Mission Trip!!! (Part 2)

The story continued from yesterday:
The price he (the taxi driver) asked for was OUTRAGEOUS...but we were SO tired of travelling...

I will be straight to the point: we took the taxi!  The price the guy was asking was crazy, so we did manage to haggle down the price a little bit.  Still, we paid too much, but I think we were tired enough that it was well worth it.  Just an hour later we were in Belmopan, meeting our missionary hosts Craig and Jadine Fritzler.  In all , it had been a 32-hour trip from Michoacan to Belmopan- and everyone did fabulous.  Even the kids did so much better than we had expected- God was definitely pouring out mercy and patience all over us.  We opted to shower before eating (which speaks volumes for how dirty we felt, considering that we hadn't eaten all day),and then went with Craig to Spanish Lookout, right in the heart of the Mennonite community, for pizza, burgers, and ice cream.  Our 16-year old Vicky was feeling homesick, and 4 of the 6 kids had eye infections, but ice cream can work miracles. We suddenly felt refreshed, and were ready for work to begin the next day.

The next 3 days we went to work at Belize Bible Center, the Bible school where classes are scheduled to begin on September 6th.  The whole team went ready to work- the guys taking care of the carpentery and the plumbing, and the ladies doing various jobs including spreading gravel for the driveway, transplanting plants from the Bible school land to the front entrance, and cleaning the church in Belmopan.  We wished we could've done so much more, but we worked hard and saw results.  The most impressive accomplishment: the guys were able to completely finish the bathroom of the Bible school- very neccessary considering the classes will be starting there in a few more weeks!  We are thankful that no one was injured or dehydrated while working.  In fact, the only out of the ordinary incident occured when a tarantula was spotted- one of the girls took off running and slipped on the new gravel driveway (thankfully, she was not hurt).

Wednesday and Friday evening we had the chance to minister to some of the local people.  On Wednesday evening, we had a special service for the Spanish-speaking people at Step of Faith Church in Belmopan.  Criag and Jadine pretty much let us take over the service, and we had the chance to share some of the things we had prepared especially for the trip.  We started out with some worship songs- I played the keyboard and sang and 10-year old Uriel accompanied me on the drums.  Then the kids (Uriel, 10; Uriah, 6; Claudio, 4; and Keyli, 4), dressed in their clown outfits and wigs performed their skit and the song "Jesus Is My Superhero" in Spanish.  After the song Kary, Vicky, and Pablo shared their personal testimonies with the group.  Going along with the theme of the testimonies, all the adults in the team performed a drama about God's great love for us.  Noe preached the sermon of his life, and I think that everyone was touched.  During the prayer time, prophetic words were given, and it was a beautiful time with our fellow believers.  We count it a privilege to have met each and every one of these people.  Their culture is so different but OUR God is the same!

On Friday afternoon, Jadine took all of the ladies (the men were still working at the Bible school) to another village to minister.  Once there, Kary "set up shop" and began to give free haircuts to all comers.  Everyone was a little shy at first, so I went with Vicky and a young Belizean woman named Celeste to invite more people to come.  In all, Kary did about 25 haircuts in a few hours- the most memorable for me was a little 4 or 5-year old girl who wanted her hair cut like Dora the Explorer.  When she saw her new haircut in the mirror, her smile lit up her whole face!  While Kary cut, the rest of talked and played with the kids, and talked with the women who were waiting in line.  It was an unconventional way to minister, but we connected with the people and had a great time just loving them.  Only 4 full days in Belize, and we were already falling in love with the places and the people...