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The
Belize Mission Group
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| This page started
out as a blog from the group while they were in Belize in February,
2006. The blog text has been preserved (it is in reverse
chronological order as is usual with blogs) and we have now added
pictures. The page will be updated with further information about
the activities of the group as we receive it. |
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Monday, 20 Feb 2006, Final
Edition!
We're all home safe and sound! We arrived Sunday night about
10:10 after a long Sunday ......up and at Church in St. John's
Cathedral at 7am, then a nice breakfast, packing and heading for the
airport and then ALOT of waiting! The traveling went smoothly and
we all returned to a smiling Michael Gray to greet us at RDU.
Plans are already in the works for Belize Team 2007!!!
Our thanks to you for your
prayers and good
thoughts while we were gone. We spoke of you all often,
especially Saturday night! We were sorry to have missed that, but
had a wonderful dinner of our own in Belize City.
We hope to see all of you next
Sunday where
several Team members will be reflecting on their experiences and we'll
have pictures for all to see!
Love from the Belize Team 2006
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Friday, 18 Feb 2006:
Happy 50th to you all. Certainly wish we were there to celebrate
with you, (Ed note: this refers to our 50th Anniversary
dinner, which this group had to miss) but we're having a grand time
here! We're now on Caye
Caulker, the island we did our first project on. We came out on
the first water taxi this morning and 8 of the group went snorkeling
out near the barrier reef and the other five of us are shopping and
currently taking a cool air break in the internet cafe. It's hot,
but there is a nice sea breeze.
The new Bishop dropped by to see
us last night
before we left for dinner. Delightful young man. We went to
the Jerk House for dinner last night--great food! The dogs barked
and the band across the bay played til midnight, but after that things
cooled down pretty well!
We'll have lunch when everyone
gets back at 1:30
and then wander a little more and head back to Caye Caulker on the 4:00
water taxi. Tonight we will have dinner with Francis Wilson and
Carol Babb at our favorite Chinese restaurant--and talk about you all
and the grand celebration. Please send our love to all and best
wishes for a wonderful evening!
We'll go to church tomorrow
(7:30 am service) at
the Cathedral down the block then have breakfast in the Diocese House,
pack up and head home. It's been a wonderful week with alot of
work accomplished, alot of bonding and tremendous ourpourings of love
and appreciation from all directions!!
See you soon!!!!
Belize Team 2006
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St. Michael's Anglican Church,
that we are working on.
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Thursday, 16 Feb
2006 (second one today!):
A Brief History of St.
Michael's Anglican
Church
by Lorna Longsworth.
St. Michael's Anglican Church
started here at
Mango Creek around 1947 when the Belize Estate and Produce Company
established a branch of their company from England as a lumber
camp. The manager gave to the settlers a small building to do
their worship. This went on for a couple of years and in 1950 a
school was built by the company and it served as school and church and
services were conducted by the principal, Ms. Maude Wade. This
was the only church that was in the settlement at that time.
Other churches were later given permission by the company to come into
Mango Creek. St. Michael's, however, grew to be the largest
congregation in the community
Then in 1963 the location where
the church is at
present, was donated to St. Michael's Anglican Mission by another
company Pine Harvesters Ltd. (PHL) with new buildings that became
school and church. In 1993 St. Michael's and the Roman Catholic
Schools amalgamated as both school buildings had deteriorated and the
government offered to build one state school that is now Independence
Primary School.
St. Michael's Church was
neglected by the
diocese as very rarely a priest would come down to have services in the
building. Eventually it was closed down completely as everything
was in a state of disrepair and most of our members turned to other
churches because they needed somewhere to worship.
In 1995 a priest who was in
charge of Placencia
(Fr. Bell) made a visit to Mango Creek, now Independence, looking for
some of the Anglican members and he was directed to Lorna
Longsworth. She was asked by him to see if she could help revive
the Anglican Faith in this community. She agreed. The
following Sunday, he held Eucharist at Lorna's Grandmother's home, and
thereafter he would visit every third Sunday of the month. They
did this for about a year.
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The community then decided to try to renovate a
part of the old building to hold their services. In `1998 God
sent an angel and he became our lay reader. He is an
American. He worked along with us for over five years but he was
not living here at Independence. He was living in Maya Beach on
the Placencia Pennisula. He was here every Sunday morning.
During his time with us he was ordained as a Decon, then a
Priest. We repaired the old church building and many of our
members began once again to worship with us.
On Oct. 8, 2001, St. Michael's
Church building
(a wooden building) was completely destroyed by Hurricane Iris.
