It's Official.... We Love Belize.

Hello everyone! Reporting from the jungle again, and happy to say that we had an awesome first day at the Children’s Home! 

We had a great sleep last night (for almost 12 hours) which helped a lot in recovering from our travel days. We woke up this morning and had an awesome breakfast and headed to the Kids Home for the day. As we pulled up the girls were feeling a mix of emotions. We have talked about this moment for SO long, and here we finally are. They were feeling really excited and kind of nervous, not truly knowing what to expect. We walked in to find that our work project was perfectly prepared for us, and they were ready for us to jump in. We are laying cement in the centre courtyard of the home. Within 10 minutes these girls were working HARD, and moving wheelbarrows of cement through what is essentially an insane obstacle course… from outside in the backyard, across the path, up a ramp made of a 2 x 4, across the sidewalk inside the home, down a 2 x 4 ramp over the staircase, and into the court yard where they would pour it in place. It was a huge and difficult task and they totally aced it. They worked with confidence, and for hours and hours. Lifting and moving hundreds of pounds of cement like a boss. We were so proud! You should be too. They put in a full day, until almost 5:00, and I didn’t hear anyone complain once. It was inspiring and awesome, and the foreman and crew at the Home were more than impressed at their awesome work ethic. 

After work it was finally time to play with the kids. Some of us sat and watched the older boys play basketball (my personal all time favourite hobby). And the rest were running and playing with the little kids. It was BUSY and FUN, and the team was so inspired by the joy they saw in the kids and how openly they loved and accepted us. 

We stayed for supper, and were able to eat in the dining hall with the kids. We decided to stay for evening devotions which was a really humbling experience. Every night the whole home gathers to sing worship songs and recite scripture and have a bible lesson. Some of the girls were moved to tears, just taking it all in and feeling inspired by the devotion and love these kids have for God. We loved watching little Brian, who is two years old, clapping and singing at the top of his lungs with his eyes closed worshiping God. 

We hit the grocery store for some snacks, and came back to YWAM to shower and have a debrief time and now we’re off to bed!

Prayer Requests for Today: 

• My knee is still very soar (I went to the doctor today for x rays and they didn’t find anything wrong with the bones… I basically just wrote that for my mom’s peace of mind). But unfortunately our other leader Renee had an accident with her knee today too. She had a partially torn ACL, and today she went sideways off one of the ramps with the wheelbarrow and she is pretty sure she has torn it more, or completely. She is in a lot of pain and feeling frustrated about the injury. So please be praying for her knee, and mine too, that this pain can go away and we can have some healing and be back to 100%. Tomorrow she’ll be walking with crutches and I’m using a cane, so we could use some prayer for sure!

• Pray for no further injuring or sickness with the team (update on Hannah… she is feeling a lot better today and her cough is improving). 

• At the risk of sounding ridiculous, please pray for the weather. Belize is experiencing a cold front (not too cold, because we got some sunburns today). But at night the temp is dropping and we are chilly! I’m asking for prayer because this weekend it is supposed to cool off even more, and rain all weekend. This Sunday we are having Sunday Funday, and hosting the entire Children’s Home over to YWAM for a whole day of outside fun! Please pray that it doesn’t rain, and we can enjoy that day with the kids. Literally almost all 100 of the kids at the home today asked me how many more sleeps until Sunday Funday. 

Ok… bedtime! Thanks for reading. Thanks for your prayers and love and comments! Keep it all coming! 

Tomorrow we will be back at the home working again. 

Until next time… 

Kristin