1st presbyterian church Lewistown MT

Hey everybody! After a long day of travel we arrived here in Belize safe and sound. We wasted no time, and jumped right in by heading off to an orphanage in Belize City. Once there we had the pleasure of playing with a whole bunch of kids, telling a bible stories, and just loving on them. We stayed there for an hour or so then went to family night at the church we're working with this week. At the church we had an amazing dinner cooked by local Belizan women and had a great time of fellowship with the pastor and other church members that were there. It was a great first day and i look forward to posting about all that God is going to do this week!!!

The past few days have been pretty amazing! Sunday: We went to our host church and led children's bible study, did worship, and heard a message from Don,... later in the day we were able to get out to the houses around the church and invite people to VBS the follow day. Later that evening we heard a message from Pastor Henry Brown ( the pastor of our host church) then came back to the hotel and retired for the evening. Monday: THE WORK BEGINS!!!! Today we started working on painting the inside of the church. Much progess was made. Afterwards we went to the local elementary school to invite the students to VBS, which was occuring later in the day. During our school visit some of our team members went to tour the local hospital, all agreed it was an eye opening experience. At 4 VBS BEGINS!!! I don't think any of us could have imagined the amount of kids of that were to show up, but there was approximately 110 kids there! Whoa!! yea it was a madhouse, everyone had a blast and Pastor Brown was blown away by the turn out!. Tuesday: We arrived back at the church bright and early to continue painting. We worked very hard and got the walls and ceiling painted downstairs, and did some painting upstairs. Everyone was excited to see the transformation that occured in the room from what it was. We still have some trimwork to do but we should get it knocked out thursday. ANOTHER GREAT DAY OF VBS!!! much to everyone's amazement more than 160 kids showed up today, and it was awesome how smooth everything went today! ... and some of the kids parents actually came out, which was awesome to see. Coming up: tomorrow we are going to mayan ruins in the morning to experience some Belizan culture... everyone is very excited! ... after that we have another day of VBS ... we are hoping and praying that more parents will come out. in the next few days ... so please lift that up ...

Sunday Morning Service

Painting at the church

children at vbs

Today we had the chance to see some ancient mayan culture, we went out to Altun Ha a mayan ruin site. It rained on the way there so it was nice and cool during our tour. One of the local boys had caught a baby crocodile and let us hold and play with it for awhile. It was an awesome trip! Then we went back to the church for VBS.... it was another great day over 163 kids showed up!!! Local church members couldn't believe the turnout...

Today was our last day working at the church... we finished up all the loose ends with our painting project, and had spare time so we cleaned the benches in the sanctuary. VBS today was pretty awesome, we went out today with a bang...! over 210 kids were there today. We got to do crafts, throw water balloons, and sing lots of songs. A few parents in the community came out and were very thankful for us coming to love on their kids and are excited about the change that will occur from the hard work we put in this week. We ended the day with a goodbye service with our group and the pastor and a few members of the church. We were able to raise enough money so we presented it as a gift to the pastor tonight in order to purchase a keyboard for their church. Tomorrow we'll be heading off to Caye Caulker for snorkeling and relaxation on the caye.

vbs

vbs

It has truely been an amazing week. It was crazy how quick everyone from each group was able to build relationships and work side-by-side with people they had never met before. I believe everyone was stretched this week by the hot weather, monsterous bugs, and door to door evangelism which was out of a lot of our comfort zones. But as we said our good byes and sent each group home, it was apparent the strong relationships that were build and the life change that had taken place in each of our lives. One of the highlights from this week was from a ministry that wasn't even planned, where we went in to the roughest neighborhood in Belize City, called George Street and went door to door to pray and tell them the good news of Christ. So, all reading this be sure to talk to however it is you know that went on this trip and hear it from them just how awesome of an experience it was.