Homeward bound

What an absolutely amazing week. The only thing that could have made it better would be to have the rest of my family here here with me. I miss them.

I still feel like I was in on the beginning of something amazing, and I can't wait to see how God works through us. I'm thoroughly convinced that the most important work we did had nothing to do with bramble-clearing, or hammering or anything like that, though. It was the relationship building, not only among the team (we have some incredible people in our church, and the youth were... Wow), but between the Belizians and us. I'm pretty sure that, once again, we came here to minister, and are leaving here ministered to. I know I saw God at work here this week.


- Julie M.

Location:Camalote Camp, Belize

Day 7: Working Hard (or should that be hardly working?)

And on the seventh side, they played. :)

We made the drive to Placencia to go to the beach today. It's an interesting part of Belize, because there are some really incredible, HUGE houses right next to what are essentially wooden shacks. The town itself is basically made for tourists, with lots of little shops and individual vendors, a few restaurants, and the beach.

Guess where we spent the most time.





















(I took a lot more pictures than this, but they're on an old-fashioned film camera, so I won't know what they look like until I get them developed).

A great time was had by all, although a few people got a bit too much sun. You'll know who I'm talking about when you see us on Sunday.

We had a bit of trouble on the way home when one of the vans blew a tire. Bob A. was driving, and he got the van safely to the side of the road with no problem, and then gave the kids a lesson in tire changing.

After dinner tonight, we had our final worship service with communion.

Location:Camalote Camp, Belize

Day 6: Thursday (a-bramblin' we will go)

(Just a warning, this post is image intensive)

Last day of work today, and I don't know about the rest of the team, but I'm exhausted.

One crew worked on the forms some more, and when they ran out of wood, they started tying rebar.













The team got 15 and a half boxes done today. They originally said they were going to need a total of 44 boxes, but after talking to Cuthbert (the foreman), he thinks they can reuse what we've built, so they're done. :-)

The rest of us went ''brambling"--working on clearing the field of the brambles, which are huge, interconnected, tangled vine-like things.





The field/site went from this



to this


We even worked in the pouring rain. And Sara K. is amazing. (She also somehow managed to be the dirtiest one out of the entire group.)

And just so y'all can see how the Lord is working though this team...



Cheryl, Ashley, and John with Duane

















I have to say, I've got a much better appreciation of "those who have gone before" after this week. We were the first team on the ground for this project, and a lot of what we did isn't going to necessarily be remembered once the school is built. There's no building to show what we did, just 15 boxes and a now-empty field. But the school couldn't be built without the work we did. I think it's really cool that we were the first team, that the next group (which arrives on Saturday) and the team after that and the team after that and the team after that and... will be building on what we did this week.

How awesome is that?

Location:Camalote Camp, Belize

Day 5: Wednesday (or, How many missionaries can fit into a 15 passenger van?)

Today was a short day, but not because of the rain (although it did rain today). We decided that we wanted to take a trip to go see the nearby Mayan ruins, so we only worked until a little after lunchtime. Still, we got a lot done in a half day.




We started out with one group going to another school for their religion lesson. It's still very weird to me that they not only don't have a problem with religion being taught in the government schools, they encourage it.








While they were playing with the kids, the rest of us were hard at work getting the wood ready to build forms for the foundation. This involved scraping old concrete off with a wire brush (or pounding it off with hammers and then brushing it off).



(This picture included to prove to my children and husband that I actually did some work)




Another group went back down into the field to cut and clear the brambles.





Then we started building the forms.








After lunch, we took off across country to visit Xunantunich (hopefully I've got the spelling right), some Mayan ruins that are located about an hour's drive away from the camp. Man, was the scenery on the drive beautiful. We got there about 30 minutes before the park was supposed to close, which caused a bit of a panic, but the ferry operator let us on and told us to hurry (did I mention that we had to cross a river on a hand-cranked ferry?)

And this is where the 15-passenger van came in. It's a mile walk from the ferry to the entrance to the park, and there was no way we were going to make it up there in time, even though some of the kids started running as soon as the ferry landed. So Bob W., who was driving, stopped and let us in so we could make it to the top before the park closed.

The answer to the question in the title is at least 24, by the way.



We were very friendly, and it's a very good thing that we like each other.

The ruins were really impressive.

Here, let me just show you.
















And a view from the top:






That little red dot at the bottom is me, by the way.

Ashley and I had decided that we weren't going to climb the whole way up to the top, so we tried to walk around the back of the temple to the other side.

I think it may have been the more adventurous choice, because the path took us through the jungle,


and by the time we got around back, we realized that the only way back to the temple was up. It was a bit tougher than we expected, but we made it, even though a howler monkey was throwing things at us as we were climbing.



We ended up on the first landing of the temple, so I got to climb down anyway.

I wish you all could've seen the expressions on everyone's faces when they saw the ruins and that you could've heard their excitement and awe. I think the best quote, the one that sums it all up, came from Susan B, as she reached the top and looked out over the surrounding landscape: How can you not believe in God?

Good question.

I'm seeing him constantly on this trip, from the way our kids work together and get along and show Christ's love, to the sunrise, to the pouring rain, to the Belizians and their joy in the Lord. I know I said ti before, but what an amazing group of people. I mean, where else would you find someone willing to do this?




-Julie M.

Day 4: Tuesday (Rain, rain, go away)

It rained today--one of those stereotypical tropical rains, where it just poured and poured--so we quit work early and went back to camp. But that was okay. It was really hot today and really humid (not that that's different from what we expected), and we pretty much had run out of work anyway (just for today, though).

The job today included digging postholes. This wouldn't normally be a problem, but the ground is really hard, and there are rocks underneath. Lots and lots of rocks.




The other thing we had to do was take some lumber apart. You almost always have to buy lumber used here, especially if you're just going to use them for forms, which is what we're doing. Most of us ended up doing this.







(My new official job title is board-stander. Yesterday, I was The Keeper of the Trash.) Tomorrow, we're supposed to be building forms for the footers--we had to wait until we got the plans approved.

We also had a group of people go to a school and do a lesson. They pull each denomination out into separate groups and have a lesson once a week (and it's interesting how much religion is a part of their lives here, even in the government schools.








We'll be going back to the church after dinner for the second open-air service. The thing that strikes me at the church services is how joyful they are. You can just feel God at work in the congregation. I want to grab onto that joy and almost bottle it up for when I feel far away from God.

The other thing is how absolutely amazing our youth are. What a great, great group of kids. if you're ever worried about the future of our world, all you have to do is watch Alex when he offers to help an elderly woman home (she walked more than a mile to go to church on Sunday, and she had a hard time even walking down the aisle of the church), or watch Sara or Rachel or (name a kid) as they play with the Belizian children. I wish you all could see them and see God working through them, and I wish you could all watch them interact with each other. They may pick on each other, but you can tell it's done in love and laughter.

Location:Camalote Camp, Belize