When you go on a missions trip, all anyone wants to know is your emotional and/or mental status, which is ironic since most of do not have the capacity and ability to take all that in and then articulate the change going on in our hearts and minds. But, since I journal and I can look back at it, I thought I might give it a try. LOL. If the writing is in quotes, it is directly from my journal. If not, it is my thoughts now, looking back.
This is the team that went from our church - Trinity Alliance
Day 1 - “We made it to Belize! We are here! This seems nothing short of a miracle after the vast number of visions I had of planes going down in flames. This place looks so much like a city in Africa, it’s CRAZY! All we did today was go out to eat (which took three hours) and buy water at the store. We are a whole day ahead of the other team so we get to sleep in in the morning. I’ll probably make it til 6am. Our room is very nice. Simple. Two beds, a bathroom and an A/C! Praise the Lord we have an A/C! It’s not as hot as Africa, but seems just as humid. K has been a stellar traveler! She hasn’t complained and even seems to be enjoying all the travel. The huge waits are a little hard, I can tell, but hopefully she can continue to hold it together as she gets tired. She is up late with us. Oh Father, please multiply her rest in a crazy, miraculous way! Give her the emotional strength to be able to deal with all that is going to happen, and NOT happen here! Help her understand how things work and give her the ability to process. Give her the grace to deal with all this - all the change and all the work. Amen!
The restaurant we went to was called the “Manatee Lookout”. The food was great and the view out over the river even better. The kids even saw a dolphin. No manatee but a river dolphin instead. There are small lizards all over the walls here, just like Africa. Dangerous roads. Unfinished cinder block houses. Walls around every property. The hotel is even made of cinder block and shiny tile…I’m telling you, it’s the Africa I grew up in!”
Day 2 - “We managed to get to the zoo today AND have an adventure doing it, still get back to meet the other team and the pastor of the local church we are working with! It all started with a “coup”. Those of us who had been up since 5:30 (yeah, didn’t make it to 6am), wanted to go somewhere and do something. Ric and Bruce came up with the idea and then I was nominated to be the general who had to carry it out. I found out how to get to the Belize zoo, sort of, then politely asked our fearless leader when she finally came down the stairs if we could please go. No guns necessary. I couldn’t believe she said yes!
After coordinating all 14 of us, we went to the road outside our hotel and flagged down a city bus. This bus took us into downtown Belize City where the bus terminal sat in the middle of a giant ‘marche’ (market), just like all the ones in Africa, with a mass of huts in a sea as far as the eye can see all connected, having no beginning or end and selling everything from shirts to food to DVDs. We did not have time to look, however, as the bus we needed was actually pulling out of the station at that moment. So, in classic third world style, we chased it down and banged on the door. The bus driver kindly stopped and allowed all of us on the already crowded bus so we could stand in the aisles while he careened down the road at 65mph." Yep, sounding familiar?
Eventually we all got seats as people got off and we were able to relax and watch the country of Belize fly by us as if a scene in a movie. All of the houses are up on stilts made of wood or cinder blocks. This is to prevent flooding during tropical storms and hurricanes. They are very run down and do not have windows or doors. Often the second floor is not finished.
Apparently we only took pictures of the nice ones. :-)
Bak to my journal: "I sat for a long time just watching their world pass by and soon memories of Africa flooded my mind. I was shocked when I realized my primary emotion was relief. Relief. Something funny happens as we age - certain parts of our past can feel like they didn’t really ever happen at all. You can tell a story but there is a disconnect as that part of your life is so distant from the present that it almost seems it must be the part of someone else’s life. Anyway, as I stared out the window and memories of my adolescent years flooded my mind, I was a bit shocked and relieved to realize that Africa really was a part of my past - MY life. I did those things. I had those experiences. They shaped who I am today! Soon my shock turned to relief and my relief turned to joy. Some of the joy was simply in allowing myself to freely revel in these memories for perhaps the first time since I was 16. (I learned quickly the year we moved back that in my American high school if I spoke of Africa, I would be brutally made fun of. In a matter of months, six years of my life was neatly packed away into a box in the attic of my mind. Now, as an adult, unconcerned with the judgment of others and mentally dusting that box off, it was like finding a long lost treasure of greater worth than gold. I found it chalk full of good memories and bad, fun times and scary times, great victories and super embarrassing moments. All of it was there and I was free to explore).” That bus ride may have been my favorite moment in Belize.
“We got off an hour later at the zoo of Belize. They pride themselves on only having native wildlife so I was thrilled to go. We saw everything from the king vulture to the tapir to peccaries, monkeys, agouti, pacas, jaguars, and coatimundi. I decided the coatimundi was my favorite. They look like a cross between a raccoon and a lemur and are quite active. It seems to me they get in to a lot of trouble. To get home, we went back out to the road and waited until another bus came by, which we once again flagged down. The kids began to fade as we waited at the bus station for a bus to take us back so Joe bought them what is equivalent to our monkey bread. They ate like ravenous teens and he bought them another. They were good after that."
I couldn't decide if the dogs were armed as well...with fleas that is!
King vulture
Croc
Coatimundi - not getting into trouble. LOL.
These guys were everywhere, just roaming wild and free. Large - perhaps 12- 18 inches long in the body, not including the tail.
Tapir
"Back at the hotel we met our other team from Pennsylvania. They are mostly youth with three leaders. Funny to see them as awkward as our kids. Makes me feel like maybe we are more normal than I think at times. :-) They seem solid though so I think this might work out well. We also met Pastor Lord, the Jamaican pastor of the Belizean baptist church. he he. As it turns out, the teachers went on strike earlier this year and even though this should have been the kids’ spring break, they now have to go to school. So we are not on for our primary ministry, the VBS. (Insert horror face emoji - you know, the blue one with hands on the cheeks). Right now we are to join the kids for morning chapel, which will be our skit and Bible story and then we will get the last hour of their school day to play games and do skits. The space I have for games is way too small to manage half the school so I am not sure how this is supposed to work, but we will roll with it. Lol. At least that is the plan for now. Lord, carry out YOUR plan on this trip!
I had a massive reaction to whatever we ate for dinner! Had to take an adult dose of Benadryl and now I have the Benadryl shakes. Always feels like I have the flu when I get this kind of a reaction. Only soy does this. Good thing I took the meds tho, the rash has spread across my torso and is covering my back as well. Hope I get my energy back before VBS!
K did well. She got a catnap on the bus, but was completely finished by the time we got back. Lord, she is so small and these days will wear out the best of us. Please multiply her strength. Give her gracious amounts of energy and joy. Oh! I almost forgot! K’s corn completely went away!!! Literally, she woke up, started writing in her journal and noticed her hand was moving smoothly so she looked at it, decided it must not be ‘corny hand’ and looked at the other hand. With a quick double take, she came running to me and said, “Mom, look, my corn is GONE!” I will take that as miracle numero uno! Thanks Father. It meant a lot to her!
Paul’s miracle of his life, in his own words is found in Gal. 1:23-24…”The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy. And they praised God because of me.” Even Paul knew that the miracle of a changed heart and life is the greatest miracle of ALL. Do your miracles, Lord, even if we don’t see them with our eyes.”
Thanks for reading! More days to come soon...hopefully before our family arrives for a visit!!
