Sunday

     We have reached our final destinations back home here in Canada. The day started with a lengthy but needed time of team affirmation and debriefing. For those of you who don't know what this time is, it is a chance for everyone on the team to speak to each individual as to how they saw God in them, how they grew, or what stood out for them. It took us about 3 hours to do every single person; can you tell that we love each other :p? There were many tears, many laughs, and everyone walked away with a better sense of the trip, its meaning to them, and a better idea of who they were.

      For all of us, the ending of this trip is an unwelcome one. We all formed many relationships with the people in Belize and we have all fallen in love with the country. God is doing some unique and exciting things in Belize and we all want to continue to be a part of it. Some of us are even beginning to plan our next trip back. This trip is truly a testament to what God's community is suppose to look like. In the early church it is written in the book of Acts that all sold/shared what they had so that none were without; it is a glimpse at the solution to poverty being Jesus and his church. Because everyone carried each others burdens and spent lots of. time together, love was inevitable. When we began to listen to the stories of the locals in Belize we began to fall in love, and when you fall in love you will do what ever it takes to try and help. We saw on this trip through people like Troy, Barbara, Santi and Liliana that through obedience to God and close fellowship with eachother, that poverty can be eroded and eliminated. It was a beautiful thing.

     This is my last blog post for this trip but I hope and pray that this blog continues to grow. I am moving on to a calling that God has for me in Toronto but I do not believe that this will be my last involvement with this church, its people or its mission in Belize. To all the people reading this Blog, consider getting involved with the next mission to Belize and continue to lift the nation and all of us in prayer. Each and every person on this team would tell you that you will never regret getting involved with the trip, weather you be 14 or well into your later years, this experience will change you just as it changed us.

Saturday

Off the blocks, out of the schools and to the beaches, coral and sting ray infested Carribean :). We left early this morning and went to Belize city to catch our speedboat to Caya Caulker, one of the most popular keys in Belize. We first had a guided snorkeling tour through the coral reef and a sting ray and dr. Shark area; it was something else. Literally, its everything you think it is; beautiful and colorful.

After, we made our way to the island to hangout, shop and relax. For some of us (me included) this meant getting a burn. still the relaxation and day was much needed and very memorable. Every single one of us had stories to share with eachother by the end of the day. To top it all off we had supper at Cheers, the Canadian owned restraint the team ate at 2 years ago. Simply amazing food.

I'm writing from our hotel in Portland and we are all ready for bed. We hope to be home at the church of the rez by 530 or 6 tomorrow. Come on out and give us a warm welcome home :)

Friday

Well we have finished up our work week. The school team spent the first part of the day visiting the school and saying goodbye and helping around the base. The brick crew spent the first part finishing as much of the bible schoolmaster we could. Although we did not finish, the emotional effect of seeing such a large part done was overwhelming, especially for Troy and Barb. All together we laid around 800 Blocks!

After we had a big family supper at a local restaurant and ate a very local meal of wraps and tortillas. We also spent dome time visiting a local store that sells local art and memorabilia. Between Richards ( base staff) driving and our on the bus shenanigans, enjoyed quite a few laughs. And oh ya, we of course made a stop for local hot sauce!

Finally, we spent our evening participating in a local youth conference being held at the base called Legacy. This event forced us to relocate into a large white house (which we cleverly called the white house :p) where we would test our patience levels with eachother by sharing life under one roof. The opportunity to engage in such a free format of worship with from across Belize was nothing short of Amazing. Around 120 youth were there to seek Jesus and receive education and discipleship. It was an opportunity of a lifetime and God was truly amongst us

One Brick at a Time...

Thursday

In Belize there are a couple things you can count on. 1) the weather and local flora is amazing. 2) bumpy roads 3) awesome people and 4) time is no where near as important. It seems like where ever we go we are always the ones who are focused on the time, but it has still been one of the most care free trips many of us have had. The job site is coming along great, and the school kids are loving the team there. And yes, almost every night we go to the creek and have a team bath :p.

It's absolutely amazing how effective the prayers back home have been. I (Brent) have worked in construction and carpentry quite a bit and if you would have told me I could have worked hard in the blazing sun and heat building concrete brick walls, I would have laughed! But it's happening!!! Everyone on the job site is healthy, energetic and learning some pretty advanced stuff. And the team going to the school continues to pour out physically and emotionally non stop. It is incredible.

