Entering the Sub-Culture

It's been a wild couple days as we run on a hectic ministry schedule driven by Armando.  Our time at Kings College came to a close faster than everyone wanted.  The staff and students at that school impacted us.  As we stood in a circle to pray our final blessing on each other, I couldn't help but wonder what kind of things God was planting in our hearts.  A few of the members of the team expressed that they could see themselves coming back to work at a place like Kings College, Lord willing.  But before we knew it we were on our way to Blue Creek.

Entering this colony was like entering a different country.  The bumpy gravel road turned into a beautifully paved road as we rolled up to a (what we thought) was an Americanized gas station. We stopped for a few minutes before heading up to Valerie's house and immediately began meeting people we knew or friends of people we knew.  This was just the first round of a 24 hour Mennonite Game finding people who knew people who were related to people we were and on and on and on.  Wow, it actually get's pretty fun and it made us feel at home.

The program in the evening went very well with the highlight being Lyndon, Tony and Scotty P sharing some very powerful faith stories.  Our non-musical voices blended together for one of the first times, making us pretty excited about how everything went.  But the most exciting part of the night was still yet to come.

A couple of young people offered our group the opportunity to go croc hunting.  I felt that I didn't have the necessary skills to do this since I didn't have an Australian accent.  But my excuses feel on deaf ears as I was dragged to the truck to search for these menacing creatures.  With spot light and shot gun in hand we followed our guides into the rice fields to look for these "pests".  In the end we didn't end up shooting any crocodiles but we did have the opportunity to catch a release a few.  Herman had the "privilege" to wrestle a 4-5 ft croc which didn't want to cooperate.  We caught a small (~1 ft) croc and Herman said that he wanted to feel what it was like to get bitten by one.  He placed his hand in front of it's mouth and it lunged for him.  You can ask him what it feels like, but I can tell you he jumped and yelped from the pain as the teeth marks began to bleed on either sides of his hand.  We ended the day falling asleep under the beautiful Belizian stars knowing that the day was used wisely.

Tomorrow we begin the trip back to Canada, but don't ask us about it because it's a taboo topic that no one wants to come to terms with.  Please pray that the next few hours in Blue Creek will continue to be an encouragement to the church.  Tonight we head to Shipyard to do a program there and then we're of to Armando's home church in San Antonio for Sunday Morning.  Thank you for how you are a big part of this ministry by your prayers.  You have blessed us.  We are having a great time!!