On the way to church, we took a walk! Lucretia and I went with Miss Meghan, a teacher from TCA, to see a new baby in the community and pick up some children to walk them to church with us. Lucretia and I got to hold the baby! Oh my goodness, she was so precious and just 3 weeks old. What a blessing to behold before going to worship service – a brand new life, fresh from God!
At church, we enjoyed the cultural service and the many ages represented there. We were so excited when the praise team began to sing Revelation Song – we knew this one and felt right at home singing it!
Prayer Walking and Serving the Community
This afternoon was busy with a Prayer Walk to Manchaca Road Church. The church is in need of a new pastor and is severely crippled without its leadership. The families are hurting and in need of their church and will not attend any other. This puts the children at risk and the need is great. We prayed for God’s man to hear His call and for Him to bring strong roots to this community. We prayed for God’s covering over the families and children until the church can find its way again. We may see closed doors on a building, but we know that God will open them once again in His time.
Julianna asked us to continue our Prayer Walking over to the house of one of the students who just graduated eighth grade at Toledo Christian Academy. His mother is in poor health and they do not have the $1,000 a year it takes for a student to attend high school. She desperately wants to find a way to get him to school so he can become educated and be able to support them better than she can. They live with her parents in very difficult conditions. We walked to their home and spent some time visiting and then surrounded Sonya and Evan to pray for Sonya’s health and Evan’s future. We were humbled once again at what others must endure.
Envision a collection of huts and board structures, a duck pen, a pig pen, and children playing baseball completely surrounded by jungle and you have Foster Care in Belize! So much different than what we would encounter in the US, this facility houses foster children and runs as a working farm as well. The folks who have a heart for this difficult ministry are from Houston, Texas – go figure! Isaac is the precious 2 year old you see peeking through the railing and is there because his parents are both too old and ill to care for him. His father comes to see him every Sunday and brought him a birthday cake for his 2nd birthday. It is a very heart-wrenching situation. We took food to them and prayed for God to give the foster parents all the physical, emotional, and spiritual support they need to care for these beautiful children.
Lucretia engaged immediately as she always does – what a gift she has – and began to play baseball with the son of the foster parents. He attends TCA and will be playing on the baseball team for nationals, so he and Lucretia practiced for a bit while we were at the foster care home. Check out her swing!
We finished our evening with stopping by Laguna Village and buying our new friend’s coffee after she roasted it for us and praying for her and the women’s enterprise we discovered the day before.
One last quick run into town produced Fanta for the trip and a final round of ice cream for the team. We are back at the Mission House, paring down and packing up with mixed feelings of sadness at leaving our home away home and excitement to get back to our families and all things familiar to us. We have been blessed in more ways than we can express; we pray that we have been a blessing to every life we have touched and that the seeds we have planted and the saplings we have watered will continue to grow and put down roots that will hold strong and true.
We leave the Mission House at 6:00 am tomorrow morning – Monday, the 11th. Please pray for our safety in travel – from the 200 mile stretch from Toledo to Belize City, to the air travel from Belize City to Dallas and then HOME to Midland. We love you all as the body of Christ holding us up as your brothers and sisters while we have been in the mission field. Our thanks is but a small expression of our appreciation for you.
While the conditions have been challenging here in Toledo, Belize, we have been guided by scripture at every turn. In particular, we claim Philippians 2:12-18.
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed- not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. Do everything without grumbling or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.”
Patricia and the Team: Miles, Brianna, Landan, Lucretia and Alex
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