Well we have now been here in Belize for almost two weeks and what a time it’s been already!
Two days after we got here hurricane Earl hit Belize. Thank you everyone for the prayers during that time! While we were expecting this storm, no one expected it to be as bad as it was in just the course of a few hours. Wednesday (the day after we got here) everything closed early as people prepared for the incoming storm. We bought water and food and then waited with the rest of Belize to see how bad it would get. David and I had a hard time tracking the storm as our internet was out for the whole first week we were here (unless we sat in one spot on our bed down stairs, didn’t move, and practically held our breath as we tried connecting to the local internet store’s free wifi down the street). Well, the day went by with only a few downpours so we settled in for the night. By 11:30 that night I was woken up to the incredibly loud sounds of roaring winds, torrential rain, and tree branches banging around. Pretty much the entire night I kept waking up as it continued to get louder and louder. David was pretty tired (hehe) and only woke up once to shut some windows we had forgotten upstairs. The next morning when we got up it was still raining, but quickly passed. This storm only lasted the night. As far as damage for us, it was very minimal. We had a few branches down in our backyard and about three puddles in the house, but otherwise we made it through the storm safely. Thank you for your prayers! Belize itself was hit pretty hard.
San Ignacio (where we live) had major flooding from the river. The river had swollen at least forty feat higher than normal, covering a bridge (that got destroyed in the flood), and making it all the way to one street over from our house. Many homes and shops were underwater and lots of damages occurred. Thankfully people came together and helped one another put their lives back together. While there are still many things being repaired throughout the country (the Cathedral in Belize City had to be hosed down on the inside by a fire truck), things are starting to get back to normal.
The rest of the past two weeks here have been pretty normal (or at least a new normal!). One thing that I haven’t quite gotten used to yet are the bugs… I have always been a mosquito magnet, but I swear they think I’m candy. I’d appreciate some prayers that they find other prey! Other bugs/critters will have to become more normal, I think. In our house we have many geckos and lizards that like to roam around (the one in our bathroom as been named Sammy) and I love them because they eat the bugs. Well, last week when we were coming home from an evening church potluck I opened the door to our dark entryway and saw things run into hiding as I flipped on the light. My first thought was that my lizards (yes, I’ve claimed them as my own) were just running away….well that was only half true. Yes, one of the runners was a lizard, but the other one was a HUGE yellowish spider. That was it for me. After screaming and pointing to where it was hiding (since I decided there was no way I was squishing a spider, while wearing flip-flops, that I would still be able to see under my foot once it was dead!), I then resigned to live upstairs and never come down again. Well, thankfully I have an amazing fearless husband who actually got down on the ground with a broom and dug it out from under the stairs so he could squish it. Good news everyone: I was able to come back downstairs. Now I realize that there will be many more spiders in the house, and I even realize that I will get to a point where I won’t think twice about just smooshing the thing myself, but until that point my husband is the official spider killer for this house!
I know I said the past two weeks have been pretty normal, but I do have to point out a couple more things that happened that weren’t quite normal (maybe). This, David and I have both decided, is going under the caption of spiritual warfare. We had many little things go wrong during the past week. Our fridge started freezing things and then switched to not cooling anything, a water pipe burst in town and the water went out as I was shampooing my hair, and then we had quite the adventure yesterday… As I said, while it has been a good first two weeks here, many little things were going wrong this week (I won’t mention them all). David and I decided we needed to get away for the day and spend time just the two of us (we tried the day before but that is when the fridge died). Yesterday we loaded up the truck with waters, bathing suits, and Narnia books on the iPad and headed up to the mountains. It had been looking a little cloudy, but we thought we’d chance it anyway. As we got higher (and made it onto the dirt roads) it started to rain. We still thought, “It’ll pass”… We got to the top of the ridge and barely could see through all the rain, but we knew we were close to our destination and could just wait it out there (we wanted this so bad!), but that would not be the case.. As we were driving on the ridge we hit a particularly slippery mud spot and slid off the road, running into the bank. It was at this point, unfortunately, that we blew a tire. It was also at this point that the lightning storm started. Bolts of lightening were striking down around us with thunder loud enough to shake the car. Yeah…we decided this was a good place to wait out the storm…seeing as how there was no way we were getting out of the car at this point. Two hours, and The Silver Chair finished, later we were able to get out and fix the tire (with some help from a nice man that stopped in the middle of things). We were very wet (David, very muddy) and we were tired after a sort of failed get away/day off, but we laughed and God got us home safely.
