McKenzie Belize Adventure

We will be getting ready for a big church dedication in the Trio village tonight. There are 4 ministers from Texas that have come to Belize for the dedication. These men and their churches helped purchase and build the Trio church. We were able to have dinner with these ministers and the Abernathy's the other night. A couple of them are pastors and one is a retired missionary that was in Africa for 25 years. We will get pictures of them tonight at the dedication. We were finally able to get our grass cut today. Notice I did not say "lawn". Our yard is hard packed sand and dirt with lots of grassy tufts. Craig hired a couple of Mayan men to use machetes to cut down the grass. That is hard, hot work! Almost everything that needs cutting here is done with a machete. There will be a group of men out in a field cutting the whole thing down with their machetes. Craig and I priced weed whackers and the cheapest one we found was $450.00. They do not have summer garage sales h...

I thought I'd give you a women's perspective on our recent conference. We arrived Saturday about 5:15pm. The host church had prepared food for everyone attending. They prepared a special meal for those of us that were ministering at the conference. That included the evangelist, his wife and little girl, the Abernathy's and ourselves. They served us Poch. This a chicken broth soup with a vegetable in it. The vegetable was one I had never had before and can not remember the name of it. It was similar to a potato and was quite good. Then we headed into service. The church was packed. Many people stood outside the doors and windows to listen. I'm guessing there was about 300 inside the building. The local pastor thinks there was about 500 in attendance on Sunday. On Sunday morning they had a children's service at 8:00 am.  Then I taught the ladies. My interpreter had never interpreted before, but she did a very good job. She was interpreting into Cache, since most...

Saturday and Sunday, June 24-25 we had the Stann Creek District Conference in which eleven (11) churches participated.  We had Noe Barrientos from Guatemala come to minister.  Carolyn  was able to teach the ladies at the conference.  There were over 400 people who attended the event. We had an evening service on Saturday in which 23 received the gift of the Holy Ghost. On Sunday, there was a children's service followed by the Ladies service and then the main service.  Another 13 people received the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I took a group of people to the river where 8 people were baptized.  It is a great setting to go to a river to baptize people.  The work is growing here in Belize.

Saturday, June 24th we dedicated another church building in the village of San Isidro.  A many of the churches in the district came to the event. There are a number of projects completed, a few soon to be completed and a few more to start.  Being we are into the 'rainy' season, it will make completing a couple of the projects more challenging.

Thought we would share a few random notes today. To our surprise, there was a tugboat pushing a small commercial vessel thru the lagoon yesterday morning. One of our 'welcome' house pets is a gecko lizard.  The picture below is our gecko on the wall just above our bed who just ate two bugs inside the house. One of the challenges we have are 'roaches' in the house.  Carolyn prepared a special 'treat' for them.

This afternoon Carolyn said, we need to get a picture of this.  A cloud formation was below the mountain range and in view from our outside deck.

We have another church building under construction in the village of Santa Ana.  One of the village roads was a 'must see'....... so I stop the truck to get a picture for you.

Whew......... what a busy time ...... Carolyn and I had 7 teaching seminars/classes in 4 villages in 3 days time. Friday, we travelled two hours to get to Punta Gorda to teach two groups; children and young people.  Carolyn taught the children, about 25 of them. I taught the young people which there were 15 present.  It was in the afternoon about 4pm.  This was the first time a children's teaching event was there at the Punta Gorda church.  They were all very excited.  That night I went to another village, San Marco to conduct a ministers training seminar.  It was a privilege to go and be with them. Being so far away from our house, we spent the night in Punta Gorda at the Blue Belize Guesthouse right on the Caribbean Sea. Quite a storm kicked up that night.  We wondered what would be still standing by the time it passed by. Come to find out, it is quite normal this time of year. On Saturday, Carolyn went to San Felipe to conduct a ladies seminar...

