We Are Ready Now!

Our team was commissioned in a beautiful service last Sunday. Our totes are packed with 105 gift bags lovingly prepared by friends and members of our congregation for Los Tambos students, 100 dresses and 100 pairs of shorts custom designed by the Flannel Floosies with love evident in every stitch, school supplies and teacher appreciation gifts donated by Mission Possible Kids and Youth Missions, an almost infinite number of donated and highly prized tote bags, hundreds of donated toothbrushes and toothpaste, and many other items.  Two simple words, "thank you" hardly seem adequate to express our gratitude for the many ways you share your love and your blessings. Know that there is a huge swell of emotion and appreciation that accompanies these words. Maybe if we say them often enough, you will understand how much hope you offer to people in Los Tambos and how often they give thanks to God for bringing you into their lives.

Just a couple of weeks ago we only had enough money to provide beans and rice to about 15 families. Now we have enough money to provide beans and rice to ALL families.  Thank you.

The total money contributed for the various aspects of our ministry is almost exactly the same as the amount contributed last year. We praise God that He continues to provide for the Belize ministry through active involvement of our congregation. Thank you.

Many members and friends have helped meet our goal of providing gift bags and uniforms to ALL of the 105 students at Los Tambos School. As Messie Bessie (aka Mary Beth) says, this ministry sends Jesus in a ziploc baggie and shows the children they are loved. It helps those of you who cannot go to Belize be a very special part of this ministry. Thank you

The Flannel Floosies have done a beautiful and highly professional job custom designing 100 dresses and 100 pairs of shorts. They also are providing t-shirts and underwear. The whole village will be glowing with smiles when these items are distributed. Their smiles will be brighter and whiter thanks to hundreds do toothbrushes and toothpaste donated by Stan Pozega. Thank you.

Thanks to Mission Possible Kids and Youth Missions, we are providing essential school supplies for each classroom, teacher appreciation gifts, and garden seeds for the families. It is hard to put a value on the classroom benefit, impact on teacher morale, and the hunger alleviated from these donations, but we know they make a huge difference. Most teachers could not afford to purchase these items themselves. Thank you.

We have enough money to provide approximately 20 bikes which help improve school attendance, provide safe travel, and let the children enjoy being kids. Thank you. 

We have enough money to provide high school scholarships to ALL interested students (approx 12-15 students will have scholarships next year). We praise God that ALL 4 students who are seniors this year will be graduating! We greatly appreciate the many new and continuing individual donors who contribute to scholarships. We are grateful that the Good News Sunday School Class faithfully continues to provide a full scholarship as a class project (they raised enough money to also provide a bike). We are also humbled by the gracious efforts of Bob and Carol Davis, who hosted a Fellowship Meal at their home. This one event provided enough money to cover expenses for the first year of high school for a very deserving Los Tambos graduate. It also was a lot of fun and gave a great opportunity for fellowship with our church family. Thank you.

Our VBS curriculum was purchased with donated funds from Living Waters for the World and is specially designed for Hispanic countries. It includes low cost craft ideas which we are supplementing with surplus craft supplies from our past VBS. Thank you.

We are grateful to Beth Humphrey and Sue Wheeler for donating many, many cloth bags for distribution to the families. It is amazing how a simple bag brings so much joy because it can be used for so many purposes. Thank you.

We will be working on a community-driven project to provide new bathrooms at the school. We are excited that the Village Chairman has received donations from the nearby Mennonite community to pay for most of the expenses for the project. He has broken ground on the project and is very grateful that you are sending us to help with the construction. Thank you.

We will also use donated funds to build additional benches for IHW like the one near the bulletin boards that Jim Burbank built in 2004 when serving on our first team. More benches are needed for a recent addition at the Learning Center. Thank you.

Thanks for all you do for Belize and other missions of our church. Please pray for our team -- that we will succeed in giving hope to Los Tambos by bringing Jesus to them and that we will grow as disciples. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

Belizean Sunset- 2 ways!

and some old friends

New Friends!

