Why Belize?

In 11 days, Dan and I will be heading to Belize on a mission trip! Hopefully Dan gets over the flu soon and that I don’t get it! Praying hard! It is still hard to believe that God has introduced this opportunity in the way He has, but I can only say we are so humbled and so incredibly excited!

Dan and I have talked much about “why Belize?” Honestly, we cannot give a clear answer to that. All we know is that God has had this planned for us, we just had no clue. Yet we are fully confident that Belize is EXACTLY where God wants us, January 13-18. We have realized that it’s easy to have expectations about this trip – it seems like it is coming at the most perfect time. And it is. But we don’t want to go into this trip with our human expectations, but just go into it as servants of God. That mentality leaves us open to whatever God has in store for us there. We don’t want to “expect” Him to work in a certain way because that may not be God’s mission. We just want to step off that plane, open to whatever God puts before us. We know generally we want to build relationships – appreciate the people that God created in Belize. We want to be open and servant-hearted. We want to be at God’s feet willing and ready.

We are going through MTW (Mission to the World) which is a part of the Presbyterian Church. Like I said earlier, we will be working on the roof at the Presbyterian Medical Clinic.

I have to be honest that I did not know much about Belize before preparing our hearts for this trip. After doing some research, I have learned that Belize is about the size of Massachusetts with a population of around 312,000. So not a huge country. It is nestled between Mexico, Guatamala, and the Caribbean Sea. It has the world’s second longest barrier reef and also the largest cave system in Central America. Agriculture, merchandising, and tourism, keep the Belizean economy going. We are eager to learn more about the people there and hear their stories! Though their official language is English, most speak Spanish or Creole. I might have to brush up on my Spanish again :). I hope that the language isn’t too much of a barrier!

Dan and I are reading/have read the book Radical by David Platt – one of the best books I have EVER read. I am now reading Radical Together. I think these books are challenging on so many different levels. Dan put it well – Radical poses questions that we often don’t dare ask. It really makes you think about how you view the gospel, what we are all trying to “make” the gospel to be (like making Jesus into the person WE want Him to be, instead of us becoming the person HE wants us to be), and questions every area of your life.

We are just so excited to serve – no matter what the capacity may be in Belize!