Last week our team served along side different ministries in a small town outside of Belmopan, Belize.
Belize Team
Half the team in our van on our way from Belize City to Belmopan, Belize.
We stayed at a stayed at a ministry that hosts missions teams and partners with several local ministries and churches in the area. Their focus is children and youth and bringing the message of the gospel from the head to the heart. Our host, Miss Mona, explained that many people know the gospel, but there are people who know it without having an actual relationship with God. Their mission is to educate children so that they know that God has a great purpose for each of them. They have had a preschool on their property for the past 5 years. Recently, however, they have not had a teacher to run the school. Our team had the honor of hosting a week-long preschool for the kids in the community.
Preschool Ministry
Preschool House
Although Belize is an English-speaking country, Las Flores is a Spanish district. Many of the children have learned to speak English in school, but many of the younger ones and their parents only spoke Spanish. The preschool team used songs, books and crafts that allowed them to teach about Jesus in a way they could understand.
Erica and some of the preschool children
Crafts at the preschool
Outside games
Feeding Program Ministry
Another ministry we served along side was a daily feeding program. Every day, a group from our team would help prepare meals, clean and serve children lunches so that they could learn well while in school.
The church which held the feeding program
The feeding program started several years ago when Miss Ana (below) began to seek the Lord in a way to serve. Her program was inspired by Lamentations 2:19, “Arise, cry out in the night, as the watches of the night begin; pour out your heart like water in the presence of the Lord. Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger at every street corner.” She wanted to provide lunches for children so that they would have the energy to learn in school.
Ms. Ana in the kitchen
Erica preparing tortillas for lunch for the children
The kids during lunch
Community Events
During the week we hosted two community events, one in Las Flores and one in an even smaller village called More Tomorrow.
For the first event, we went door to door and handed out rice and beans for meals for families and invited people to come see a movie at the park.
Rice and beans to go along with our movie event invites
While inviting families door to door, we talked and prayed with the families.
Las Flores movie event
Our second movie event was held in a small village north of Las Flores called More Tomorrow. To get there, we took this dirt path for about 30 minutes. We dodged bumps and holes in the road (I did my best anyway) and finally arrived to a little sign with an arrow pointing to More Tomorrow.
Kelly beside the More Tomorrow community center
We pulled into a large soccer field and set up for the movie. We were informed that the village was actually in the middle of a black out, so we would have no power for the event. Thankfully we had prepared skits, and Pastor Luis had a power inverter we could use in the event. We played a Veggie Tales cartoon and did our skits, which everyone seemed to enjoy. Because of the power outage, there were few distractions, and the audience seemed to enjoy the event!
