Welcome Wayne!

Wayne was born on Friday, September 11.  He weighed in at 7 pounds of cuteness.  Selena says she is glad the waiting and delivery are over (!).  Welcome to you, Wayne.  May God bless you with health, peace and joy.


Bertha is lying with her mother for the photo.

In the picture to the right, the two youngest peep out the window. Aren't they adorable.  It amazes me, really, having so little, no toilet or sink, no fridge or stove, not much variety or substance at meals, sharing one room and only two beds with the whole family (5 children and parents), that these two youngest are always smiling. Such happy children.  I pray they grow up to know their savior.

Thank You God for Sending Workers! The harvest is great.

Clockwise: Spring, Nathanael, Selah, Abigail, Zephaniah, Zion

The men in our church have been needing a male leader. I've prayed.  You've prayed.  God answered our prayers by sending the Davis family.  Nathanael arrived in August to lead a 5 day back-to-school workshop for the Ministry of Ed.  He taught sign language to teachers who will have a Deaf or special needs student in their classroom.

Spring and the children arrived August 17.  They are adjusting well to the many differences between Belize and the US.  The biggest adjustment being the heat.  But they are getting used to it and finding ways to anchor papers while they sit in front of fans.

Nathanael's call is to reach out to Deaf men in Orange Walk and the surrounding area...befriending them and leading them to depend on the Lord, Jesus, follow Him, and share the miracles of faith with others. To this end Nathanael is meeting with the three Deaf 20-something men who have been attending our church, one who is part of the JW and making contacts with others. Presently he is trying to meet them 1:1 during their lunch break from work. Please pray that the Spirit blesses this ministry and touches the hearts of Deaf men in Orange Walk.

In the end of August we took a trip to Crooked Tree.  It's a lovely lagoon that is a birder's paradise.  Although it is "rainy season", we have had very little rain.  The lagoon has shrunk and the edges are mud instead of grass. The mud aggressively swallowed their shoes, but it was fun to step in the gooey muck and then dip in the water.

Above is our Deaf Church last Sunday.  

(We're missing Martha, Selena's family, Kristel and Jaheed).

"The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers to harvest the field. " Luke 10:2

Thank you, Lord, for sending help with this abundant harvest.

Family Fun Night- BINGO!

This month's Family Fun Night was BINGO.  We alternate with a movie night and a game night.  BINGO is fun and everyone can get involved...even the little kids. 

We started with a short devotion from Romans 6:23 with an object lesson that involved a candle flame and a balloon that pops and a bloon filled with water that doesn't pop. (Thanks to Marybeth Heatwole Moore for the idea).  They LOVED it.  Everyone kept saying "Do it again!"  We followed with a short discussion which was good and helped me to trust that the object lesson didn't trump the verse.  In other words, they understood the point.  The verse was essentially: "We pay for our sins with death, but through the work of Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us, God gives us eternal life."  A good verse for the Easter season. Praise God for that gift!

Next up was a light dinner (sandwich, chips and dip, and a cupcake).  The food part of the evening is always popular.

We had time for three BINGO games.  Each time we played until we had a winner and continued until about 8 people had won. Then everyone dumped their beans back into a pile and I erased the board and we played again.  So thankful to MaryBeth for the donation of candy for prizes.

Here are some pictures from the evening.

 A little abnormal...

 Winning a candy prize.

More winners and Fermin pretending to sneak one from the pile.

The littlest ones had a blast.

Fun!  Thanks to Sulmi for taking the pictures :-)

Annual Central American EMM Missionaries Retreat

This year the retreat was in La Ceiba, Honduras. La Ceiba is in Northern Honduras and a popular spot for Honduran families from crowded cities to vacation by the sea for Easter Holy Week.  This year Kristel came with us.  It was nice for Sulmi to have someone to pal around with. It took us two days to get there and two days to get home.  We drove the van 7 hours from Orange Walk to Punta Gorda, Belize and spent the night with Kristel's aunt and uncle. The next day we took theTaxi Boat to Guatemala.

