we will meet in Belize.  As in past years, we plan to work alongside Youth Enhancement Services (YES) for the majority of the week. As of now, we plan to share in worship, fun activities and painting during the week.  The primary focus of our team is to engage the people that we meet in Belize to share God's love and encouragement as we build relationships. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported us this year and in the past - your prayers and financial support are key to our mission program. As we begin our trip this year....

1. Please pray for safe travels and health during our time away
2. Please pray for the students, staff, administrators, and teen moms at Youth Enhancement Services
3. Please pray that our team will support and encourage one another

We are excited to renew friendships and make new friends. Lord, help us to love each other as you have commanded.

John 15:16  - 17 "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other."