As I begin wrapping up my time here I cannot believe that 2 months has flown by so fast. The last few weeks have been incredibly busy. One of my goals in coming here was to use my time to build relationships with the people and children here to bring them closer to God.  One of my biggest events while I have been here was the Vacation Bible School at St. Andrew’s Church here in San Ignacio. The VBS went very well.  It was Monday through Friday for 3 hours in the morning. We had about 36 to 46 children come each day. The VBS was run by an almost entirely Belizean team made up from members of the church and some other locals that were able to help out. I really enjoyed working with the director of Children’s Ministry at St. Andrews, Ms. Perla, to help plan and complete the VBS. I helped run the Bible story station during the week. I enjoyed getting to teach the children all about the Great Commission and ways they could go out and make disciples. VBS was a great opportunity to serve the children and the families of this community and to show them God’s love, as well as teach them about God. One of the my favorite parts was the last day of VBS where everyone played sports and had a water balloon fight. After VBS was over Friday all of the volunteers had a lunch and another water balloon fight which ended in all of us throwing buckets of water on each other. It was so much fun.  

Soaked from water balloons!

Water balloon fight! We are soaked!I was also put in charge of doing something fun for the children that attend church regularly at St. Hilda’s in Georgeville. I planned a day at the zoo for about 10 children. It was the first time many of the children had been to the Belize Zoo. We had a lot of fun getting to see the animals. The Belize Zoo exists of animals local to Belize and were rescue animals. We got to see really cool animals but my favorites were the jaguar, the tapir, and the toucan.

I got to plan a fun day at the zoo for the VBS children.

The weekend before VBS I was blessed with getting to show my parents around Belize. David, Mary Beth, and I met my parents for a couple of days off in Caye Caulker. I got to go snorkeling with my parents and we swam with manatees, stingrays, and nurse sharks. After an incredible couple of days in Caye Caulker, we all drove back to San Ignacio. I was able to take my parents to my favorite restaurants in town and introduce them to my host family and some of my new friends here.

Blessed to meet new sisters in Christ.

This past week has been a bittersweet one. I have started to say goodbye to some of my friends here. I went to the fair last weekend with one of my friends, her boyfriend, and her younger sisters. I rode a kiddie roller coaster with one of the sisters and even won one of the carnival games. I think my favorite part was driving back with the windows down and singing along to Despacito. I went to a pool and spend an afternoon with a few of the girls in youth group that I worked with in VBS. I will be very sad to leave these people in a few days. I have also been getting excited to come back to the States. I am looking forward to getting to see my friends and family. Overall I have loved my time here and hope I am able to come back to visit all the people I have met here.