School Project and Kendal Bridge

Adam and Leslie worked on a project for the school that we all finished up on Wednesday. The day was a blur as we finished laundry, shopped for Noel, and stopped off at Machaca Road to say good bye to our friends.

While we were visiting on Machaca road, the topic of traveling to Belize City was of great interest. With the amount of rain we have been receiving, several people told us that the temporary bridge, called the Kendal Bridge, was not passable. The original bridge was destroyed in the summer of 2007. This temporary bridge is not sufficient, but it is the only thing that connects the North to the South. Kevin immediately began to make phone calls to find out if we would be able to get to Belize City. The initial reports were that the bridge was closed until 7:00 pm but may be opened in the morning, if there is no more rain.

We all fell into bed, exhausted and sort of stressed out about our next day drive. We were hopeful because the stars were out as we crawled into bed. At about 2:00 a.m, the wind began to pick up, the rain came down and the thunder roared. Our thatch dropped leaves all over our beds. Kevin got up and tried to see what was happening outside. All of the sudden we heard Aaron's voice. We yelled outside but the wind was so bad, it was hard to hear. We knew that if the kids were having trouble they would come to our cabana. It was pitch dark out, and the electricity was out. We brought walkie, talkies to communicate with each other just in case something like this happened. I forgot to charge it during the day! I do not remember when I finally fell back to sleep.

At day light, we learned what happened! Adam, Leslie and Aaron were watching a DVD in Leslie's cabana when the weather turned bad. They debated on what to do as the wind picked up and the thatch began to be whipped around. They took all of her belongings and moved them into the bathroom as they realized the roof may take flight. Just as they were preparing to move her things, a hole was blown and nature came in! This is when we heard the voices as all three of them ran into Adam and Aaron's cabana to wait out the storm.

For the last two weeks, I have become more and more impressed with our dear, sweet, Leslie. She was bitten up on her legs from bugs more than anyone in our party. She always had some strange thing happening in her cabana as she tried so hard to get some sleep. Each day she would come into the Lodge and we knew she had very little sleep. Yet, she did not complain one bit. Not only did she suffer silently, she used what energy she did have to get to know all of our village friends. The young girls especially were drawn to Leslie and she never held back even if she was tired, hot or buggy! I have always known that Leslie was a very special, young woman. Now however, I believe she is a true gift and will be greatly used in her career in medicine. She has a tender, merciful heart. I know she loved our adventure, but I am sure she is ready to have her own bed and no bugs.

We are now in Belize City, settling in for the night, awaiting a good night sleep before we fly home. Blessed air conditioning and TV!!!!! Keep Kevin in prayer. He has to drop us at the airport and will travel back down to Big Falls, (yes, he needs the bridge to be open). He will be alone for the next couple days and I know he does not want to experience any inclement weather without us! We look forward to seeing him on Monday night when he comes home too.

Thanks for taking your time to read about our journey that clearly reached into the past and was purposeful in makings sense of some of the choices we have made. Most certainly though, this trip has given us the time we needed to be together once again, in a place that will always hold memories of great personal growth, joy and friendship.

The Prayer Ladies

On Tuesday I had a treat when the ladies that I used to pray with came over to visit me at the Lodge. They had originally planned a mini- retreat for me. Nevertheless, when we all got slightly ill, and of course Aaron was laid up for two days, I could not go anywhere. These ladies are some of the hardest working, praying, servants that I have ever met. They were a huge encouragement to me when we lived here.

One of the women, Sue brought her children to swim. Her two youngest sons were briefly in my classroom. Sadly, they could not stay in my room because I was not skilled enough to help them. Sue and her husband Dean, have been in the process of adopting all six of these Belizean children ever since they were babies. The three boys all have special needs. Because there a no special education classrooms available in the district, Sue has to home school the boys. I have a hard time imagining how impossible this has been for her. She also makes all of their food by scratch, grows as much of it as she can, and helps her husband who is partially disabled due to a severe back injury. In fact, he has been in the U.S. trying to get help for his non-ending pain. She was alone with all of her kids, in Belize for three months. Her life is beyond hard, yet every time I am around her, I am totally humbled by her faith and complete dependence on God. She is one of those women who will have a book written about her......after someone discovers that she is a living saint.

