A week in Belize, Central America

by Seth

Just a few days ago, I returned from a week-long missions trip with a team from my home church, Elk Grove Baptist Church. Our goal for this trip was to build a new house for an older lady named Lucia in a small village in Belize called Gales Point. There is only one church in the village, and a bare handful of the men attend services there. Even fewer of them are committed Christians. Basically, it is a village that very much needs to hear and see the Gospel message at work, which was the main reason for our trip.

Our flight down was … interesting. We flew out from O’Hare at 3 AM on Saturday morning, March 20, and after two stops in Guatamala and El Salvador, we arrived in Belize around 10 AM. Two hours later, we were on the road for the Belize Mission and Retreat, which was our home for the duration of our stay in Belize. The BMR is a beautiful facility on the shore of the Caribbean Sea, but it is very remote. All of their fresh water comes from rain, and all of their power comes from solar panels, meaning that both water and power had to be rationed carefully to avoid running out.

The entire trip was a learning experience for all 9 members of our team. We had to learn to be patient with a very different approach to construction than we were accustomed to, and we had to learn to cope with using lumber that was rather badly warped. One of the most common phrases I heard from the villagers that were helping us build the house was “I can live with that.” Their whole approach to building the house was simply to make the best out of the materials at hand. Overall, the feeling was one of casual acceptance of less-than-perfect circumstances.

For me, specifically, I was humbled by my lack of skills. Let’s face it: I cannot swing a hammer straight to save my life. I bent more nails than I ever thought possible. Nevermind that the wood was tropical hardwood (much harder to nail into than pine). The fact remains that I was terrible at hammering those boards together. Yet somehow, God saw fit to use me, and even to give me some measure of proficiency by the end of the week, which I can only attribute to His grace, because I certainly could not have done it by myself. As a side note, you'll notice that my skin is very prone to sunburn, which is why I look so silly in this picture. Gotta protect the neck and all, even if it is with a pink bandana borrowed from Jessy.

God also challenged me to make some changes in my life back here at home. Being away from all the normal distractions of daily life, I realized that there were some things I tend to spend my time on (internet games, television, etc) that I didn’t even miss when I was away from them in Belize. I also realized that there were far more important things I needed to be doing with my time back home, so I have been in the process of pruning these extraneous things from my life. It is not an immediate change, but I am seeing God help me make these changes, and I have been much more satisfied with how I am spending my time these past few days.

I think that is enough for one post, but I just wanted to share some of the things I did and learned from my trip to Belize. I went down there to inspire change in the villagers there, and I hope I did have an impact on them. But, in the end, I think the person who was changed the most by the trip was me.