Island Debrief Day

We started today with a visit to the church site at 8-mile.  This is a location from some previous year's mission trips. They have finished the church!  Since last year they have added a new roof, interior ceiling, porch railing and new paint.

Church at 8-Mile:

Then we traveled to St. George's Caye to relax and debrief from the week. We started the morning with a nice boat ride to the island.

The team was able to enjoy swimming at the sandbar, snorkeling at a reef, and kayaking in the ocean!  We saw a Manatee and a Spotted Eagle Ray on the way to swimming.  We also spent some time discussing and evaluating the week.

We saw God at work in the lives of the girls and staff at YES.  The girls were very engaged and participated in all of the sessions. Also, team members renewed relationships with girls who they had met in the past. The girls were very welcoming and quick to engage in conversations with team members.  We can see how the girls have matured and are all striving to make a better life for themselves and their families.  We so enjoyed seeing their progress - some with finishing school, some planning to work on school, and others discussing seeking job opportunities.

We continue to appreciate the Word at Work staff and support - especially Chepito, our project leader!  We are excited to be the first group to stay at Eco Village - a new location where the Word at Work will be able to host teams. While there is still a great deal of work to be done at Eco Village, the potential is great!  We were very comfortable with our rooms.

Here are a couple of pictures from today....We will post some more when we have better connectivity.

Watching the sunset from a hammock...and appreciating the world God created!