A Good Time Had by All at Cayo Christian Academy

Hello,
    We had a successful day building relationships and supporting Christian education at Cayo Christian Academy.   The students arrived just before 9:00am and immediately began setting up their sports camps.   By 9:10, all 300 high school students from Cayo were outside and rotating through the stations we had setup.  After about an hour, rotations turned into a bit if a free for all, but our students continued to dive into the fellowship and the controlled chaos of playing sports and hanging out with their Belizian peers.

Cayo Christian Academy has 300 students grade 8-12.  Much like Unity, the school has seen tremendous growth over the past couple of years.  Students pay 625 dollars per year tuition.  90% of the students are supported by American and Canadian donors.  Most students at the Christian school come from poor families.  Many of the students have never met their father.   The school is extremely missional for the region that they serve.   It is so important for our students to know the "story" of the students that we work with, yet recognize that the students are also so similar to them.  Today was a great day to be together in Christian education and, in Christ,  be in amazing fellowship.

Part of the day is spent preparing a hot dog feast for those at the school.  The students fundraising money goes towards purchasing hot dogs, drinks, and chips for all of the students and staff at Cayo.  Our students enjoyed the heavily doused in mayo, ketchup, and mustard hot dogs as well.   It is a nice part of the day.

After sports camp and lunch, we had a challenge from the soccer team of Cayo to play us in a match of 9 on 9.  We thought we may get worn out by the heat, and we do have a handful of rookies on our roster, but me managed to be only down 2-0 at the half.  Cayo's shortest player, a boy named "Subb", could not be contained. We showed determination, will, and pure sweatyness in the 2nd half.  In the 74th minute, I was able to put a trick behind the backshot (i.e. tried to pass and it accidentally went in) through bottom corner of the net, putting us only a goal down (Alex said I will never stop talking about it, so I better write about it:)  We then spent the final 13 minutes peppering the goalie.  Key saves were made on shots by Leiper and Herfst.  On the final play of the day, a corner kick was placed on the right foot of Collie, but he narrowly missed, sending the soccer ball deep into the jungle.  With the ball landing in the snake infested wilderness, the ref was given an opportune moment to blow the final whistle.  Unity fell 2-1, but they were on the hearts of all at the stadium.  Craig Haan was voted to the allstar team as goalie. 

We packed up at Cayo at 2:30pm and stopped in Belmopan at a grocery store for snacks and knock off Beats Head Phones (or real Beats that only cost 3 dollars).    We then came back to the camp and went down to the river for a swim.  Students were able to enjoy the small waterfalls and cool water after a busy 6 hours in the heat at Cayo Christian.

We had a nice dinner and devotion time.  Following this, the boys from the camp took some of our students and chaperones on a night time tarantula hunt.  Many students conquered a major fear of spiders by allowing our 4 inch tarantula frolic along the palm of their hand.  It was awesome.

Students are off to bed for the night.  Everyone worked hard today.  Thankfully, some cloud gave us a bit of a reprieve from the intense heat.  There are still some red faces and legs, but for the most part, we are in good shape.  Tomorrow is a "fun" day for the students.   We will sleep a little later and then head out for a fun day of ziplining, cave tubing, and buffet eating.  The students definitely earned these creation treats through their attitude and energy today.

1 change on this trip compared to others has been the increased visitations from insects.  A a collective, we have had more bug bites on this trip than any Belize trip I have been on.  My hypothesis is that this is because of the extra rain that has occurred recently.  On a lighter note, Steve Brouwer and Rob Lagemaat were chased by killer bees today.  Steve was only stung twice and Rob managed to escape unharmed.  Steve is not aptly named "killer bee".

The final pic of the night is from the iconic suspension bridge that we take to come and go from YWAM.

Thank you for your prayers and keep the messages coming.  Also, if you would like to congratulate me on my stellar goal, I am sure the kids would appreciate it (especially Alex:)

Blessings

MC