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10/9/2000 – Today we departed Birmingham bound for Belize. Our estimated time of travel through the US and Mexico will be about 3 weeks. Please pray for safety as we travel and that we will cross the Mexico and Belize borders, as well as any checkpoints we may encounter, without any problems. Check out our "prayer requests" page to find out more. We are planning on updating this page twice a month with news from Belize, as well as with current prayer needs and of course, praise reports. Our group started out with four: Patrick, Jeff, and two interns, Jack and Michael. The bus we drove to Belize was not only our transportation, but also our home.
10/12/2000 – We are now in San Antonio, Texas. We plan to cross the Mexican border on Monday, October 16th. The trip so far has been great and the bus has been problem free. Thank you for your prayers.
10/18/2000 – We reached the US/Mexico border crossing yesterday, where we waited several hours to get through. The bus has done very well so far, although we found it could not exceed 52 mph. While in Texas, we had a very refreshing visit with the Tolar's, retired missionaries from Nigeria, and we thank God for the time of fellowship. Also, while waiting at the border, we met a man and his wife who are serving as missionaries in Guatemala. They began their ministry in a bus similar to ours years ago. We were encouraged by this couple’s testimony of God's continual help and provision. We also just found out that we will have to cross Mexico in six days due to visa limitations. With the bus’s slow travel time, this is a serious concern. Please pray for us, that God will make a way for us to pass through the southern border of Mexico into Belize before our time expires.
10/20/2000 – Currently we are typing this update from an internet cafe in Villahermosa, Mexico. We are a little over two-thirds of the way through Mexico. The trip has been quick, but has gone extremely well. We crossed the border with no problems—an answer to many prayers! We have encountered eight police checkpoints, but have passed uneventfully through them all. On our second day we drove for almost 15 hours, stopping only for gas and lunch. The drive has been beautiful and the roads for the most part smooth. We were blessed to cross the border with a convoy of truckers going to Guatemala, which has made the drive and checkpoints easier for us. The bus is running better than ever. The biggest prayer need we currently have is for easy passage across the Belizean border. We have no idea how much duty they may try to charge us for bringing the bus into the country. It could be anywhere from $500 to $1500. However, we also still covet your prayers for the remainder of the drive through Mexico. We praise God for how problem-free the trip has been. His sovereignty has been evident as He has guided us each step of the way this past year and most especially these past few weeks. We are all looking forward to getting to Belize and beginning the work that God has laid on our hearts to do.
10/25/2000 – We arrived in Punta Gorda, Belize yesterday (Tuesday the 24th). We crossed the Belize border on Monday in a little less than six hours. Everything went so much easier than we had anticipated—we are sure an answer to both your and our many prayers. At every station we came to while going through the border crossing process, we encountered helpful and friendly people (sometimes a true rarity when trying to enter a third-world country). The first half of the road to PG was paved and made travel easy-going, however the second half was the roughest we had encountered the whole trip. We pulled into our friend’s house, who is a local pastor, about 11:00 PM after close to five hours of washboard roads. We had been praying the whole way to his house that the Lord would wake him up or let him know that he would be having visitors (since he didn't know we were coming at this time). Sure enough, when we pulled up to his house we discovered he was awake and in the process of putting out rat poison. This was another rarity in a culture where people go to bed when the sun goes down. The bus went through the true test of its stability on the last leg of the journey and seemed to pass with flying colors. We came into town today to get insurance and register the bus and we were blessed again by receiving a 10% discount from the insurance agent once he heard our reason for being in Belize. On the way to Belize City, after crossing the border on Monday, we had to stop in another city to get Kia, the dog, registered. While we were waiting a Chinese boy popped his head in the door, apparently looking for someone, and spotted us. He began to ask us what we were doing in Belize. Through our answer we were able to share the gospel with him. He was very attentive and interested, and seemed to take to heart the things we were saying. It was so clearly an appointed time that only God could have prepared, for he was the one asking questions and seeking for answers almost immediately after we started talking to him. His name is Frank and we definitely ask for your prayers as he looks to God to reveal Himself and as he reads the Bible. For the next few days we will be praying and seeking the Lord for direction concerning the villages we will be working in. There are many places in need of discipleship and encouragement. Please join us in prayer as we prepare for the next several months.
