Safe and Sound in Belize

Hello,
   Great news, we are safe and sound in Belize.  Students are mostly off to bed (it is 1 hour later here), as they are spent.  It was a long 20 hours of travel, but the students remained positive and upbeat (and sleepy).    Going through the border was fairly simple.  United Airlines had a hard time getting organized on our ticketing, which caused some stress in getting to our gate on time.  We all made it though and our chaperones did a great job helping keep our students organized.

Going through customs in Belize was probably the easiest experience of my 5 trips getting through.  It was a breeze.

We boarded our busses and drove for about 1 hour to Cheers Restaurant.  Students and chaperones were able to relax and spend about 2 hours drinking coke and fanta from glass bottles and enjoying some classic Belizian meals such as Hamburgers and fries.  There was a nice breeze and our tired group was able to kick back and acclimatize to Belize. The below picture shows our students raising their glass coke bottles.

We then got back on our busses and made our way to the YWAM Camp in Banana Bank.  On the route home, the lights stopped working on our bus.  This is also an opportune time to point out that it is very dark at night in Belize.  The bus driver pulled over, but there was some light (pun intended) stress for our safety on a busy stretch of highway.  Instead of fretting, the Belizian driver stood up, asked all 50 people on the bus to bow their heads, and lead us in a very powerful prayer.  This was an impactful moment for our students.  The driver's prayer was so filled with faith and emotion that it enabled us to reflect that we should not hesitate to turn to our Father when we hit moments where we are lost or stressed.  When things were chaotic with United Airlines in the morning, we took on stress, but we did not quickly turn to prayer.   We all realized that prayer would have been a much better approach in dealing with the airline.  The tired and frustrated approach didn't get the same results.

As a footnote to this story, the lights on the bus came on about 15 seconds after the driver finished his prayer.  #awesome.

Most of our students have already gone to bed.  There is no wifi at the camp, so those that are still awake are all playing a shuffleboard/billiards game together.   This is a more than adequate replacement for "Trivia Crack".  Students will learn that there is a lot of fun, fellowship, and play that can occur in community without the need for smart phones and laptops.  This is a good lesson for all of us.  This is my current view of our students playing and laughing;) 

Tomorrow morning,  we will split into our teams and serve at both Cayo Christian Academy and at the YWAM Camp.  We will work until about noon.  For the afternoon, we will be heading to the Mayan Ruins at Xunantunich where we will get a group shot forming the letter "N" (last trip's group made a U).   The ruins are on the Guatemalan border.  This will be followed by dinner at Hodies in San Ignacio.  

Please do pray for our students and chaperones.  While no students are visibly sick, everyone is tired and groggy.  We also arrived at camp in the dark, so students are still getting acclimatized to Belize and the YWAM camp.  Pray that tomorrow will be a day of service and adventure in Him as well as a time to get acquainted with the Belizian lifestyle.  

Blessings 

MC

ps.  Send some messages our way:)