Belize Outreach '08 - Thanksgiving Nov 27

I just finished up my time in Punta Gorda and I'm up in northern Belize for Thanksgiving with a few of the team members (Josh Keen, Will Roeder, the Chew family, the Gong family, and Kim Chew's family from Texas). It was an intense week of ministry for us. The dental team saw scores of people, many of whom were in miserable situations with their dental health and there were many heartbreaking scenarios for them. They commented on how they worked longer hours, under stressful circumstances, receiving no compensation (THEY had to pay to come here!), and in more primitive conditions than any of them have back in the Bay Area. However, they all unanimously agreed, by the end of the week, that their work at the clinic was by far the most rewarding dental service they'd ever provided. The patients they saw here in Belize were so genuinely grateful for what they were receiving and the dental team's hearts were so full of appreciation to be able to serve such a thankful community.

For the rest of us, we spent the week loving on the children of Punta Gorda. Many of them were street kids whose parents, for a variety of reasons, are unable (or unwilling) to invest in raising their kids. I'm talking about ten year olds and younger who are literally raising themselves. This is why so many of the children are starving for interaction. So from the moment we got up in the morning until the time we were ready for bed, these kids were right by our sides (or on our shoulders, backs, and laps!). One family in particular touched us deeply. The Fitzgibbon children--Clayton, 'Keetie', and Shadean (11, 8, and 5 years old, respectively)--were with us all week and all of the team fell in love with them. We found out their dad had died of AIDS a few months earlier and their mom, for whatever reasons, was not meeting their basic needs. One of the local restaurant owners told us that she feeds the kids breakfast in exchange for their attendance at school. She said they rarely miss a day of school--and even if they do, she very firmly finds out why they missed class, and even if their reason isn't legitimate, she still feeds them, after a stern but loving lecture. In spite of all they lack by US standards, you will not find a happier, sweeter, more loving trio of children anywhere. It was amazing to see how the Lord was using us to literally by His hands, feet, backs, shoulders, and voice of love and truth to these children. We're still trying to figure out the details of how we can continue to support these kids and others we met, but many of us have committed to regularly write letters to them, and let them know we WON'T forget about them. We want to communicate God's love and the message of Jesus to them for as long as we can in prayerful hope that they will one day call upon His name and experience the fullness of His grace.

I write this to you on Thanksgiving Day because of how God has filled my heart with such gratitude for so much--too much, if you know what i mean. I have so much more than I need and yet, I'm often not fully satisfied. But I hope because of what I have experienced here, I will let Him purify my thoughts, desires, and goals and become more aware of the needs of others (especially in our own community!).

He also reminded me over and over again this week of how thankful I am for the High School
Ministry Leaders. I serve alongside a team of extraordinary men and women, committed to the Savior and our students and their families. What a blessing it is for me to know you and to be a co-laborer in the Lord's Kingdom with them. May you all each enjoy a meaningful celebration of Thanksgiving today. May you all be reminded of how powerfully God is using your life and gifts, and how much MORE he wants to use you in the days to come--to touch even more lives, proclaim His eternal truth, and meet the needs of those who desperately need the touch of the Father shared through His children. With much love and gratitude for you all...

Tim

Philippians 1:3

Belize Outreach '08 - Last Day - Nov 25

Bright and early we had French toast at the Snack Shack. The education team and dental team took our places early to get in as much work done as possible.
The education team taught 2 more classes on dental hygiene. After the presentations, the team headed to DaWata Fountain and helped Maylin catalog some books so that kids could check them out. After lunch, they returned to the school to hold volleyball clinics for the older classes. The teachers and staff presented Belize key chains to the education team as a thanks.

The dental team worked at a furious pace all day. Dr. Gong saw some of the hardest, wiggliest, most scared patients we’d seen all week. A lady who had arrived at 10am that morning to get a cleaning appointment, gave her appointment up to her own brother. Amy took the brother and completed an extensive 2 hour deep teeth cleaning on wobbly teeth. Amy explained that she did the best she could, but that he would probably loose a couple of teeth. Even after enduring 2 hours of deep cleaning, this man wept with gratitude and gave hugs and thanks to everyone. The dental team left feeling satisfaction for the day’s work. In all we saw 103 patients, did 20 extractions, 93 fillings, 69 cleanings, 12 consultations, repaired 1 denture and had 4 runners. (people who found out they had to get a shot, and suddenly had “other” places to be!)

That night we had our favorite rice and beans, plantains, fish and chicken at Marian’s. We shared our favorite funny moments around the dinner table – fleeing from spiders, holding wet children, Amy yelping from being bitten by fish, Tim teaching flossing.

We were able to close the evening by sitting on a roof deck, overlooking the ocean and sharing words of gratitude and appreciation. Everyone was so thankful that God gave us the opportunity to join in His Plan for Belize.

