McKenzie Belize Adventure

I was checking our blog this morning and I noticed that we have some new friends viewing it. We want to say hello and welcome to our new friends in Jamaica and Slovenia. If you would like to leave a comment, we'd love to hear from you. The same goes for anyone else reading our blog. It would be great to get a message from you and find out who is out there, hopefully, enjoying the blog. We suspect some of you are UPCI missionaries, and others are friends and family. Again, we sure would like to hear from you and find out who you are. God Bless you all, Carolyn

Life can be lonely on the mission field. If you have read our early blogs, you know we 'had' a kitten named Bobby. Bobby was a very affectionate kitten and I loved cuddling and playing with him. But Bobby is a feral cat. If you know anything about feral cats they are of a necesssity, very independent. The older Bobby got the less he let me cuddle and play with him. He would still come by to be feed, but this too became less frequent. He only comes about twice a week now. I really missed Bobby's companionship and gave serious thought to getting a puppy or kitten. But considering we have a very large croc in the canal next to our yard, this did not seem prudent. Then along came Liz and my desire to have a pet was fulfilled. We had a small house for sale (by small, I mean 8 inches by 5 inches) on our property and Liz came by to see it. Liz fell in love with this darling house. I mean, isn't it every females desire to have a sweet house with a white picket fence? As a b...

When I lived in the states my clothing style was very average, nothing special. But here among the Mayan Indians I am one spiffy dresser, a trend setter even. We are in the Rainy Season here, and almost very night we have huge rain storms with lots of thunder and lighting. (Have I mentioned we live in a metal roof house?) Because it rains almost every night, the dirt roads here don't get a chance to dry out. Below is a picture of the "road" to our church. It is just a dirt path big enough for a vehicle. This Sunday was no different  and brings me to my original point of being a fashion trend setter here. Because the "road" was nothing but deep sticky mud we felt there was a chance the truck we were driving may get stuck on our way into the church and that we may have to get out and walk part of the way into the church. Plus, the ground all around the church was also soaked and muddy. Usually I wear sandals to church, but I knew this would never do if we ...

We just finished having Children's Revival Services in three different churches. They were all well attended. The last church we were in there was about 125 kids present. Every time I looked out the door, another truck load of kids was being dropped off at the door. We began the services with fun action songs for the kids. We were able to use Dwayne's projector to show the action songs on a sheet hung over a chalk board or pulpit. This was a big deal to these children since they don't have access to this kind of entertainment very often. Then our Evangelist, Andy Gregg, presented the message to the kids. His focus was, "Jesus Loves You". He explained to them that they could have a personal relationship with Jesus even though they were just children. He also explained to them that they could receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. As a result, 26 children and 3 adults received the gift of the Holy Ghost. It was so touching to see these little ones with their ha...

Some things that happen in our lives are only funny after the fact and IF they turn out all right. The following story falls into that category. If you read our last blog, you know that Dwayne and Linda were in Guatemala for a conference. Craig and I do our laundry at their house to avoid using my Suzy Homemaker washing machine. (You can read about that in a previous blog). While waiting on our laundry to finish, Craig decided to play a game of kick ball with Abernathy's little dog, Sam. Sam loves to play kick ball more than anything else in the world. Craig and Sam were having a great time when Craig kicked the ball to Sam and it knocked off the outdoor water pipe attached to the garden hose. The pipe fitting was old and off it flew with water gushing everywhere! The water shut off valve is in a locked utility room outside. Fortunately, the lock had not been closed all the way and Craig was able to get in and shut off the main water valve. He had to make two trips to the hardwar...