11/14/2000 – After much thought and prayer we both felt led to begin work in the village of Santa Cruz. It is in this particular village that we were able to work with a group of youth on our initial trip to Belize last November/December [1999], and build a relationship with two of the local pastors. We’ve so far found nearly everyone to be very open and welcoming to our presence here and have currently parked the bus on a side road in the middle of the village. Santa Cruz lies roughly 10 miles from the Guatemalan border and has a population of about 350 people. The local language is called Maya Mopan and Santa Cruz sits centrally between five other villages that speak the same language. The men farm six days a week growing mainly rice, corn, and beans. The average family size is anywhere from five to twelve children. Almost everyone can understand at least a small amount of English. Our days are spent cooking, washing dishes, getting water from the pump, washing clothes, and other necessary chores for third-world living. The time in between these chores is used for walking the village to build and establish relationships with people, and in preparation for our weekly Bible studies. So as to not interfere with any local church services, we have two Bible studies a week for adults on Monday and Saturday at 6:30 PM, and a study for the children at 1:00 PM on Sundays. Since we are still on the equivalent of central time in the US, we ask that you could specifically join us in prayer during these times. We started at Genesis and are chronologically teaching through the Bible with both the adults and children in hopes that a firm foundation will be laid in people’s hearts so they may better understand the significance and need for Jesus' atoning death on the cross. We recently purchased a horse and her 3-month-old filly, and are now in the process of looking for one more. Horses will enable us to leave the bus parked in Santa Cruz and go on horseback to surrounding villages to begin work in other areas. Though the area we are in is saturated with evangelical church buildings, the attendance is low and most people seem to not really understand the very essence of salvation—that God desires for each person to know and love Him personally and that He has called His people to be a holy people, fully given to serve Him with their lives. Pray with us that God will bring people to the weekly Bible studies and that He will bring the desire for repentance and life change to many in Santa Cruz. Please pray also that we will see those with a teachable heart whom God has prepared at this time to receive His Word. We are grateful to each of you who have been lifting us up in prayer. The way things have worked out to our advantage in countless situations over this past month has been a testimony to so many prayers going up to the Lord on our behalf.
The main drag through Santa Cruz. And no, the road is not paved!
12/1/2000 – The past few weeks have quickly flown by. Life in the village is simple. The men farm daily and are currently finishing up the harvest and getting ready to replant, so they are quite busy during the day. The children under 14 yrs. attend school, and the women do the household chores. Our evenings are the busiest as we are either visiting or receiving visitors on our two free nights, or holding Bible studies and helping with the local churches the other five nights of the week. Aside from our daily chores, we spend our time during the day preparing to teach and studying. The village is quiet during the day and as a result, the two or three cars that pass by are always a head-turner. We have been blessed to be able to purchase another horse so that we now have two, allowing us to travel to nearby villages in pairs. We hope to use this new mode of transportation to begin Bible studies in other villages, while keeping the bus parked in a central location. We ask that you would join us prayer concerning the fact that we are the first missionaries to establish what we hope to be long-term work in Santa Cruz. It is taking time to build people's trust in us and to move past the negative experiences that many of the people in the village have had with churches.