We closed the evening with Rachel Howden's baptism in the Carribean Sea. We used our headlights to illuminate the event. We went to bed that night with fond memories and pondering our future roles as missionaries in Punta Gorda.
Kim

Belize Outreach '08 - Monday, Nov 24

We started the morning with a Belizean breakfast of fryjack, refried and eggs. We had time during devotions to meditate. The education team headed to the Methodist school and helped lead devotions and visited 4 different classes of kids ages 4 to 12. We were going to teach 4 more classes, but they took one look at Jill and recognized her crazy volleyball skills. We taught 2 basic volleyball clinics – the kids loved it. After school the team took some kids swimming in the Caribbean – it was rough but someone had to do it. Most of the kids are not swimmers, so they clung to the team in the water like barnacles.

The dental headed team headed to the clinic and got to treat a jaguar hunter, missionaries with Child Evangelism Fellowship and interns from Machaca (a Christian camp for kids) along with the locals. Some people had come from far away villages, and waited for hours for their first dental visit. We had a little excitement at lunchtime when Josh backed the van into a ditch. McGyver Marcus and Josh engineered the van loose with boards, a car jack and lots of pushing. April from the Snack Shack made sack lunches for us each day that we devoured.

In the evening we went to Da Wata Fountain, the ministry set up by Valley Bible’s missionary Julia DeShong for the walk-about children of Punta Gorda. Gideon and Maylin, the directors of Da Wata Fountain, invited us to sing songs and play with the kids. We were able to pay for the Monday dinner that was served by Maylin and Stephanie to the 40 kids and our team– beans and rice, Johnny cakes (biscuits), chicken, coleslaw & juice. The kids are starved for interaction so we shut down the street, played volleyball and swung them around. Carrying the kids and loving on them was one of the highlights of our trip.

Belize Outreach '08 - Sunday, Nov 23

We started this beautiful, sunny day with a delicious breakfast at the Snack Shack consisting of homemade banana bread, eggs, and starfruit. Then we were off to the Punta Gorda Methodist Church for 8:30 service, which was led by the ladies group. We were blessed by the message, which was about serving people as if we were serving Jesus. The ladies and the congregation were thankful for this group of Californians coming down to serve the people of Belize. They invited us to teach them a new song and we had fun filling up the church with praises.

All 18 of us piled into a van which sat only 11 officially (don't tell anyone) and headed off to our next adventure. After another delicious local meal, we visited the Mayan ruins at Lubaantun. Walking amongst the grounds, we saw the pyramid remains and ancient ballcourts, and learned about how the Mayans got corn. After lots of fun photo ops, we piled back into the van and headed off to Blue Creek - HoKeHa cave.

We hiked through the rainforest (with lots of Deet on our skin), scaling rocks and climbing with hands and feet grabbing onto vines and tree roots. Our final destination was a cave that was about 3 stories high. We swam into the cave with headlamps on. At one point we all turned off our headlamps and sat in such darkness that we couldn't even see our hands in front of our faces. The fact that we were all together emboldened us. Being part of this missionary team has helped us to hone our individual roles and bolster our unity.

The Lord gave us sunshine all day, and a big rainstorm once we arrived back at the hotel. Our evening vespers encouraged us to not miss what God has to say to each of us while we're still here.

Kim and Jill

Belize Outreach '08 - Saturday Nov 22

The dental team of Steve, Ken, Wesley, Darlene, Becky, Amy, Kim and Marcus started seeing patients at 9 a.m. It was difficult triaging patients, but we did our best to see the kids and those in pain. A highlight of the day was Maylin's homemade tamales - wrapped in banana leaves. Cathy, Michael and Lauren kept the kids and adults entertained in the waiting room with origami and other crafts. Stephanie, Josh and Kortney joined the dental team and helped entertain the kids and clean up the clinic.

The school/swim team spent the morning planning the swim lessons. Gideon, the Belizean pastor, found us 36 kids to teach. The swim teachers Jill, Tim, Will, Michael, Rachel were able to do a few swim tests, but once the kids found out the water was only 2 feet - chaos insued. Many had never seen a swimming pool before, so they played and enjoyed the day.

A spider the size of an apple chased Darlene across the street - someone yelled "SNAKE" - and Will and Michael pushed the girls to the side and sprinted to the van, diving in while the girls went to check out the spider! That's life in the jungle!

We have been followed by a band of children since we arrived. They arrive when we get up in the morning and stay with us until our evening devotions. They each have their own stories--some are without dads, some have parents with big issues of their own to deal with and aren't capable of giving care and attention to their kids. But they love to be with us, listen to us sing, talk about the Lord, and welcome them to go with us wherever we go. Pray that as we spend time and share with them, that their hearts will be open to receive the gift of salvation and adoption as children of God.

