Praise God!

Time alone with God each morning was such a blessing in this setting!

Lindsey loading up on local fruit...mmmmm!

Bethel SDA School

The River

Erica praising God in the morning sunrise sun!

The Team

We are so happy to be home but we miss Belize, the people, the service and hard work, the sunrises, the friendship, the sweet fellowship in worship as family and of course, the sea.

Home and Ready to Share!

God blessed us with safety in travel, hard work, service, new experiences and new friendships.
We are so grateful for all your prayers and support. Here are some more pictures that you might enjoy.

Mic sharing masking tape with the preschoolers.

Preschoolers touching the sticky side of tape....

Geddy and Chantelle Singing special music at the Highschool called Providence in San Antonio

Alan presenting an inspirational message at the highschool.

San Antonio SDA Church

Headed to Rio Blanco

Thatching!

Thatch collected from the jungle.

Finished product!

Dee Dee sharing her love for Jesus in song!

First Sabbath celebration!

Fruit...

Back Home Safe and Sound.

We arrived home at 2:30 AM this morning! Praise God for His hand of safety! We look forward to sharing all our stories!

The Work Site

Today is our final workday...we have finished the painting of the school and thatched the church building. The past few days were a whirlwind of activity.

Family Worship

Each day we get up around 5:00 to 6:00 AM. We gather for family worship and then have our personal time with God for about 30 min. After that it's breakfast and a hurried loading of the bus to get to the school by 8:00 AM. On Monday and Friday we had our AY meeting which is where all the kids come together for worship and games.

Worship At School

At the school, our kids divide into 7 teams and present a Bible lesson to each class including the preschoolers. So much fun...The Belizian children learned the new songs that we taught them and we enjoyed hearing them throughout the day as we painted and worked on the school. Their voices rang clear through the missing doors that we painted. Every so often we would hear them recite spelling words or solutions to their math problems and then they would sing songs again. It was awesome!

The kids worked hard through the morning in the intense heat. Painting, taping the walls, doors and door jams. Others worked on rolling the paint on the walls on both buildings.

Dr. Gearing and Sydney painting the door Jams.

Karl Thalman cleaning the doors for paint.

Michael Abts and Sydney Larsen setting up  doors
on old desks to be painted.

Tessa Wolverton and Jeanette Esquer painting yet another door.

Alijah White, Dee Dee Desnoo and Tessa Wolverton getting that first coat on.

Good Morning! A few random pics...

Good Morning! The internet seems to be a little faster this morning 

so I am trying to get up as many pics up as possible. Enjoy :)

 Tessa and Jeanette with some of the kids - Alan getting in on the fun too :)

Dee Dee with a few of her new friends

W.I.R.E.D. (Walking in Righteousness Every Day) in Belize!

A typical Indianville Dwelling
This is the village where we went to invite the people to the meetings at the school.

Dee Dee and Chantelle inviting people to the meetings.

Our Bus Driver

A Day of Sunshine

Yesterday was a wash....literally. It poured rain most of the morning so we could not work on the thatch roof or paint the outside of the school. We got a good start on Friday but Sunday we hung out at the house for the day. We planned our meetings and got that all done but everyone was getting a bit stir crazy in close quarters.

Today was very different....we rushed our breakfast and raced to the school for Week of Prayer meetings. The kids at the school were rearing to go and we began the week with great success. We divided our kids up into 7 groups with every one of our kids in leadership positions....they did great! The Belizian kids loved it. After one hour in the classrooms with each age group our kids made the change into work clothes and began to paint again...in the heat of the day they pushed through pulling weeds from the wall evading biting ants painted doors and walls all day long! At 4:00 we raced home, as fast as the bus could carry us for a quick shower/ocean swim for some, dinner and back to the school for the evening meeting. Geddy Pratt did the sermon. His topic, If God is so good, why is the World so bad. He did a wonderful job, the Lord blessed and everyone seems to really enjoy the meetings so far. Alijah White led out in the kids programing with good success. We had 30 guests which is wonderful. We are getting to know some new people and they are very eager to continue learning about God and His love for them. Praise God!

After the meeting we came home for worship and bedtime....night all....


Thanks for your continued prayers.

Our first Day at the School :)

We had a wonderful day Friday! We went to the school and presented a AY (Adventist Youth) program. It was so much fun! All 150 kids at the school came out of their tiny classrooms with their chairs on their heads and lined up in a group so that we could share with them. Lindsey and her group from Andrews University were here ahead of us by two days. They started the programing and we came in a long side and continued it. Geddy and Drew presented the music at the beginning with the team of singers....Sydney, Dee Dee, Alijah, Sherry, Michael, Erica. After word we listened to a puppet show with Dee Dee as the arms for Anneli from Andrews, and Alijah as the arms. They shared how we need to use our eyes to see how God shows his love for us!

We heard from the Belizian kids as they shared their special songs. Each class got up to share.
Rob from Andrews shared the message....it was so much fun! Our kids mingling with them was such a joy to see. They played soccer together, Dee Dee and Alijah sat in class with the Standard 6 grade enjoying their English class.

We began painting the outside of the school buildings...all three in the afternoon. Lunch came to us from Alan and we were so glad to see him! The sun came out but not until we prayed for the rain to stay away! Another prayer answered. We had a full day of work without the rain to spoil it.

I will be posting pictures as I can...enjoy and thanks again for your thoughtful prayers for safety and for the Holy Spirit to use us as we serve here in Belize :)

The beginning...

We travelled for a very long time - we left the church in Sonora at 1:00 am and made our flight at 6:30 am. We travelled on two planes and after landing in Belize City, we travelled by bus for 6 hours to Punta Gorda. We arrived to our destination and unpacked the bus and went to bed for some much needed rest.

Our orange shirts stand out and helped us keep track of each other.

Fun times traveling! 

Thank you for your prayers!

We start our work at the school tomorrow.

Belize 2011

Omar (front) and his buddy, last year in the Mayan village of Columbia

We will be leaving Sonora Tuesday at 12:00 midnight. Please pray for our safe travels and for the Holy Spirit to guide our actions, words and mission. Watch for current pictures and news of our travels and mission.