New Sterling ARP Blog

After a rather cool mornng, it is a beautiful, breezy day in Belize. The ladies bible study at Belmopan Baptist Church last night was a wonderful experience. Several of the ladies went with Judy to support her as she presented information on the Woman to Woman mentoring. We ended up being there for their study and we all agreed that women are women where ever you are! We have the same concerns, joys, prayer requests regardless of where we live. These sisters in Christ made us feel very welcome and we will pray for the start of the mentoring in their church. We are going to have a cookout this evening for the family whose house we finished. They are inviting family and friends and we will pray over the house. It should be a great time of fellowship. The men are putting the finishing touches on several projects. It has been such an awesome week. We all have seen God’s work in so many ways.

Today some of the girl went to the market. The guys went to Marta’s to finish a couple of things and the rest of the girls went there to help clean her house.
After lunch the guys went to the high school to finish the ceilig and some girls went to paint.
Loris is not feeling well and rested most of the day and is feeling some better this evening. Mostly head congestion.
Susan, Kim and I went to shop for a picture for Marta’s home and we also got one for Consuela because we did not get to get her one last year.
Tomorrow we will go to the school in the morning for a while and tell the children bye. then we will get ready for the village cook out tomorrow night.
I cannot believe it is almost time to go. It will be very very hard for me and I know for others too.

Love to all. See you soon.

Love in Christ

Delinda

Just got back from going out to eat. Today was our Bible School day. Sherry and Cindy worked with the teachers here at the camp while we keep the classes doing our Bible School. Pastor Tim and Pat went to different classes doing stories while Eddie, Tina and Susan did singing and Kim, Aarene, Lori were in charge of crafts. We rotated between the 4 classrooms.

It was a wonderful day. Thank you for all of your prayers for me and my family as Brent left for Afganistan today. My day was bittersweet but I know he is in God’s hands and what more comfort can I have.

We are keeping all of those who are suffering with illness and/or surgery and family members who are in need.

We love you all and have lots to tell. The guys have finished the house, worked at ST. Jude’s, worked at Norman Willacy’s high school and will finish that tomorrow. On Friday we are planning to bless Marta’s house and have an old fashioned North Carolina hot dog supper for the close neighbors of hers and villagers. We are going to invite a few of the village children here for some Bible School afterwords We have just a few short days but lots planned.

Saturday we are planning to take the new group to the Myan ruins for the day. Time is growing too short. It will be extremely hard for me to leave. I wish they were closer or it was less expensive to fly down. I would be here very often.

We love you all and are happy to hear you are reading the blogs.

Love in Christ,

Delinda

Hey church family and Andrea, Darlene, Kent and Mom…I am feeling much better today. Monday and Tuesday was a struggle physically. But the flight down was great…very peaceful but bumpy. The projects are going well! This afternoon we will be at the schools and also the men on work projects. I really appreciate your post and comments. I know we all are in your thoughts and prayers. Can’t wait to share. Love to all!

Ola! Sorry we have been so negligant in blogging but we have been very busy. The rest of the team arrived safely and were hit with 89 degree weather! Muy caliente’ (very hot)

Sunday we went to the Korean church where Pastor Tim spoke. Cannot wait to tell you the experience with that. Hey you guys whose tummy rumbles during Sunday morning service at home – the Koreans served sandwiches after service .! Muy Bien! (very good)

Monday the guys worked. Kim, Tina and I made ready our space for the rest of the team. They arrived safely, hot and tired but ready to hit the ground running.

Yesterday, The guys worked very hard at several different projects. They split up in 3 different directions on 3 different projects. The ladies went to experience the market. We shopped for the fruits and veggies needed for the next couple of days.

After market we dropped Sherry and Cindy off at the school to observe the teachers for a while. The rest of the ladies went to Marta’s house and painted. 2 bedrooms were a little darker than Carolina Blue, the bathroom was dark lilac and the living room/’kitchen was tangerine. I have colors on my shirt to show you when we get home. We survived but it was very hot in the small work area. We had stewed chicken, rice and beans and cool slaw for dinner. At night we made plans for tomorrow and prepared for our Bible School tomorrow.

Bible School will be an all day event. Cindy will take the younger elementary teachers 4 at a time to work with them while the rest of the team does Bible Scool with the kids. When she finishes that she will take 4 others and we will move to the next classes. Sherry will work with the teachers of the other kids in the afternoon and we will do Bible School with them.

