John and I are in observation mode right now with the village. We would like to talk with the villagers and really assess their needs and see what ministries can grow from that. However, there are things that we can start now that we can see are immediate.

One thing I noticed is that there is only one Sunday School teacher. It’s great that there is a village SS teacher, but she needs help. I offered and she was happy to accept. I made it clear to her that I was not trying to take anything from her, but everyone needs help at times and she actually seemed relieved. So, we be co-teaching. We have a donor who is going to donate another flannel graph set to us and will hopefully come and teach Davine (SS teacher) and I how to effectively work the flannels. That way, we can each have our own set . Please pray that the woman who is donating the set to us can come in July. Her knowledge for teaching would be a great asset to our ministry.

From the beginning, it has been our desire to connect with the youth. The opportunity for this has come quickly. I asked the pastor if there is a way I could do a small bible study with the girls to get to know them. He said that it was interesting that I should ask that as they used to have a girls night/guys night with the youth and they were wanting to start it up again. This discussion evolved into John teaching the guys and I teaching the girls. It will be a small bible study and the some games or “talk time” the focus of this is to build relationships with them. Please pray that John and I will be able to quickly learn, understand and speak creole. This is a pigeon English. Sometimes we can understand it, but only if they don’t mind if we do . We really desire to speak their “heart language”.

So that is what is going on. Thank you all for your prayers, we know you are praying.

Please pray for Evangeline as she is just now teething. She is late at getting her teeth and they are coming in all at once. Yesterday she just cried and cried. We gave her Tylenol and that helped . Also, please pray for me as I try to balance motherhood and being a missionary. I am trying my very best, but I know that it is going to be a difficult balance. I am a mom first, I have always said that, but I am also a missionary. She is at a hard age and I am a new mom so I’m at a loss as to what to “do” with her. Any suggestions in the form of an email to: lesmelissa@gmail.com would be welcome.

We miss you all and think about you all the time.

1) Nightly Scorpion Checks.

2) Can’t make dinner in under 1.5 hours.

3) Repeat after me “Toilet paper goes in the waste basket, not in the toilet”, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down.”

4) No hair dryer, no-make-up, no iron, no electric razor ( Yes, we look VERY natural).

5) Waking up to the sounds of the ocean.

6) Keeping Evangeline clean is impossible. Oh well, we do our best.

7) If you go one place to get something you will almost certainly have to go somewhere else, and once you get to “else” you’ll have to go to another “else”.
Our “driveway” is 25 miles long.

9) “Going out”? Ummm…. what’s that?

10) We clean, and clean, and sweep, and organize. Who would have thought?

Life has changed, it’s different. This is what we expected, but it is still strange at times. We are trying to get in the groove of things but we are not rushing it either. We will be here for a long time and we desire to transition well. Thank you for your prayers!

Thought we’d give you a tour of the new digs.

Here’s the front of the place:

And again from the front porch:

This is the interior of the house from the front right corner. To the right, not visible in the picture are the kitchen and bathroom (door right next to the dresser drawers).

The dining area:

The kitchen:

The “bedroom” (yes, we’re aware that someone left a boat in it.)

The bathroom:

and shower:

Evangeline lounging around the house (ironically, she never liked swings as an infant…now that she’s too big for it, she loves it)

Finally, our view from the front door:

Although it may seem pretty spartan, we still will be living in a far nicer house than the majority of the people in our village.

After spending a few days in Belize getting insurance for the car, retrieving the satellite dish from the border, cleaning our Belize City apartment, grocery shopping and more, we are finally at the base settling into life. We are far from a daily routine, but that can change almost everyday. However, I would like some sort of routine for Evangeline. We’ll see what I can do.

For the past few days our goal has been to unpack and settle in to our new home. Right now we are staying in Cabana 3 and space is very limited (we’re used to that at least). Our neighbor is nice enough to let us use his house to live in. He built his house right next to our property line so we can care for it while he is away (which is very often). We have been cleaning it out and unpacking, decorating, and, yes, killing scorpions. We set off a bug bomb and managed to get four kills. Please pray that we will not have a problem from here on out.

Since Evangeline is all out walking now we have to be VERY vigilant about her safety. She is into EVERYTHING. I have to tell you, the cutest thing she does is talk and walk. If she gets a good pace down and is happy she will gab the whole time she is walking. I have no idea what she is saying. She does have quite a vocabulary that includes words such as “gentle”, “bubbles”, and “good girl”. She even says “Basil.” Also, every time I give her something she says “thank you”, what a good habit! Mommy is very pleased. Just thought you all would like an update on her. For those of you who have seen her in the past few months you might not recognize her now she is getting so big.

We miss everyone already. To our friends in AZ: Daily living is so different without you, it will take some getting used too. We miss our fellowship with you. To our families: the sometimes daily contact we had with you is missed greatly and we look forward to the times that you will visit. To everyone else: Thank you for praying for us during this time and being faithful.

Enjoy the pictures below.

After a 19 hour marathon drive yesterday, and a three hour drive this morning, we made it to the border by about 8:30. It took us ’til after noon to clear customs and was about three o’clock before I was re-united with Mel and Evangeline. It broke my heart a little bit when Evangeline woke up from her nap and wouldn’t come near me for about 10 minutes. But eventually, she warmed up and and we had some good Daddy time.

We ended up getting the money issue worked out thanks to a timely loan form Mel’s mom. Don’t worry Mom, the check’s in the mail.

