Mission Trip to Belize -- Part 2
Day 5: Woke up around 6:15am. Slept pretty good too. Got up and had breakfast on the deck of the hotel where we’re staying. It was really nice. One of our team members got stung twice by a scorpion that was laying in her purse. Ouch! Got packed up and headed back to our hotel in Belize City. Changed clothes and then we headed to this orphanage. Man, this place would rip your heart out if you saw it. And to think that kids live here (click here)! It was horribly filthy and the staff had this nonchalant attitude. One of the local pastors and I cleaned these restrooms that would’ve made most people vomit from just the stench. We scrubbed those things clean, then we started cleaning the walls. After that, I felt really exhausted and had to sit for awhile. I think some of the chemicals from the cleaning products were irritating my skin because my face was really burning. After I felt better, I fixed all of the swings on their playground. Sight Giver spent the day with this beautiful young lady that is mixed with Guatemalan and Belizian, which we found out was almost like being mixed wiyh black and white in the states. Many don’t approve of it. She was 15 but she wasn’t in school because she couldn’t read. A couple of ladies from our team shared the Gospel with her. Because she wasn’t in school, she got stuck with a gang of chores (i.e. cleaning the orphanage, washing clothes, etc.) 5 of us guys got to help lead this lady (who was riding her bike around the neighborhood) to the Lord. I felt led to take up a collection of money to give her. Come to find out, the amount we collected was EXACTLY what she needed for her kids’ tuition. After a full day of getting all grungy and dirty and sweaty, we came back to the hotel to get cleaned up and eat. I can’t speak for anyone else, but this has really been a great experience for me. The Pastor from my church in Houston came and did our devotion for the night. He talked about us serving and doing it with a sincere heart. He also talked about taking spiritual snapshots. I think the one snapshot that is sticking out to me isn’t so much an incident, as it was an “awakening”. I’ve realized that in America there are certain crutches I can always fall back on when sharing the Gospel. But when you’re abroad and not as familiar with the culture, all you have is the undiluted message of the cross.
Day 6: Today, I find myself in retrospective mode. I’m thinking about how I’m happily married to Stacey and my life is so much more fulfilling than it’s ever been. I never imagined that I’d be a preacher, much less one that would go to foreign countries to tell others about Jesus. Thank you, Lord. I got up this morning around 8:30am. We didn’t have our devotion time till 10am, so I spent a good hour in my Word. Pastor brought another great devotion about how mission trips should change your perspective, your priorities & your then practices. He used Paul’s conversion from Acts 9 as the basis of his message. It was good. From there, we went back to the orphanage. Some of us just walked around the facility and prayed over the grounds. Others finished projects that needed to be done. I hung out with a young guy named Calvin (click here). I had some of the kids read bible verses to me as well. After about an hour of that, 5 of us went to the prison in Hattiesville. One other guy and myself broke the Word off up in there!! I don’t know exactly how many hands I saw go up when I extended the invitation, but I saw SEVERAL. It was refreshing to see so many cats that sincerely wanted to hear the Gospel (click here). The lady that helped us (Miss Gina) was an American woman, and she was really nice. We ended up staying there way longer than we had planned, but it was such a rich time of fellowship. We went back by the orphanage to scoop up the rest of the team members, and then we headed back to the hotel to change. The hotel, however, didn’t have any running water, so we were a little bothered with that. But it really made sense. Whenever you are busy doing Kingdom work, the enemy always tries to discourage and distract you from the matter at hand. After relaxing for a bit, we got together and went to another part of Belize City and started working the streets. We formed these little teams and tried to hit up the entire neighborhood. We started inviting people to an “open air” meeting at this basketball court, and a gang of people came out (click here or here). One of the local churches brought equipment so we had a sound system, and it was great! I ministered the Gospel through 4 of my songs, and the people seemed to really get into it (click here). One of our Missions Pastors did the invitation, and there were tons of people on the fringe of where we were. We then listened to one of the local churches do praise and worship, while we just loved on the kids & played basketball (click here). I gave out every copy of my CD that I had. I hope the words penetrate the hearts of those that got the CDs.
Day 7: Got up around 5:30am. Packed up the rest of my stuff. The team caught a water taxi to San Pedro for our day of R&R (click here) The water taxi was cool, but long. We got to San Pedro and had to walk to our hotel, which was a nice walk. It was very hot too! We got to the hotel and most of the rooms were ready, but mine wasn’t. No biggie. I put my stuff in one of the other team member’s room (click here). I walked around for a bit, but hustled up a ride to this restaurant we heard that was really good (Elvi’s). We got there before they opened (11am), so we walked around and went by various shops. When we went back to Elvi’s, we ran into several of our other team members. We then decided to go rent some bikes to get around on. So we got the bikes and hit more stores. The water and the beach was very beautiful (click here). I got some stuff for my wife, my son and my daughter. We rode all the way around this island! We then came back to the hotel and I fell asleep in a hammock outside the hotel. It was peaceful and relaxing, but it left a crook in my neck. I then linked up with our Pastor and some of the other team members and chilled with them. We talked for several hours over the course of hangin’ out and eating over dinner at this place called the Blue Water Grill . Our Missions Pastor then did our final devotional for the week, and it was good. I got a lot from it. I went back to my room and chilled for the remainder of the evening. It rained a little bit tonight. As I’ve been thinking about this week, I’ve had a couple of thoughts come up: I have a pride problem that periodically comes up. When that happens, it doesn’t allow me to regularly exhibit mercy that affords me the privilege to call myself Christian. There’s work to be done when I get back home. I’m glad I came, and I have no regrets, but I want to see my family. Can’t wait till I get home.
Day 8: Got up around 3am. I’m sure that’s because we didn’t have an alarm clock in our room, and I didn’t want to oversleep. I dozed in & out of sleep till about 5:30am, then I finally got up. Got packed and went to take some pics with the rest of the team (click here). Walked the beach in San Pedro back to the water taxi place. Got in and pretty much slept all the way back to Belize City. Packed the vans and headed to the airport. 2 of the local pastors met us there at the airport. Got through customs this time with no problems. Had an encounter with this guy that literally cut in front of me to pay for this bookmark. All I could hear was last’s night devotional message about mercy. I didn’t say anything, even though I wanted to.
