March 16, 2012 - Alison and Courtney E.

Oh, hey, Americans. Today has been very eventful, and very tiring. All of us came back extremely exhausted and ready to eat!

At St. John's, the children had a half day, so that school's team mainly worked around the building, doing odd jobs to help it look better. During school hours, the teachers and students held a fantastic assembly to thank everyone for their hard work. They received thank-you cards, t-shirts, and magnets (and the St. Mary's team was very, very jealous).

Everyone at St. Mary's (where Courtney and I worked) started off the day with passing out t-shirts from the supply suitcases. Individual classes came in to receive the donated Upward shirts, and it felt amazing to see the thankful grins on children's faces! We then separated school supplies for all of the teachers.

The preschoolers had a field day out in the backyard. Oh my goodness, it was the cutest thing we have ever seen! Most of the parents were there to watch, and they even participated with their kids in the various races. Ms. Joy, the preschool teacher, did an incredible job organizing the event for everybody. She is a gifted woman, with a huge heart for what she does. Every child loves and adores her.

After school, we ended the day with taking lots (and lots and lots and lots) of pictures, signing shirts, and kicking around the soccer ball. It was a great way to end the week. Even though we knew we would see the children for a little while on Monday morning, today was the last time to spend quality time with them.

It's sad to think we will be leaving soon. We all have become so close with so many people here, and to leave everything behind will be incredibly heartbreaking. I have been truly touched and changed by this trip, but that is of the least importance. Seeing firsthand how God has been working here, knowing that His hand reaches far beyond our own limited perspectives, has been refreshing and eye-opening. How much that we take for granted! How selfish our culture has helped us become! We are blessed beyond our wildest imaginations, and we often fail to recognize that. Though I am ashamed that it took a 10-day trip to a third world country for me to see the other side of the coin, I am grateful that God allowed me to learn from this experience. Red and yellow, black or white, we are all God's children, wrapped in His grace. Thank you, God, for second chances and undeserved forgiveness.

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Two Sides of the Same Coin

Hillary and Meredith here. And though we come from a united team, we come bearing two different stories. I (Hillary) work at St. Mary's school with Standard 1 children (ages 7 to 9) and Meredith works at St. John's with Standard 3 children (ages 9 to 11).

At St. Mary's the heart touching moments of today include but are not limited to a little boy walking up to me giving me a great big hug and then asking if he could give me butterfly kisses which I gladly accepted. So very precious.There is a little boy named Kies (pronounced Ki-eese) in my Standard 1 class. He is the best little reader that you ever did see. This tends to get him in a bit of trouble becasue all he wants to do is read instead of whatever he is supposed to be doing. He is awesome though and picked out the book with the most pages to read to me today. I loved it. Also, Alison and I also went from class to class bearing a guitar and Alison's amazing vocal cords. After we played a song for the class we would ask if they had a song to teach us, most did. However, after school I was braiding a little girl's new bracelet and she looked up at me with giant brown eyes and asked if I remembered telling the class they could share more songs with me after class. I simply said "of course, do you want to sing me one?" She broke out in Jesus Lover of My Soul with the sweetest voice quite possibly in the entire world. It was simply captivating. These kids have so little, but their hearts are full of joy and you can't help but love them for it.

Most of the children at St. John's went on field trips today, so we used it as a good work day to help out around the school.  Aimee, Adam, Mrs. Kelly, and I started out the morning by organizing the supplies and donations to hand out to the teachers and students who need them, which we hope to hand out tomorrow.  Meanwhile, poor Sharon, Alex, Savanna, and Jill finished painting the tires for the outdoor classroom and started painting a wonderfully difficult cinderblock wall around the school's garden in the scorching sun.  We took a long lunch break to walk to the bakery and see some of the vendors.  Then we came back to the school and finished the bucket of paint for the wall (though we did not finish painting the wall) and painted some fun games for them to play on the sidewalk, including tic tac toe, long jump, and hopscotch.  Now when I say hopscotch, I don't mean a measly 10 squares in a line, I mean a whopping 40 squares of bending awesomeness around the corner of the school yard.  The most touching moment of the day was early this morning.  I got up with a couple others to watch the sunrise (positively breathtaking, by the way!) and then before breakfast, Jill and I went with Dr. Meg and Mrs. Kelly to take a few lunches to some kids who can't afford it for the field trip.  The kids were so excited about going to see the Mayan ruins that are so close to their home but they do not have the means to get to see them.  Dr. Meg and I talked to some of them for a few minutes and it was just precious to see their excitement and hear that they wanted to share it with us. 

