Hurricane Richard

On Sunday as we were watching TV to learn about  Hurricane Richard we heard the reporter say "Richard is not in the street, he is in our front yard and will be barging through the door very soon".

He was right.  Richard came barging in, cutting off power, dumping pounding rain on us, uprooting our trees and taking off neighboring roofs before he left.  He was not a welcome guest.  He came in uninvited and left a mess behind.  

The privacy fence suffered some damage

 This tree was not uprooted

but it was knocked over by the wind

my favorite palm was badly hurt

 our neighbor's tree

 Tom and I went up to our roof to check out

the damage on our street

 a helicopter was out surveying the city

 our cable tv line is down 

Tom and his machete... a happy pair.

We are very grateful that no lives were lost in this hurricane and that damage was minimal.  According to our neighbors this was the first hurricane they have actually experienced first hand.  Belmopan normally just gets the rain because by the time a hurricane gets this far inland it is usually downgraded to a tropical storm or a depression.  Richard stayed a hurricane with pounding rain and high powered winds. 

Like most of our neighbors we spent the night listening to Love FM news all night.  They were the only station with a generator so they were able to keep broadcasting all night long.   Neighbors were out on Monday checking in on each other and cleaning up.  I will post more photos this week.  It has been a long day of mopping up rainwater and hauling tree limbs out to the curb.  But we are able to say in the words of several of our neighbors...

"Thanks God!"

Geckos do not help with chores...

 Geckos will come into your house to inspect the trash.

 But they will not take it out.

They will most likely see something more interesting outside.

And then they will head on out the front door before you can talk to them about helping out with the chores.

Sunday Snap Shots

A few nights ago the moon was incredibly beautiful.  I went out in the yard and up onto to roof to get these shots. 

say what?

I guess it is just the smarty pants American in me but I just had to giggle, and of course take a photo, when I saw that she was advertising selling "drugs and poisons".  

thought for today

Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saint upon their knees.

~  William Cowper

one of my favorite places to visit

We have a small but lively public library here in Belmopan and I feel so at home there.  And fortunately it is filled with enough books to keep me busy for while.  

The librarian is friendly and very helpful.  Her name is Mary and she is one of my new friends on Facebook.  While we were chatting the other day we even discovered that we live just one street over from each other.  Ms. Mary has such an incredible heart for children.  One day I went in there and found her painting the bookshelves because she wanted to brighten up the place.  She told me she started off cleaning the shelves and ended up deciding it would be better to paint them instead.  

I usually check out two books a week and this week one of my finds was "Reading Lolita in Tehran" by Azar Nafisi.  As a child I used to climb the tree in our front yard to read books during the long hot summers in Kansas.  Here in Belize I enjoy an hour or two in the hammock with a good book!

Bebe agua or La Gitana?

What are they?  What is the difference?  There is only one flour producer here in Belize and although the locals know the difference in the flour types offered it sure was hard for this gringa to figure it out.

Just from looking at them I assumed that Bebe Agua was white flour and La Gitana was wheat flour.  Not so. 

Bebe Agua is baker's flour and La Gitana is all purpose flour.  After a round of google-ing I found this info on ADM website.  ADM also puts out a cake flour and a whole wheat flour. 

Flour is sold in clear plastic bags either in 1, 2 or 3 lb increments.  Rice, sugar, salt and beans are also sold this way.  We live and learn here and have to ask what feel like stupid questions now and then just to make simple purchases. 

And just so you know, I prefer a mixture of whole wheat flour and the La Gitana flour for baking biscuits or cookies, or making pancakes.

views from the hammock...

Opening Night!

Our first night was awesome.  We had worship, Tom's teaching and then a small group meeting afterward.  Due to confidentiality I didn't take any crowd shots.  But we had 8 people show up for our first night.  We are so excited and can hardly wait to see what God will do in the lives of individuals and families here at the Shepherds House and in the community.

The Haven

Tonight will be the first night of our recovery service The Haven.  Not sure how many people will show up but we will be there anyway. 

The worship team is ready to go.  Tom has a message prepared.  And we have guidelines printed up for the small groups following the message. 

Keep us in your prayers and pray for all who have been invited and that those who really need this type of environment will have the courage to come out. 

We are excited to see how God is going to use The Haven here in Belmopan.  No matter what happens tonight and in the coming weeks we know it will all be for His glory!

thought for today

Rejoicing today with the Chilean miners who are being rescued.  And what a truly overwhelming sight it was to see the 63 year old miner, Mario Gomez, drop to his knees in prayer after he was rescued.  It brought me to tears to witness his gratitude. 

Tom testing his new hammock

We finally found one at the open market for a reasonable price.  Tom was able to bargain it down to 12.50 USD.  It is a great place to nap or read... well, you know I had to check it out too!

Electric Shower Head

This is the dreaded electric shower...

close up of wires...

How a gecko choses a magazine

After surveying his surroundings and climbing through the magazine rack he walked around on the Newsweek for a while before going back out the side door.  I don't think he was a fan of me taking so many pictures!

30 minutes or less...

On Tuesday Tom and I walked over to the Immigration Offices to renew our visitor's permits for another month.  Although there were a lot of people waiting in line to see about passports, job permits, residency and the like we were in and out of there in 30 minutes!!  No forms to fill out, just answered one question about where we were living, paid the fee, got our passports stamped and then he wrote us up in his huge log book.  We will have to do this each month we are here for the first year.  After that we can apply for residency and will be free to come and go without this monthly renewal.   

thought for today...