So all in all there are the little things that go wrong, but as a whole it has been great getting (back into ministry for David) starting this new ministry for me. I was able to to accompany for choir rehearsal last Wednesday and play for both church services today! While I’m loving getting back into music ministry, I think my favorite part of ministry here so far has been visiting people throughout the towns and villages. I love getting to know people and talk to kids! I also love getting to see how well David knows these people and loves them! Our ministry here together has just started and I’m so excited to see what God has for us in the weeks to come! (hopefully not spiders…!)
We’re finally here! Exactly seven months after we got married we stepped off the plane in the beautiful country of Belize ready to start our new ministry together. It’s a little strange sitting here on the couch in our home (something I’ve been excited about for months now!), watching the rain (it’s pouring as a potential hurricane gets closer and closer), and I think about everything that happened to get us to this point.
The first four months of our marriage consisted of a mix between David spearheading the deputation process to get us back here in Belize and me finishing my final semester at CSUF. We actually got into a pretty good rhythm even with the unexpected mishaps (our car’s AC going out as we drove through the desert and then us breaking down right before sunset…just to name one). Then the week after I graduated we were off to the Midwest to spend time with his parents and connect with more churches. While travelling so much has been tiring (I don’t tend to sleep much in new places), it was a lot of fun to get to know David’s family better. Plus, my mother-in-law and I got to make some pretty good desserts (Cake Balls!!) and watch Hogan’s Heroes….all in all our time in the Midwest was good!
One of the highlights of our summer for me was getting to fly home and participate in the beautiful wedding of my brother and his new wife Miriam. So much love and joy in one day! I can’t wait to see how there new adventure together plays out.
After returning to the Midwest for another week we headed to Toronto for some cross-culture training. I think this is where it started to hit me about the life David and I were stepping into together. I had just spent the past two weeks packing up my life, saying goodbye to both sides of our family and friends, crying way more than I had expected (I’m telling you there was some serious bawling going on), and then heading the opposite direction of Belize to Canada. The amount of stress was rather high, to put it lightly… I feel like I should ask here, did you know traveling just through the airport itself could be incredibly stressful?? The night before we flew to Toronto we spent at least two hours moving around just a couple pounds between our five suitcases and carry-ons just to make sure we weren’t overweight. We got to the airport and held our breath as they weighed our bags. Success! Now we were carrying around probably a hundred pounds between us in our carry-ons we waddled though the airport (well…I waddled…), but we made it on the plane. You should have seen the size of my backpack!
Our time in Toronto was very good. While the classes were helpful (there were a few that were outstanding!), the main thing that was nice about the trip was getting to connect with so many other missionaries that were also preparing to pack-up life and home and move to other countries around the world sharing God’s love and mercy. The connections made there are ones that I’ll take with me everywhere we go. Not only did we get to know people in our classes, but we were able to go with friends heading to Honduras and Canada’s First Nations to a part of the city where we had dinner in China town, walked through an area that seemed Jamaican, walked into a Jewish Synagogue at the beginning of Sabbath, went through what seemed to be the Hispanic quarter with some really good looking restaurants, and then eat some Italian gelato. So much diversity! The next day we went with friends that will be serving in Benin to Niagara Falls and spent one of our final days there. By the end of that final weekend in Toronto David and I were refreshed and ready to head back to Belize that Monday…but that was not going to happen…
Do you ever have those moments when you just know Satan is doing everything he can to stop you? That’s what happened when we got up Monday morning. As a whole, everything that could go wrong did go wrong that day. We got up at 2:30 in the morning to head to the airport for our 6:15 flight when I looked at my phone and saw that our plane had been delayed five hours. Now on one hand that might not seem so bad because you would think that maybe you could go back to sleep for a few hours before the flight, but no. We had to check in for our original flight (and we were surrounded by a bunch of grumpy people who were also missing flights). Our hope had been to get on another flight that morning so we could make our connection to Belize (since there is only one flight from Atlanta to Belize a day), but that would not be the case. The best they could do was get us on the same flight from Atlanta the next day and give us a hotel for the night. While we were extremely frustrated with the delay there were little things that showed us that God was still in control (like us being the first people in line that needed our flight rescheduled and the lady being extremely nice and helpful while everything else seemed to be falling a part). There were still so many little things that kept going wrong all day. Do you ever get to the point where so much goes wrong that it almost becomes comical? Don’t get me wrong, we were tired, frustrated, and really wanted to just go home, but it was still funny to see these things go wrong and know that either way we were going to end up in Belize and if God really wanted us there this couldn’t stop us. And it didn’t. We made it to Atlanta, had even more mishaps, and fell asleep in another hotel early that night.