Tonight, we all had the opportunity to see the preshoolers from St. Mary's in a local preschool artistic talent festival.  They, along with several other local preschools, performed songs and poems and dances that were simply precious.  We all have sore cheeks from smiling and laughing so much for the entire hour!  After another wonderful dinner at the hotel, we are full and tired and ready for a good night's rest before our last day with the kids tomorrow.  Pray for us that we will make the most of every opportunity on this last day with the children.  Thank you all for your love and support!  You mean so much to us!

Signing off for the night. 
Love, Hillary and Meredith

Wednesday...Too tired for catchy names...

We began this morning with a quick bite to eat.  During breakfast, we all made prayer bracelets out of bandanas.  We wrote prayers on small strips, wet the strips, and braided them together.  These bracelets remind us everyday to pray for those things lingering in our hearts.

St. Mary's

Today many of us spent the morning in classrooms again.  Elizabeth E. and Elizabeth B. took an adventure in one of the preschool classrooms with the 2-4 year olds.  It was incredible to see how much these little children already knew.  They sang the days of the week, the months of the year, and could even spell March.  It sounded like everyone else had an awesome time in their classrooms as well.  We have definitely fallen in love with "our" kids here in Belize.  We finished painting some murals.  Hayden and Sissa even led their first P.E. class.  After lunch, we went "caroling" from classroom to classroom.  Hillary played the guitar and Allison led the singing.  The kids really enjoyed this--they even taught us some new songs!  After school was dismissed, many of the kids stayed late to play with us.  Courtney E. was attacked by tons of kids all wanting to be carried somewhere.  We eventually shifted to creating prayer bracelets with the kids.  Today God led us to spend time with the kids and show His love to them through us.  Tomorrow, its back to work! (Or so we think...God may have a different plan).

St. John's

Today, everyone at St. John's started day two in their assigned classrooms. Many of us taught lessons to the precious Belize children. We taught everything from multiplication to letter writitng, and the children seemed so thirsty for the knowledge that we had for them. While we were all excited to get the opportunity to teach children in such a different setting, we were also excited to just love on these kids. At lunch we all had so many kids hanging on us, hugging us, and even giving us kisses. Some of us had so many hanging on us that we were falling over! We played tag, chase, ring around the rosie, duck duck goose, and so many more games. It is so humbling to see how little these children want from us. They just want to be loved on. Our team also had the opportunity to serve these people by giving them shoes, and Dr. Meg had the chance to measure their feet so we can plan to bring shoes to those specific kids.  After getting to spend some time with the children at lunch, we spent some time painting in the outside classroom area. It was a struggle to keep the children away from the wet paint, but such a joy to see how excited they were about the area we were working on. As they left, one by one, they made it a point to give us hugs, and call us by name to tell us goodbye. Everyone on our team is learning so much from these kids, and we're praying for God's guidance in the next two day to show us what else we can do for these children.


Tonight the ladies at St. Mary's Church, Miss Haiti and Melinda made us a home cooked Belizean meal that was probably the best food that we have eaten while being here. We had fried chicken, beef stew, potato salad, rice, beans, and salad. Not to mention the best lemon and coconut pies EVER! After dinner we gathered in a circle and they whipped out the boom box. We all danced and had a great time. We have never laughed so hard! It was the perfect end the to perfect day!

Prayer time with the preschoolers at St. Mary's.

Amari from St. John's.

Here are a few pictures since we are finally able to upload them!

"Miss! Miss! Hey, Miss!"

What up America!

First of all, sorry about the whole “we didn’t blog yesterday” thing. We just didn’t because we’re kind of slack. Anyway…here we go.

Alright. So yesterday, which was Monday, we returned to St. Mary’s for another work day.  We split into groups with some people painting chalk boards, some working on outdoor and playground equipment, and others finishing up painting in the main room.  The theme of the work day was “oil-based paint.”  As Jill says, “You can’t live with it, and you can’t wipe it off.” Initially, no one realized that paint thinner and other such chemicals would be required to remove the substance from our flesh, so we were colorful little messes who ended up bathing in all sorts of harmful solvents. Whatever the case, the finished result—scripture on walls, murals, and all sorts of games like Four Square, Hopscotch, and Tic Tac Toe—was well worth it. 

After a long of day of work, we rewarded ourselves with family dinner at a local restaurant called Celebrity.  The food was great, but the best part of the meal was sitting as one huge group.  Our table of nineteen overwhelmed almost half the restaurant. That was awesome to see.

And now on to today! Cue the children!

