Almost Home!

I just talked to Nate, and the team was boarding the plane in Dallas Texas, heading to LAX.  Everyone had just gone through customs with little time to spare. They are right on track with the arrival home. Hurray!! 

A day without bugs!

Your usual blogger Nicole is having dinner, so this is Paul. Today was our final rest day before heading back to the states. Unfortunately I can't show any pictures yet as I'm writing this on a restaurant computer.

We came to the coast for a spot of snorkling. After a 45 minute boat ride out to an isolated island, we spent about an hour snorkling in the crystal-clear waters. For once, we had a brief respite from the bugs (sand flies and mosquitoes). Lunch was chicken (barbecued on the island by the boat operators/ snorkling guides), potatoes, and coleslaw. The general consensus was that the chicken was the best that people have ever tasted (a choice that may have been clouded by the fact that we hadn't eaten in 7 hours).

This afternoon, we spent about an hour looking around the small port town and spending the rest of our (your) money and dinner was at a pretty nice restaurant.

We're now going to make the hour and a half journey back to our camp (20 miles away!). We're all pretty exhausted and everybody is keen to see their family and friends again. We are blessed to have very few minor injuries among the group, and nothing that a bit of TLC wouldn't cure.

We miss you all, and I REALLY miss my girlfriend Keli. She's amazing...

Long time, no see

Hi, we're here in San Roman. We are having a blast. We have been doing VBS for the past three days. Today was the last day and we were able to share the gospel with the kids in three different villages. And they are receiving the Lord. We also helped John (our amazing missionary) with work projects and some furniture moving. We are a little (ok more than a little) exhausted.

The village we are in is HOT. It rains a lot at night here and it is lethal to walk out the door with out bug spray. We all look like we came down with chicken pocks. We have learned about a lot of new creatures since we have been here...the kinkajou, coatimundi, the "no-see-ems (these ones leave a mark), tarantulas, scorpions, and a lot of other interesting animals. John has a virtual zoo next door to our bunks.

Some kids have also been doing village stays...where they stay in the home of a family for one night. They eat, sleep, and go to church with them. So far the kids have said that it was great. They were a little scared of the food but it was good. Some of them learned to make tortillas, some just held babies all night. Tonight a few more kids will go.

Tomorrow we will be going snorkeling in the Caribbean. We will be traveling a long way, and then taking a boat early in the morning to the islands. We are hoping to see a lot of God's creations and relaxing before we head home on Sunday. We miss you so much. We are all tired and worn out. We are in deep need of prayer. Please pray for safety, quick travel home, and rest for all of us.
We will see you all soon (Sunday night/ Monday morning @ 1am)
Thanks for all of your prayers.

Deep in the Jungle aka Monday Mania

The presence of the Lord is getting stronger and stronger. Our team is unifying as one and really seeking the heart of their faith. They are in the other room as we speak (write) laughing at all of the fun pictures that we have taken. We are being refreshed in the Word of God and loving every minute of it. We are also learning how to identify Belizian jungle creatures.

Today half of the group went to the river of caves. They walked to a special pick up spot and boarded a tractor (not kidding) to reach the start of the journey. They floated seven miles down stream through a series of caves in inner tubes. Using head lamps and some quick paddling they made it down stream safely... all of them are in one piece.

The other half of the group was here at Jaguar Creek savoring our quiet time and playing games. We hiked down to the creek for a quick swim while others took a long hike into the jungle. Then we went to the Blue Hole. The Blue Hole is really a place where the creek comes above ground for a brief time. God's creations are so great. The water was crystal clear and so cold. Just what we all needed. Tomorrow the groups will trade activities...

We also leave tomorrow for "desert storm" aka the missionary village. We will have another wonderful, and slightly sweaty, bus trip to reach our destination in the Stann Creek District. We will be stying at a camp in Dangriga Town. There we will be doing another, shorter, VBS and some work projects.

Once again we don't know if we have internet access in the next place, so we will try our best to keep you in the loop. Thanks for all of your encouragement, prayers, and support. Please pray for safety, good travels, and eyes to see the opportuities that the Lord is giving us in the days ahead.

A Secret Update

(Shh, we have internet, we didn't know that we would)
Yesterday we had quite an adventure. We awoke to our last day at Banana Bank Lodge, ate breakfast, and loaded the bus for church. We attended a sweet, small church in Spanish Lookout called Amazing Grace Christian Fellowship. It is a small body of believers with big hearts. The people there greeted us with smiles as we flooded the room. The voices of our group mixed with theirs to unify us as believers. God blessed our time there as we were able to serve them in the children's ministry as well. Nate gave the message on the Bread of Life and our kids shared what it was like to do VBS this week.
After that we all went out to Chinese Food, not kidding. It was great. Then we got back on the hot and sweaty bus, to head out to Jaguar Creek. When we got here it was evident that we were deeper in the jungle. Jaguar Creek is an educational facility that was intended to encourage environmental conservation by Christians. It is like a tropical paradise here and we can feel God's presence. We have a creek below our cabins that is beautiful. We found caves and small pools of water to play in. In our time of rest we will also take a journey down the river of caves. Seventy-five percent of the tour is in the dark!!! Today the first group goes out. We will keep you up to date how things go.