12/5/2000 – A little over a month has passed since we first came to Santa Cruz. At first Jeff and I thought that we would just be here for one month and then move on to another village to work for another month, and then come back here again. But, as the ground breaking has just begun, we both feel that the Lord wants us to stay in Santa Cruz for a longer; maybe even our whole time on this trip. Our weekly studies started off with a good-sized attendance. But after the newness of our presence wore off and people saw that we had not brought the gifts or money that many of the prior missionaries had, the numbers started to dwindle. We also found that there were many people who were not coming to the studies because they were being held in one particular local church. We had originally talked with all of the pastors in the village about having studies in this church since it has a generator (which we need for lights). Each pastor had seemed to be ok with that. However, now that we see that this is a problem, we have decided to move the adult study to the community center (the same place where Jeff and Michael have been teaching the children). We are still uncertain what we will do for lights there, however, I know that the Lord will provide. Michael was a great help to us recently by filling in teaching the children's study while Jeff and I were out of the village for the day. He has also been drawing pictures for each Bible teaching for the adult class. He’s had the opportunity to lead worship in a local church twice already. Jack has been working on learning the basics of the Mayan Mopan language. Jeff and I are hoping to see his work made into a small dictionary that we could use for now and on into our long term work here in Belize. Jack has also been helping a young man named Everisto with his study of English. Most of the people here know English, however their vocabulary is quite limited. So I have found that as I teach and preach I have to carefully walk the people through each verse so that I know they are receiving a thorough presentation of what the Lord's Word is teaching. For the past few weeks, aside from our Saturday and Monday night studies, I have been teaching through the book of James. It seems to be meeting the people right where they are at in their lives. Jeff has also started teaching through First Peter in the same way. Aside from preparing for Bible studies, our time seems to be mostly filled with the daily chores: pumping water from the well to pour into the bus's water system, washing clothes, cooking, putting oil in the lamps which light the bus at night, emptying the waste water tank, washing dishes and taking care of our horses. All in all, we feel like pioneers by the end of the day. Then in the early evening, we are either off to visit the people of the village or they're coming to visit us. All of the houses here are rectangular shaped with palm leaves for the roofs. During the day, while the men are at their farms, the pigs and chickens seem to run the village, seeing as we can count close to twenty pigs running around our area at any given time. The children are off to school at 8:30 AM, and almost everyday as they reach the bus they'll say, "Time?" Just as we tell them, no matter what time it is, they'll run off as fast as they can to school. At noon most of the children walk home for lunch. However, each one who lives past the bus will stop, talk, or play until we remind them about their lunch, and then they’re off and running toward home. Once the children are back at school, things quiet back down till 3:00 PM when school lets out. As the children walk home they shout, "Kia, Kia, Jack, Mike, Jeff, Jefferd (?), Patrick, John" (we are still trying to find out who John is). Then at about four o'clock, the remainder of the men, besides those who’ve been coming home throughout the day as each one's work is finished, return from their farms. The horses that they rode by us on in the morning are now being led back on a rope, their backs loaded down with dry corn (at this time of year), or wood to cook on in their houses. After each of the men has bathed in the village river, it's time for visitation and fellowship. If we can't make it to their house on time, then before you know it, they're knocking on our bus door. Just this evening as Michael and I were about to go walking, we had our first visitor of the night stop by the bus. Marcellas is a hefty man who's in his early thirties. He always has a smile and jokes so much that we have a hard time knowing when he's serious. As we asked about his day, he said that he had quit work early because he had hit a big nest of hornets while chopping in the bush at his farm and had been stung by four of them. At the start of this next month, he will become the new village chief (alcalde), and will serve for two years. Our second visitor was Marcos, a man who's in his late forties. He has become quite a good friend to us, and is quick to give advice, but not in a pushy way. As the sun goes down you can see the cooking fires in the houses through the miss-matched boards that make up their walls. It's quite a pretty site. And by 8:30 PM most of the village has quieted down for the night, however, there is almost always a random dog or two barking off in the distance. In the morning Jeff and I will catch the public bus (it runs four times a week) into Punta Gorda. It passes our bus at 3:30 AM and won't get back till around 2:00 in the afternoon. Once in PG, we will get the food supplies that we need, check our mail, visit with a few friends who live there, and update the web site. Well, that's the news from Santa Cruz where every boy above the age of seven has his own machete.
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