Some Pics From Church Last Sunday

There should be more pictures of the boys.  I wasn't  focused on getting a snapshot of everyone this time.  Next time I take church pics I'll try to get everyone.

Kristel and Misael

Elizanie, Yelitza and her daughter Kristen, and Delina

This is a picture of Manuel preaching for the first time. 

Manuel was talking about making Godly choices...doing what God has called you to do and based the sermon on the Jonah and the Whale story.  He did a great job.  Everyone seems to watch when he teaches.  Sometimes when he explains things I think, "Wow! Where did that come from?" because he adds things from his heart that we had not talked about at the prep session. He even surprised himself and said, 'God helped give me the words I needed."

Life In Our House on Holidays

One of the nice things about living here in Orange Walk is that many of the Deaf children live fairly close to us.  So when we have days off from school, it's easy to have friends come visit.  Elizanie (far right) is a good buddy from the Deaf class.  Gineli (in the middle) lives with us during the week because her sister lives too far away for her to commute to school. (Her mother died of diabetes about 3 years ago).  Sometimes they crochet, cook, talk, or play games.  UNO is one of their favorites right now.

Independence Day Parade

Belize won independence from England in 1981.  September 21 marked Belize's 30th birthday.  Every year there are almost a week's worth of festivities to celebrate this freedom.  My favorite is the school parade.  All of the schools in Orange Walk, dress in uniform and carry flags, decorate a float, select a handful of students to be dancers, play rythmic music on drums, and march around the town.  Here is a glimpse of our students getting ready and marching in the parade.

Yelitza braided Sulmi's hair.

Miss Mesh (The new deaf classroom teacher)  put make-up on the girls. 

Elizanie and Sulmi are all dolled up and ready to dance in the parade.

Jaheed will play the drum.

Cute!

The children from St. Peter's were dressed in their school uniforms and marched in front of the school float.

An "artsy shot" for Mateo.
This is the first year I watched the parade instead of walking in it.   Angelica and I were on the second floor balcony of one of the stores in town.  From up above as we looked down we saw a sea of umbrellas.  Although there was a sprinkle of rain for a short time,  people used the umbrellas to block the hot sun. 

The St Peter's Anglican School float .

Our dancers walked behind the float. They had to dance and walk about a half mile.  You can see Elizanie, Sulmi and Kristel in the middle of the pack.   The other dancers are from our Special Ed. classes.  

Lazy Livin'

Solana likes to sleep with her chin on the water dish.  She'll fall asleep, wake up, lap the water a little, and then close her eyes again.  I don't know if she is lazy, diabetic, or trying to dominate the dog by keeping him from the water.

The Prodigal Daughter Returns

Ariel (not her real name) came to girl's Bible study last night.  She hasn't come for about 8 months. I was surprised to see her standing at my gate about 15 minutes early. She had obviously showered and dressed in "out for the evening clothes".  She was smiling.

I wish that I had just gushed with grace and love.  It's the obvious response.  Kristel did.  She ran out and invited her in. I followed.  Sigh. 

Our history is a rough road.  She has been part of our deaf community, family, gatherings, events, since the beginning, since our very first worship together.  During that 7 years I felt like I had tried to help her, be a safe place for her, helped her reunite with her mother who had cut her off, baby shower, visited her, showed her love, forgave her...etc. but she kept rejecting me, said mean things, never smiled to me, said mean lies to other people about me.  I thought,  "Hey, look, I can't go any farther across this bridge without you making some kind of effort, " though I never said that to her or anyone else.  She was causing so much chaos, too.  Every time (yes EVERY time) she came to church she had a fight with the man she claims is the father of her first baby but is obviously not.  Sometimes she would stand up and shout and then dramatically announce "I'm ignoring you"… and maybe storm off in tears about 15 minutes after church started. You would think you were watching a Mexican soap opera. So when she stopped coming to church and my house and kind of stayed away for 8 months, my first thought was relief.  "Phew, less drama."

