Under the Tatch

Well, thank the Lord we missed another hurricane. Richard made land fall about 5:00 pm Sunday, October 24. It hit about 2 hours north of us. We received no rain or wind but at 5:00pm the power went off and stayed off for about 24 hours. Thank you churches for the funds to have a generator. We were able to save our food and turn a fan on every few hours.
We decided to cool off on Monday by going to the Rio Grand (no immigration was not waiting on us) several miles up the road. This is always a interesting experience. There were people cooling off as well but some were washing their clothes, and bathing. It is a big, FAST flowing river so I had no worries.
On Tuesday the family and Beverly Barnett made a trip to Spanish Lookout. It is a Mennonite community 3 1/2 hours north, that is the cat's meow. It has a grocery store and several modern hardware stores. To fully understand why we love Spanish Lookout consider this, Belize is the typical 3rd world country, especially where we live, meaning 20-30 years behind the USA. Spanish Lookout is yesterday. The luxuries of the States are not there but the supplies needed to live here are available and cheaper than PG.
Good News church is doing well. We still have many children in our services and are praying for more adults. There are many religions in Belize and the attitude in this country is " We all serve the same God" and "I believe the Bible and can worship with anyone." Yet, when we preach from the Bible and show them the scriptures, or when they find out what true Baptist believe (Grace by faith in Jesus alone, eternal security, local church, sin is bad, etc) we don't hear from them anymore.
I have never understood that, if it doesn't matter what you believe than why don't they believe what true Baptist believe about the Bible?
Many wonder how we conduct services and go about teaching them.
A typical service goes like this:
Sunday School start at 9:00 am, being Belize we get started around 9:20. Being mostly children and a few ladies, Anita teaches everyone,
Prayer
Kids song
Memory Verse
Kids song
Go over New Memory Verse
Kids Song
Books of the Bible (she is teaching them)
Bible Story review (She started in Genesis and is going through the Bible, she asks review questions from every story since our first service)
New Bible Story
Bible Drills (this is where I come in)
Worship Services
Prayer
Songs
Special by some of the children
"Outstanding" Preaching
Invitation and closing prayer
Afternoon Service
4:00 We have song practice. They are learning new songs and then we sing them next week
4:30 Bible Study Anita takes the children and reviews the morning lesson and work on hand bells.
I take the older teens and adults and teach a Bible Survey lesson.
Our aim is to instill to them several things:
The authority of God's Word
Starting from Genesis, show them how the Bible flows and applies to us today.
How to rightly divide the Bible, what each book means and how to study for themselves.
Also to teach them that they are a church. I give them advice on how and what to do and why but I leave the decision up to them. As a church they must trust in God not the missionary and American churches to sustain them and pay for the future Pastor.
It is a long process but it will be worth in the end.
That's all for now
PS. Sorry for any mistakes, Anita didn't proofread this

Under da Tatch

It's been a while since I gave an update on the comings and goings of life in southern Belize. So here goes...
We have enjoyed cooler temptures the last couple of weeks. Of course by cooler I mean mid 80's to low 90's. But we take what we can get. The mornings have been really nice.
Good News Baptist is doing well. We continue to have new faces each week, yet few repeaters. The church truck, actually it's my truck with Blair and I going all over town, runs on Sunday mornings. We are thankful for the children that attend but please pray for more adults. Kids are great but it's hard to build a work on children.
We have started Sunday evening services. We meet at 4:00 with Anita teaching songs. I lead singing on Sunday mornings simply because I have a big mouth and sound like Elvis but know nothing about music.
Then at 4:30 I take the adults and teens and split off for class while Anita teaches the children.
We are finally getting a sign made so maybe this will attract more people.
Each month we must get our passport renewed for 100.00us. Last friday we took a trip to Guatamala for the day. This was a big thing for us because we got to eat at a McDonalds!!!!!!!!
In states I hated that place but Friday it was pretty good and we got our passport stamped.
Thanks for everything

Cattle Landing Baptism

Under da tatch

Man has it been hot the last few days. Today (Sunday) was terrible and to top it off there was little to no breeze today. The Community Center where we are meeting is facing the Bay but there was no wind and it was VERY warm in the building this morning.

This past week was like every other week here, work, work, work. Nicky helped me build a screen porch early in the week. I could not have done it without him.

