Zip Line and Cave Tube Day

Hello,
     There is positive insanity around the camp right now.  About 25 of our students (and 2 chaperones) and 15 Belizian students are running around the camp in the dark playing capture the flag.  Racism is not an issue in Belize, and the Belizian students setup the teams the way they normally do: "blacks" vs "whites".   While this works in Belize, I will encourage the students not to try this at home:)

We got up a little later than normal today and had breakfast at 8:00.  Our journey to the zip line/cave tubing zone was cut in half because the road has recently been fixed and we did not have to go 5kms an  hour to navigate through craterish potholes.

When we arrived, students headed to the zipline.  I have pics of each of our "zippers".  I will post to my facebook page (some may be hard to see because of the shade).  Students ziplined all through the jungle, culminating in 2 zips over a river.

Students were filled with energy and excitement to the point of exuberance when we headed down the trail to the buffet lunch.  Students helped themselves to rice and beans, mixed vegetables, salads, and chicken as we sat in a covered area for about an hour.  Students were clearly eager to move into the tubing portion of the day and, by 1:00pm, we were heading on the trail with our tubes, headlights, lifejackets, and harpoons water shoes.

This is our 2nd year visiting this site.  The cave tubing really is amazing (as is the ziplining).  We hiked through the jungle for about 25 minutes before arriving at the entry point to the caves.  Students swam and cliff jumped (safe jumps) and then we hopped on our tubes and entered the cave system for about 1 hour.  I love this hour.  We see so much through a tiny head lamp.  Half way through the cave, a small sinkhole shines sunlight through.  A chaperone from a previous trip still calls this place "heaven".

Coming out of the cave and into the jungle gives us an amazing contrast of God's creation.  We go from black and grey, to a plethora of greens and blues.  We floated down the river for about another half an hour, laughing the entire way.

We headed out from our adventure and stopped at a local gift store on the way home.   Students were strongly encouraged to purchase valuable and extravagant gifts for their parents:)

We enjoyed hamburgers and queso for dinner and we are now playing capture the flag, cards, and visiting.  The students have done a fantastic job of connecting with the kids at the camp.  A Nigerian family is visiting that used to live at the camp.   Their children have great names.  Bryce is playing cards with Covenant, Kennedy and Lauren are playing "pretend" with hope, and Marvellous is having her hair braided.

Tomorrow will be a good day in the sunshine.  We head to church for a 10:30 service.  This is followed by a full afternoon at "Kings Childrens Home".  This will be a time where I am prayerful and confident  that God will be pulling on our students hearts.  Please do pray for this to be a transformational time as well,  both for the children at the home and for our students.  Tomorrow evening, a handful of our students are going to cheer on the local soccer team in a big match they have.  We will be cheering on our new friends Corey, Hugo, and Eddie.

The final pic is just after we gave the YWAM leader a bag full of soccer gear.

Blessings

MC