My Trip to Belize

This post was supposed to go out yesterday, but I got so absorbed in getting tomorrow's post ready, that I forgot to put the finishing touches on it. Tomorrow's post, btw, is going to be A-W-E-S-O-M-E!! It's the last one in the 5-Part Writing Special and I can't wait for y'all to see it. SQUEE!

Anyway, as you probably know by now, I was on a week-long missions trip to Belize. I had a lot of fun and I came back with a new perspective (cliche, I know). I decided I'd write a quick post about the trip. I don't know why. I just loved my time there, so I figured I'd torture y'all with the details. 

Thanks to everyone who submitted questions the other day! I'll start with those, then I'll share some pictures.

Why did I go to Belize? 

Wow, I haven't used a gif in forever!

A pastor in my denomination has a vision of a full-time ARP missionary presence in Belize. He has a big heart for missions, but he especially loves the people of Belize. His goal is to have a full-time missionary down there, plus ARP churches sending teams on a regular basis. There's a lot of work to do there, but most of it won't do any good if we're only there every other year. We need consistent presence so that work can continue to get done. 

A former member of his church joined ours several years back (before I started going there) and introduced our congregation to the mission. The vision expanded to two churches. 

Then a former member (different person) of our congregation who went on that first missions trip, told his current church about the work there. That congregation joined us this year. So during this trip, we had representation from three churches. The vision is continuing to grow. 

My guess is that Boyce (my church) and Crowders (new church) will likely split off from the original church in the next few years and spread out some of the work. If that's the case, then this goal will start becoming a reality. Now we just need a missionary and a church down there. Prayers for these things would be appreciated. 

The basic answer to your question is that my church was sending a team and I went. But of course, I went the long way around and gave you the entire history. Anyway, I hope that this answers your question. I know I was trying to slap a lot of information into a short segment. 

What was the greatest experience while I was there? 

I had a lot of great experiences. There was a baptism of a baby. There was a wonderful amount of children who came to Christ during the VBS. I got to drive a passenger van. There was the time when I had watered down apple cider vinegar in my Nalgene and dad took a swig of it. There was the filling of the goodie bags for the school kids. There was the Boyce and Crowders men + me talking on the veranda each evening (I'm officially one of the guys, y'all. It's awesome! One of the pastors even called my buddy when he said goodbye. That's a first...). 

I don't think I could pick just one. It was all awesome. 

What was the weirdest thing that happened? 

We rent vans while we're there. We use them like work trucks, carrying tools and equipment from the camp to the worksite. Like most of the vehicles down there, the ones we got weren't great. 

Anyway, so we had this one van that we rented from the camp next to ours. It barely ran at all and most of the time we had to bang on the battery to even get it started. Needless to say, we didn't use it much except to drive people into town and back (so the work crews could use the functioning vans). One day a group of us went to a nearby shop and when we were on our way back, we pulled off of the main road onto the dirt road our camp was on. About a hundred yards down, the van just shuts down. No warning. No rattling. Nothing. Just shuts down. So we got out and walked the rest of the way back, leaving the van in the middle of the road. That was the last time I saw that van. The camp replaced it with a plush van that we all fought over. It was fantastic. 

Oddly enough, that's not the first time that's happened to me... But it was still weird. 

What was the most memorable dish I ate there? 

This had to be the fried chicken that we got from a place up the road. Not because it was great or interesting or anything, but because we didn't get to eat until around 10pm. We gave our cook the evening off and picked this place to order takeout. Well, we sent a few people up after the baptism to order the food. We had 33 people ordering and this place was no bigger than a large shed. We basically shut down the place for the next hour or so. Yeah... We kept waiting and waiting and waiting. Finally, it showed up after several hours. We were all so tired and thankful for any kind of food, but I don't think many people ate that much. 

It was kind of weird too, I guess. It was more of a tempura batter than your normal American fried chicken. And I made the mistake of ordering white meat instead of dark (against my better judgment). But it was good. Then again, I barely ate mine. I was tired and we had to get an early start the next day. 

What surprised you the most about Belize? 

I honestly didn't feel like I was in a different country. I'm not sure if it's because it's very similar to a run-down part of the US or because I'm able to make myself at home in any environment. I just felt really comfortable (as long as I wasn't left by myself). Granted, I wouldn't want to stay there for long. Heat and I don't get along. We came back to snow and it was awesome. 

What was the most dangerous thing about your trip? 

Um, I didn't feel like there was anything dangerous, per se. I guess maybe the prospect of scorpions in my room. That's probably the most dangerous thing. But we didn't have any, so that was good. I did manage an encounter with a tarantula without screaming or panicking. I was very calm, albeit fifteen feet away with five guys between me and it and keeping it that way. I'm very proud of myself. 

That's all of the questions. Now for some pictures!

Carolina Joe aka the coolest younger brother ever.
Be jealous. 

Early wake-up call+ Parvin rearing to go

Sunrise from the plane. 

Imagine my surprise when the verse in my room is one of my memory verses that month!

Some of our work project (I didn't get a lot of pictures because I would have gotten paint all over my phone). We painted a schoolhouse. I also helped paint some dorm rooms and dad and Joe worked at the construction site one of the days. But I didn't get pics of those either.

So glad we had a trained lineman for this part!

Behold!
The school building we painted in all its glory. 

There are three shades of pink, y'all. Three. Three too many, if you ask me.
But that's what the teacher wanted, so whatever.
Also, an exhausted me.

Some of the women painted some caterpillar hopscotches on the decking.

A few nature pics, because I love flowers and stuff.

The kitchen and dorms.

And then a few of me and my boys. 

At the 'beach'. Just ignore the sign...
Look at the awesome siblings instead!

I often found myself squashed in a geeky manwich
#loveit

People say we look similar. Here's a test...

Flying there

And coming home!

Goodbye Belize!

"I'm on a plane, 'bout to fly again//
Looking out the window, take a moment to admire it//
Wondering how high it is, wonder where the time has went//
Then I shut the window and go back to feeling like I'm out my mind again."
10 Feet Down; NF

SNOW!!!

The face of someone who is beyond tired, happy to be home,
and functioning off of large amounts of coffee, tea, and NF.

So there you have it. I hope I didn't completely bore you with pictures. I had fun and I loved what I did there.

On to y'all! Have you ever gone on a missions trip? What types of things did you get to do there? What lessons did you bring back? Who's looking forward to the last 5-Part Writing Special post?