When I got up Tuesday morning I was a little weary about the day, wondering if it would be as bad as the day before, but with God’s help (and David and I getting pretty good and maneuvering through airports), we made it on the plane with all bags checked (again) and headed for Belize.
I’m going to take a quick moment here to brag on my husband. While I’ve mentioned only a few of the stressors of our travels (and believe me, there were WAY more), David stayed so calm and controlled and got us through everything smoothly. I don’t know if I could have handled it without him… I’ve got myself a keeper!
For Monday to be so awful it was quite amazing to see how smoothly Tuesday ended up going. We got to Belize safely, made it through immigration and customs without a hassle, had wonderful friends there to pick us up, went to the diocesan office to take care of some paperwork and finally made it to our home.
It’s a little funny being here this time. I’ve been to Belize three times before now (two of which were exactly this time of year) and every other time I’ve had David there waiting for me, had an automatic countdown start in my head of when I would have to leave, and experienced everything from the outside. But this time David was there from the beginning, we were starting an adventure together, and there was no countdown…we’re living here now. I thought it would feel strange when we got here (and to some degree that’s true), but you know what? The biggest thing I felt when we got here was “finally home”. Since we got married David and I have sort of been in transition, not really having a settled feeling, and we got to a point where we made everywhere we landed “home”. Now that we’re here though that feeling is even stronger. It’s been seven months since we said our “I do’s” and now were home again.
So that was a kind of long summary/reflection of the last seven months. I could add so much more, but I’ll probably hold off for now. Overall, looking back over everything I can see how God carefully guided us to this point. And now I can’t wait to see what plans He has for us here in Belize. “The Adventure Continues!”
Greetings from the Toronto Airport! Mary Beth and I are sort of stranded today: we should have been in Belize today, but unfortunately a delayed flight has pushed back our arrival until tomorrow. In the meantime, we figured this is probably a great time to write you an update as we exit North America and enter into a new life and ministry in Belize (Lord willing) tomorrow.
Where to begin? The last few weeks have flown by! We returned to California for a few days to attend the wedding of Mary Beth’s brother, and in addition to finalizing the bulk of our packing, said some painful goodbyes to family members and close friends. The same could be said for the next week that we spent with my family in Indiana and Ohio. Our hearts are full, to the point of being heavy with the pain of parting and distance, but at the same time we are enjoying the growing anticipation of our being back in Belize and serving the Lord in mission there!
As our ministry launch in Belize has been drawing closer, we’ve been keeping a close eye on the progress in our financial support. Thanks to many, many faithful partners, our monthly support has come to just over 80% of our overall budget. Despite the ongoing deficit, you can how pledges and gifts have grown, and this has meant that (as of today) Mary Beth is now officially a SAMS employee with salary and benefits.
This also means that, of the support that we had to raise when Mary Beth was accepted as a SAMS missionary a year ago, we have 26% left to raise. We are so grateful when we see everything that the Lord has done to get us to this point, and we are trusting him to get our mission all the way to 100% as soon as possible! Please keep our financial support in your prayers, and if you are interested in partnering with us financially, please let us know!
The last two weeks of our journey has taken place in Toronto, as we joined together with missionaries from many denominations and many parts of the world for MissionPREP’s IMPACT training. We loved making connections with so many incredible people involved with missions, and we felt the Lord challenging us at various points of the two weeks together. In many ways, it was the perfect way to transition from life and ministry in North America to life and ministry in Belize.
And so here we are: almost there. It’s a good place to be. As we prepare to return, we would ask that you pray especially for the following requests:
Mary Beth’s visa paperwork. During our first few days in the country we will be applying for Mary Beth’s missionary work permit visa. There are a lot of hoops to jump through, and we ask you to pray that we move through everything quickly and smoothly.
Acclimating to our new life. Belize right now is hot and humid, and a tropical storm is brewing in the Caribbean as I type this. Additionally, we anticipate many things to have changed in our world in San Ignacio, our churches and schools, and though it will certainly take some adjusting for me, it will take even more for Mary Beth. Please pray that we would make all these adjustments well, with a good attitude and flexibility, and we would soon be feeling at home.
Health during the transition. With all the traveling, our health (especially Mary Beth’s) has been up-and-down over the last few weeks. As we undergo the stress of this transition, please pray that our health would improve, and that we would find a new and healthy equilibrium in Belize.
That financial support. As I shared above, we would like our financial support to reach 100% as soon as possible. Please pray that the Lord would raise up passionate partners with our ministry for the coming months and years.
