Pastor Frankie, Mayan Site, and a Time to Reflect

It is about 10:10 and we are all getting ready or in bed as we are waking up at 5:30am tomorrow to travel to Placencia for our service opportunity.  This is a new trip for us and Josh L. prayed tonight that it will go well and that we can transform while being transformed.

We had a great sabbath.  Although breakfast was not scheduled until 8:30am, six boys voluntarily got up at 6:00am to put a couple of hours into bridge construction and ditch digging.  I love that children are willing to get up two hours before they need to solely to dig some ditches.  Southern Drip may need to sponsor our next trip (product placement).

It was a hot day.  After breakfast we cleaned up (well I must say) and walked to Living Waters Fellowship.  We arrived early and were able to catch the last half of the young adults Sunday School. The focus for the youth was on "Building a Legacy and Planting a Seed in Their Own Lives".  Pastor Frankie spoke about not having a good father but the need for Belize to have good fathers in the future and that Jesus is a pathway to helping make that happen.  With only 20% of Belizean children knowing who their father is, this is an important message.  He also talked about not storing treasures for heaven. Pastor Frankie has a tremendous gift of using story, energy, laughter, and intensity all in one.  His messages always resonate so well with our students.

The main service started at 10:30.  After some singing we were able to hear a message on being relentless in our faith.  Pastor Frankie challenged us to be relentless rebuilders and to have what he calls sticktuitiveness.  His message focused on Nehemiah 4 (rebuilding of the wall) and Pastor Frankie spoke about the "3 Weapons to Opposition (mockery, threat, fear) and then the "3 Responses to Opposition" (prayer, working hard, and being alert).  Pastor Frankie is literally one of the most entertaining people I know.  We could have listened to him all day.  The man has a gift that can only be found on a dirt road in the countryside of Belize.

The church service lasted 2.5 hours so we quickly grabbed bag lunches back at the camp and then we headed out to the Mayan site.  The drive went well and the students took the small ferry across the river and hiked up to the site. Because it was so hot, the students found the hike to the site quite taxing.  At the site, the students were blown away from the Mayan architecture.  Our students sweat, climbed, took photos, sweat, found monkeys, learned about Mayan culture, sweat, laughed, and certainly accumulated a lot of sweat.  We also added the "I" to our UNITY at the ruins (copyright to Theo VanderKooi).

Back at the bottom, near the ferry is a road of vendors that sell Belizean items (if a Rastafarian coffee mug with Jamaican colors that says Belize on it is Belizean).  It is always joyful to watch the students barter.  They go in with so much confidence and often leave realizing they actually paid more than the asking price.  Some students act like they are negotiating at the Yalta Conference (reference for Ms. Huzing) and almost argue the asking price in a non-passive anger.  It is cute.  Johnathan Zandberg brought the most delight to our crew of quasi-hagglers.  He had a hassle free no-nonsense approach to demanding a certain price that appeared to work about 2% of the time:)

After our negotiating and the aquistition of a small countries armoury of machetes (likely made in China), we headed out to Hodes for dinner. Hodes is a fantastic restaurant in San Ignacio.  It is well worth the visit if you are every in the area, and I am not just saying this because they give Mark and I free ice cream for bringing groups in:)

We drove home in the dark.  I drove while both Marks were on the lookout for hidden speed bumps.  Last trip we missed a speed bump in the dark and I am fairly certain that Braeden Collie went so high in the air that he hit is head on the roof of the bus.  Although we couldn't figure out if the high beams were brighter than the regular beams (they were both ultra low beams), the drive was speed bump at 80kms free:)  Our students sang worship songs for much of the ride home.

We arrived back at camp and Team Rauwerda led a powerful devotions on "worship" in Belize.  Not just the amazing charismatic church service we experienced, but how peoples faith is noticeable in so many parts of Belize.  The devotions took a turn and all 26 students dove into a conversation on how they can bring this visible faith back with them to Canada.  They began brainstorming ways to shift the culture of our high school to increase faith formation and to be more open about demonstrating and sharing our faith as well as seeing the power of prayer in every aspect of their lives.  It was an exceptionally mature conversation for a group of 16 - 19 year olds.  It was fun to hear them talk about liturgy in chapels, testimonies in chapels, leading by example, and how to prayerfully and respectfully have accountability that they will come back to Canada with an increased passion for faith formation. These students are blowing us away with their ideas and hearts.  Each and every one of them.  You have a lot to be proud of moms and dads.  Please do pray for your children as their hearts are admirable and their task is huge.

MC