There we were met by Phyllis and Galen Groff. They drove us across the Honduran border to La Ceiba. We arrived 33 hours after we left OW.  Half the fun is the journey, right? Phyllis and Galen have been missionaries in Guatemala for "forever".  They took 9 months off and are now going to be living in Belize!  (Yea!!! So glad to have them close.) The Garifuna church in Dangriga has invited them to come and encourage the church to be all they can be for the Kingdom.  

Phyllis and Galen Groff

We stayed at Pico Bonito.  It is a beautiful "jungle lodge" half-way up a mountain.  It was quiet, peaceful and rainy.  It rained the whole time (I pity the Hondurans who planned beach vacations), but we had a great time relaxing, visiting with each other, learning, praying, eating, resting, reading the Bible and swimming in the rain.

Linda Witmer and Saralyn Murray

Our speaker was Linda Witmer.  She is a registered nurse and administers the EMU Lancaster Campus nursing program.  Linda was a missionary in Guatemala for 23 years before returning to the US ten years ago.  Recently she has also focused on giving "spiritual direction" to people who want guidance or suggestions for reflection. The highlight of this retreat for me was meeting her.  I had known "of her" but we had never met.  I appreciated her transparency and thought, "Gee, if we were in the same town, it would be so much fun to keep sharing like this." She agreed to fill the "pastoral role" that I do not have filled by someone on my MST. 

The interpreter this year was Saralyn Murray.  What a thrill to meet her!  Long ago, when I was twenty-something I did voluntary service with MBM (now Mennonite Mission Network) in Wayne County, Ohio.  Back then during the school year I administered a preschool for Deaf children, but during the summers I worked at Camp Luz.  The Mennonite camp was run by Randy Murray. During my time there he fell in love with Amy Yoder and married her.   Together they have three girls and two adopted nephews.  My memories of Amy and Randy are so cherished.  I went back to visit several years ago and met Saralyn when she was about 10.  What a surprise that she later chose to study ASL at Goshen College and is now an ASL interpreter.  Having her at the retreat was like having a 24 year old version of her mother with us!  They are so much alike: both love laughter and fun.  It was a blessing to have Saralyn interpret!

I was also thrilled to get to meet Melanie Nofziger, her husband and their four children. The Nofzigers work in Telgucigalpa, Honduras.  They are brand new to our team.  Melanie and I had communicated by email and had sent each other newsletters, but it was wonderful to chat face-to-face.  I also wish that Melanie lived "in the neighborhood".  Other members of our team include Bobby and Amanda Peoples.  They are getting ready to have their first baby in May.  We had a surprise baby shower for them and enjoyed playing some games and joining in their excitement.  I thank God for this holiday with other missionaries.  It made me feel refreshed and linked to a whole cloud of witnesses.

Thank God for Veronika!

I am so happy to introduce you to our new childcare worker, Veronika,  (blonde, kneeling in the middle).  A friend of mine, Pandora, knows Veronika through her etymologist husband.  Veronika had mentioned to Pandora that she was looking for an opportunity to volunteer with children and Pandora thought maybe Veronika could help me.  At the same time we needed someone to lead the children's time during Adult Bible study. PERFECT!  God is so amazing. How does he make these amazing connections?  I couldn't have even imagined a sweet, 27 year old woman, from the Czech Republic teaching our children.  It reminds me of the verse:  Ephesians 3:20 (The Message)

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams!

So while the adults are learning Bible verses at my house, the children of the deaf adults meet over in the apartment for roughly an hour and a half.  Veronika feeds them a light meal, tells them a Bible story, plays a game, and then does a craft with them.

Currently they are walking through the Old Testament children's stories.  Last night was Noah's Ark.

I am so delighted.  The children are so happy.  They love her!    

Hooray.  Go God!

Visiting Luz Marie

Luz Marie is the daughter of one of the teachers at St. Peter's.  Luz has been in our Special Needs program her whole school life until recently.  Her scoliosis or sclerosis of the spine has gotten worse. This makes it difficult for her to sit up for more than short periods of time.  The special ed. teachers decided to take all of the children to visit her and cheer her up.  It was wonderful to see how interested they were in her and how much Luz glowed from the attention of her friends.   May God fill her difficult days with many happy moments like this.

Bubbles!

