School Update:

Today we were blessed to have the women from the sewing co-op join us at the school today to help teach the students a little bit about sewing. The teachers had requested a lesson on sock puppets, so we went from classroom to classroom with the ladies teaching each child how to make a sock puppet using a sock, some buttons, and yarn. The children thoroughly enjoyed themselves and we were able to tie the activity back to something Biblical with a puppet show put on by some of our high school students earlier in the day. The total joy and trust that these children exhibit in their everyday life is amazing, and seeing that joy in them was a beautiful reminder of something Jesus told his disciples:

“At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” -Matthew 1-5

Worksite Update:

God has blessed us this week at the worksite by allowing us to finish the building for the sewing co-op in record time. When we started work this morning, we had already put up all the siding and most of the support for the roof, so not many of us were needed at the worksite. The windows and the metal roof were both put on today as well as a small staircase up to the main entrance and some final support struts for the rafters. Since the building is somewhat complete, the ladies from the village who are a part of the co-op could finally walk up the stairs and start imagining what this building is going to become. The looks on their faces when they were able to climb up the stairs were priceless and rewarding beyond measure. It is so exciting that the planning and hard work is finally coming to completion!!

God Sightings:

• We are so excited about how much the community members of El Progresso are willing and excited to come to our places of work and walk alongside us as we serve and live out postures of humble learning in Belize!
• We are committed to visiting our friends Gumer and Jason regularly during our time here, and today’s visits to both brought much
• Principal Brian (from the school) shared a bit of his heart for the students that he administrates / teaches. We saw so much hope for where the students will be continually poured into and are excited to continue deepening our partnership with the faculty and Brian as we serve with and pray from afar.

All in all, we are so incredibly thankful for how much we are getting to watch our fellow team members rise to the occasion and serve where, how, and in all capacities of how God is leading them every day in this place. We are rejoicing in the fact that we are continually listening and watching for sweet moments where God will show up and fill the gaps between our lives and the community members’ lives. He is good!

Sewing Co-op Update:

Today, we met with several of the women and young girls from the village on the porch of the church to learn new sewing skills. Lara patiently and kindly taught them to make tortilla warmers and coin purses. In addition, Pastor Elias and Sam came and shared a moving and powerful devotional about the Proverbs 31 woman and the beauty that can be robbed from them when they are wrestling with unforgiveness. The Spirit moved mightily during our time together through song and the laying of hands on each the women who were in attendance. As he was speaking, others who were not sewing listened from afar. All who heard were deeply touched and moved.

School Update:

We had a lot of fun at the school today, working and playing with the children, and helping in the classrooms. Mac was very popular with all the children all day. He played guitar and led each classroom in “Father Abraham” and “Sing Hosanna” which was truly wonderful to get to watch and listen to. During breaks while certain members of our team became human jungle gyms or played touch (tag), others got a chance to talk to some of the teachers and listen their stories, which were both humbling and eye opening. It was refreshing to see how the teachers really put their whole hearts into teaching these children as best as they can.

God Sightings:

• We are so excited about the times that we have gotten to see the community come alongside us in what we are working on at the school, co-op work site and in our times visiting with some of the members of the community. It’s encouraging and as one of our team members mentioned tonight, “It’s like we have found purpose in our unity with the community.”
• At the work site today, many more of the women who will be a part of the co-op came and helped put up the siding of the structure. It was humbling to have the opportunity to work alongside the members of the community!
• At the school, we are able to scatter into different classrooms and give the teachers time to prepare for upcoming activities, crafts, and other learning tools that take a lot of extra time to get together for their classrooms. It is a blessing to be in the school, ministering with simple presence.

Recap:

Today was a phenomenal day in what will surely be a phenomenal week in Belize! We started work on the building project today. This year we are working with the community to build a permanent structure for a sewing co-op that will provide an opportunity for members of the community to learn a trade which will lead to a source of income for them and their family. While some of the team was raising walls and putting on siding at the worksite, others spent the day at the school to playing with some of the children since they had the day off due to a national holiday. Wherever the team was today, everyone enjoyed working alongside old and new friends.

