Sunday & Monday in Belize…

Today’s question:

What have I seen, heard, tasted, smelled or touched while here in Belize?

I have seen beautiful mountains, even just short rides on the bus I have seen God’s amazing creation spread out before my eyes. It is beautiful, I will never get tired of seeing it. (Sonya)

I have tasted so much delicious food! Lazarus and Alecia keep surprising us with great food. Just this morning we had a bunch of delicious fruit and some pancakes. I’ve also had some jungle specialties like sugar cane. It’s pretty great. (Zos)

What I hear in Belize is very different than the sounds of city life in Montreal. I love waking up to jungle music- the birds singing, soft winds blowing through the palm trees, frogs croaking and grasshoppers creaking. Sometimes, we can hear in the distance the howling of the monkeys… not the usual Montreal noise! (Jess)

In Belize, I’ve smelled a multitude of smells ranging from pleasant to ok. We’ve smelled the of fresh Belizean air as it’s dry, during the rain, after a rainy day as the base turns to a “pond”. We’ve smelled the sweet and wonderful smell of the outhouse, the scent as you approach certain flowers and plants, as well as the smell of Lazarus and Alicia’s cooking. (Anthony)

Belize is rich in unique surfaces which one can touch, ranging from the feel of the bark on the thick, tall jungle trees and sugar canes to the varying textures of leaves and plants. The mud soaking through your boots and into your socks and the rough palm leaves of your palm-tree raft (long story), among many others, will always be unique to Belize. (Nate)

While travelling in the back of a pickup truck on an empty highway, I gaze onto the glorious mountains with a seemingly never-ending jungle. I can hear the sound of the people we pass speaking in their foreign tongues. I can smell the firewood sifting through the air and that ever-present smokiness everywhere I go. (Grace)

As for me (David), I will share in the logistics of the past two days…

We had such a great Sunday, worshipping with 2 community churches, one in Roaring Creek, about 30 minutes away. This church partners with Global Outreach, a school that is dedicated to helping to grow boys into men. It is a three-year program. Jason Pop, attends here and is in his second year. Lazarus studied at Global 20 years ago. We had lunch with the 41 boys at the school and chatted with some of the directors of the school.

We spent the afternoon at Marla’s, where some pretty serious beading and jewelry making took place! We had an opportunity to connect through some games as well.

In the evening, we attended a church in Armenia, and we were blessed to worship together with them. It was so awesome to see many of the students from the Elementary school at the church, and our students were able to talk and encourage them at church. They were happy to receive us and the pastor really made us feel welcome! We all worship the same God, and it is a blessing to be able to experience a tiny piece of the Kingdom here!

On Monday, we spent the day at the Pre-school and at the Elementary school.  We have really been trusted with much as we connect in with students in the classrooms.  Again, many of them we connected with at church and now again back at school, so it is encouraging to be within the community as we are. We also helped with Erminda Pop at the preschool, and I am amazed at how much energy these kids have!  We shared some songs, crafts and did some beading as well

One quote to share is indicative of God at work here.  We sang the song ‘Our God is an Awesome God’ with one class.  One of the students in the class said this was one of their favourite songs.  When asked why, the student replied, “because…God!”

We will be meeting with Mr. Rosado, the vice-principal of the school who is connected in with Lazarus at IHF this evening.  We look forward to learning more about the impact this ministry is having in the community.

Tomorrow we will be back at the school and pre-school!

Blessings to all of you who are reading (and commenting).  We read out all the comments together each morning.