For us to continue with our weekly worship the Roman Catholics loaned
us their Parrish Hall. We did this for one year. The
diocese then helped us with a small prefab building that we elevated on
12 foot posts and enclosed the lower flat that we presently use for
worship. Our Priest, Fr. Jerry Jones, then asked for a transfer
to Placencia. Bishop Sylvester Romero Palma then visited every
other Sunday to have service with us. We then lobbied to get a
full time Deacon or Priest to live here in Independence. In June,
2004 we were given a full time Deacon, Mrs. Tess Meadows, from Canada.
Our ambition was to get a
concrete building for
our church so that in the future if we are hit by hurricanes it would
not be affected. Also this type of building will be there for
generations to come. In late 2004, the members began to do
fund-raising for this very big project and with the help of Bishop
Sylvester Romero Palma, our then Bishop, the project got off its feet,
with the kind financial contributions of many different Anglican
Churches in the United States and voluntary contribution of labour from
many groups from these churches. We are on its final stage.
The new St. Michael's Anglican Church will soon be a reality.
This is a dream come true for us in Indepence Village!
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Hard at work!
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Thursday, 16 Feb
2006:
From Joanne....
Wed pm. Most residents
walk or ride
bicycles to get to where they want to go. We have seen an old
school bus that takes workers to the orange and banana farms or to the
processing plants. The bicycles have fat tires, no gears, and
coaster brakes. This morning I saw a bicycle rider pulling a baby
stroller behind like a wagon, loaded with supplies -- no baby!
It is about 2 pm on Wednesday
and the days
requirement of top dressing is just over half done. Seven buckets
of sand and 1 huge bag of cement are mixed together and spread on the
center part of the floor. Water is added to make a soupy
mixture. A 12 foot long 2x4 is being pushed and pulled across the
cement dressing to level the surface. One of the masons then
works his float for the finish.
The concrete for the porch and
front step area
was finished yesterday. It has cement ballasters and a poured
cement rail cap, very similar to many buildings in the area.
There is one step to the porch. The painters have started to
paint the outside white.
HAVE A GLORIOUS CELEBRATION
Saturday
night!!!! We will certainly be with you in spirit and will raise
a Belikin's in your honor!
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Thursday a.m.....(still 16
Feb)
Yesterdqays top dressing looks
great!
Today we are working on top dressing the remaining parts of the church
floor. The surface of the floor is being pulled along its length
today and then the mason is again working his float. Before we
leave today the entire floor will be done.
The cement mixing process has
become almost a
ritual. After a bag of cement is added to the sifted sand 3, 4,
or even 5 St. Luker's each with a shovel mix in a circular
motion. Water is added and the mixing continues. The
consistency of the product is sort of like juicy grits which then gets
carried by the bucketfull to where it is needed.
St. Michael's now has a white
front. The
painting continued all morning and we have used all of the paint so the
next team (John Willard with Duke students in March) will have the
challenge of completing the job.
From Jean Willard.....
We had a marvelous dinner last
night at our
hosts, Lorna and Charles' home. It was only a block from the
hotel so we walked. There was a wonderful tropical breeze
blowing.....and we had dinner on their tile deck. They served a
very typical Belizian dinner - BBQ'd chicken (DELICIOUS!), baked beans,
corn (from the can, not on the cob), a green salad, hot tortillas and
ICE CREAM! We had great conversation during dinner, and Lorna
read the history of St. Michael's she had written. I am sending
it as a separate blog entry, but it's very interesting so be sure you
take the time to read it. We learned alot about the area and the
history here. We were all very honored to spend the time in their
home!
We've done such a great job on
the church that
we will finish tonight and head back to Belize City in the
morning. We're hoping to stop by the zoo on the way back and then
hopefully will have dinner with the new Bishop Friday night. It
may be Saturday before we have a chance to "blog" again....from Caye
Caulker. We'll head out there on the first water taxi Saturday
morning and do some snorkeling and shopping and just relaxing.
It's been a long week with alot of hard physical labor and we're ready
for a little kick back time.
Til then, we thank you for your
prayers.
We're all doing great and thoroughly enjoying ourselves....though have
discovered some muscles we had forgotten we had!!
Belize Team 2006
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Wednesday, 2/15/2006,
from Joanne Hooker:
A bright yellow primer coat of paint
has begun to be applied to the
interior walls of St. Michael's. Before the paint however, the
stuccoed walls were rubbed with a broken piece of cement block to
remove any loose stucco. The major goal for today is to
"topdress" the floor of the church. This job has many
steps. This morning we began the day by screening the still wet
sand ..... after we repaired the screen with electrical wire.....you
make do with what you have around here! Each seven bucket pile of
sand will be mixed with cement. The past two days have been used
to prepare the floor for its dressing. Many hours have been spent
hammering and chiseling on the unending lumps and bumps of old dried
cement. An untold number of buckets have been filled with the
debris and carried out to the discard pile.