The kids had a blast in the pool. They loved the big kitchen, the girls pitched in and helped clean up after we raided the refrigerator.

It was hard to say goodbye to them again. These children may not even be alive if Dean and Sue had not rescued them. They were all sick and failed to thrive. Yet, this couple continues to stay in Belize for one reason; it is their children's homeland and it is what they believe God would want them to do. By honoring their kids and their culture, I have to believe that these "treasures hidden in the darkness" will be part of the new generation of Belizean youth who will make an impact on their community.

One very cool note to add. Eddie, a young man who was once a student of Kevin's, is now a teacher at TCA. He will be teaching one of Sue's sons this year!

The Last Few Days

These are some pictures of one of our last dinner parties that we had on Monday night. We had Noel come over and meet Emerson's mom, a beautiful East Indian woman. His mother has had 16 children~ She is the picture of a peaceful, rich woman who has been through amazing things raising all of those children with very little to depend on except the provision that God provided from their land and grit. The two of these ladies, Noel and Emerson's mom could not have been more different than night and day, yet, they found a way to communicate and enjoy the evening. Near the end of the night, we surprised Noel with an early birthday cake. She was completely shocked and emotional. This was the last night that we spent any significant time with Noel before we prepared to leave on Thursday.

You will also notice a photo of Adam, Leslie and Emerson. Since Adam and Leslie are vegans they could not enjoy the pork tenderloin that I prepared, so Emerson decided to also eat with them to see what a vegan meal tasted like. He love it! Leslie had to be very creative in the kitchen so as to avoid starvation. It is a hard place to have a special diet.

Jose & Justa's Wedding Renewal

The Lord Of The Rings

There is a quote from the last movie in the series, Lord of the Rings which struck deep in me when I read it. I became emotional when I pondered the meaning of it relative to our lives, our journey and the things that we have experienced as a family when we moved to Belize and lived here. I actually wrote this in my journal at home on March 21st, 2010.

"I think Frodo has just been through too much. His scars run too deep. After years of being back at the shire they still haven't healed. In the movie, he asks the rhetorical questions: "How do you pick up the threads of an old life? How do you go on when in your heart you begin to understand there is no going back? And then Frodo explains. "There are just some things time cannot mend or change. Some hurts that go too deep."

We have been projecting on the wall in the Lodge, the movie, The Lord of the Rings. For the last two nights we have hurried to eat, pushed all of the tables and chairs against the wall and watched these amazing movies amidst the rain and thunder going on around us. At one point in the second movie, Twin Towers, the rain and thunder outside was matching the rain and thunder going on in the movie during a epic battle scene. It was awesome, I felt taken up with the endless spiritual themes that this movie brings.

Coming back here has been beneficial in many, many ways. So many times after we came home in 2007, I found it difficult to share my true feelings with others because the thoughts and emotions I had seemed too dramatic or maybe an overreaction. I kept hearing in my own heart and mind..."get over it, move on." I am sure others probably felt the same, but out of love, they listened again and again and again.

Yet, being here has made me realize that in the short three and a half years that we have been back home, God has literally re-crafted our lives once again. New purposes and plans are beginning to take shape. I struggled so much after we came home to hold close to my heart the lessons I learned, and to the experiences that were so meaningful. I secretly feared that anything we could do again, would just be dwarfed in comparison. The harder I tried to hold the memories and remember the feelings, the more they began to slip away. After a while, I honestly could not envision a time ever again that would compare with the experiences that we shared. I am sure most people who move to a foreign country, for any amount of time can relate to these mixed emotions. For sure, living here was a time of heightened spiritual sensitivities and interactions with uncommon animals, nature and peoples that can never be duplicated.

Nevertheless over time, I realized that I have a choice to find God and to take hold of His Word and His truth and apply it no matter where I am at. I realize now that the lull and desert season that accompanied our return home was so necessary and so purposeful. What it has accomplished in me is a deepening faith, by grace, that is much more solid than ever before. I have learned to love God in all circumstances, the lows, the highs, the good and the bad. I know that in each of these opportunities, I am loved the same by my Father, I am delighted in and I am acceptable. And while Frodo lamented that some pains go too deep, and for sure this is true, it does not mean that these pains have to color our existence in shades of gray. In fact, these pains make us more alive and real to others who have the same pains and fears. I can fully accept the things that hurt, or wounded, and let God heal and then use them for what He intended to use them for all along.