So I’ll write up a bit of a travel log with pictures for those who want the gritty details. I just beg a little grace on the time, since we’ve got about a metric ton to accomplish over the next couple days.

Thanks for all your prayers. God was definitely watching over us time after time.

Thank you all so much for praying. John wrote last night and because communication is limited did not think it was wise for me to come alone.

I did not mean to cry “wolf” here and play with anyone’s emotions. I really thought I was going. Not sure why I went through all that just to end in this conclusion.

On the other hand I am happy I don’t have to make the trip, and praising the Lord. I was able to get a good nights sleep which is something I have not had in ten days.

Again, thank you for praying. I believe God was just showing me how he has everything under control and he will provide no matter the situation.

After I wrote my last post I remembered something. An acquaintance, named Julie, from my home church in MD, told me about her friends that are missionaries in Belize. This was about two years ago. Also, about two years ago, these very missionaries wrote John and I and told us to look them up once in Belize. I remembered them saying that they lived somewhere other than Belize City. Dare I hope that they live in the same city that hosts the border from Mexico into Belize?

Well, I found the e-mail, and, sure enough, they live in Corozal, the border town. All I had to do was e-mail them, but on such short notice I had no idea if they would answer or if they were still in Belize. I wrote them anyway. An hour later I had an e-mail from Mary Ann (the Corozal missionary) telling me that she was not in town but her husband indeed was and he would be more than willing to meet me in Corozal and help me with whatever I needed. Not only that, but she gave me great tips on how to drive there and what to look out for and where to turn and when. She also told me about a police check-point and tolls.

Blessing upon blessing! Praise you Lord!

All I have to do is call him when I get there. Just so happens that a familiar landmark resort called “Tony’s” is a place where they are known and well respected, so that is where we will be meeting. He will hook me up with a phone and hopefully I can get in touch with John.

Blessing upon Blessing. Praise you Lord!

Another neat thing that happened tonight is dinner. I ventured out to find a pay phone to call Basil and noticed all the stores were closed. It’s Sunday, and it’s Belize, and I think everything closes at 3 on Sundays? That is my guess. Any way I was relying on a store being open so I could shop for dinner. Not possible (restaurants were closed too). I noticed that the fruit and vegetable stand was still open so I went in there and got some oranges and bananas. But what about dinner? Then I remembered this avocado salsa recipe that my friend, Amy, shared with me. All I needed were avocado, cilantro, and lime. The stand had all three. Evangeline ended up eating noodles and a banana and I just now finished my salsa with plantain chips and I had banana bread that I bought and saved.

Blessing upon blessing, Praise you Lord!

Please continue to pray for our journey in the morning. Know that God is with us and taking care of us.

Please be in prayer for me tomorrow.

John has asked me to meet him with money at the border for customs. A lot of the cash was used to fix the jeep so he needs extra to make it through customs. I have no cell phone (long story for later), I have the baby, and the trip is 2.5 hours. I’ve never been to this town and I’m not familiar with the roads in Belize. I’m very nervous, plus I have to start my trek at 5:30 am.

The reason Basil can not come with me is because he has to bring in the team tomorrow. No one could have anticipated this happening. On top of all this, I need to make a bank withdraw to get the rest of the money I need. I have half the money. My bank card is not working in Belize, but my mom’s did. PTL she was here to at least help me with half. Be in prayer that I can acquire the other half.

Right now I feel blind and much like a toddler fumbling through a bustling room trying to find her way to mommy. Praise God that he “finds” us. I’ve been praying without ceasing. The mission field will teach you how to do that… and fast.

I said goodbye to my mom today to top it all off. It was emotional, I will miss her dearly. She was a great support to me here. Now I feel very alone, I know God is with me, but it would be nice to have someone with me in Belize City tonight. My comfort is that God has ordained this. He knew that I was going to go through this and He has already paved the way for me, and I know I will be just fine.

So the whole thing ended up costing about $800

$300 for the clutch, $300 for the labor and $200 for an extra hotel night, meals, phone calls, etc..

Jeep runs great now and we’ll forge on tomorrow. We’re going to try to drive for about 16 hours to make up for lost time. It’s going to be a long day.

So you’re probably wondering how I have internet access on a night we were going to sleep in the Jeep…

You know that tiny squeak in your car that you keep meaning to check out? Well mine went away about a week ago and didn’t appear throughout the first 1000 miles of our journey. I figured it was a squeaky belt or something so I didn’t bother.

Bad choice. As we’re driving through a small town in Mexico, the clutch starts screaming like a banshee every time it’s engaged. Uh oh. So we limp along for about 150 more miles, being quite creative about not using the clutch as much as possible (including shifting by rev-matching). We weren’t able to avoid it all-together, especially a couple times when going through police checkpoints. After using it off and on for a minute or two, you could smell the burn.

So we’re now at a Holiday Inn in Tampico, Mexico and will be visiting a mechanic in the morning, likely as not to get a new clutch . Through it all, God was watching out for us, allowing us to reach a major city with qualified mechanics and available parts and a safe hotel with gated parking where we can leave the trailer while getting the Jeep fixed. Most of all, we weren’t stranded along the side of a remote highway in the dark in the middle of nowhere. I can almost see the bright side in that it will almost certainly be cheaper to repair here than either the US or Belize.

I’ll report back tomorrow when I know the full damage. Until then, we’ll be enjoying the tacos, but not drinking the water