There are so many different kinds of psycho-babble theories about how to relate to people who are having trouble finding their way and very stubborn and rebellious in the effort.  You know, "tough love", or let them learn their lesson, or just love them anyway.  As a teacher who juggles these strategies everyday...I try to figure out when do I discipline, when do I hug it out, when do I see this as needing a behavior management reward system, when do I ignore it.  Every behavior, every child, every situation is different and any one of those responses is "right" from time to time in an educational setting.  With Church family, it's different.

When Chuck Snyder was here, he was talking about grace vs. law.  He said, “People have it all wrong. The argument should not be grace vs. law.  You can never have too much grace.  It should be rephrased:  law vs. lawlessness.”

Hmmmm. “You never ever can have too much grace”.

The phrase has been rolling around in my head ever since.  I think he is right about that.  How does that apply to school?  I don’t know… but with church people…with Ariel….it means I should run to her like the Father in the Prodigal son story.  I didn’t.  I don’t trust her.   But so what?  There wasn’t anything trustworthy about the son who returned home, yet the Father ran to meet him.

Grace, you can never have too much.

So last night when she came to Bible study, Kristel and Angelica were immediately "thrilled to see her after a long absence" and showered her with sentences like:  "It's so good to have you here."  That’s grace.  Father, show me how to extend the grace to Ariel that you have already rained on her.

August Daze

Here are some pictures from my "August" file. It is not a complete description of what we have done this month, but it gives you an idea of what our life is like during the summer... lots of visitors...every day...and lots of opportunities to try and encourage conflict resolution, spiritual growth, and retaining skills they learned in school.

Jaheed (12) comes to my house in the afternoon for an hour to practice reading. When he is done reading to me, he and his brother Raheem get to play multiplication games on the computer.

Limon! My tree, the little sprig I planted in 2005, is giving me about a dozen limon every day. Samnang and I made a lemon merangue pie. Sulmi and I made lemon bars and everyday we have fresh limeade in the fridge. Yummy!

When Elizanie came over to "play" the girls asked me if they could wash the van...hmmmmm...sure.

Yeah, they got a little wet, but it was a hot day and the van is sparkling clean.

Kristel and Sulmi like to play Twister...note the toe socks :-)

Girl's night every Friday. Kelsey, Angelica, Samnang, Kristel, Yelitza and her daughter Kristen. We have been learning about growing spiritually mature by spending time with God, trusting Him, and getting to know him. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says, "God's power has given us everything we need to lead a godly life. All of that power has come to us because we know the One who chose us. What a great and valuable promise!"

A group from our church decided to help with the school garden since it had grown into 3 foot high weeds over the summer.

Hard work and no one complained. Really. Hey, I was surprised, too.

Here we are cooling off after the work is done. Sulmi, Angelica, Alejandro, Edgar, and Samnang.

Where were you, Magoo?

Wellll.....all over, really. This summer was a wonderful opportunity to visit and reconnect with many old friends and supporters and make some new friends. While Chuck and Nancy Snyder took care of my house, pets and lead Jesus' Deaf Church in Belize, I spent three weeks in the U.S. I wish I had used my camera more while in the states. I didn't take pictures of everyone or even carry my camera most of the time so please, please don't feel offended. ARGH! sorry.

FIRST STOP: Rutherford Island, Maine

It was wonderful to spend some time with my parents and my friend Tina. It was a short week but a a chance to be with the people who know me "through and through"...no pretending or trying or putting on my best face...just being in their graciousness. Ahhhhhh.

Sunday I got to share at North Woolwich Methodist Church. God led me to this church in 2005 just before I came to Belize. I fell in love with them and the way they embrace God's many "missional projects". They even found an interpreter for me. Not an easy feat in backwoods Maine!

