Belize-Day 4

Day 4 (Friday)

 I don't want to get used to this time change! I wake up at 5:30 not tired! Belize is 2 hours behind us. First thing this morning I attended a meeting to discuss the youth meeting that we were holding in the school yard tonight. Its something that was on the forefront of our minds! Its where we were hoping to really get to the hearts of these kids. Also there had been some guys on bikes that always seemed to be watching from a distance and our prayer was that they would have the courage and curiosity to come and listen to the guys' message. We called them the big bad guys to differentiate them from the guys our youth played futbol with although they were just big kids under all the walls they had put up. After the meeting Rivaldo, a kid that really connected with us, came and sat next to me and was looking through my bible and it was fun showing him the maps in the back of my bible and explaining to him where Jesus was born and all that. For construction that day we painted the re-bar surrounding the windows with black oil based paint and painted their Sunday school room white. Some of the guys helped with that while the others continued to work on the building outback of the church. Marcy, Galen and Marybeth over the construction time actually had the opportunity to take a little girl, Wendy, who was having problems with fainting to get her blood work done. The family had just moved here from Belize and didn't know any English so communication was a little hard. We got to babysit Wendy's little brother Angel while they went which was interesting and fun. At one point I found him tracing bible verses we had written on a chalk board. After lunch we went prayer walking around the village in groups of 4. My group consisted of Ian, Ryan and Kirby. The prayer walk was very eye opening because we got to see more of the town and people. At one point the guys were all kinda in front of me but all of a sudden I felt myself being grabbed from behind! I screamed and jumped like 3 feet! It was a little girl that apparently had been going to bible school although I didn't remember her. Ryan and Kirby jumped a bit too but Ian saw it coming and just watched the show. They had a good laugh at that one! Shortly after returning to the school we began practicing for our skit Jericho which was a little bit more complex that the others ones and plus we were all a bit tired but we conquered it! While waiting for bible school we played an epic game of duck duck goose! We had so many kids we played another game of duck duck goose inside the other game! :) Then it was time for BIBLE SCHOOL!! Like I said the play was Jericho and the theme of the day was God is Powerful. The kids loved it! Afterward again a select few kids would stick around to hang out with us and I became una mona (monkey) and then a monster and was chasing the kids around which ended in again another photo shoot! The youth night was a hit! It started actually unofficially at 4:30 when ours guys started playing yet another game of futbol and volleyball with the guys. At around 6:30 our guys started speaking. James started off with a parkour demonstration and then went into a talk about the difference between happiness and Joy and how drugs wont bring joy. Davy talked about following Jesus and not the world. Jordan and Jon also talked along the same line as Davy. Dalen had a hardcore talk on purity and respecting girls not using them. When one of the guys would start talking about something really essential the pigs would start snorting really loud or a truck would start or something else distracting would happen as if Satan didn't want this meeting to happen or didn't want the guys to hear the message! Well they heard it! Praise God! Another praise was that the big bad guys came over!! James and Jon had the opportunity to really talk to some of them about hardcore stuff. They even joined us for games afterward! Volleyball, Team freeze tag and some of the kids tried James' Skateboard. Manwell even tried the skateboard! I let some of the kids take pics with camera and once again a photo shoot broke out and they learned how bright flash is in the dark! I had to walk Manuela home again since it was dark and I told her to pick a guy to go with us and she picked Davy and every since she then she adores him. For Supper we had hot-dogs for everybody which all the kids loved! After all the kids went home except Rivaldo of course (he don't leave until we are all in bed!) we had our meeting. It was a really good meeting. We got in a big circle in the church and held hands and each thanked God for something from the week. Then outa the blue Derek and I were pulled up front infront of everyone and Avir (Our leader for the trip) brings out this huge birthday cake!  I shouldn't have been surprised! When we all got ready for bed we learned how to rough it. We were dirty from our heads to our toes and the water wasn't working! Baha Got to love it!