 

Reflecting on our mission week in Belize

Sunday , June 16
Happy Father's Day!
Today we had the entire church service in reflection of our service in Belize. Lyn presented the concept to the team a few weeks before departure and it just neatly rolled into a symbolic representation, with ideas rolling out as the week rolled on.

The processional was made up of our team carrying various tools and symbols used in our mission: The Light of Christ, Cross, Bible, and Chalice displayed our spiritual gifts taken along. Beans, bikes, dresses represented the items we gave away. A cinder block, paintbrush, tool bag, spelling bee sign and VBS bandana indicated the work done. A diploma was carried to symbolize our education ministry. These items were placed on the chancel steps. Team members led the worship; Lyn's sermon,"Following in the Footsteps of Jesus", mirrored our study during the week.

Blessings of Belize were voiced (eloquently, I might add) from different prospectives. It is not hard to see the passion felt! Of course "This Little Light of Mine" was on the hymn list. We hope that this charged up, tingly feeling is contagious enough to start others thinking of future trips!

Our team has been richly blessed by many things. We have felt the prayers and support from OUR congregation as ALL of FCPC was visible in Belize. Thank you for everything!

 

Happy Endings!

Post after return:
Saturday , departure day, started earlier than the others. We finished packing, consolidating some items into totes that we couldn't carry on the airplane (ie knives, work boots). Leaving plenty of cast offs, our luggage was considerably lighter than when we arrived. We left Knoxville with 26 totes full of supplies but had only 5 to return.

Headed to Belize City, 1.5 hours away. We dropped off a few weary members at our hotel. They spent the day resting and shopping, enjoying some AC. Saying goodbye to the McBrides (who were meeting new guests at the airport), the rest caught a boat to Caye Caulker, a key about 20 miles away. Some headed out to snorkel, others had a nice lunch with a ocean breeze. Of course there was some shopping and napping and swimming and sunning. While we hated to end our work, it sure was nice have some downtime. It was a quiet boatride back to Belize City. We changed, showered (ahh) and met for dinner poolside. Everyone slept well.

Sunday we load up for the airport and rental car drop off. A sign of interest at the gas station: Use of the restroom is free, toilet paper is $1BZ (Belize dollar= 0.50 US dollar). No, I don't know who did and who didn't.

The leaving side of the Belize airport is so different from the arriving side-lots of shops and unrefrigerated sandwiches trying to get your last Belizean money.

Our flight to Atlanta was a bit bumpy, we shuffled along through the requiste lines at immigration and customs like cattle. Anxious to get some dinner before our 8pm flight home, we discovered flight delay, and delay and delay. Finally leaving ATL around 11:45, we had a 30 minute flight. Our 12:27AM welcome home was sparser than usual but warm and appreciated! Many thanks to those that came out at the late hour!

A great trip, great team and wonderful relationships made!

Jesus Take the Wheel

Todays devotion centered around the woman at the well. Throughout his whole ministry, Jesus associated with sinners, the outcast and the poor.  Who are our outcasts? God blesses us with money and  knowledge to give away; use it to glorify God. Are we intentionally seeking out the undesirables? Jesus would. Do we allow others to see the love of God shining through us?

Friday is usually the happiest day of the work week.  Not so today. Our team split in two. One group went back to Los Tambos to finish up work projects. They went on the last family visits.  The others painted the mission house. Two coats of paint in two hours in high temperatures? Yep, we did it! What a great team! While we were there many students were on a bus to the national spelling bee. We listened on the radio. While our student did not win, we were all very proud for her and the village. The bus roared back this afternoon with cheering kids hanging out the windows waving signs, excited to see the new swings in place.

On another front, Andy bravely and expertly maneuvered our van out of quick sand. Of course he had the help of 3 young men and a large front end loader and a heavy chain. What a guy!

After another delicious dinner, we shared reflections of our work and had communion service. So much has been accomplished this week, none more powerful than sharing the love of God and the love of Ftn. City Presbyterian Church with the wonderful people of Belize. God bless us all and provide safe travels. Tomorrow we head to Caye Caulker for R&R and then journey homeward on Sunday.