It's raining ... kids
Posted Wednesday, June 25
When the van pulled into Mount Zion Baptist Church in Independence, Belize late Tuesday afternoon the windows were full of faces.
The 15-passenger van driven by Memorial Baptist Church mission team member Harold Boykin had become a 40-plus kid carrier. The children piled out like clowns getting out of a small car in a circus trick.
Almost 90 kids attended the second night of Bible School led by the mission team, an increase of about 50 percent from the night before.
Mission team members said the children opened up and were more interactive during activities on Tuesday.
Hillary Matthews said one little girl looked at her and said, "Miss, I'm in your group," then grabbed her hands and started swinging them. The kids were "very affectionate," she said.
Claire Jones, who served on the recreation team, said the Belizian children called kickball "kick and run."
Katelyn DeVane, who worked with the story-telling team, said one little boy hugged her and asked her what was in her mouth. He had never seen someone with braces.
Jana Boykin said she enjoyed working during registration and meeting new friends. Robin Hardison, Jatona Boykin and Amber Essary each said they enjoyed spending time with a special new friend.
Robin said her new friend's name is Destra. "She has the most lovely smile," Robin said. "She played every game I did, all the silly stuff."
Jatona said her favorite part of the night was "loving on Wilmer," a little boy who attended Bible School.
Amber said enjoyed "swinging on the new swing with my friend Giovani."
The team built the swing-set from scratch, starting on Monday and finishing on Tuesday. The new pine swing-set was a big hit with the children.
"Kids jumped out the window to go swing during class," Claire said.
Team members also worked on several other projects on Tuesday morning and afternoon.
Some teams members gathered at a dirt pile behind the church used shovels to fill a wheel-barrow with dirt that had rocks, sticks and leaves in it. The sand was taken about 150 feet to the front yard of the church, where other team members used screens about three feet square to sift it in barrels of water. The sand was used to make cement that was used to plaster the outside walls of the church and fill holes between the walls and the roof.
Emily DeVane said she enjoyed using a drill for the first time while helping make shelves for the church. Larry McKenzie said the Mount Zion pastor Alfred Ramsey had told him that ladies in the church had been asking for shelves.
The mission team's Tuesday morning's work was revised when a strong rain storm blew through Independence.
Some team members moved inside to sand and varnish doors, while others finished tasks outside until the rain grew stronger and heavy winds began to blow.
Robin said she appreciated seeing how the mission team members all found something to do. She described the team members as "self-starters."
About 30 minutes after the rain started, it let up enough for the team to begin work outside again.
"Never in my life have I seen it rain that hard. Then you didn't even have time to snap your fingers and it's gone," Emily said. "It reminded me of the story in the Bible where Jesus was in the boat and calmed the storm."
Smiling faces and armpit noises
Updated: Tuesday, June 24, 2008
About 60 kids attended the first night of Bible School led by the Memorial Baptist Church mission team at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Independence, Belize.
The opening night started with the kids gathered in the Mount Zion sanctuary. After singing, the kids found out that the night would focus on how God created the world and the kids.
The children were then taken to learn about God through stories, crafts, games and music.
Mission team members had a variety of views on the first night.
Dave Steegar called it the "craziest, most frenetic" hour and a half he's ever spent. "Those kids were wonderful but they kept coming," he said.
Jerry Yarbrough said he was took note of the "excitement of the kids and the passion all the MBC team had for their involvement."
David Avrette said that during story time the kids knew who Adam and Eve were and they loved to see and touch the pictures. "The time went very fast," he said. "An hour and a half went by like 30 minutes."
Hillary Matthews said the time was "hectic but fulfilling."
Emily DeVane said the night started off slow, but that didn't last long. "Before I knew it, I was surrounded by kids with no shoes and smiling faces," she said. "You can't help but think how much we take for granted every day."
Allison McClay said the rooms at the church quickly filled to the brim. Stickers, magazines, string and bookmarks were strewn all over the arts and crafts room. "Several of the kids were very helpful and it was hard to give them up to the next group," she said. "It was such a joy to work with all these beautiful, smiling children."
Tom McClay told of one little boy with brand new white tennis shoes with red elephants on the sides. "I asked him if he knew what an elephant sounded like," he said. "Another little boy quickly said he did, whereupon he put one hand under his shirt and began to make armpit noises while happily grinning at me. Little boys the world over are so alike!"
Greg McClain said he was amazed that the team still had energy to do VBS after working in the heat earlier in the day. "Children were very polite and receptive to our presence," he said.
Robin Hardison said Memorial would have been proud of the team's effort. "Everyone worked so hard with the kids and everyone moved as one beautiful team," she said. "The kids were full of excitement and it helped us reenergize after a long day."
Teresa Batten said all the kids left the crafts area with a bookmark. Some kids filled their bookmarks with stickers. "The kids were really sweet," she said. "They enjoyed the stickers the most."
Tuesday morning the team's work on the outside of the church was briefly interupted by a strong rain storm. Team members moved inside and started sanding doors and painting.
A swing-set built from scratch is nearly complete.
Fry jacks, a fist-sized spider and a raccoon-like animal
Monday morning, the Belize team met at 7 a.m. for breakfast and to prepare for the first day of work and Bible school.
At breakfast, the team was served bacon, refried beans, cheese and eggs. Also on the menu were "fry jacks" — triangles of fried dough that reveal a pocket when torn in two. The space can be filled with items such as honey, peanut butter, jelly, eggs, bacon and cheese.
