It's a Sign!

One of the things that sticks out about San Pedro is the fact that helpful advice about how to live a full and happy life and bible verses are posted everywhere.  We see it on walls and tables inside restaurants and on the outside of buildings all over town.  Holy Cross is no exception to the trend.  Below are some of the helpful offerings left behind by friends who have been here previously.

Another striking thing about the school is how many churches and people from different places have visited and formed connections here.  Just from the cafeteria I can see signatures from: Oakville, Canada, San Antonia, TX, Newport News, VA, Dallas, TX, Raleigh, NC, Swansboro, NC, Houston, TX, Yorktown, VA, and Durham, NC of course!

New Arrivals

Mary Beth Berkley and daughter, Sarah Mueller, arrived on Friday afternoon, followed by Jim Short and daughter, Elizabeth and Don and Jeanine Leckron from Grace Episcopal in Defiance, OH.  Nancy Usher-Williams is still here to guide and inform as needed.  Stay tuned for pictures of who's here.

We found the views from Ruby's porches to be beautiful!

There are three stories of porches at Ruby's.  This is the middle view.  Coconuts (palms) and sea grapes (tree with red and green leaves).  Yum!

From the top porch.  You can see where one of the coconut trees lost its top when hurricane Earl passed through. 

"International mission trips are a big waste of money..."

"...think of how much that community could do for itself if we just gave them the amount of money we would spend on the trip."

BUT...the real point of mission trips is not about getting work done for those in need.  It is overwhelmingly obvious that the value of St. Luke's coming back to Holy Cross Anglican School year after year is that we build relationships.  Deep relationships.  Walking around San Pedro with our tiny team for a few hours transformed my understanding of what exactly we are doing as God's hands and feet here in Belize.
When we were a block away, there was a man sitting on the sidewalk with carvings all around him. Carvin' Marvin called out and welcomed us like old friends -- and we were.  He and Jan are old friends, and he and Bob Moore are even better friends.

Victor drives a taxi which is almost like a school bus for Holy Cross.  His face lit up when he saw Jan, and she continued to tell me stories about him and Carvin' Marvin and other friends as we strolled through the town.

And one of the favorite haunts of the St. Luke's Belize Mission Trips is DandE's Custard (pronounced "dandy's).  Elaine (the "E" of D-and-E) welcomed us like family when we came in, as old friends who have been gone too long -- and that is truly what we are.

I (Helen) will be leaving Belize with a new understanding of the purpose and value of St. Luke's Mission Trips to Belize. I will be leaving new friends and family.   My own family saves and plans in order to get together with distant family and friends every few years. The relationship between St. Luke's and Holy Cross Anglican School/San Pedro, Belize is similar.  We come back year after year not to "do something for them" but rather to keep up with old friends, watch their children grow. and share their joys and sorrows.  Amen, Alleluia.

Thursday, February 2, 2017 Weekly Chapel and School Food

This morning began with the weekly school chapel service.  There are actually 3 services, divided by age.  In the youngest group, we sang along with their songs and the teachers lead the service.  In the middle age group, Jan told the gospel and asked a few questions about it.  In the oldest group, Jan read the gospel and Helen gave a reflection on how to interrupt bullying so that you can be a light to the world (Matthew 5:13+)

The school cooks make our team breakfast and lunch each day.  The food is home made and delicious every day.  Here's an example of a breakfast and lunch:

Breakfast always include ripe, fresh fruit and fresh squeezed orange juice, an egg scramble, and a starch (today tortilla with jam).  Today's lunch included cole slaw, rice & beans, and chicken.  At the top of the plate is fried plantain and at the bottom is bread pudding.  They treat us very well!

Great Map

This map is painted on the wall in town, and is one of the clearest I've seen:

For Peter Taflin

St. Luke's Evangelism/Communications member Peter Taflin helped our church find the best product for our copying/faxing/printing needs.  It is a BizHub and he fairly regularly checks to make sure it's working well for St. Luke's.  When we saw this at Holy Cross, we thought Peter would be happy!

Wednesday, February 1, 2017 Blessed are the Flexible

Francis Wilson, one of the founders of Holy Cross, has a saying that we have repeated often this week, "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."

This morning, Nancy stayed at Ruby's with a sore throat and Jan needed to run an errand.  That meant we missed breakfast at the school.  Luckily, Jan was able to get at text message to the school to let them know we would not be there first thing in the morning.

Jan and Helen then had the opportunity to see Belize banking at work.  Jan continues to keep in close contact with he scholarship student, Isolene, who is now in college on the mainland.  Jan needed to add some funds to Isolene's bank account so she would be able to play basketball on her college team.   Here is Jan making the deposit:

As we arrived at school, we noticed these students, who had stopped by the shop across the street for a snack before school:

When we arrived at the school, Lydia and her son Benjamin met us and asked if we would have time for an interview this morning.  She is the Social Media coordinator for Holy Cross and would like to do a story on St. Luke's 10-year history with the school.  Jan and Helen had hoped to get through most of the rest of the heights and weights today, but knew that time talking with Lydia would be well-spend and there will be much more time to weigh and measure.  So we sat in the lunchroom and chatted for about an hour.  Look for an upcoming article in the Holy Cross newsletter and website.  

After the interview, we Jan and Helen got back to our task of heights and weights: