Mission Belize 2014

 My guys took a mission trip to Belize this summer.  It was something they planned, prayed, worked and saved for for almost a year.    They left out early (think 3:00am) to fly down.  Once they arrived they climbed on buses to drive to their destination.   They made one stop along the way to eat at a little restaurant named Slim Jims.   The boys said their first meal in Belize in was amazing!

 Once they arrived at Orange Walk they immediately jumped into action.   Kids showed up from everywhere wanting to play soccer. 

Each morning e-teams went out to pray with people in the villages and invite children to afternoon VBS.

 Those who weren't walking through the villages were back at the church doing very hard work.   The guys moved gravel and dug trenches.  They also dug holes for new septic tanks which the church was hoping to install.  Sewer systems are something we definitely take for granted here in the United States.

 This parakeet was a pet of one of the ladies that Little Guy visited while on e-team.

 Most of the meals were eaten at the pastor's house.  The guys talked about how awesome it was.   Big Guy brought home a bottle of the hot sauce which was eaten at every meal.  It was eaten on everything.   The guys said the empanadas, the fry jack, spaghetti, you name it they said it was yummy!

 The guys said out of all the pictures they took there was just no picture that could appropriately show just how crazy hot it was in Belize!

Painting For Humanity

Little Guy's best friend called early this morning. His dad is the project coordinator for our local Habitat for Humanity house. They were heading to the project site to get some more work done since we are expecting rain tomorrow. They invited Little Guy to go with them. It was a very cold day so he bundled up and borrowed a pair of work boots from his friend since the house site is very muddy.

When Little Guy got home his face was beaming. Mr. G told me "anytime that Little Guy can go help me I can use him. He works hard and is good at what he does." Mr. G had put Little Guy to work doing the "cutting in" around all the windows and wiring.

My sweet guy has a heart for others. Whether it is painting a Habitat House or raising money for orphans in South Africa, he is ready to help.

R.A.K.

On the whiteboard I wrote, "Describe one nice thing that you could do for someone that they would never find out about." It was the journaling prompt that the teacher had left for this class to write about for the day. A few seconds later, a girl brought me her journal with her example of a R.A.K. "If the girl next to me had the wrong answer, I would change it for her so she could make a 100 on the test." I gently explained how that was also cheating and asked her to rethink her answer. I began walking around the room and saw that a lot of the answers had her same "ethically" challenged issues.

As I looked out over the classroom of faces, I could tell that they were stumped. I asked them to put down their pencils and we talked about about 15 minutes about what it means to perform random acts of kindness. For about 90% of the class, this was truly a very foreign concept.

As the students settled in to write I prayed for each of them.

This is just one small example of "how white the fields are unto harvest." Our churches need to realize that we need to get into the schools. There is a HUGE mission field in Madison County and it lies right inside the walls of the public school system. Literally 1,000's of children are starving to death for the love of Jesus. My heart is burdened for these precious children and I am praying for a church that will feel the same way.