We are excited and love hearing the comments. Thank you for your prayers and support. We cannot send picures because of the internet here. You will have to wait in anticipation until we return with the pictures (if we reu.rn)

Just wanted to say hello to everyone in Belize! I hope you all are doing well. Please know we are praying for all of you. Tim, I hope you survived the plane ride! We love you all!

Our morning started early again with breakfast at 7 am and Kim led our devotion. The guys again went to the construction site, Pastor Tim met again with Rev. Willacy and the girls cleaned the kitchen, got ready for lunch and planned to grocery shop for the coming week. We did not get to shop but after lunch helped prepare our “picnic” to take to Bible Study tonight.

We took fried chicken and potato salad. We met at a Korean home of whom are the owners of a business called THE ARTBOX. There were the 6 of us, Juan David, the couple whose home we were in, Julie and Eric, and 6 other Koreans plus an interpreter and the Korean pastor, Rev. Huan. He pastors 12 churches here in Belize. He has service at a different church every night Pastor Tim led the Bible study with the interpreter speaking to the Korean members of the study. It was definitely an experience. The meal was diverse and some of us are not sure how “Korean” we can be in our eating.

Sunday we plan to attend their church and Pastor Tim will speak. On Sunday night we plan to attend another church Rev. Huan pastors in which they speak Creole. We are very interested in attending to see the dynamics of their services.

Today was great bonding with the camp people here. We have had the camp to ourselves until tonight when a large group arrived. We will share and be happy but it was nice having it all to ourselves!

Well it’s time to hit the sack. It was cool here today and now it is raining. We have been sitting in the kitchen talking with some of the ladies who live in the village. It is such fun to listen to them and talk with them and become part of their family.

We are working on our Spanish and trying hard to pick up the language. It has been such fun but the week has gone far too fast. It is hard to believe we have been here almost a week. It will be very hard to leave even after the 2nd week.

We will sleep well to the sound of raining. Hasta Manana!

Delinda and Kim

We have had the camp all to ourselves this week. It was only the 7 of us plus the camp staff. We have done our work dutifully but we have also spent a great deal of time together. We are bonding adn getting closer in our relationships.

We definitely had a ‘different’ experience this evening. On Sunday I will preach at a Korean Church. Tonight we attended a Bible Study from the church. It was a meal then the study. I had the privilege of leading the study…. through an interpreter, and then taking questions through and interpreter. It was fun.

The meal was great and diverse. We carried fried chicken and potato salad. Waiting on us there was a wide array of Korean food. It was very good. But to say the least, if anyone would have told us that a bunch of folks from West Iredell County would be sitting in Belize enjoying a meal with non-english speaking Korean Church, I would not have believed them. It was great and we enjoyed it. God gives us many, many diverse opportunities to grow.

God bless.

Today began with breakfast and devotions by David which started our day off with tremendous inspiration. The guys headed off to the house to work, Pastor Tim went to meet with Rev. Willacy,Kim and I headed to the school while Tina stayed at camp to help Jane with lunch. Work at the school did not go as scheduled so Kim and I came back to camp to prepare for our first Belize Teacher’s luncheon. We had fresh flowers cut from the grounds of the camp and had a wonderful lunch. We served 10 teachers and Miss Francis, the principal, Julie and Josiah from the camp, Jomie, Eman, Jane, Henry and Hannah plus our crew. The lunch was wonderful and the teachers were so appreciative of our minimal efforts.

God has clearly showed there are great needs at St. Jude’s school. He has also shown he has placed teachers and an amazing principal there to love and care for the 281 students that attend. There are many challenges ahead for the staff and students of this school and they are greatly in need of our prayers. Also we need to pray for God’s directions and/or plans for New Sterling’s partnership with St. Jude’s School as their needs are unending.

The work project is continuing at Belizian speed. Today the guys were blessed to have extra help by Juan David and Hovier. We are almost ready to start painting the inside of Marta and Henry’s new home.

As always God shows Himself daily in an awesome, powerful way. He continues to show us the work He prepared in advance for us to do. He is good all the time.

Other projects keep presenting themselves so therefore, date of departure from Belize is unknown at this time for this mission team. Come visit soon.

Love in Christ,
Kim, Delinda and Tina

ps…..This afternoon Kim, Tina and Delinda had a Spanish 101 class with some of the locals. Needless to say we are still speaking English, and became entertainment for the village. We are afraid to say much in Spanish because we are not sure what we are saying, but what we do say, we say very well. Hasta manana. Adios.

Our circle met last night to study about Sarah. At the end of our Bible Study, Pat lifted up the Belize mission team and what plans God has for the team. Keep the Belize Team in your daily prayers, for safety, health and for God’s will to be done in Belize and for the personal growth of each member.