Again, thank you all for your prayers and support! May the Lord richly bless you!
Hello, dear friends! We have news to tell, and big plans to share.
As Mary Beth shared last month, she had an amazing recital! By May 21st (two weeks later), she had taken her final exams and graduated summa cum laude with her Bachelor of Music! I am so proud of her, and I’m happy to report that she has been undergoing a fantastic period of “academic decompression” over the last month.
A few days after her graduation, we ended our lease and moved out of our apartment in Fullerton and the, having packed up a few belongings, we headed to my parents’ home in Indiana to continue our deputation (raising support) among churches in the middle of the country. Hitting the road has been hard, and more than a little stressful at times, but the Lord has led us to connect with some amazing people, and we are so grateful for the new relationships we’ve been given!
But now, it’s crunch time. SAMS has worked with us to put together a plan for returning to Belize on August 1st for this year. This is not due (as we had hoped) to our having raised all of our necessary financial support: on the contrary, we are still about 25% short of our budget. However, our belief and hope is that we ought to begin ministry in Belize and continue to keep our supporters (including you!) up-to-date with what we are doing. Our prayer is that the Lord will stir up the hearts of current and new supporters to give and help us meet our budget in the next month before we leave (again, our arrival date in Belize is August 1st).
For us, this means that we are hurriedly trying to get everything ready for our return to Belize in five weeks. Tomorrow (June 28th) we fly back to San Diego for a wedding and to finalize the move of our California belongings, either to storage or to Belize. The following week we return to Indiana to visit with a few more churches and leaders, and to similarly finalize the move of our Indiana belongings. And then July 17th we fly to Toronto, where we will participate in a two-week MissionPREP training. From Toronto we will fly directly to Belize and begin this new (now married) missionary adventure in ministry.
Does this sound like a whirlwind? It’s felt like that to us.
We genuinely need your prayers for us in this transition, especially for the following:
Financial support: pray that God will meet our financial needs and help us raise full support as soon as possible, whether before or after we return to Belize.
Logistical success: pray that God will go before us and make our steps smooth as we prepare to return to Belize.
Spiritual nourishment: pray that God will sustain us spiritually as we continue moving from place-to-place, and then plant ourselves back in Belize.
Thank you all so much, for your prayers and encouragement and your support! May the Lord richly bless you all!
We are now three days past my senior recital and I’m here to tell you it was a great success! Thank you for the many prayers both leading up to Friday and during the recital itself. God is good!
Friday started off with seemingly every single person trying to keep my stress level low (something I greatly appreciated!). My mother and sister drove up early to do my hair and makeup, doing a fantastic job I might add, as well as to just spending time with me praying and talking…again keeping me calm. David was the perfect husband, helping with last minute details and even running to the store to surprise me with blueberry muffins and chocolate cupcakes. I was still very nervous as it got closer and closer to my recital, but the prayers and support of so many people was evident throughout the whole day.
I got to the hall an hour early to warmup before they opened the doors and it was at this point that I started to get both incredibly excited and increasingly nervous. My piano teacher (probably the most helpful and inspiring mentor for me during my time here at CSUF) waited backstage with me to encourage and boost my confidence as the hall started to fill with the (surprisingly loud) audience. Once the recital itself actually started the time flew. There were ups and downs, but as a whole I was very happy with the result. Plus, there is something special about getting to share the music and work I’ve been doing in the past three years at this school with so many friends and family. I also want to point out that I was very aware of all the prayers from people for/during my recital. One of my biggest fears going into the performance was forgetting my music and just stopping, but while I did have a couple slips, the music kept going for the entire recital. Once again, God is good!
After the recital was when I got to go out into to the lobby to greet all the people that came to hear me play. It was such an encouragement and great joy to not only see so many friends and family (I even had family fly down for this!), but also to see so many of our supporters from different churches, both in the area and also from quite a ways away!
Thank you to everyone who came, it was lovely seeing all of you there! Thank you to everyone who prayed, I could not have done this without your prayers! Thank you to everyone who sent notes of encouragement, they helped keep me going!
This recital was the accumulation of all the work I’ve done during my time studying for my Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance at CSUF and I’m very excited for this accomplishment. I have to say I’m also even more excited, post-recital, for the next chapter of music in my life as we continue to raise support to return to Belize where my love for music can move more into ministry role.
As I wrap this up I have one more quick prayer request. My graduation is less than two weeks away (yay!) and there are still some paperwork issues with my transcripts. Please pray that all the glitches workout quickly with no complications!
Thank you again for all of your prayers and support for David and me!
