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!!!