Since yesterday was a national holiday here in Belize, today was our first day working with the kids in the schools.  Because our team is so large this year, we were able to work with two primary schools: St. Mary’s and St. John’s.  A group of ten remained at St. Mary’s passing out letters from children in American schools for Dr. Meg’s literacy project.  In these letters, American children shared what they had learned with their Belizean pen pals, and then the children at St. Mary’s wrote responses.  It was really cool to see the connection created between the children from these two starkly different countries.  

Meanwhile, at St. John’s, seven from our team volunteered to go into uncharted territory and get to know the school, faculty, and students for the first time.  The result couldn’t have been better.  Mrs. Griffin, the principal, welcomed us with a smile and opened her school to us completely, and within the first fifteen minutes, the children captured our hearts (and our laps).  We each attended a different class where some members of the St. John’s team were able to teach lessons to their students.  By lunch time,  the kids at St. John’s knew most of us by name, and if not, they were more than happy to address us as “Miss” or “Sir.”

 By the day’s end, our hearts had each expanded hundreds of times to allow room for all the children we had grown to love at both schools.  It took no time at all for the kids to embrace us, showing unconditional affection and adoration.  You really have no choice but to love them back.  It’s entirely eye-opening to see how much love these kids—and the faculty members, hotel staff, and people of Belize for that matter—show to us without expecting anything in return. 

God is showing up in big ways here in Belize, and we pray that He continues to work in our lives and in the lives of all the people we encounter.  We ask that you continue to pray with us.

The Kite Runners

Today was our second full day in Belize. It started with a church service at St. Mary's. The people there made us feel very welcome and the service was surprisingly spoken in English, so we were able to understand everything. The reverend paid special attention to the Ten Commandments.

After breakfast, we walked down the street to a kite festival, which is a contest that is held once a year. When we walked up to a huge open area, there were kids and kites everywhere. We were able to talk to some of the kids, even though some were very hesitant and focused on their kite.

Marissa, Hayden, and Courtney joined Dr. Meg in building kites under one of the festival's tents. The frames were already built, so the only activity left to do was to glue the paper to the frame and attach a tail and string for the kite. Sounds easy, right? As it turns out, they had to have extra help from a nice stranger, who took over the construction process with gusto.

After constructing their kites, the girls walked away from the populated areas of the festival in order to fly the amateur kite without serious injury. Three Belizean children, Javier, Mailey, and Sydney, joined them and asked to fly the remaining kite (by that time, Courtney had lost her kite to a very insistent child who wanted to enter the contest). The girls were amazed to witness the joy that the children found in playing with such a simple toy. Kids of all ages, really, enjoyed the kite festival. It was quite a contrast to America's media-soaked everyday life. When Marissa, Hayden, and Courtney left the children to go eat lunch, they left the kite with the kids.

The day came to a close with organization of the supplies for the schools. We had a room full of supplies ready to be delivered! Suitcases were unpacked, then repacked with specific supplies for specific schools. We are truly blessed to have been able to procure so much for those in need!

Paint, Bananas, and...Rats

Our first full day in Belize was tiresome, but full of dedication and hard work for the people of our temporary home. Starting out the day with a breakfast over looking the Carribean Sea which gave our group a time to come together and look at the day ahead. We headed to St. Mary's where we grabbed our paint brushes and soup laddles to work for the day in the school cafeteria. We applied a fresh coat of paint to the doors and walls while others of us prepared cups of soup for the soup kitchen. Each of us were excited that our first task was underway (but not so much about the rat that scurried across the floor of the lunchroom and in between the feet of some scared AU "girls") and we were serving...which is our ultimate purpose. Ms. Haiti, Miranda, and Christalee, our awesome Belizian co-workers and tour guides for the day, took us through the city of Belize into the open-air market where many of the group bought fresh produce (By the way the Bananas of Belize are so much better than home...too bad American customs won't let us pack those). While in the market we experienced the joy on childrens' faces as we met Belizian children Jose, Gringo, and Ever who were anxious to meet us "strangers" and smile for the camera. Our day came to an end with a relaxing "family" dinner at the Chateau and some us even took a relaxing dip in the same Carribean sea we began our day overlooking. Working and meeting with the people of Belize was such a blessing and a just a foreshadow to the work we have yet to do in Belize.

Matthew 25:24

Day 1 Safe journeys

Although we had early flights, we arrived safely in Belize - saw rainbows in the clouds, beautiful blue green waters, and met some amazing people on the flights.

We arrived at the Chateau with all of our bags, tired but excited and grateful.

We made it to St Mary's before the children were dismissed for the day and were reminded of why we had come. The children came running to us for hugs - all of a sudden we weren't tired anymore.

We are praying for the children, and for opportunities to show them God's love.

Please pray with us.