SECOND STOP: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

I took the AMTRAK train from Boston to Lancaster, PA. Wow! What a wonderful, relaxing way to travel and at 1/4th the cost of making the same trip by air. In Lancaster I spent 3 days at Oasis. This is an annual retreat that EMM hosts for missionaries at Blackrock Retreat Center. It was an oasis for me. I loved meeting and renewing friendships with other missionaries. We have so much in common yet so much that makes us different. It was a wonderful group to be with and the conversation was stimulating. Thank you so much, Rose, for interpreting. I loved spending that time with you.

After Oasis I set up a booth at the annual Gloabl Fair. Thanks to Debra Hoffer, and Gloria & Galen Lehman for helping me with that. It's a little bit like "speed dating"... someone comes to my booth, says hello, and tells me a little bit about themselves. I share about my ministry and they move on while the person standing behind them now feels free to move to the front and introduce themseles...etc, etc. for 6 hours. I hope that I was able to promote what God is doing in that scenerio.

Sunday was a chance to connect with all of my old friends at First Deaf (where was my camera? !!!!!). It was great to be there and catch up a little. Sunday evening we went to the Barnstormer's Baseball Game....FUN.

Thanks Deb for chauffeuring me around and feeding me and being my friend. I love you.

THIRD STOP: Harrisonburg, Virginia

Thanks to Skip and Carol Tobin for your friendship, listening skills, wisdom and giving me a ride from Lancaster to Harrisonburg. They dropped me off at the Caribbean Gathering where we feasted on Mennonite potluck and shared a little bit about the work we do with God.

During my time in Harrisonburg I got to spend a day with Mary Beth Moore and her family. They came to Belize in 2010 to help with our VBS. I enjoyed catching up with them. She led VBS in the morning and they had a potluck in the evening, with a women's Bible study in between. It was so nice to meet the Deaf "brothers and sisters" of their fellowship "Signs of Life".

Carol and Dennis Rhodes let me stay with them the entire week. It was like being with family. They even let me use their car to come and go. Amazing hospitality and just so comfortable being with them. The majority of the week was spent at the Virginia Mennonite Conference annual assembly. It ended on Saturday with commissioning. Almost all of my MST Team from Lancaster drove down to Harrisonburg on Saturday night to surprise me and support me at the commissioning. Phyllis, Debbie, Gwen, Mike...You are amazing. Thank you for that expression of love.

On Sunday afternoon Carol & Dennis, Adam, Conrad, Joel and I hiked (they climbed, I crawled) to the top of Bear Fence in Shennandoah National Park. Whew that was a challenge for me...but so worth it. The view at the top was like those pictures of the Shennadoah Valley with mountains folding for miles all around, gradually fading from dark greens to grays. I don't know how high we were, but we were above them all. Thank you, Lord, for that challenge. Thank you Carol & Dennis, Mary Beth, Mynor, Mario, Chris, Galen, Gloria, Adam, Joel, Shirley all who made the week in Harrisonburg a full, but memorable one. You all are a blessing to me.

Courageous Faith

She has the courage of Daniel and is only 16!

One of the girls in our Deaf Church has parents who are avid Jehovah's Witnesses. They go to all of the meetings and Bible studies. They require that their children attend these as well. Two weeks ago on Saturday Julie told her parents she did not want to be a JW. She said she is a Christian and wants to go to the Deaf Church. Her mother says that because she wants her daughter to learn about God, she will let her come to the Deaf Church when there is no conflict with the JW. BUT... she has to go

to the JW meetings, every one, without fighting or she will be punished. When she refused to attend a meeting on Satuday, they took away priveledges from her. Her punishment, not permitting her to attend Deaf Church. It did not deter her. Last night when the mother let her go to our Deaf Bible study for women, this young girl spoke out about her faith. She signed to her father until he could understand her explaining that she does not believe in the JW testimony and wants to be free to be a Christian. The father said, "No." Finally after her persistance the father said that when she reaches her 18th birthday she can choose. (She will be 17 this August). I am sure she will stand tall in one year on her 18th birthday and proclaim, "I want to be a Christian." It will be a great day: cake, ice cream, and baptism. Lord, thank you for her courage as a model and inspiration for us. Preserve her until that day.