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Written by Tim Schmoyer
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Friday, 27 June 2008 |
 Belize Update - June 26
 Today went by very fast. After quiet time and breakfast, we loaded up the bus with all our stuff and drove to Belize City where we caught a water taxi to Caye Caulker. That taxi itselt was quite the experience. Everyone sitting in the back got pretty wet.
When we arrived at the island about 45 minutes later, the view was just breath-taking. The clear Carribean water surrounding picture-perfect beaches and palm trees looked like something out of National Geographic. Once on shore, we picked up a couple golf carts and hauled everything to our ocean-front hotel. Beauitful! Then we spent the rest of the day walking around the island getting familiar with our surroundings and settling in. There's actually another youth missions group here from Wisconsin that staying in our same hotel, so it's fun to have them around. Last night our kids actually went out on the dock and had a time of praise and worship together.
Today is also my birthday (turned 28 years old). After having lobster for the first time (cheap here!) for dinner, everyone sang Happy Birthday and brought out a German chocolate birthday cake for me. Delicious!
Everything is going pretty well with the group. Just please continue to pray for unity, among both the kids and the leaders. Also pray that we would all retain our focus. Being in such a beautiful place, it's easy to become distracted and view our time as a vacation rather than our mission to glorify Jesus by sharing Him with others around us. It's also easy to start losing our excitement and passion for the children during VBS because we've done this several times now -- same crafts, same lessons, same games, etc. Pray that we would be as excited about the children here on this island as we were with the first group. Also pray that homesickness wouldn't distract us from finishing well. Thanks!
I finally got more pictures posted from an Internet cafe here on the Island! I'm not all caught up yet because this place is also very slow (about twice the speed of dial-up), but I'll get 'em all online eventually for you all as I said I would. Pictures from June 21-24 are online! Check 'em out here! More coming later.
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Written by Tim Schmoyer
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Thursday, 26 June 2008 |
Belize Update - June 25
This morning was supposed to be the big trip to serve in the prison, but as God has done so often this trip, He changed the plans. We showed up at the prison on time only to be turned away because they were in lock-down due to heavy rain from earlier in the morning. So instead we prayed for the prisoners from the parking lot outside. It was disheartening to hear that we couldn't go in because setting up this appointment was the last thing that Pastor Dryer did before he passed away. We thought God had something important planned since He waited until after these plans were underway before taking him to heaven, but right now we don't see it or understand it.
Fortunately the rain stopped before lunch so we could go out to the camp site and continue construction on the building. It's not even close to being finished, but they'll continue to work on it without us. I'm looking forward to coming back some day and seeing it finished and full of life.
Over the course of the past two days, Megan developed a pretty bad rash of some kind on her legs and lower back. None of our medicine or ointments helped and it continued to spread and get worse, so this afternoon we took her to a medical clinic. They didn't know what it was, but they gave her a shot and a perscription drug to take. After a long afternoon nap, she seems to be doing ok. Just pray that she continues to heal.
Tonight we went to a little village about an hour away to do one night of VBS for the children in that community. As we got started, people started crowding around to sing the songs, watch the puppet show, hear the testimonies, and ultimiately the gospel. Of course, all the children loved the balloon animales, face painting, games and little gifts, too. The teenagers there were really tough, though -- tried to pick fights and were inappropriate with some of our girls, so Kevin won't be returning there again for a ministry site.
Tomorrow morning we leave for the little island of Cye Cauker (not sure how to spell it) where we'll be for the rest of our trip. It should be pretty neat because we have to take a 45-minute water taxi to get there and the island is only about a quarter-mile wide and 2 miles long. We'll be surrounded by the carribean ocean for a couple days! Oh, and I heard they have an Internet cafe there, so hopefully I'll be able to get the site up-to-date with pictures.
Today was almost back to "normal" as far as the kids all being Christ-centered and here to glorify Christ, so thank you for your prayers. I really am proud of each one of them for so much, but figured they needed to hear it publicly. So, this morning I went around the room and shared something that I'm proud about in each person -- not necessarily just relating to this trip, but relating to their character as a person in general. It was a lot of fun! I wish I could do it again, but I gotta give the other adult leaders a turn, too.
Please continue to pray that us leaders will have wisdom to know how to appropriately interact with the kids and also with each other. Pray that complications and distractions would be removed so we can focus all of our attention and energy on glorifying God to the people in Belize.
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Written by Tim Schmoyer
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
Belize Update - June 24
I guess the building project isn't very high on God's priority list for us this trip because it started raining during breakfast. We were up for working in the rain, but our construction leaders weren't. I'm told the rain would mess up our mortar and cement mixing anyway, so it was cancelled. Instead we took a tour of the orchid garden here at our hotel and learned a lot about the vegetation and natural plants of Belize. Then we grabbed our lunch and hit the road to visit an ancient Myan ruins site. I wish I could share some of my pictures with you guys because it was incredible. The ruins date back to 200 B.C. The whole place really has a thick aura of mystery and creepiness when you think about all the human sacrifices that were offered there.