I am sitting out on the porch writing to you this evening. This may not seem like much to you, but it is the first time in a long time that it has been cool enough to even sit outside. I'm in the hammock and it feels so good. My youngest son, Christopher, and his wife Julia, are going to FaceTime with us this evening. We love it when our kids take time to chat with us. Just seeing them in real time helps us with the separation so much. Our oldest son, Brandon, and his wife, Laura, FaceTime with us on a regular basis and it is so much fun to catch up with them and their kids. Our youngest grandson, Eli, just graduated from Kindergarten. Bitter sweet. No more babies. I should have had bunches of kids to ensure that I could have bunches of grandkids. I adore the 5 that I have though. The very hardest thing about leaving the states was leaving those grand babies. I couldn't even say goodbye. We were very close. The kids even had their own bedroom and clothes at my house. Not to m...

It's not often that you see the preacher strip off his shirt right in the middle of his message, and yet, that is exactly what my husband did last Tuesday night while he was teaching, more or less. Remember that we are in a thatch roofed building on the edge of the Rain Forest. This was a evening service so our one light bulb was on and Craig was standing near it. While he was teaching this large black flying bug landed on his shirt. This bug was about the size of a June bug. He did not see it land on him but the rest of us did. All of our eyes are fixed on this bug as it proceeds to crawl towards the middle of his stomach headed for the opening between his buttons. And sure enough----in it goes! Well he is certainly aware of it now. "Whoa," he exclaims! Then he says, "excuse me" and quickly turns around to release said bug. He pulls his shirt out of his pants and unbuttons the bottom buttons in an attempt to release the bug. By that time we are all bent ove...

We had recently suspected there was something suspicious about Bobby's life, and today my neighbor, Bev, confirmed our suspicions. I was outside on our upper deck this morning and spotted Bobby in the line of trees that separates our place and our neighbors place, Steve and Beverly. I was calling Bobby when I noticed Bev trying to get my attention. I had never met Bev before, so I was looking forward to getting a chance to say 'hi'. I leaned over the deck rail and called out a "good morning" greeting to her. She smiled and returned my greeting and then said something that surprised me. "Are you calling my cat?" "Your cat?", I replied.  "Yes", Bev said, "the cat you are calling Bobby is mine". She went on to tell me that several months ago while living about 5 miles from here, she rescued Bobby and his sister who were wild feral kittens. Bobby's tail had been injured in some kind of an attack and was infected. Bev too...

We had a situation in our house last night was reminiscent of the scene where hundreds of birds attack people in the old Alfred Hitchcock film, "The Birds". I was reading something on my IPad when I noticed several flying red ants on the wall next to the bed. I got up to take care of them and was startled to see hundreds more on the floor and more pouring in under the porch door. Apparently it is mating/nesting season for these critters and the light from the IPad was drawing them in. It took Craig and I one and a half hours to kill them all. SO GROSS. Craig tried to get a picture of them but it didn't come our too clear. He also took a picture of the Ant and Roach killer we used on them. A huge roach crawled out half dead as we were spraying the ants. I'm surprised I didn't have nightmares. Makes you just want to jump on a plane and come straight to Belize doesn't it? Lol. I'm sitting out on the porch in the hammock for the first time today....

On the Placencia peninsula is a small chapel right on the beach.  A very beautiful setting.  Currently it has one Sunday morning service.  They identify themselves as a non-denominational church.

June 3rd and 4th was the church dedication in the village of Armenia.  Christ Community Pentecostal Church in Henderson, TN provided the financial support to purchase this church and property.  Pastor Michael Rickenbaker came to dedicate the church.  This church has three services a week in Spanish and three services a week in Mayan Cache.  Saturday night the service was in Spanish and Sunday evening in Mayan Cache.  The Christ Community Pentecostal Church is now partnering with the UPCI church in Armenia which is a great blessing to all.

It's hard to believe that June is already here! June is supposed to be the start of the rainy season here. This means increased humidity and heat. Honestly, I am NOT looking forward to that. It's hard for me to keep track of time here. In Michigan you had very distinct seasons. Here the seasons are "hot and humid" and Very Hot and Very Humid." Our car is Still not reparied. It's been in the shop almost 3 months now. We have to share Abernathy's truck with them. They are so kind and patient about this. It looks like we may have to get the part we need from Guatemala. Craig is headed out this afternoon to teach a young pastors class. The class is in San Marco, about 1 1/2 hours away. He had to rent a car to get there because Abernathy's had to drive to Belize City to pick up a pastor from the airport that is coming from the US to preach a church dedication in the village of Armenia. This is going to be a very busy weekend. Tomorrow morning we have...