Tonight we had a great time of prayer and many people opened up in a deeper way. God has blessed each of us with his love and it was great to be able to share in that with one another. Afterward we had a game of mafia and ate some snacks :)

Keep praying everyone!

Love you all.

Shout out Wednesday's

So we are roasting in the heat having lunch down here in Belize on the job site and everyone wants to give a little shout out to back home. So here it goes :
April & Matthew made a banana call to Ashley, hope she gets its.
Tracey & Cameron are sending love to Anna, Melanie, and David
Tracey and Luke are missing Colby and Allan soooooooooooooooooooooooooo much
Sadaf and Soda are missing you Jamila!
Elyse says hi to you mom, dad Ian and all the animals
Liz says that she loves and Mississippi you Ty, Brydon, Graceann, and the whole family....
Joe says he is a ok to the family
Carlyle says hi mom!
Andrew says hello dear mother and that he misses you
Mike says that he misses and loves Anna very much.
Benaiah says he is thinking of you mom, noms and Maren
And Brent says he is missing everyone back home, he is missing you.
Jamie and Marie Helen say that they miss you Danny, Dixie, and Jim. All are well :)
P. S hugs from April and Tracey to you Marie.

Well it's clear that everyone here would want to bring their loved ones from back home if they could :) sorry for the sporadic updates, the Internet is spotty at best. Love you all!!!

Images from Sunday/Monday

Sundays/Monday

     Sunday
Today the team went to a local church for our morning service and spent the rest of the day adventuring around Mayan ruins. The service was very engaging and was quite different than what we have back home. The sermon was great but the service was more inclusive than most services many of us have encountered.

     The Mayan ruins were also very cool. We climbed to the very top of the tallest ancient tower and as we looked out one side we could see Guatemala and Belize on the other side. We truly live in an awesome time in history where we can appreciate such history.

    After we went to a local restaurant called Hodes. It was an awesome time and everyone enjoyed sitting down and having a meal together after a great day of rest. From mike playing a large Belizean xylophone for everyone in the restaurant to Tracy getting called babe by our writers, laughs were had by all! We certainly enjoyed our sabbath down here in Belize.


Monday


Well it's the beginning of many of your work weeks and down here in Belize its the beginning of ours too!! Today was our first day that the team split up to take on a couple of different tasks. The first group of us were 7 that went to a local school. Half the day was spent learning about the school and meeting the kids. The other half we spent cleaning some houses here on the YWAM base to bless the staff here.
The staff here is absolutely amazing, it only seemed right to bless them as much as we can.
    The other 14 of us went to help Troy and a local contractor Darrell build his new bible school. The vision for this school has been developing for a few years and it is finally taking physical form. Many of the local ministry here have been ordained with little to no bible education and Troy, Barb, Carmen and Faye are seeking to change that. They are building a school that can teach pastors/priests across denominations the more mature teaching of scripture. Its an amazing fest of unity that 6 different denominations are supporting this and We get to be a part of it! After losing half a day waiting for delivery of bricks and rebar, we still managed to get 8 out of the ten walls stsrted. We worked hard and all were pleased and tired by the end of the day. Despite multiple doses of sun screen many of us still got burnt ; The Belizean sun is an unforgiving one.

     At the end of today we all went for amazing swim in the creek near the base and it hit the spot. It was truly something out of a movie. Hanging palm trees, crystal clean water, and soft sand beneath your feet and oh ya, 25 degrees. Are you jealous yet :)?

Vacation bible school

Today we had a very busy day. We had about 40 young energetic Belizean kids come to the Ywam base to attend our vbs; boy was it busy. We had our fearless leader Mike and Jamie leading music and memorizing the ten commandments, April and Tracey were very busy with crafts and Luke and many more of us were maxed out playing games. You have got to know that these kids are awesome and full of get-up-and-go. After it was over the drama group led by my self (Brent) did a skit called the "dirty shirt."