Even when life doesn't make sense we have a God we can trust.
~Pastor Jose, Belize

knock, knock!

Our neighbor's chickens came over the other day... they walked right up to our gate and "posed" for me!!

A child will lead them…

At church last Wednesday evening the youth pastor had a few of the younger girls helping him lead worship.  What a blessing it was to be ushered into God’s presence by these little ones.  They sang with heart and gusto and it truly thrilled our souls!

Fear and Faith-

In the house we are renting there is an electric heater on our shower.   I can see all of the wires and leads to it above the shower head. It is supposed to be an energy saving feature.  But quite honestly it frightens me.  For three weeks I chose not to use the shower.  I would heat water in the electric kettle, pour that water into the bathroom sink, wash off my body and shave from that water.  Me, the one who does not like camping has lived like a camper in our home.  

On Wednesday, I decided that I needed to face my fear.  

I had to tell myself that I didn’t believe that it was my destiny to die in that shower and that I could trust God enough to get in there.  Tom had been using it without getting fried and so could I.    All the while I showered I felt fearful.  Fear and faith coexisted for me in that space.  I remember during sales meetings my director would say that “fear and faith could not occupy the same space”.  I disagree.  Fear and faith can work together.  And when they co-mingle I believe it is called courage.  

For me personally courage is not about being fearless.  It is feeling the fear, calling out to God for help so that I can face it and moving on.

When I called, you answered me; you made me bold and stouthearted.  Psalm 138:3

I am not sure how long it will take to feel comfortable using that shower.  Just knowing that I had the courage to do it once means that I can do it again.  And I know that I can face whatever new challenges come my way.   

One day at a time.

the cost of being a foreigner

I walked over to Belize Telemedia Limited to set up phone service so that we could get internet at the house we are renting.  Everything was going great until the girl asked for ID and she found out that I didn't have a Belizean social security number.  She had to check with her supervisor to find out how to complete my transaction. 

It turns out that the cost of being a foreigner is a $250USD deposit.  The supervisor told me that the deposit would be refundable after 24 months of service if a good credit record is maintained.  So $334USD later I was able to walk out of there with a new modem and installation scheduled for Friday.

I guess buying a washing machine will have to wait another month!

Thought for today

“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not”.

~Thinkexist.com

Hurricane Season is in full swing...

We survived our first hurricane scare... Hurricane Matthew passed through and apparently we were in the eye.  Which meant that we had three solid days of rain.  No high winds where we are just the rain.  Since Sunday the sun peeks out every now and again and then more rain comes. 

Doing laundry in this weather has been hit and miss.  So much rain has fallen that there is standing water in the backyard.  However, when the sun does come out it is warm enough to dry things off pretty quickly.  Tom was able to hang out all the clothes and managed to get them all off the line about 5 minutes before the next rain fall came. 

I am not sure how frequent our updates will be... but I will update when I can and let you all know if we need to start building an ark!!

WiFi at the Bull Frog Inn

Tom and I are still walking over to the Bull Frog Inn to use WiFi.  We seem to be in good company there are usually several others here at the same time we are.  At first we would order dinner and do check our email, Facebook and what not.  Now we just order something to drink and try to get out of here as cheaply as we can.  We hope to have internet at home next month.  Things here are much more expensive than we anticipated.  But we are making our dollars stretch as far as we possibly can!

Take Back the Land Parade

Churches from Roaring Creek, Belmopan and a few other cities marched together as one body of believers to pray for the country, the people and to celebrate the 29th year of the independence of Belize. As floats, trucks and church buses began lining up around 6pm the Christian radio station was on hand doing a live broadcast to keep everyone abreast of the latest developments and by 7pm the parade was on its way to the first of five prayer stops.

The first stop was the police station where the Chairman of Roaring Creek opened the parade and gave safety instructions. Following that one of the local pastors gave the opening prayer for the marchers and for the country.

At each prayer stop a different pastor led the prayer. Several of the churches including ours, Shepherd's House had their worship teams on hand to keep the crowd pumped up with praise music all evening. At the main prayer stop the Mayor of Belmopan gave the churches a key to the city and prayed a prayer of blessing.

Due to the live radio coverage of the entire parade people were lined up along the entire parade route to watch and some even joined in the march behind various floats. Security officers and policeman were on foot, bicycles and horseback to keep the crowd under control.

The parade was so large that it was ended early for safety reasons so everyone could park and get settled in for the flag raising ceremony followed by fireworks.  This evening was very exciting for Tom and I. We were amazed that something like this could even take place. The religious freedom here is refreshing for us. And we feel so blessed to be a part of the work that God is doing here in Belmopan!

The float built by our church, Shepherd's House.

 The worship team is warming up and checking their instruments for the parade.

Miss Carla trusted this rainbow as a sign that the parade would not get rained out.  And it was dry all night long!!

Tom drove the van that followed behind the float.  There were a few times during the evening when the marchers would get back on and have a snack or a drink of water before rejoining the march.

All lit up and ready to go!!

Shots of the crowd and some of the marchers... the sign says "United Proud Moving Forward We are Belize"