Day 2 - Belize Mission Team Update

Day 2 Belize Mission Team Update (August 17, 2017)

Who will make the blog tonight... has now turned in to the biggest question of the day. All jokes aside, why bother blogging anyways? One of the most valuable things I've learned in ministry is support! Without it, we burn out. With out it, we aren't encouraged. With out it, we deny others the opportunity to be a part of missions & what God is doing. Support doesn't always mean financial. It includes prayer, encouragement, accountability. And through your support of reading this blog from each day we spend with local missionaries, I know that you are joining with us on this amazing adventure God has us on.

Today started off with breakfast at Hopewell (the children's home we are staying at while in Belize City). It has AC which is amazing! A wonderful bathroom in each of our rooms (girls in one and guys in the other) and the 3 young interns, including Marc & Dail cook for us while we are here.

After eating breakfast and heading to the airport. We began the process of a domestic flight, which hasn't been done yet by Harvest Aviation in Belieze. Brian was taking care of all the forms & approvals needed. We turned in our rental car (thank goodness, before Anna ripped off the front bumper hitting more speed bumps), we were ready to head out and fly to Punta Gorda (located in South Belize)... passports, check! Fuel, check! Keys to the plane... I repeat, keys to the plane... oh, that's right... they're back Hopewell in the suite case. While we don't have pictures of the "official key drop off," (thanks to Marc) we know that the delay for our trip had a reason. We still have no idea of what this reason was, but we didn't let it ruin our day, and off we headed south.

We had to fly lower than we wanted and for whatever reason, not only was it a bit bumpy down, it was HOT! Not just a little hot, but very hot. And it seemed it was getting increasingly hotter the further we flew. My two thumbs, I'm o.k hand signals to Mike, turned into a "so-so" until about 5 minutes before landing, when everything went down (or should I say, up). I quickly asked Anna for THE BAG and that's all she wrote (banana, breakfast, who knows what else, but it was all there!)

Again, the trip was still going to happen. None of these set backs were going to stop us. Jervis Fisher,  with Laugh Out Loud (children's home) met us at the airport and gave us a tour of the city. Punta Gorda is very poor, thave a great futball team, that they hope to keep excelling so they can one day make it out, but was stood out... was UNITY! The Pastors in this area meet every other Saturday encouraging one another, talking about the needs in their church & village, linking up with other church groups and supporting each other. For them it's not a matter of competition, it's about maximizing the limited resources they have.

Jervis shared his testimony with us, of how God took him, a simple ordinary troubled man, and restored his heart not through man's wisdom but through his love & passion to take care of the orphans. Melissa, Jervis' wife, just like the missionary couple we met with yesterday, stands by his side. They are both such an encouragement to see how these young couples follow God's will and the leading of the Holy Spirit to do what seems to be the impossible in Belize. Neither have made it on their own. They've made great strides in ministry through the support of others & through their complete dependence on God to show off in ways they could never imagine.

The rest of the team went to tour the chocolate field & dorms where teams stay when they visit. While I laid in the prayer room recovering from the flight. I was offered an IV, but as soon as I heard needle, I peeked up and become better immediately ;)

We ate a later lunch at a local taco stand. It made me feel like I was in Wauchula back at our taco stand. We loaded up and headdd back to Belize City.

There's more to Day 2, but today has been long already. So since we'll be traveling again tomorrow, I'll leave the rest of my Day 2 thoughts, to be shared tomorrow.

Prayers for Friday:
1) Sage travels for the team to Belmopan
2) Divine appointments with 2 more local missionaries
3) Good health for all team members
4) God's clear discernment as to what he wants us to do with all this information from the missionaries
5) The harvest is plenty, the workers are few! Pray about joining us soon in this amazing adventure in Belize!