In my last update I wrote about our coming back from Peru hitting the ground running, since Fall ends up being our busiest time of year. At the time of writing that update I don’t think I realized how true it really would be until sitting here now to write a new one … it’s already been a month and a half since I last wrote! Here we are in the second half of November and I didn’t even notice how fast time has been flying.

With so many things are going on right now, I’m going to try and highlight a few of them since there is just too much to get across in one update!

First a quick look at the youth choir. Now that we’ve had a few rehearsals, I can pretty much tell who my regulars are for this year, and while they are incredibly “energetic,” this group of kids is a lot of fun. It is truly a learning experience for me as I’m figuring out how to work with a mix of boys and girls. In the past semesters I’ve primarily had a girl choir, and it turns out girls and boys are very different! Who knew?! I would also add that God is teaching me patience =] These kids are working very hard to prepare for the different performance opportunities coming up next month and I think they're going to do a great job. Besides their Christmas concert, they are getting excited to sing on December 3rd when the Bishop comes for St. Andrew’s Day for the Confirmation service! This will be the first time this group sings for people and they were very excited to have been asked to give a special presentation.

Speaking of confirmations, we have kids  both at St. Andrew’s Church and St. Hilda’s Church preparing to take their confirmation exams. For the past month and a half kids at both churches have been attending classes that teach them about Confirmation, The Lord’s Prayer, The Apostles' Creed, The Ten Commandments, The Beatitudes, and the different kinds of Sacraments. While the kids have to be able to recite these different things in the exams, the most important part that they learn is what each piece means. David himself is catechizing at St. Hilda’s Church and even though it’s important that the kids practice The Ten Commandments, for example, in order to recite them (we even bribe them with brand-name, full-size candy if they can recite them correctly!), the actual class is focused on explaining what they mean and why they are important. So in the exam David will ask the kids to recite The Lord’s Prayer and then he will ask them what it means when we say, for instance, “give us this day our daily bread.” When I was younger I remember saying The Lord’s Prayer so many times, but not really understanding what I was saying. I would have loved a class like this! David is really great at breaking down these different aspects of our faith so the kids can really understand why they are important. We are really excited to see each kid confirm and renew their baptismal vows!

Last week we actually had five baptisms at St. Andrew’s Church, and St. Hilda’s has baptisms this week! It’s always exciting to see brand new christians welcomed into the church! At St. Andrew’s the service ended up being one of the largest for the year. So many people came to celebrate with these kids! And this Sunday when we have baptisms at St. Hilda’s we will also be celebrating St. Hilda’s Day, so it will be huge celebration for many different reasons! 

St. Hilda’s Day is officially on November 18th, so David and I went to the school and he led a service celebrating their paternal feast. The 17th also happened to be Children’s Day so the kids at St. Hilda’s were all dressed in bright orange getting ready for a day of games and sports. At St. Andrew’s School, Children’s Day also meant Culture Day. For Culture Day each class is assigned a culture group that is represented in Belize (Garifuna, East Indian, Mennonite, Kriol, Mestizo, etc.) to represent. The kids dress in the traditional clothing, make traditional foods, and setup stations to teach about the cultures they are representing. It is a really engaging way to learn about the different people living in Belize, and the kids are super cute! Last year David and I weren’t able to attend the school for the presentations, but this year we ran over right after the St. Hilda’s Day service. While we didn’t make it in time to see the kids dance, we were able to go into each classroom and see the different presentations. It was fun seeing these dressed up, nervous/exited little kids explain, from the perspective of what ever group they were representing, the different cultures they had studied.

There really are so many different things happening right now, it’s hard to pick things apart to tell all of you. Let's see. Youth group, chapel services, piano lessons, and the girls Bible study are continuing to go really well, with the kids participating more and more with each event. We are excited to see what God has in store for all of these kids! While we work with many different people here in Belize, the majority of what God has us doing is directly ministering to and discipling kids. We are really loving watching these kids grow and seeing God’s hand in their lives.

Now that you’re fully updated on the ministry side of our lives here (although now that I think about it, I’ve probably forgotten plenty … God is doing so much!), I’m going to let you know a little more about our personal lives (even though everything ends up mixing together anyway). =]

As many of you know, David and I were able to fly back to California for one week to celebrate my sister’s wedding. It was absolutely beautiful! I had the privilege of being her Matron of Honor and I loved getting to spend that time with my sister and entire family celebrating her special day. It was a jammed packed week getting the final pieces ready for the big day, spending time with family, meeting our new niece for the first time, and running errands that could only be done in the States. This was actually the first time David and I had been in the states in almost a year and half. I think we got spared the worst of the reverse culture shock since the trip was so fast and busy for the wedding, but it was still very strange being back in the United States. While many things stick out as feeling strange, since we’ve been away so long, I think the biggest shocker for me was flushing toilet paper again. Ha! When I first moved here to Belize I thought throwing away toilet paper was something I would never get used to, and then going back to the States I freaked out every time I flushed the paper thinking I had messed up. It’s funny how you get used to things without even realizing it!

While it was hard saying goodbye again to everyone (especially since for the wedding we saw so many people in a short amount of time), it was made easier by the fact that my parents are coming to visit us in just one week! This will be their first time visiting Belize and we are very excited to show them around this beautiful country as well as getting to show them our lives and ministry here in San Ignacio. Not only are they going to be here for two weeks, but that also means they will be here for St. Andrew’s Day. What a fun celebration! I can’t wait util they get here!

As I’m beginning to wrap up my update here (these updates tend to get long if I’m left to ramble, and I should probably start thinking about dinner), I do feel like it has been way too long since I’ve given you a proper bug story! While I say it’s been too long, I really won’t mind if I never have to give you another bug story again … Well, last night I came home from teaching piano, David had left for a meeting, and the house was dark. In our house the main living space is upstairs and our room and office space is downstairs. I decided to drop off some things in our room before going up stairs to start dinner, leaving the lights off and only using my phone flashlight. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something large shoot under the laundry basket. I figured it was either a wolf spider or a gecko (since we get both in our house). Now this shows you I’ve been living here for awhile because without freaking out, I moved the basket just to check. I’m guessing it was a gecko since it was long gone once the basket had been moved, but either way, I could see what the gecko had been after. Turning on the light in the bedroom revealed a huge line of very big, mean, red ants. The trail went from the door in the office, into the bedroom, under the bed, around the wall, and into the bathroom. I’m talking THOUSANDS of red ants. The kind that leave big blood marks when you squish them.. I’ve gotten used to spiders, lizards, most other ants (we’ve had plenty come into the house during rainy season), but I could not handle these red ones. It took hours spraying with 409, flooding the nest by the door, mixing smelly concoctions, lots of bug bites, straight up squishing, and lots of praying until the invasion was stopped. I might have lots of animal friends here in Belize, but red ants aren’t one of them!

So there’s your bug story for this week. Hopefully I won’t be giving you another one anytime soon!

Ok, my growling belly is telling me it’s time to finish this update. David and I want to thank you all again for your continued prayers and support for our ministry. God is working here in Belize and we love getting to be apart of what He’s doing. And we love getting to share it with you!  If you want to partner with us and our ministry here in Belize either through prayer, financial support, or coming down to work with us, please click the link below to get more information! 

And really fast, we want to give a shout-out to the ABC kids in Richmond, Indiana! Thank you guys for always praying for us and reading our stories. We love getting to tell you about everything God is doing down here in Belize!

Happy Thanksgiving!