Tonight was our last night of VBS here in Hattieville. Thanks for praying for wisdom to know how to handle all the children -- tonight went great! Several children invited Christ into their lives as the plan of salvation was presented for the third time tonight. Woo hoo! I also had my first experience of trying to share Christ with man who was both drunk and high. It was quite interesting. I made small talk with him as he wondered by the church and soon he started bragging about how he knew everyone in Hattieville. I said, "You certainly know a lot of people! Do you know Jesus?" We talked for a while. He didn't invite Christ into his life, but he did want to learn more when he was more mentally stable. I made arrangements for that to happen.
Please continue to pray for us. Up until now there's been absolutely no complaining because everyone was totally focused on the reason for why we're here: to glorify Jesus. They've been awesome! But that focus is starting to slip back into "me centered" and it's starting to create tension in the group on a couple different levels. Overall morale is starting to decline as people complain about what's fair and not fair, who gets to do what, picky about food, and other "little things." Please pray that glorifying Christ would always be first and foremost on everyone's heart and mind, that we would all reflect Him in our actions and attitudes, and that all self-centeredness and "what makes me comfortable" mentalities would turn into a deep love and respect for each other and for God. Going into the prison tomorrow has the potential to be one of the most intense ministry experiences of this trip and we want nothing to hinder that, especially not internal conflict. Also pray that us leaders will have wisdom to know how to handle the various issues appropriately and effectively and how to help guard the unity of the group. Thank you!
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Written by Tim Schmoyer
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Tuesday, 24 June 2008 |
Belize Update - June 23
We finally started construction on the camp building this morning! Woo hoo! And the weather was perfect for it, too. The sky was cloudy so it wasn't too bright (usually I squint out there even when wearing sunglasses), the rain last night cooled the air off and a there was a steady breeze. Perfect! Everyone worked very hard and did their tasks very well. In fact, the two Belizians who were in charge of the project couldn't keep up with us. A lot of us ended up standing around a lot waiting for them to catch up, which is exactly the opposite of what they later said they expected to happen. By 3:00 PM we had three of the four walls up to 4 blocks high. Most of us went into the work site not knowing a thing about construction stuff, so we did pretty well considering we learned how to mix concrete and mortar, straighten and lay reinforcing wire, post rebar, and more all in one morning. Thankfull the day was injury-free, too, except that Amy accidently dropped a cinder block on her knee. She should be okay, though, thankfully. Most of us have sunburn now, though. It cooked right through our shirts and sunblock! Ouch. Sunburn on top of aching muscles that we didn't even knew existed will make for a group of very stiff and burning individuals tomorrow morning, I'm sure. No one is complaining, though, which is awesome. They all still great positive attitudes as we remind each other that "we're here to glorify Jesus."
The second night of VBS was crazy again tonight. The church was jam-packed with children! We're not sure how many were there, but it probably started with about 100 and grew from there. I opened by leading some fun old camp songs with hand motions, followed by a puppet show and the preimere of the big skit called, "Three Days Later," about the disciples and their discovery of the risen Lord. They did an excellent job! All the rehersing and memorizing lines really paid off well. If I had access to high speed Internet I'd post the video online for you guys so you can see for yourself, but I'll have to do that when we get home instead.
We had a bit of difficulty trying to keep all the children under control just because there's so many of them and they're all so hyper and excited. I think we have a plan that should work pretty well for tomorrow's VBS, though. Go figure we'll probably have a good system figured out just in time to leave. lol
We're all doing very well and having a great time glorifying the Lord with the people around us. I love seeing how everyone in our goup talks with everyone else in the group. With a group this size it's natural for little sub-groups to form, for certain people to always eat together, sit together and talk together, but that hasn't really happened. Everyone is interacting very well and working together as a team with mutual respect for each other.
Right now we need prayer for rest. Working outside all morning and afternoon really wore us out. As we all know, tired people tend to get irritable, grumpy, and are more susceptible to get sick, so we really need to get a couple good nights' sleep to catch up.
Also pray that we would all have wisdom in how to handle the crowd of children showing up to VBS so that none of them fall through the cracks as part of the crowd instead of being treated like the unique and special individuals they are.
Today the Lord opened up big plans for us to go into the prison on Wednesday morning. We thought it wouldn't work out due to some issues there, but apparently God wants us to visit there for a reason. It should be a pretty intense experience, so pray that the Lord will continue to prepare the way for us to be there and share Christ with the inmates. Thank you!
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