Day 5 Monday

To read all of these e-mails, log on to www.rmcmission.blogspot.com.
You can view a map of Belize at http://www.progressoheights.com/location/belize_map.jpg . “Click” on the map and it will zoom in; we are working in the very northernmost tip in Corozal town (which is located in the District of the same name).

Here is what happened on Monday.

Work continues on the construction site – a couple of crews laying block on the chapel, and a couple of crews painting the upper floor of “our building”. By this evening, the chapel had 4 courses of block all the way around, and about 8 on the back wall of the platform.

A bit of a snag happened with our paint project. The lower floor is already painted, so the upper floor that we are painting ought to match – right? Well, it didn’t. It was a noticeably lighter shade. Fortunately, we planned all along to do two coats, and we have gotten the correct color for the second. These kids are really roaring on the painting. As of this evening they have made enough progress that it looks like they will finish all 7 classrooms inside and out by tomorrow evening.

This evening we have a bunch of our kids go to the college auditorium and conduct the second night of VBS. That is a major project in its self.

During the day, one team of kids is assigned to stuff around our place, and preparing all of the materials for VBS is one of their jobs. They spend probably 1 – 2 hours cutting, packaging, reviewing, rehearsing. Then after supper they load up and go to the church and put on the program. Last night there were about 75 kids, and tonight there were 110. We expect the numbers to continue to grow.

There are many in our group that consider this interaction with local children to be the highlight of their entire trip. Some of our 2nd and 3rd timers remember some of these children, and resume their friendships. Those kids treat our kids like celebrities; and that being the case, who wouldn’t love it?

Ashley Groeneweg and Kathy Binder have been doing an excellent job of putting this all together. Their efforts and planning started months ago. A lot of shopping was done in the States, and the purchased materials brought down with us. This is the culmination of months of work, and a lot of local kids are benefiting from it.

We had a couple of guests for supper tonight. Our old friend, Floyd, was invited as a special guest. He is the one who served as our night watchman for 5 years running. Our contact with Floyd has waned in the past 2 years, but it is always good to see him.

Our other guests were the Padilla family that came to display their woodworking wares for our kids to purchase. If your kid is bringing you a Padilla piece, you are a very lucky person.

While half of our group was working at VBS, the other half had the option of going in to town. Our first stop was at a clothing and variety story that is owned by one of our members. They welcome out kids, and give them some really great discounts. Then we drove over to the center of town and let them walk the streets for about 45 minutes. Kids stayed in good-sized groups, and each group found something of interest to pass the time.

The day closed with group worships and more just hanging out and enjoying each other.