Kim and Tim

Belize Outreach '08

Belize, C.A. November '08
Thursday/Friday

At about 4:00 p.m., our team of 18 assembled in the small, Belize City airport. We'd been divided among two flights originating from the Bay Area, and without incident, we'd all been reunited in Belize. We quickly boarded two tiny twin prop planes and flew south to Punta Gorda, home for the next week. The flight was spectacular, hugging the Caribbean coastline as the sun set in the west. It was the first time we'd ever arrived in P.G. at night (some of us have been here over a half dozen times) and it was the scenic flight yet.

Our host, Gideon, and his family met us at the landing strip and escorted us to our hotel, the Charlton Inn, a modest hotel in the heart of P.G. After settling into our rooms, we walked to a local restaurant for dinner (stewed chicken, rice and beans) and saw several familiar faces along the way, including 'Juney', a local resident with special needs who won our hearts during a previous visit in the spring of '07.

We spent time at our evening devotional gathering (Vespers) thanking God for all his mercies shown to us throughout this day and being reminded of our focus for our time here--to share the love and message of Jesus with as many folks as possible in as many ways as possible! We all headed to bed with a lot to think about, much for which to be thankful, and with lots of anticipation about what tomorrow would hold.

We woke up Friday morning to a symphony of roosters and lots of activity around the Charlton Inn. New guests were already arriving, employees were watering plants and hanging cleanly washed bedsheets on the outside clotheslines to dry in the Caribbean breeze. We gathered for breakfast at 'The Snack Shack' for pancakes and tropical fruit, then divided into two ministry teams for the day.

The 'Dental Team' drove several miles outside of town to an abandoned dental clinic that was made available to them for use. Miraculously, it was only recently abandoned and much of the equipment is in remarkably good shape and quite modern. By the end of the day, the team had seen about two dozen clients. Some had as many as ten teeth that needed to be extracted, others had been in need of root canals for who knows how long, and others needed cleanings that required hours. There was no question that the clinic was meeting needs--one family traveled more than five hours just to get the free services that were being offered. While patients waited to be seen by the Dental Team, a 'Waiting Room Ministry Team' took care of them, playing games with children that led to ministry opportunities for families.

The 'Non-Dental Team' was assigned to visit a local elementary school and present dental hygiene presentations to several classes. Our audience ranged in age from two to six year olds and they were quite a lively crew! We used all kinds of creative techniques to teach them about the importance of good dental care and they LOVED it! We had them each 'color' their teeth with a temporary dye that showed where bacteria had accumulated and then gave them mirrors to check out their smiles. Then we gave them toothbrushes to get rid of the "bugs living on an between their teeth." We passed out little hourglass timers and to each child and told them they had to brush for two minutes, until all the sand had fallen to the bottom of the glass. They were so absorbed by the whole process! Then I demonstrated how to floss. Steve Chew, one of the dentists on the team, had brought an oversized set of lifelike teeth to demonstrate how to brush and floss. As I was demonstrating how to floss, Rachel Howden held up the teeth while I inserted the floss between each tooth and said, "You pop the floss in and pull it out." I did this several times, saying the same thing until on the third tooth, I said, "Pop it in and pull it..." and right when I said "out", the model tooth I was flossing came flying out of the plastic gums into the audience! The children gasped, me and my teammmates rolled in laughter, and I'm sure those children will probably never floss again! We salvaged the moment and quickly moved on to the next part of the presentation... Finally, we concluded by praying with all the children, thanking God for the teeth he'd given to us, but most of all, for the gift of Jesus! We can live without teeth, but God doesn't want us to live our lives apart from Christ.

During the afternoon classes, we were asked to referee a volleyball tournament and that's where we were reunited with so many children from our spring '08 visit--Clayton, Mikey, Keetie, Jem, Anthony, Shadeem, Jameeka, and so many more! It was one of the most amazing reuinions EVER! Clayton came running up to me, practically knocked me over in excitement and said, "I thought you were never coming back!" nearly breaking my heart! We spent the rest of the afternoon with the kids, playing, swimming in the sea, and then meeting up with them again and again all over town. They jumped into the arms of all the team members--even the ones they didn't know. God has convinved these kids that we love them and that there is something different about us--the love HE has shown to us that we now share with others.

We were so taken by how these kids were absolutely ecstatic over our presence here. We could have played with them for hours and they would have never tired of us being with them. We passed a little ball with them for so long and all that mattered to them is that we were there, and we wanted to be with them. Pray that the Lord will use us to clearly share His message of unconditional love and the universal truth of the gospel with them. Our prayer is that their hearts, and the hearts of their families, will be softened to this message and planted eternally within them...