Wednesday's Blessings

The day broke with light rain and our group made their way from the cabins to the main fellowship building for our morning devotions and worship. Today’s morning scripture was from John 12 verses 24 through 26. It left many in our group wondering what Jesus actually meant when John writes that Christ stated… “Those who love their life will loose it and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life,” (verse 25). Surely God wants for every one of us to live our lives each day as if it were our last, sharing Jesus’s love with every living thing we come in contact with; thus encountering Jesus living through us and no longer having a need to have a life on earth, even while we’re still breathing and answering to our names given at birth. We are truly living for Christ, thus knowing how to love this life while on earth. But for those who have chosen to open their hearts (perhaps unconsciously) towards hate and not Christ’s love, does it possibly mean they will never encounter the other-worldly love of God? I certainly hope not.

After another wonderful breakfast, this time of scrambled egg casserole with pancakes, fresh juices and papaya made by the Jaguar Creek staff, most of us made our way on to Armenia’s primary school and continued our work building new windows, doors and bookshelves for many classrooms. Dan, Chuck and Don traveled into San Ignacio (about 50 miles west of Armenia) to help install a UV water treatment system for the Octavia Waight nursing home. The weather for us in Armenia held looming dark clouds that threatened to open up and pour heavily on us all morning, but delivered only light, short periods of much appreciated droplets of water. We all worked hard and made sure we were also available during the children’s recess periods to share their fun activities. These children are so beautiful, each and every one of them. If I ever need to remind myself or any other person about why the First Presbyterian Church of Oak Ridge should be involved in Belize, just take a look at some of the wonderful pictures from this trip.

We traveled back to Jaguar Creek from Armenia (about 5 miles away) for lunch because the principal is concerned about water use and was not convinced there would be enough available for both his students and us. This provided us a chance to think about and plan for our afternoon’s work and possibly reevaluate what our group might be able to do on Friday, since it looks as though our Armenia projects will be wrapping up sooner than expected.

Instead of heading back to Armenia after lunch, Dale and myself were very blessed to have the opportunity to get a ride with Steve (a Jaguar Creek staff member) into St. Margaret and meet with the principal of their Roman Catholic school, Mr. Estevan Peck. If Steve had not offered to drive us, we would have taken the local bus as our transportation that is fairly predictable but definitely on Belize time, picking up passengers roughly every hour, give or take thirty minutes ☺. St. Margaret is about 30 miles southeast of Jaguar Creek and Armenia. Once we arrived, Mr. Peck was very open to talking and sharing his concerns about not being able to provide clean water for his students and teachers. Dale shared with him how the Living Waters treatment system worked and how we would be open to talking with him more in the coming months about potentially installing one for the school, particularly since we all plan on coming back to Belize in the future to work more with the village of Armenia. When we mentioned we were working in Armenia, Mr. Peck’s face lit up with a big smile and he stated that he not only was very interested in learning more about Living Waters, but that he was from Armenia and very happy that we were here. “When can you bring your team here to St. Margaret?” he asked us. Dale gently responded by assuring him that we would be in touch and in the meantime, he would need to gather a significant amount of information including how the school could access enough water, even in the dry season, to make an installation worthwhile. This could mean that they would potentially need another barrel to collect rainwater to save the current access to water from a drilled groundwater supply. Could this mean another mission trip to Belize for the FPCOR in 2012? Only God knows, but I sure hope so.
Continue to keep each of us and the people of Belize in your prayers.

Much Love through Christ,
Sherith Colverson