A Blue Creek Blessing

This past weekend, Alexander and I had the most adventurous trip going to Blue Creek. We knew to expect flooding – but this we did not imagine. In place of a road and rice fields there is now a lake. We had to leave our truck in the trust of some friends and take a boat ride across. Take note in the pictures – where there is water, there usually is none.
(Below is Umpas, our pilot, driver, supporter and friend)
The lake behind us, should not be there. And the whole time we were there it kept rising. But even this amount of water could not dampen our trip.

We arrived on Saturday and spent the afternoon visiting with friends. On Sunday we had the privilege of reporting and preaching in the church. We trust that the Holy Spirit will have used us to challenge the people as much as we have been challenged by that same scripture (Duet. 32:11) – as we feel that in our context we have been pushed out of our comfortable nest, and into the dangerous world of Belize City.

It was a little difficult to find the time to visit everyone, but we had the pleasure of connecting with the churches pastors some leaders, and head of the mission board. We are thankful for the support they have shown us and look forward to working with them more closely in the future.

On the way back home we made a stop in Ship Yard, where we connected with Pastor Didrick and the youth leader. We are hoping to arrange a small camp with them in the upcomming months. And on the way out we picked up some fresh meat - what a treat! And Alexander got one of his wisdom teeth pulled. He's in alot of pain and some how thinks that he should be healed up already, please pray for him.

As always we were incredibly blessed with the food, friendship, lending of vehicles and encouragement for our ministry and marriage. Thank you to all those women who sat down with me to talk and just be a female companion – it was refreshing (and I know Alexander will greatly appreciate all the cooking lessons and advice I recieved). And thank you to all those men who let Alexander help out on the farm and get his hands dirty – he misses those days on the Altona farm.

Basketball Belize

This past Monday BCE held its fist annual Basketball FUN-Raiser!
We didn’t make any money (in fact it cost us a bit), but it was defiantly FUN.
Two churches that we have been doing camp came, bringing over 40 kids hyperactive kids– which was plenty enough for only 9 leaders. With the help of some talented guys, the kids were put through plenty of warm ups and drills to teach kids the game, before breaking them up into teams to compete. It may have seemed like chaos – every kid had fun.

The weekend was a busy one. Before Basketball camp, we had spent the weekend at a Pastors and Leaders conference here in the city. We were also able to set up a booth and connect with many different church leaders who may be interested in using our services.

But before the conference even ended we had to take off a little early to help some youth do a follow up program. We had done a camp this summer, with two of the youth from the church, but after that there didn’t seam to be anyone willing to do the follow up program. So for the past month we have been meeting weekly with the youth for an hour or two about what they have to offer and the importance of children’s ministry. Last week we challenged them to do a simple follow up program with the kids. They seemed sceptical, but when we assured them that we would be there with them, and set out a simple outline of what all happens in a follow-up program, they had no end of ideas of all the things we could do. It just proved to us that all these youth need is some direction, encouragement and a push.
The actually program went off pretty well. While there were a few kinks to be ironed out, we were very please at what the youth had accomplished. We hope the youth feel the same way and are as encouraged as we are to continue on – eventually with out our help.

Prayer Requests
We will be speaking in and giving the sermon in the Blue Creek Church on Sunday the 26th. Pray that we can continue to connect and build relationships with the church people there, also that we can bring an encouraging spirit led message to the church.
Please also pray for Alexander and I as we continue to adjust to married life. Lately it seems as if things have reached a head with tension and frustration in our relationship. Pray that when the hard times come, we will cling to each other and that God will bind us closer together as we struggle through the valleys.
Leah is still having a hard time connecting with Belizean girls her age and making friends – and deeply misses the soul friend she had back in Canada (shout out to Angela, Ashley, Char, Tab and Nikki!). Pray that the few female relationships she does have can grow into fulfilling friendships.

September

This past month has been one of adjustments and transitions from summer.
The kids are now back in school and our focus has shifted to the youth. While the churches continue to connect with the kids through follow-up and Sunday school, we are working with a few key people in creating curriculum. While it was a rough start- none of us having done this in a group before, we finally came up with our focus and format of what we will be creating. Starting in November we want to cover lesson from Abraham, and David then lead into the Christmas story. Our curriculum will be easy with a key bible passage, questions, memory verse, simple puzzles or activities relating to the lessons, suggested songs and a challenge for the kids to complete that week. It’s meant to be simple and easy to adapt to a range of kids and young teens ages 7-15. The difficult part is arranging a time for this group to sit down and get things done.

This past month Belize celebrated its 27th year of independence so there were many events and parades going on around the country. We were able to join the celebration by entering BCE in one of the parades here in the city. Unfortunately because of some of the gang activity here in the city and an incident at a previous parade, some of our councillors from out of town were not permitted to come. Yet we marched on with the support of two churches from within the city. It was so much FUN! The kids waved banners that we had made, and we had some fun with water balloons we had prepared to use to cool down the kids. We also got lots of questions about the meaning of BCE, hopefully God will use that opportunity to get word out about this ministry in the city.

(We do not support or encourage the viewing of inapropriate videos advertized by youtube after our video clip. If tempted remember GOD IS WATCHING YOU, WATCHING YOUTUBE!)


Want a new means of keeping up to date with us? Do you often get bored and start looking up random video’s on youtube? Then check us out on youtube! You can find us in the search engine under “alexanderandleah”
Keep us in your prayers – please, we really need them.
Bless.