Day Eight--Kaitlyn and Ivan

Hey everyone, Kaitlyn here, blogging on day 8. Today was the last day of VBS, it’s been the most amazing VBS I’ve been a part of. On day 1 of VBS I was overwhelmed by some of the kids from last year, simply because they remembered me and had thought of me throughout the year. So many kids just came up to me and threw their arms around me and just screamed, because they remembered all the fun we had together last year. But at the same time, I noticed something different that I hadn’t thought about before. For example, I met this boy named Denfield last year, but when he came up to me this year I couldn’t remember him. He made a huge impression on me last year, but when I saw him again, he had changed. He grew up, it was so simple, but such a poignant truth: I had forgotten this little boy who I really cared about. It wasn’t on purpose, but I had forgotten that kids grow up and change and live life, but I’m only seeing a sliver of them once a year. Today was the last day of VBS and one little girl asked me why I couldn’t stay and she wished that we could have VBS for the next 5 weeks. This really made me think about missions and how I want to pursue that in the future.

Anyway, besides VBS, I had the opportunity to help shop for groceries for Bradford’s family. Bradford helps us with everything here at BCCC: from guiding us around the area, helping with construction, and helping us clean the church, Bradford helps us with everything. We couldn’t make it through this trip without Bradford or Jerry’s help. We were told by Auntie Edith that his family could really use some groceries, so we used some money from our fund and took over some food. His mom is a really amazing woman, we were lucky enough to hear a little bit of her life; she is so strong in her faith and she’s been through so much in her life. She is so resilient, nothing brings her down… Seriously the definition of someone who seems in sync with God.

That’s about it I think, tomorrow we’re going cave tubing and seeing the Quans’ farm. Please continue to pray for our safety and for our continued grace for each other as our trip comes to a close. This has seriously been the most amazing trip, not only because of the kids at VBS, but also because of the new friends I made and also the friendships that have grown even more. I’m so thankful for this opportunity to serve in Belize and I can’t wait to come back again.

Day 8 – Ivan

In many facets of our lives, we try to control and bring order to it; however, on mission trips, there are so much more that can be gained by staying flexible, expecting changes, and to go with whatever God puts in front of us.  Having fully completed all the construction work we started, we got a chance to decide how we wanted to spend our morning before VBS.  In full democratic fashion, we came up and voted on a couple of options, and decided to split the team up to clean up all the trash in the park we were using the past week, buy and donate groceries to two local families (Bradford’s and Derrick’s), and prepare water balloons for VBS.  As for Vanessa (from SCBC), she accepted an invitation from the BCE crew to join them on their morning VBS in one of the most poverty stricken part of Belize City, where families lived literally on a swamp with “driveways” that are just a single plank of wood on wooden poles.

Since I was part of the trash collecting crew at the park, I’ll share about that.  The park, called the Lopez Mateos park, is a place where neighborhood kids come to picnic, play soccer, basketball, or just to run around in.  The park also has a fountain that no longer flows with water, and is littered with shards of shattered glass bottles.  Having made use of the park all week for VBS, I felt it was only appropriate to give back to the park by cleaning it up.  Compared to working within the church property, it was quite a different experience cleaning up the neighborhood: policemen and neighbors drove by and showed their appreciation via thumbs ups and waves, and even some of the VBS kids showed up and picked up trash with us!  Throughout the week, I was impressed by the positivity and openness to Christianity as well as the diverse but harmonious ethnic mix of people in the neighborhood, and my experiences this morning further reinforced this.  This was a glimpse of what I think heaven should look like, and I pray that God’s work in the neighborhood will continue.