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From: Greg Long Date: June 15, 2010 12:12:00 AM EDT Subject: Final update Hi all, Time for our last update; the weekend was slow as far as mission, so we decided to do one last email to wrap up. Saturday, Welch and I worked an hour or so in the morning while the girls slept in and did their nails, or something...After returning to the hotel and getting cleaned up, we departed late morning for the Mayan ruins at Xunantunich, and stopped on the way at an orphanage run by acquaintances of Jimmi and Sandra-lee to swap vans with them, as the van we had rented had transmission issues. Jimmi is helping them become self-supporting, as the “father” of the 8 girls (Poppi, a native New Yorker) has dug 7 large pits on the property, and has 7000 tilapia ready to go to market. I’ll let the girls tell you a little more about this stop; we went on to the ruins, impressive even the 2nd time (for me), then stopped had an almost 3 hour lunch, swapping stories, evaluating the programs we had done, and learning more about their ministry. Sunday was church, 9:30-11:15 in the non-air conditioned church, joined by 10 kids & 3 adults starting a mission trip with a group called CSI Missions. After lunch, we made a cold drink run, then returned to Jimmi’s for Sunday dinner - Fresh tilapia from the back yard, along with lettuce and basil in the salad from the hydroponic gardens, corn, and mashed potatoes...delicious. Returned home and chilled the rest of the day. Today the ladies got up and taught pre-school one last time, and I spread plastic, bent and dragged steel (rebar), then tied it into place til about 12:30. We had lunch at the church one last time, got to the hotel and cleaned up, and went to downtown Belize City as the girls hadn’t been there yet. I’ll let them tell about that, as I’ve hogged too much time and story already. Since Welch left us to go help with Bible School, you only get three updates tonight. As Greg said, Saturday was pretty much a “play-day” for me and Laura. Sunday, however, we didn’t get quite as much down-time as he thinks. Since we still had one more day to teach preschool, we had lots of prep work to do - cutting out all the pieces for our turtle craft, checking and double-checking our schedules for the day, and going over the two stories we wanted to read. I do want to warn you that I realize |
how much people seem to love sermons that last an hour and since I don’t want to short-change you, please plan to stay for a while later than 11:30:) Really, though, it was a great service. Having spent so much time with people from the congregation during the week, we felt a real connection with the rest of the people in worship. Sunday night Laura and I went to Youth Church. We had connected with several of the kids who invited us to come. It was an interesting evening and a real reminder of how blessed we are to have Jeff and his experience and expertise in working with our youth. Today Laura and I taught our last preschool class and had to say goodbye to the children of whom we had become fond. We will miss them and plan to send them post cards this week. When we left at 4 a.m. last Tuesday it seemed like this Tuesday was forever away, and here it is Monday night and we will be home tomorrow. Thank you all so much for you support and prayers and we will see you soon. A quick closing note from Laura....the weekend was rewarding and inspirational. During our visit to the orphanage that Jimmi and Sandra-lee support as board members, we learned that a missionary team from 360 Ministries in Sarasota had been there just last week. What a small world. On Sunday, we arrived to a very warm welcome at church from the many friends (of all ages) we made last week. Sandra-lee’s hour-long sermon was excellent, although Greg and I are trying to convince Vicki that her sermons are the perfect length :) Sunday night’s contemporary youth service included songs we all knew, and Vicki and I treasured the opportunity to continue our bond with the teens and pre-teens. The pre-schoolers tugged at our heart strings this morning as we wrapped up an awesome four days with them. They taught us a new song that has been playing in my head all day, as well as a new verse to Ring Around the Rosy. They seemed to enjoy the role reversal. We are so grateful to all of you for your prayers and thoughts during the past week. It’s hard to believe that our week is coming to a close, but we are returning to Dunedin tomorrow with wonderful stories, memories and pictures that we are anxious to share with each of you. Hope to see you all Sunday to share more of our experiences! Peace, Greg |