Please continue to pray for safety, rest, and a refilling of energy for the week to come.

Super Saturday

Today was such a blessing.  We started with personal time in the Word, we read Phillipians 2. It was an encouraging way to start on the day.  

It was our last day of VBS.  The kids made salvation bracelets, were given the gospel, and a chance to recieve the Lord into their hearts.  As we said goodbye to them it was hard not to cry.  When the bus pulled away we were praying that the message we shared was planted in good soil.  We also are praying that they share the things that they have learned with their families.  

Everyone is a little tired and ready for the next adventure.  We will be going deeper into the jungle this time.  We are headed for Jaguar Creek.  It is an eco-friendly jungle oasis with composting toilets.  Our group will be exploring the area and taking a wild trip down the river on inner-tubes.  Then we'll be resting there until our next stop in the missions field.  Where we will do work projects and more VBS.  

We are not sure when we will have internet access again, so feel free to leave comments and notes (we read them and are so encouraged by you).  

And please pray for safety, endurance, and energy in our week ahead.

Freaky Friday

Hot, Hot, Hot, today. 

We started the day with the normal boat ride across the normal river; but seven girls were wearing skirts to minister to women at the Amazing Grace Fellowship Church. 

The girls were prepared for a Women's ministry outreach which included worship, bible study, childcare and gifts from CCSB. It was a special time of pouring into the women of Belize. This change of course left some of the VBS groups without the usual help.  However, God provided through the challenge.

The VBS groups went well; we went faster than usual so we could end early and visit the Art Box for souvenir shopping. After 55 of us shopped; it was dark and we headed back to Banana Bank. We experienced rain, thunder, lighting, crossing our river in the dark. And in Belize when it rains, it pours.  Quite an experience. 

Then we celebrated 08-08-08 after dinner!

We forgot to mention our delicious ice-cream that we enjoyed yesterday. The Mennonite Community makes the ice cream for all of Belize and it is tasty.

Tonight we are playing games and planning to be in bed early (by 11pm).  We need some rest and would appreciate your prayers for our last day of VBS tomorrow.  

Thunder Thursday

Thunder Thursday!

Time is flying by so fast and we can hardly believe it's already Thursday. 

Today was the best day of VBS yet! We were able to connect with the children and now know many of their names. We are bonding with them more and more every day. We are sharing the gospel with them daily and will make the salvation bead bracelets on Saturday. Please pray that the Lord continues to open their hearts to receive Him and His salvation.

As a group, we are studying the book of Jonah. Every morning and night we have a sweet time of worship and devotion. Some of the lessons we have been learning include:

-Jonah's disobedience, contentment in sin, and his pride kept him from his relationship with God

-God's sovereignty in spite of our disobedience and God's presence stays constant no matter where we go.

Tomorrow, not only will we be going to VBS but some of us will go to minister to the women at the Amazing Grace Fellowship church. We are praying that we will be an encouragement to them and that God will fill them up with His love and joy!

Good night for now, and thank you for your prayers. God is answering every one of them.

Wild Wednesday

Day 3

We are alive, happy, and praising The Lord! We all had a great day at our different villages doing VBS. We had more kids today than yesterday since they all told their friends to come.

We had hot sun, good meals, time for swimming, and devotion & worship time in the morning and nighttime.

For VBS we are teaching the kids to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself." We focused on loving our family yesterday with the story of baby Moses & Miriam and today's focus was loving our friends with the story of the paralytic man brought to Jesus by his friends.

You would be sooooooo proud of your kids for how they are sharing, loving, leading, and persevering every moment. Everyone is getting along really well so far.... keep praying!

Off to bed....... We'll write tomorrow.

We Are Here

We all made it to Belize!!!!  Everyone is having so much fun.  Yesterday we rode a bus from the airport to the Banana Bank Hotel.  We all had lunch and then quickly went to the pool.  Everyone settled into their rooms and got a lot of sleep in preparation for the time ahead.

We started VBS today.  It was so good.  We split into four groups and went to each of the schools.  What a blessing!! Nate's group had over 100 kids, Scott's group had around 80, Trevor had 40 plus and Paul's group had 4o plus!!! God blessed us with spanish speaking translators for each group since most of the kids spoke spanish!! Surprise! We expect more kids tomorrow as everyone left hugging, smiling and wearing their new T-shirts they made as crafts.

We have seen monkeys (at our hotel), exotic birds (at our hotel), a jaguar (in a cage at our hotel and an iguana on the boat ride across the river this morning!

It rains often and last night we enjoyed a thunderstorm.

We are all worshipping God and amazed that He has brought us here!!!

We love you and miss you and are keeping you  in prayer as we know you are praying for us!

We see your prayers being answered!!

still waiting! (pics take a while to load)

MIAMI!

We made it to maimi.  Everyone is doing great.  We are just sitting in the airport playing uno and being crazy.  Here are a few pics. We will get some more but all we have been doing is sleeping. ha ha.  Just found out that Anderson Fung is a little sick.  please pray for him, might be the flu! love you guys.

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It's almost time!

Hey gang! Here is our blogsite. We will try and have it updated as much as possible. There is internet at our first place we are staying and there might be access at our second stop. See you tonight at the pool party. Here are some pics of the first place we are staying!