You really have to be here to see and grasp the reality of the what is happening here. I've had one little boy named Travis and two little girls named Covenant and Demaris hanging off every limb. Cameron Eagles has made a little following of groupies. April, Elyse and Tracey have had to basically do the crafts for the kids just because they wanted attention so much. Matthew Nutter continues to go at full pace in soccer with the locals. And there are more stories to tell but I don't want to spoil all of them. One more though is worth mentioning. After the dirty shirt skit, I gave a talk on it and tied the whole thing into the gospel, and the kids gave me their undivided attention. What was learned later though was that people in our group were approached by the kids to help ask jesus into their heart. It was totally amazing.

Tomorrow is the Sabbath and we certainly need it. We will also explore some Aztec ruins :). We miss u all and wish you all a good sleep and great Sunday.

Arrived - Photo Proof

We are here

We have endured a lot of driving, flying and even a hike across a wire wooden bridge to arrive at the YWAM (youth with a mission) base in Belize. What a journey but boy was it worth it. Upon arrival we enjoyed a wonderful Belize dish of rice with beans and local seasoning with stewed chicken. You want to believe after a long day that this meal was heavenly.

We just finished sharing the high and low points of our day together. It is undeniable that people are seeing God move in some fantastic ways and all are excited. From having Sophie be amazing through the new experience of travel to arriving early in Houston. We even had a stranger give us a monetary gift to put toward good use in Belize.

Due to technical limitations pictures are just too hard to upload. Although getting them on Facebook has been a breeze; I apologize to all who don't have Facebook. Tomorrow's a new day and we are stoked, stay tuned because God is on the move in Belize and we are in hot pursuit!!!

2 Days to go!!!

This past Sunday we had our commissioning service and it was one to remember. Our team was surrounded with the prayer and support of our congregation, prayer partners and home team. Everyone in the group was moved by the love and unity that poured over us as we were launched into our role as a missionaries. Thank you so much for everyone who came out!

As we are preparing to go, the next two days will include vast amounts of running around, last minute inoculations, mass amounts of packing and spiritual preparation. Certainly for some of us there are mixed feelings. Excitement is an obvious feeling that I see in the others around me. But still there are more subtle hints of nervousness and confidence. These two feelings are particularly interesting and I believe that God can use both for the good of the group. Those of us walking in a feeling of confidence are humbled by the prospect of leadership and preparation while those of us feeling a bit more nervous are inspired and challenged by the confidence of others. The beautiful thing is that God has brought us together in love and unity. And its by that love that the people in the air ports, in Belize and here in Canada will know that we are sons of daughters of the living God!

"Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples" John 13:35 NLT

Everyone pray for good weather, safe travels, and for God's Kingdom to come!

17 days!!!!!

     In just 17 days our group will be in transit between Saint John, NB and Portland, ME. We will be sharing excitement with each other all the while a little crammed into one of the few vehicles we are driving. The build up on that day will likely be stifled by the long drive and early wake up call (4am) for our flight, but I doubt that any of us will lose that spark for long; I know I wont! I mean how could we with the prospect of a warm tropical climate ripe with opportunities to do some work for the kingdom!
         
     It occurred to me as I was listening to Mike (our pastor/spiritual coordinator) this past Sunday that these 17 days aren't meant to be simply endured. These 17 days aren't to be viewed as the unfortunate amount of time that we need to endure before we can finally embark on our journey. These 17 days should be viewed as a time of spiritual/physical preparation. Just as Daniel was intentional about his time preparing for the unknown by daily prayer and fasting, we too should be savoring the time we are given to prepare for this journey. William Nicholson speaks best to the concept of prayer when he said:

"I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time- waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God- it changes me.” William Nicholson, Shadowlands. 

     Just yesterday, a large portion of our mission team and our prayer partners circled up and held hands in a time of prayer. We prayed for covering, we prayed for victory, we prayed for each other and we prayed for the people we will come into contact with. I think when we are in the moment we often feel as if we are doing something to change God. I believe in those times God is simply trying to change us. But, looking back on all of the preparation the team has shared in I have noticed a lot of change in myself toward each person on the team and those supporting the team. I see brothers & sisters where I once saw friends & acquaintances. I see mothers & fathers where I once saw only Christians. And I see myself being able to sacrifice everything for those around me. Its in the times of prayer/fellowship like this past Sunday where its clear God has changed me.