After breakfast team members talked about how best to be the body of Christ to each other and to people in Belize. They discussed how to be patient and encourage each other and how to be non-judgmental and compassionate with people who live in Independence.
Most of the team spent the morning planning for Bible school while some team members went to buy supplies.
One group worked on telling stories to kids each night. The first night will focus on creation; the second on the story of Jonah and the whale; the third on Jesus; and the fourth on Zaccheaus.
The story-telling team cut out shapes to go with the Bible verses each night and decided who was going to tell each story.
As the stories are told, someone will cut out a shape that goes along with the details. For example a sun will be cut out of yellow paper and water will be cut out of blue paper as the creation story is told.
The crafts team planned what they are going to do each night.
Bookmarks will be made and decorated to show creation. The kids will draw water scenes in crayon and paint them blue to represent the story of Jonah. Bracelets with different colored beads that show how God loved the world and sent his Son will be made the third night. On Thursday kids will make a figure of Zaccheaus similar to a string puppet that climbs a tree when the strings are pulled.
The music team decided songs to sing during an opening assembly and during music time. "Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah,""My God is so Big," and "Jesus Loves Me" will be sung during the opening time each night.
Other songs planned are:
— "He's got the Whole World" during the focus on creation;
— "Baby Whale," which is a altered version of the Memorial kids' favorite "Baby Shark," to go with the story of Jonah;
— "Lord I Lift Your Name on High," which emphasizes Jesus' sacrifice; and
— "I Have Decided" to accompany the story of Zaccheaus.
The game team plans to play wiffle baseball and soccer tonight, depending on the number of children. Other games will be played on other nights.
Team members also started work on the Mount Zion Baptist Church building. Working on ladders, they put cement between an outer wall and the roof.
Later team members started plastering the outside cinderblock walls and began construction of a swing set.
Future work will include putting in doors and windows.
When moving wooden blocks, someone noticed something rather peculiar underneath. Several yelps and screams were heard as other workers rushed to the scene.
Sitting beneath the wood a hairy tarantula had found shade. It was at least the size of a fist when stretched out!
One brave team member attempted to get the spider off of the piece of wood. When he was shaking it though, it began to crawl up towards him. In a moment of panic, he dropped the wood spider-side down.
Some feared for the spider's welfare, but when the wood was lifted back up he crawled away unscathed.
The wildlife in Belize is pretty spectacular, and team members have spotted a purple and orange crab, a giant lizard, and one of the local residents even brought by a kodamunday or as the Belizians say, quash, as a pet. The rodent looking animal is in the raccoon family, and although it was a baby, it can grow to 22 pounds. From the description it can sound kind of gross, but they're actually quite adorable. The team will keep an eye out for other indigenous critters.
Team members are having fun enjoying the Belizian culture and sharing God's love with whoever they come across.
(BLOGGER'S NOTE — Amber Essary contributed to this report.)
Belize Mission Photos
Photos from the Belize Mission can be viewed here:
http://memorialbaptistchurch.typepad.com/photos/belize_mission/airport.html
And so it begins
The Memorial Baptist Church mission team arrived in Independence, Belize about 4:50 p.m. local time Sunday, a little more than 16 hours after they gathered to leave.
Team members met for departure on Sunday at about 2:45 a.m. eastern time. Here's the way the trip went.
After a couple of hurried trips back home for a left behind passport and a detained retainer, Memorial pastor David Whiteman thanked the group for their dedication and prayed for a safe and productive trip.
The group boarded the church bus and van for Raleigh-Durham International Airport. A few "Are we there yets?" and "How much furthers?" were met with appropriate groans.
At the airport, luggage was unloaded and piled inside the terminal. The airline gave the 34 mission trippers their own check-in line.
After a couple of last minute consolidations of liquids into clear, plastic bags, the crew members made their way through security and onto a 737 bound for Houston. The flight was the first for several team members.
Once the plane landed, the team made their way through the airport to another gate, where about 30 minutes after landing, they boarded another 737 for the flight into Belize City. The plane bounced around a lot as it went through a good amount of turbulence just before landing.
A relatively quick trip through customs followed. An hour or so after landing team members loaded their luggage into the back the three vans and squeezed into the remaining seats for the ride to Independence.
About an hour into the trip, the group stopped for lunch at Cheers. But this was not a bar in Boston. Instead it was an open-air restaurant outside Belize City. T-shirts hung from the rafters, mementoes of other groups who ate there.
Rough roads were the rule for the rest of the trip. The group passed orange groves, banana plantations and trees filled with coconuts.
At one point the three vans had to take what signs called a "diversion" because a bridge had been washed out by a hurricane that hit Belize a few weeks ago. Large drainage pipes covered with dirt provide temporary passage across the river.
At about 4:50 p.m. Belize time (6:50 p.m. eastern time) the vans pulled into the hotel. Team members got their room assignments and settled into their rooms before supper and devotions.
At devotions, members of the team shared their excitement about the trip. They also learned that some work they had planned to do was already done. Instead of laying blocks for a youth room at a church they will be working to complete the space. Team members will stay flexible as other jobs are assigned as the week goes on.
Each afternoon the team will lead Bible School for 100-300 children.
Belize Team Updates
Our church is sending 34 people on a mission trip to Belize this week. They fly out on Sunday morning at 6:15am and arrive in Belize at 10:30am. You can follow their experiences every day of the trip right here!
Today, the Belize Team is packing for the trip....
