• Building the foundation for a new pre-school in Unitedville
• Coaching the local school children in their schoolwork and basic literacy skills.
• Facilitating small groups for the village teens.

Many youth in Belize have encountered Christ but have no idea what it means to have a real, ongoing relationship with Him, resulting in little change in their lives. The vision of the Belize team was to inspire these teens to live for Christ because we believe He wants to transform them – and us as well.

Thursday night was a special one, as we had library time with the kids, and boys and girls clubs in the evening.  We spent time reading to the kids, and letting them read to us also, helping them along when they stumbled on a big word.  After reading, board games were brought out, since it was too wet to go crazy in the playground, which was too bad because I really enjoyed the ‘murder pole’ they had!  That thing is way too fun.  Regardless, we all had a blast playing games with the kids, and were also rather humbled, as they kicked our butts at Connect 4!

Boys club and girls club went fantastic! At girls club, Carolyn and Uzo shared about God our perfect Father. Many of these girls come from single parent homes, so it was a very relevant message for them. Following which they scrapbooked the photos we took last week at our ‘makeover night’. At boys club, Brad, Colin, and Andrew shared our of 1Corinthians on what it means to be a corageous and strong Christian man, during which they had a serious of relevant games/ challenges for them, including tug of war, kick the can, and taping all the boys together with duct tape.  All in all, it was a great time, and I am positive that the hearts of every child and teen was  touched in some way.

Today, we poured the pad, and cleaned everything up.  It is definitely a project worthy to be proud of. We all believe that the building of the foundation is symbolic of the Godly foundation that will be laid in the lives of the young children in the village who will benefit from this preschool.

This was a great experience for all of us to know what it is to live in love, and to view the wonderful examples of the missionaries we were serving with here in Belize who truly live this daily.  As this is the first mission trip for most of us, our eyes were opened to many different avenues in the mission field, from working with small children, to teens, and to construction.  This has left us to a point of discovery as to where God is calling each and every one of us.  Please pray that we do not lose this yearning to discover and obey the will of God, and to live day by day in love.

Well, our trip is nearly over, just one more day to go!

Andrew Wiley

Today, we almost finished shoveling and leveling the dirt in preparation for laying the cement. Please pray for no rain Thursday and Friday this week, so we can get the cement floor laid in the preschool. Andrew, Colin, and Brad did a great job digging a 4ftx4ft hole in the mucky clay for the septic tank. On their last wheelbarrow load with the dirt Andrew slipped on the mucky, slimy dirt and had a great mud bath! Who says you need to go to the spa?!!!

At lunch we fed 150 of the local school children a hot dog lunch. Many of these kids don’t get lunch and for all of them it was a huge treat!

This evening we had kids club with the children, ages 5and up. We did a teaching on David & Goliath about overcoming obstacles. The game and craft were a hit with the kids, but it was a little challenging to keep their attention at times. We did some of our team’s favorite children’s bible songs. The kids seemed to know them all even better than we did! Jake, Don, and Uzo did a great job acting out the story. All in all it went well. Please pray that the seeds depoisited in the hearts of these children will grow and flourish. Mike & Vicki, the missionaries here in Belize, are starting ‘SunRock Kids Camp’ with the children every Wednesday throughout the summer months, starting next week.

With the rain has come some flying termites that shed their wings wherever they land! Some of the team are less than impressed by these new visitors that get in everywhere!  Continuing on the bug note, the guys found a scorpion in their cabin yesterday and we had a run in with terantula at the Blue Hole on Sunday!

It was an eventful evening with the youth tonight. On a sad note, there was a drug related fight that broke out across the street from the learning center where we were hanging out with the youth. Thankfully noone was seriously hurt, but it did cause quite a stir with the youth. It’s interesting that in a place called Unitedville there is so much disunity, especially in the family unit.

On a funny note, one of the boys decided it would be a great idea to drop a giant flying beetle on the back of one of the girls… As you can imagine, hysterical screaming ensued! Eventually Brad caught it and through it out the window. I (Don) wasn’t finished, so with the help of some of the youth I found a toad and released into the room… It received the same reaction as the beetle!!

More praise reports… Several of our team had headaches this morning, which disapeared immediately when we prayed for them! Thanks for all your prayers… We can certainly feel them and appreciate them.