Scott Chapman and Jim Cooker
have been the
electrical crew. Yesterday they ran wire from the control panel
along the side rafters. Outlets, switches and overhead lights are
being wired into these lines today.
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Still hard at work!
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From Jean Willard.....
It's now
after lunch and the "top dressing" has begun. It's going to be a
long process for a few folks I think. Jim and Scott are almost
through with the basic wiring....the fixtures etc will wait until the
next group comes down when the windows and doors go in. It looks
like we might finish up early. We are waiting to paint the
outside and one wall for the stucco men to complete their job....so
might now get that done.
We've been invited to our local
hosts home for
dinner tonight. They have been just wonderful to us.
Maestro Charles is the principal of the school and Mrs. Lorna is in
charge of the telephone company here. She is writing a history of
St. Michael's for us that we can hopefully post tomorrow. She was
born into this parish.
All are doing well. A few
of us have a
little respiratory problem because of all the dust we have generated
removing all that concrete, but pharmacist Van is taking care of
us! Nice to have specialists with us.
Our love to all and thanks for
your continuing
prayers.
Belize Team 2006
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Tuesday, 14 Feb 2006:
Happy Valentines Day! They
celebrate
Valentines Day in Belize also.....several kids came into the worksite
to show us their valentines they made at school.
Joanne Hooker sends the
following message......
Let me tell you about the local
food.
Breakfast is scrambled eggs, served on a plate with bacon strips, a
tablespoon of refried beans and a slice of cheese. Coffee of
course and fresh orange juice. There is no fast food.
Supper last night took about 2 and a half hours--2 hours to wait for
the food with lots of conversation and then silence while everyone
ate. Lunch is delivered to our work site. We get sandwiches
and french fries.
Yesterday when the school
children had their
lunch break many would stop to look on their way home or back to
school. One 8 or 9 year old boy came into the building where we
were working to watch. He kept a close eye on what we were doing
and then picked up a hammer and worked along with us for about 5-10
minutes. When he told us he had to go back to school and thanked
us for letting him work.
This morning a boy named Eli
came by on his way
to school. He stopped to check on us and show us his pet white
mouse named Mickey. Mickey stayed in Eli's school book pack
during the school day. Micky is 1 year old and had 4 brothers and
sisters but they all have died. It was obvious that Eli and
Mickey were fast friends.
A major job today is making the
mortar that is
being applied as stucco to both the inside and outside of the cement
block walls of St. Michael's and All Angels Church. The sand had
to be moved from a pile in the yard to the inside pile before it was
sifted and then mixed with cement on an area of the floor. There
are 2 masons and an apprentice doing the stucco work, but St. Luker's
are doing the sifting, carrying and mixing of the mortar.
The weather is great! Our
workdays have
been in the low 70's with a nice breeze. It also helps that we
are mostly working under the roof of the church and we are out of the
sun. So far it has been down in the high 50's at night.
When we walked into breakfast
this morning, the
waitress was in her flannel shirt and we said it was a little chilly
and she said "This isn't chilly, this is COLD!"
Thanks for your continuing
prayers.
Love from the Belize Team 2006
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Monday, 13 Feb
2006:
Greetings from Belize! We arrived safely on Friday and headed
south to Independence. It was a beautiful drive through the Maya
mountains. We got here and settled into our hotel - had dinner
with our local contacts, Lorna and Charles Longsworth. They
are delightful hosts, arranging transportation, negotiation great
prices and generally being wonderful friends. We got up to
a beautiful sunny day on Saturday and took a boat to Placencia for the
day. We hit the wonderful white beach first and then went to
lunch and wandered the art festival they were having. It's a
small town.....one paved street and one paved walkway that was lined
with artisans.
Sunday we got up and headed to
St. Michaels for
worship. There were more kids than adults and more of us than of
them, but they made us feel very welcome. We checked out the
worksite and then went back to the hotel for lunch. We piled into
two taxis in the afternoon and headed for the Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve
for some walking in the afternoon. We stopped at the Maya Women's
Cooperative gift shop on the way. It was a great walk through the
rainforest.
We started at the worksite this
morning,
cleaning up from the last group, putting up gutters and mixing cement
for stuccoing the walls. Steve, the site coordinator, brought the
stuccoer that helped us last year in San Agnacio.
All is well, we're all having a
wonderful time
and feeling right at home. Our love to all as you begin your
celebration week! Keep us in your prayers!
Belize Team 2006!!!
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Photos of the 2006 trip courtesy
of Mike Larson
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