Sometimes it is difficult to keep Morine focused and on task.  That makes sense.  She's 7 years old and 3 hours (8:30 - 11:30) with a teacher one-on-one must be pretty exhausting even with a 30 minute recess at 10:00.  During the mornings we have several things to complete each day: practice sight word vocabulary, practice the spelling words for the week, read a story in her reading book and discuss it, write in her "My Stories" creative writing log, and finally do a lesson in math.   Sometimes while we are working through all of this, she makes dramatic yawns and stretches.  She asks for water and then to go to the bathroom. I do not want to pressure her or drive her too hard but I know she can be more focused and being more focused makes her life and my teaching much easier.  So I created the 11:15 reward.   If she has finished everything by 11:15 she can do something fun. Before the morning begins she chooses what she will do for the reward.  There's lots of options: make a bead necklace, play an educational game on my tablet, paint, look at books in the library or recently I found this cool set of bubble wands.  Here's another picture of BUBBLES!

A Glimpse of What Happens at Jesus Deaf Church

Thank you to Sylvia Rhodes for taking pictures!   Pictures of church rarely make it to the blog.  It's so nice to have some.  Thank you.

Our worship begins with me making announcements about events during the week, birthdays, welcoming visitors and then someone praying for our contrite hearts and open minds to God's presence.

Next we sing.  Any person who wants to sing selects a song from our two binders.  We usually have about 6 people who sign songs. It's not always the same people.   The songs are completely without music.  They are signed with a deaf rhythm.  Some songs have a lot of rhythm and others are choruses from familiar Christian praise songs.  Some are translations of Psalms and still other songs we have made up to fit a theme at some point.  Once in a while one of the members will get up front and sign a song from their heart that they made up while sitting on the bench.  I encourage that and love to see this type of Spirit-led singing.

Alma is one who often leads a song.  She likes our ASL translation of  "I will Bless Thee, O Lord, I will bless Thee, O Lord.  With a heart of Thanksgiving, I will bless Thee, O Lord."

After singing we give an opportunity for people to share something they noticed God do during the week...how God gave protection, guidance, maybe a blessing.  Usually about four people will share. I really want people to keep their eyes open to how God is speaking into their lives.  God is a very real daily presence.  We need to share these moments of incarnation with each other to strengthen our ability to perceive God's guidance and messages to us, so that we can be faithful followers.

The sharing is followed by our ASL translation of the "Thank You Song" by Hillsong.  Kristel is usually the one who signs this and we copy with signs or just watch and meditate on the words.

At this point I give everyone a break.  It's hard for deaf people to sit and watch for long periods of time.  My eyes actually water.  Hearing people can look down and just listen, but deaf people need to keep their eyes focused on the speaker to be able to follow and understand.  I found I get much better attention for the sermon if I give them a break midway through the hour and a half service.  So after the sharing, everyone can get up and get a drink or visit with each other or go to the bathroom. The break is usually about 5 to 10 minutes.



After the break I preach.  I always use power point pictures to make the concept more visual.  It's difficult for me to try to make a point standing in one place so I oven move around to sort of "act out" or demonstrate what I am trying to say.  To keep people connected who have varying levels of understanding of ASL, it's necessary to ask questions or break into small groups to share ideas and then share with the group. I guess this more resembles teaching in a classroom than preaching.

After the sermon we need to do something to make the concept practical and applicable to our daily lives so we often break into groups and do skits to show an example of an application.  Our multi-age congregation is extremely good at accommodating everyone into their groups' skit. 

Finally we gather in a circle for prayer.  Each person is given an opportunity to say a prayer or pass.  I try to encourage everyone to say something...a thank you prayer if they do not have a petition.

At the close we greet each other with "God Bless you."  It's a way of "passing the peace" to everyone in our fellowship, a chance to offer forgiveness or affirm the bond of friendship in Christ.

We close with a fellowship time that lasts about 15 to 20 minutes, drinking a cool juice and some bagged chips before everyone crawls back into the van and we drive home.

It's interesting that Jesus Deaf Church was not always this way, but our order of worship evolved as we grew to understand better why we were coming together to worship and how our worship could reflect our Deaf culture.