Sandy and Sun Burnt

We became one with the blowing sand today. Sun burnt and tired we’re presently sitting in Isaac Wall’s house preparing for supper and visiting with Jonathan Klassen who moved from Altona 10 years ago. The two activities that I’ve seen help people get into a host culture are: dishes and fence building. Yesterday I wrote about getting to do dishes at the church but never in my wildest dreams would I imagine myself sitting a mere 24 hours later recapping a day of fence building. We woke up this morning thinking that we were going to spend the day building a shed for a widow, but as what usually happens on these trips, plans changed. Four of us where sent to build a garage for someone in a different town and the rest of us were sent out to the barren fields of blowing dust to attach barb wire to the stakes that we pounded into the ground. We had an absolute blast getting dirty, tired and sun burnt. Our soft computer typing fingers are being replaced with calloused Texan mitts. It’s actually something we’ve seen in the people here. Although many of the people we’ve met are solid and hard working, most have very soft hearts always looking for ways to bless others. Yesterday we went out for Chinese after the Ascension Day service and when we tried to pay, the Chinese cashier informed us “somebody already paid for you” (insert Chinese accent with a southern drawl). Turns out someone from the church saw us in the restaurant and paid for us all. Then today we were handed a check for several hundred dollars, it was from the church, the whole offering from yesterday’s service! We’re not totally sure what we’ll do with the gift but we have been desiring to bless the ministries in Belize for a while now, and so this may what it will be used for. The first two days in Seminole have been a great time and so we can’t wait to see what the next two days will hold!