God Sightings:

• One of our main projects this year is constructing a new building for the sewing co-op that we have been working since last year! (Here’s a re-cap from last year’s blog: https://fpcmidlandbelize.home.blog/2019/03/14/day-3/) We hit the ground running on getting most of the structure up today and as we were, one of the organizers of the co-op was standing to the side and with tears in her eyes said, “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.” It’s humbling for us to experience even the smallest amount of life with the people of El Progresso!
• At the work site, we connected with a new friend, Juan! Juan has two weeks of vacation and has decided to spend it working with us. He is INCREDIBLE: kind, thoughtful, and will not stop working. It’s inspiring to think about how much it takes to give up vacation-time to work hard alongside people you don’t know — we are excited to have made a new friend!
• We got to visit with some old El Progresso friends, Gumer and Jason today. (Here’s a re-cap from last year’s blog: https://fpcmidlandbelize.home.blog/2019/03/14/day-3/) Even though they are both going through hard seasons, we again experienced how sweet it is to be humbled in our compassion for them. They, alongside many other relationships between FPC and El Progresso, represent how powerful and humbling hope is.

Prayer Requests

• Prayers for healing for Gumer who is experiencing more pain than usual now that the weather is heating up, and also for healing for Jason and for Hugo who were both in a motorcycle accident a few days ago and are both in the healing process.
• Prayers for our team to have the strength and energy to get through this week and continue to keep in mind the reason that we are here.

Today was such a wonderful day! This morning the mission team drove in to El Progresso to attend a service in a local church that we have worked closely with in the past years. It was so nice to see all the familiar and new faces when we got there, and we got to talk and catch up a little bit before the service started. After a few songs, Pastor Elias, from our team, gave a powerful sermon on confronting fear and the “Parable of the Talents.” He challenged those listening, and I challenge you now, to pray about what talents God has given them and how He is calling them to use those talents. If you would like to read the parable it can be found in Matthew 25: 14-30

After the service we had a delicious lunch at Janet, and Julio’s house, and then drove back to our lodging to rest and get to know our team members better for the remainder of this sabbath. Tomorrow, we will split into three groups. One will go to the current building that the sewing is happening in, the second will be at the school, and the third will start working construction on the new sewing co-op behind the church we worshiped at today. As always, we ask that you continue to pray for our team and the people we will be working alongside of this week.

Today was the first day that our entire team has ever been together in one place, and it was so great! We had a safe and relatively uneventful journey to Belize City where we met up with Kenny, and the few of our group that came down a day early. The rest of the day was spent driving to our lodging, and getting to know each other a little better over dinner.

In the morning the team plans to go to church in the village of El Progresso where we will be serving and building relationships this week. We ask that you continue to pray for our team, that we might be an instrument for God’s work in Belize, and pray that we will keep our ears and hearts open to what God is asking us to do.

For the 6th year in a row, FPC Midland is sending a team of missionaries to El Progresso in the Cayo district of Belize over Spring Break (March 7th – 14th). We are so very excited to see how God will work through our team and the local church community in El Progresso during the time we are there, and we look forward to sharing our experiences, and God sightings with you through this blog (So don’t forget to tune in March 7th – 14th for daily updates). Our team is asking for your support through prayers in the weeks leading up to and during the trip, that we would grow in our faith, and that our team might lead others to grow in their faith as well. Finally, to end this post, I would like to share our team’s memory verse with you and encourage you to read the chapter in Acts that it is form: “As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard” -Acts 4:20

Hello all; I am fortunate enough to be writing tonight’s blog while listening to Sam and Larry and “Child of God.” Yesterday we put the finishing touches on the house, and said our official goodbyes to the children at the school. We all have truly been touched by the love and hospitality of the people of El Progresso. We also said goodbye to Gumer and Reynaldo (the two wheelchair bound men mentioned on day 3). Goodbyes are always hard, but we got to spend a little more time with some of the villagers at a house warming ceremony for the home that our team helped build this week. Two of the pastors from the village spoke, and everyone prayed over the Lara family and their mother’s new house. We said our final goodbyes tonight, which was hard for many of us who made new friends this week, and headed back to debrief.

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Today we debriefed as a team in the morning, by going to a nearby Mayan ruin. From the top we could see much of God’s creation, and we marveled at the vast expanse of green that surrounded us. After touring the ruins, we drove back to our lodgings for some personal debrief time. We took a break in the debrief to go to the housewarming ceremony, and then resumed a group debrief when we got back. There are many mixed emotions, and everything has gone so fast today that it still may take a while before it sinks in. We are all very happy for the experiences that we had and the people who we shared God’s love with, but, as a whole, the group is sad to be leaving tomorrow. Fortunately there is still a little bit of debrief time scheduled tomorrow at breakfast.