Blaine and I worked on the building as well. We are slowly getting holes screened up to keep the pigeons out. Just when I think it is all done I walk in and there are still some flying around. On the bright side the air rifle is proving to be a big hit with the birds :)

We had our second service this morning with 11 in attendance and had three come for baptism. A mother and two of her teenage daughters. Plans are to baptize them next week in the bay and organize a church.

Please pray for us as we reach out to more people and for more men to visit.

Know comes the hard part: teaching them.

Pray for us and keep in touch.

Cattle Landing

We are off and running. We had our first service in Cattle Landing. We told people that we would start at 9:00. My family and I were there at 8:45 setting up chairs. At 9:00 I began looking and by 9:15 I was ready to go back to the states and beg a church to call me as Pastor. I was telling myself that we needed to go in and have a devotion with the family when Anita said, "Let's go sing." On the second verse of "Power in the Blood" they started showing up.
We started with 9 people not including my family. Anita and Blair taught the kids and I led in the singing and preached. When I finished I explained our purpose and the desire to start a church. I was about to close with prayer when two more people came in. Not wanting to end with them just getting there and I asked those present if they would mind if I preached again. They said no and off we went.
I know that getting them there is easy, it is keeping them that will be the hard part.
Cattle Landing has a interesting history. In 1868, Confederate soilders seeking asylum at the end of the Civil War settle here and started Sugar mills.
This week will working on the house, getting our passports renewed and preparing for next week.
Pray for us and take care

Under da Tatch

Today was a hot one for me! I spent the morning and early afternoon cleaning around the Community Center. The Center (which we will use Sunday morning) is not used very often so it is a mess. I broke out the weed eater, mower and machete to cut the grass around the building. Some of the windows are missing so pigeons have taken over the inside. So I had the generator and blower trying to clean out the inside. Later I will break out the water and bleach to clean the floor.
The principle of the local school stopped by while I was cleaning and thanked me for cleaning up the place. Like everyone else in Belize he thinks all religions are the same. I hope he attends services.
Things are going well for the family. It is just living now. Yet just when I think things are going our way we hit a bump in the road, but such is life.
Well it is bed time. Take care

Under the Thatch

Well, we put "boots to the ground" tonight with inviting people to services this Sunday. We visited several homes, handed out NT's with tracks and invitations. The only people that didn't really give us the time of day was a retired American couple. We plan on doing this every evening this week. The Community Center needs a good cleaning so that will be our goal later this week.
Last night we had a storm come through from 10:00 pm to around 11:30 pm. During that time we received around 7 inches of rain. You can imagine how hot and muggy it was today.
Blair woke up with an upset stomache but seems to be better tonight.
So ends another exciting day in Cattle Landing, Belize

Under the Thatch

So ends another week in Belize. I finally went to the Doctor and he gave me the needed medicine for food posion. I started feeling better in a matter of hours.
The latter part of the week was spent weed-eating, mowing and killing snakes. I also built a screen porch for one of our garage door openings (all of this between power outages).
Plans are to start a Bible study next week in the Cattle Landing Community Center (Cattle Landing is located outside of Punta Gorda and where we live). Please pray that this will be the start of a Church in this area.
The kids have started school, so this will help put our life in order.
Take care

Greetings from Belize

Well we're here! We have been in Belize for a month and half and things have gone just like I thought they would...nothing like I thought it would.
Many are wondering what it is like living here. First, nothing can prepare you for the heat and humidity (and this isn't even the hottest part of the year). The house we are renting is concrete with a flat roof. The entire house heats up during the day and is hard to cool down at night. We can only run our A/C at night because of the high cost of electricity. We have put some thatch (the stuff Gilligans hut was made out of) on the roof and it has helped some.
Second, it is hard to beat the fresh fruits available. We eat out some, but all of the food taste the same, it takes at least 30 minutes to prepare and there is an ever present chance of food poisoning (I am just starting to get over a case now). Just like in the states the best meals are the ones Anita cooks but the kitchen gets so hot with the stove on.
The Barnetts have been a blessing. My hat goes off to missionaries that move to countries where they know no one. Nicky and Beverly have encouraged us, listen to us, and spoiled us when we have needed it the most.
I will post more later. Thanks for the prayers and support.