Day 9 Friday

To see pictures, be sure to log on the internet to http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmcmissionpictures/.
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 Friday

Today is our last day on the job, so we really wanted to give a good, hard push to get as much done as we could. But the end result of “getting it all finished” was a mixed bag.

The paint crew got the entire second story painted with 2 coats, inside and outside. And it really looks nice. In the end, there is a bit of difference in the exterior color of the first floor and second floor, but that is the hazard of waiting a year between purchasing the paint. So all 7 of the upper floor classrooms are painted, and ready for windows, doors, electrical, and tile.

We had so-o-o hoped to get the chapel all dried in, but it was not to be. One more short day and it would be finished. It lacks the upper cap being poured on one wall, and one more course of block on top of that. (see attached pics) But let’s not compare it to what we had hoped to get done, let’s just look at how far we came in the 6 workdays that we have been here. It was transformed from just a roof supported by a few ribs, to a chapel that is useable as is, although still incomplete. To God be the glory!

This morning at 8:30 we held a joint meeting with all of the students and staff from BAJC, along with all of our “missionary” group to dedicate the chapel to the service of God. They sang their national anthem, then asked us to sing ours. President Joel Clarke and Joe Martin each shared some thoughts, prayers, and other remarks. To conclude the program they called each one of us up by name and gave us a token gift – a BAJC water glass. It was a very nice, appropriate program.

There are about 10 kids out of our group that have been at every VBS program, night after night. While everyone else relaxed or went to town for the evening, these have faithfully performed their duty: Ashley Growneweg, Caroline Silva, Moses Arevalo, Sneha Schrestha, Tim Medina, Emily DaSilva, Kelsey Downey, Dakotah Padille, Audrey Hatfield, Ivanna Carillo, JC Lynch. And there are probably another 6 or 8 that only missed one night of VBS. Kids like this are what make these trips so good, and trips like this are what bring out the very best in good kids.

Tonight for our worship we had our old friend, Floyd, give us his testimony. For the first 5 years, Floyd was our night watchman as long as our lodging was in town at Cascade Maya. But two years ago we began staying right on the premises of our work, so we have not needed a night watchman. But Floyd still loves to come around our kids, and he has a wonderful testimony of how God delivered him from a degenerate life, and led him into a life of following Jesus. As a bonus, his interesting story is delivered in a really cool Caribbean accent that is really charming.