I cannot wait to come home, where we belong, and to all those who wait for us in our community. It is our home, that we have been placed in by God's sovereign grace. And ohhhhh what a lovely place it is! (I had a huge black scorpion in my cabana last night. It sort of looked like one of the demon soldiers in the movie. Kevin slayed it!)

We miss our Andrew! He was never afraid.

This was a scripture that I ran across a few yeas ago. I held tight to it as a promise as it sums up much better what I am trying to say. Hebrews 6: 9-12 "Dear friends........ We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for other believers,^[a] as you still do. ¹¹ Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true."

Santa's Family

pictures

Machaca Road

Yesterday....Thursday, we were invited to have lunch with a family on Machaca Road. The mother's name is Santa, I was her son's kindergarten teacher. As the Maya do, she prepared a wonderful soup called "caldo." It is a thin broth, with hot peppers and spices with chicken. It is eaten with rice and a fresh corn tortilla spoon. We visited for several hours as Adam and Leslie talked to her daughters about their schooling and what they wanted to do when they graduated from high school. Not many girls actually finish high school here, so it was good for Florita, to process this with our kids. She brought out her school folder and showed her summer school work. She is doing very well.

Next week we will go back again to have lunch at her mother's Natividad's home.

After we said good-bye, we walked down the village road so that I could find one of my other students named Rafael. His mother Manuella, is a very beautiful Mayan woman with many children. They are called "pikni" here. Manuella was coming up from washing their clothes in the stream and she is great with child again. We chuckled as I reminded her that when I left she was with baby. We had a short visit as all of the pikni ran and hid behind the thatch. Grace could hear someone say in a very quiet voice..."Hi Gracie!" She looked around to see who was calling her name, and the giggles would start. They remembered her but are so shy to come and say hello. As we started back down the road, we heard another voice call out "ADAM!" Once again we stopped and Adam joined a group of men who were working on putting a new thatch on a neighbors home. The young man remembered Adam and asked where Andrew was.

We came home and I went for my nightly visit with Noel. I was there for two hours! The time flew by as we talked deeper and deeper about eternity, CS Lewis and The Lord of the Rings. Noel is a horticulturist by education and a naturalist by identification. Our views on eternity were vastly different, yet as I talked to her about what eternity means from a biblical perspective rather than a cultural perspective, she grew very quiet and pondered out loud if these things could really be true. I explained our time now as living in the "Shadowlands" upon which she offered her perspective of CS Lewis! One of her favorite books of his is the Screwtape Letters! Can you imagine that~

I reminded her that I would be leaving in six days and she told me how very sad that made her feel. She asked me for a hug, as I hugged her, I found the courage to tell her that I believed God specifically brought me here for her. I was cautious about saying this, as I did not want to sound arrogant or condescending. She received what I said and was very serious as she asked me why I thought that. I told her that God is so loving and is always reaching out to us. I expressed to her that He loved her, wanted her to know that she is not forgotten, nor is she alone. Pray for Noel! What a precious lady.

I came back to the Lodge to find the current was off and my family at the local cafe. I searched around for a flashlight and called the cafe to tell them to GET HOME! Kevin was able to get the generator to start and the lights came back on. All of the sudden each one of us let out a collective AHHHHHHH!!! The things that crawl out in the dark is something that we really did not want to contemplate. We had to call the grounds keeper to come to the Lodge and try to get the monkey spider off the wall. It was so hilarious, six people vs one very large spider and yet we were paralyzed with fear. Chris did not kill it, he shewed it away...we all went to bed a bit more weary and hoping that our cabanas were supernaturally protected from these creatures.

Julianna's Birthday Party

Today was a lazy day. Leslie's family left to fly home, but Leslie will be staying on with us. After we said our goodbyes we had a birthday party for Julianna. Their family came over to swim and hang out. She was telling us that Juan opened up his suitcase and looked at her and said, "happy birthday mom!" She told us that he is the best present she could have ever imagined. He had so much fun in the pool playing with Aaron and Grace.

One of the photos is of Aaron crawling out from under the lodge bushes. He, unfortunately dropped the van key in between the wood slats and had to crawl under, in the mud, with the bugs and whatnot. We think he is very brave!

pictures