On Sunday, there was no chance to sleep in, as we were up and off to church by 8:30 in the morning.  After the service, we were off to more ruins, at Cahal Pech. The general consensus was that these were our favourite ruins, as there was so much more to explore and they seemed much more lived in.  The afternoon was spent exploring the caves at Blue Hole National Park, and swimming in the wonderfully cool water.  As the day came to a close, we returned to base and did some final preparations for the Kids Club that we will be running on Wednesday night.

Today we returned to old-fashioned hard work. Off to the work site at 8:30, began adding concrete to our foundation. Thankfully we were able to use a cement truck to lay the base, but making sure that it was level was still a lot of work. After laying the first layer of cinder block on our cement base, we stopped for lunch.  When we returned around 1:00, the concrete was mostly dry, and we began to build up further layers of cinder block, 5 layers in total, holding it together with more concrete that we now made using a mixer, rather than a truck.

At 3:30, half of the team headed back to clean up, so that they could be ready when the learning center opened at 4:30. The other half of the team remained at the work site until 4:00, finishing the day’s work and tidying the work site. After quick showers, they joined the others at the Learning Center. During the Library time that followed we read books to some of the children who attended, and played games or played on the playground with others.After a quick dinner we again returned to the Learning Center, which was then opened to teenages. Since they were done school for the year, we played games and just hung out with them.

We have truly experienced God’s power here. Over the weekend, Tash began to experience a reoccurance of an eye irritation, which left her eyes swollen and red, that she had previously experienced in South Africa.  But after prayer from team members, her eyes have been completely healed. God is truly great!

Our initial task when we got to the worksite was to clear out any excess debris out of the ditch we are using to build the foundation for the preschool.  This task took us a couple hours and after we completed that task, we started tying the rebar together.  By the time the rebar was tied together and laid in the foundation, it was lunchtime.  We headed back to the missionary base for nachos.

After lunch, we went to the local swimming hole and had the entire place to ourselves (except for the last 20 minutes or so).  They have a diving area in the deep end of the swimming hole and I am proud to say everyone jumped off.  Uzo was particularly entertaining with her screaming and shreiking prior to jumping, but she did it.  After that, we headed back to the base, slept, and then had supper.

After supper, we had boys and girls club at the library.  There was an awesome turnout for girls group but not for the guys group.  The guys group was modified and we just played basketball in 30 degree heat for 2 hours.  Miraculously, we survived…we were sweaty but survived.  The basketball in belize is a full-contact version of the north american version of basketball.  This variation of basketball in belize is called scurvy.  The kids accepted us and toned down the intensity of the game for us, but we had fun.

The girls did a talk on inner and outer beauty.  We chatted the biblical character of Esther and how she expemplified beauty in her character as a woman of integrity, passion & courage, and selflessness. Following which we had a super fun time doing makeovers!

All in all it was a great first day void of sunburns! Please continue to pray for strength, wisdom, and unity within our team! Thank-you for making all this possible:)

The team is looking forward to working with the kids tomorrow. We will be running boys club and girls club. Keep posted for some details on the activities in tomorrow’s or Sunday’s post. We will also start the foundation of the preschool. We will spend the better part of the day laying down steel rebar.

The team really appreciates all of your prayers and support. Your prayers make all the difference in the world. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

This blog will be updated regularly while we are in Belize (as long as the internet doesn’t go down!), so make sure to check it out to stay updated on what’s happening…

Meet the team… Away for our snowy team building week-end! It’s true, we woke up to a couple inches of snow on our tents… not quite the weather we’ll be facing in Belize!

If you are interested in discovering more about the purpose and vision of this trip, click here.

• Building the foundation for a new pre-school in Unitedville
• Coaching the local school children in their schoolwork and basic literacy skills.
• Facilitating small groups for the village teens.

Many youth in Belize have encountered Christ but have no idea what it means to have a real, ongoing relationship with Him, resulting in little change in their lives. The vision of the Belize team was to inspire these teens to live for Christ because we believe He wants to transform them – and us as well.

Join us this Spring as we serve the children of Belize. Your life will be changed, all while making a practical and spiritual difference in the lives of others!

Dates: June 8-19, 2009

To apply, please download the application form below. All applications must be received by Sunday, March 29th. To submit your application form or for more information, email Brad @ bstretton@platinum.ca.

belize-missions-application