Today was unBELIEZEable!!!! All puns aside, today was extremely eventful, and God’s presence was seen everywhere. On the worksite, the house was nearly completed; all that remains to be built is two sections of the roof, the window frames, and a set of stairs. At the school, we played games with the the children during breaks (jumprope and tag were popular), and sang songs as well as helped with class time. Across the street at the sewing co-op, the sewing team kept teaching and talking to some of the women from the community. They worked specifically on baby blankets today, and with God’s help, this will blossom into a viable trade for some of the women in the village. In addition to all of this, some of the team members were able to visit two men who were paralyzed, and lived in or near to the village. Both men were very happy for the company, and Gumer, the second paralyzed man that we met, shared some of his testimony with us. After that the team prayed over him, and he promised to pray for us.

1) It was an extremely enjoyable day for me today. I have been spending my time at the worksite and being able to see it nearly coming to fruition has been amazing and extremely satisfying. I paired up with Pat and we worked in a team installing shutters with Dwight, Wesley, and Grace. After the shutters were all installed, we were tasked to build one set of stairs since the house is slightly off the ground. As we were working, Stuart told me Louis, a boy with down syndrome who I have been able to get to know on previous trips and has been at the worksite every day, was wanting to help nail some of the pieces together. The look on his face when I called him over and helped him nail the stairs together made my day and I think it might turn out to be the highlight of my trip. Louis is not the only kid on the worksite who was dying to do some of the work. Every kid that comes to the house will inevitably try to pick up a hammer and try to imitate what they see the adults doing. They are not afraid of work and are eager to help out as much as they can. I think something that accurately describes life in El Progresso is something Dwight said: “Nothing moves quickly except childhood.” There are usually about three to four teenage boys who work with us every day which would seem odd to us because we would wonder why they aren’t in school but in Belize, that is not odd at all since most kids are done with school by the time they finish the equivalent to eighth grade. It is honestly amazing to see and have them working with us though because they could be doing anything else but they choose to spend their time with us. I am sure we would not be so close to finishing the house without them and to know that God is using them in that way is wonderful. To be able to see God work in all these ways has been awe inspiring. – Raymond

2) Today, I spent some time with Samuel and Efrain, two great men who have the convenient skill of speaking Spanish. We visited some of the classrooms, and with Sam on the guitar and Efrain leading the singing, we led the children in singing songs. Now, when these children speak English, they often become reserved and anxious–while they know how to speak it well-enough, they are very self-conscious about their speaking. However, when Efrain began speaking and joking with them, their faces instantly came alive, and it was truly a joy to watch. Though I had no clue what the songs were, I was able to sing along with them, and between me and Efrain, all of the children were laughing, singing, dancing, and having a great time. It was such a joy. -Leighton

3) I spent the day at the women’s sewing co-op, working with the women to make baby blankets out of our scrap fabric. From yesterday to today, I saw a huge difference in their willingness to visit and be silly around me. They were joking and laughing as we worked. It was good for my soul. What a great experience where they have learned from me and I have learned from them. -Lara

Whats up everyone, today was a blast! We started the day at the school with a warm welcome from Principal Brian and the teaching staff. From there, the group split up into three groups; school, work site, and sewing team. At the school, everyone was assigned a classroom and had the opportunity to not only teach, but also learn from the children. The lessons ranged from reading with the younger children, to geometry with the older children, from paper art, to an energetic, interactive, christian music time. Several breaks in the school time also resulted in some enthusiastic games of tag, football (soccer), and basketball.

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Across the road, the sewing team met with 5 ladies in the village who wanted to learn to sew. We taught them basic sewing skills like threading a needle, creating a pattern to use to cut fabric and simple stitches while sharing stories about their lives in El Progresso and ours in Midland. Each of the ladies left with a completed project that they created, and we left with a group of new friends.

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Transitioning to the worksite, the progress on the house today was remarkable. Yesterday the team started with a wood foundation. Today when the team finished all the siding was on, roof tresses were in place, and work has started on the windows and interior walls. Working with our friends, old and new, building this home for Adela is an amazing picture of God’s love at work. We are excited to see what tomorrow brings!