Only 2 days left on this Island.  The time seems to have flown by and already I am sad knowing our time here is coming to an end soon.  Today we broke our larger group (of 14 at this point) into smaller groups to go into the community for breakfast.  We each went our own ways to engage the community and get into gospel conversations.  Our group, which was my husband myself and one of the  teen girls, headed off down the street where we met a guy at the bank who recommended two places for breakfast and even gave us a ride (golf cart style of course) to show us where they were.  We invited him to join us for breakfast (on us) but sadly he couldn’t.  We walked the area around Estels by the sea (which I highly recommend for breakfast especially if you are looking for a taste of home with bagels, pancakes, etc.) and talked to a few locals.  That’s where we met this guy…

His name is Wayne (or half-inch as they call him… since he is a mechanic).  He recommended we try the burritos at Estels which has plenty of beans in it.  He was not able to join us for breakfast as there was a boat he was soon to work on but my husband was able to have a great conversation with him.  Sadly he said there’s not any people who are willing to sit down with you and help you understand what’s in the Bible.  The fact that my husband was willing and desired to do this was new to him.  There was a man with a stand where he sold hand carved wood items who was close by , Dennis is his name, who was hearing the conversations.  When Wayne and Eric (my husband) were done talking Eric went to look at this mans stand items and after a few moments Dennis was asking my husband to share more about what he was hearing from his other conversation!  Not only was Eric able to share Christ with both men but he also went back that afternoon to give them both a study Bible.

So many great conversations just during our breakfast time.  While Eric was talking with these two men outside we were inside eating our breakfast talking to Kevin who works at Estels.  In passing conversation asking us if we were going to enjoy the beach today we informed him that we were actually going to be working on a church in San Mateo that we had been working on the day before.  We shared more about the why behind the what we were doing.  It turns out he lives on the same dead-end road just a few houses up from the church although he didn’t even know it was there.  My husband gave him a Bible when he returned later that day and when Kevin got off work he stopped by the church and talked with us more and met and talked with the Pastor Robert.

There were so many amazing conversations that we were able to have with members of the community just sharing Christ with them.  I can only speak to our time that morning but these type of conversations were happening all over.

We then returned to Faith Bible church to finish the painting and laying the “carpet” as they called it!

Today seemed even hotter but that didn’t stop some of the men from trying out this state of the art weight bench!

Skill to pay the bills….. 🙂 I am sure the men will thank me later for sharing these photos on the internet! (wink, wink)

 

Again today some people, myself included this time, had to leave for a bit due to heat exhaustion/ dehydration.  When I say it was hot….it was HOT.  Even though today we made the decision to spend our time there in the morning and then in the evening to try to avoid the hottest part of the day..it was still very hot. During the time in the morning Bill, Eric, and Pastor Robert and his wife Lavern went into the community surrounding the church and were invited into three homes that they got to share the gospel message with!

Some of the group returned later in the day then to help finish up the project.

Robert and Lavern were so very thankful for our help and friendship!  This time we spent here again allowed for some more conversation, some in which Lavern shared the most hilarious story of where she thought babies came from–the airplane dropped them off of course!   She believed this all the way up until she was in the delivery room having her first child at the age of 16 and the nurses had to explain where they actually came from.  We all had a laugh and shared our own mothering experiences and bonded as women.  Again I feel like we’ve known each other a long time even though we’ve only just met.

When we left I got the biggest hug from one of Lavern’s granddaughters, Brianna, that her daughter, Rina, captured.  Brianna jumped up in my arms and hugged so tight as she said I’m gonna miss you, I love you!  I feel the same Brianna.

That evening we went through the town again for some dinner and even stopped at this awesome little place (that WAS air-conditioned) for ice cream… the first dessert we had here which, for this sweets loving gal right here, was such a nice treat!

The owner, Mike, knows his ice cream.  It’s all homemade with the best ingredients.  He is originally from Arkansas.  The list on the chalkboard had all kinds of fun flavors and you can try as many samples as you want for free!  This was really the best ice cream and if you are ever in San Pedro, Belize…I recommend you stop in here for a cool treat!

Tomorrow will be our final day here before we head back home on Wednesday.  We often had a devotion time as a group before the start of our day and specifically prayed for our conversations and the opportunity to share Christ.  God was good in granting us so many open doors and conversations to plant seeds.  We were here on mission but the people were not just a mission to accomplish.  It’s not about trying to get a profession of faith without a true understanding of God, man, Christ, and mans response and with no further discipleship.  It’s about how we truly care for these people, how we love them because Christ loves us.  We have invested some of our time here and have connected with some through social media to continue investing into them or have connected them with people in the area.  I pray we get to return here some day and follow-up with the many people we talked with.  Some were short conversations in passing but we continue to pray for their hearts, and the work that only God can do, every day.