Tuesday and Weds.

Wow! We have a lot to catch everyone up on. First of all, we’re sorry we didn’t update yesterday, our internet was down all day.

Tuesday Night…

After dinner we had devotions. It was by far the most open and meaningful discussion we have had as a team. God’s spirit was definitely at work, as each of our members shared from their heart. There was not a dry eye in the house (except for Mrs. Orr whose tear ducts don’t work). The kids shared for over 2 hours and it was very late by the time we finally crawled into bed. Especially the girls who wanted to chat a little more into the wee hours of the morning. The morning hours came much too soon for our tired and sore bodies.

Wednesday…

We started breakfast a little later than normal due to the late night last night. We had homemade French toast, eggs, and bacon. DELICIOUS!!!! After breakfast we marched straight to the trenches for another day of battle. We finally conquered the stumps with a little help from the tractor. The TSF was deployed on multiple occasions throughout the day as our little friends decided to join us in the trenches as we disturbed their homes. At one point our missionary Darlene said in her sweet southern way “That little guy didn’t stand a chance!” as the TSF pounced and annihilated the terrorizers of the girls and Ryan (the lead vocalist in the battle cry/scream for the TSF, of whom he’s a card-carrying member). Though this may come as a shock to you… We dug trenches AGAIN! We unfortunately are not finished yet. We made lots of progress though, and have now finished using the pick on all of the trenches and are down to the final steps (hopefully) of clearing the dirt and reaching the proper depth. We were joined today by Pastor Gregorio and Mynor, one of the local workers. We came in for lunch and had yummy burritos with homemade tortillas from our wonderful cooks. After lunch we did VBS prep, and showered to rinse off the grime. We then loaded up the vans and headed in to Bella Vista for VBS. As the vans pulled into the village, the kids started running towards the church! Our kids were excited for that. We had a jump in attendance today. We hit 100 kids!! Morgan, Josh, Cheyenne, Ryan, and Dylan helped lead worship. They got the kids up and moving around for worship. Our story today focused on Jonah.  Our Jonah had a little bit of a split personality. Brian portrayed the handsome, clean Jonah, and Paul (birthday boy) portrayed the nasty, fish guts Jonah. Paul donned a blonde wig/beard; put Vaseline and baby powder on his skin to add to the effects (see the attached picture). The kids all loved it, as did we! The VBS craft was very colorful as the kids turned plastic colored Solo cups into colorful cup in ball games that simulated Jonah’s head being swallowed by the fish. We know that sounds creepy, but the pictures make it seem much cuter than words. Brittany, Kalina, Katie, and Lauren all worked to prep the crafts before VBS, so things went much smoother with our larger numbers. After a successful day of VBS, we loaded the vans and returned home. At the request of the kids, we gave them the opportunity to voluntarily serve in the trenches again. They all came out and worked. The best part was that we were all still wearing our VBS clothing and had our matching lime green shirts on. John and Darlene said it looked like there were a bunch of leprechauns in their field. We worked for the ½ hr. that was left prior to dinner. No one complained about the homemade tortillas, barbecue chicken, baked beans, coleslaw, and cake we were served for dinner. We are definitely roughing it in Belize for dinners! NOT! After dinner, the kids headed off to devotions and then we enjoyed another thought provoking and spiritually deep discussion from the passage of I John 3 relating to how we show love. The kids then asked to be able to pray in small groups together. We were very proud of them. We decided to show our love for two of our team members who we are celebrating today and yesterday. Paul’s 17^th birthday was yesterday and Josh’s 16^th birthday is today! We asked the cooks to bake two cakes for the boys. Amber had brought pillowcases she’d decorated for the boys’ birthdays, and each team member had signed the pillowcases with a birthday message. The girls decorated the dining hall for the celebration complete with singing candles. The birthday boys seemed surprised by the festivities of the evening.