Thanksgiving

~Today was the day for us~

I cooked and prepped food Friday, Saturday night, and from 7am this morning until 1:30pm I cooked nonstop and helped set up at the mission building for this huge dinner.

We had invited around 50 people but ended up having around 37. There was so much food and desserts, it was a feast for the eyes. We let our guests dish up first and then we all dug in too. It was fun to taste other dishes that people had made and to ask how they made it and so on. Most of all it was the company and being able to visit with them. Wendy and  Aden were among our guests and we had a nice time with them. Daylight fades too fast here and it seems like she had to leave way too soon!

God has blessed us and we all wanted to share with those less fortunate than us. Giving to others is a nice way to have a Thanksgiving dinner. Everyone was stuffed and made take home plates and the desserts went fast.......the kids went a little crazy.

Here's some of the menu:

cabbage rolls

enchilada

veggie roast

veggie meatballs

sweet potato casseroles

scalloped potato

roasted garlic mashed potato

gravy

stuffing

veggie pot pie

beets

asian green beans

carrots with dried cherries

macar0ni salad

cranberry jelly

bread

buns

rolls

Desserts:

chocolate pie

pumpkin bars

pumpkin cake

chocolate cake

caramel cake

white cake

coconut brownies

chocolate pumpkin cake

pumpkin bread

cookies

See how the Lord blesses with abundance when many pull together. None of us knew what the others were making so it was nice to see what showed up. The meal was very balanced and we didn't have a lot of one thing and hardly any of another. So now we look forward to the Holiday season upon us now.

I should note that the reason I had to spend so much time cooking wasn't because of quantity it was because I have to do everything myself from scratch. I had to chop up and dry my own bread cubes to plan for stuffing. I had to make soymilk ahead to use in recipes. I had to cook rice and vegetables to use in recipes later on. So really if I was back home it wouldn't have take so long. I am learning that life here is just harder and things take much longer. I keep adjusting each day and the Lord is showing me that there is another way to accomplish the same things.

Outreach

We came home after church and ate lunch with the Borlands.

Soon afterward we loaded up on the bus and took off for some outreach to a couple shut ins around the Santa Elena area. We sang and prayed with them, both ladies. The first is not able to get out much and the second lady is literally housebound and blind. No one really takes care of her. She has 2 sons but I don't think they know what to do. Some of our church ladies started taking food to her every Sabbath.

Following those two visits we headed way out to a ranch on the river. This couple live way out in the bush and don't come into town very often. She is a Christian but her husband doesn't really care to much for it. We had to get his permission to come and visit them. So we had sundown worship with her by sharing songs, devotions, praises, and prayers. Such a beautiful place-so quiet!

They had fruit of every kind, star fruit, oranges, limes, plums, avocado's, mango, coconuts, & bananas. This lady's name was Terry and she had some beautiful flowers and plants all over their property. Even a huge poinsettia tree that was probably 6 feet tall. We left there with fruits and plant starts and flowers. We would like to go back sometime and have a Sabbath school service with them, but we have to wait and see if the husband will allow it.

Birds

We had such a treat last Thursday-

2 beautiful Toucans visited our neighborhood.

These are the true toucans not the smaller aracaris.

We ran for the camera but of course they flew just far enough out of range to another tree. What joy it was to see them and a rarity out here.

Friday we noticed that the parrots had moved in, so the past few days we have been listening to their squawking. They fly from tree to tree so fast that it hard to get a picture of them either.

God surely created some beautiful wildlife to see and enjoy. I will do my best to get a picture of them.

Wait Upon the Lord

But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.  Isaiah 40:31

 Christian workers can never attain the highest success until they learn the secret of strength. They must give themselves time to think, to pray, to wait upon God for a renewal of physical, mental, and spiritual power. They need the uplifting of His Spirit. Receiving this, they will be quickened by fresh life. The wearied frame and tired brain will be refreshed, the burdened heart will be rested.  {HP 83.4} 

     Prayer is the breath of the soul. It is the secret of spiritual power. No other means of grace can be substituted, and the health of the soul be preserved. Prayer brings the heart into immediate contact with the Well-spring of life, and strengthens the sinew and muscle of the religious experience.  {HP 83.5} 

 A worker cannot gain success while he hurries through his prayers to God, and rushes away to look after something that he fears may be neglected or forgotten. He takes time to give only a few hurried thoughts to God, that is all. He does not give himself time to think, to pray, to wait upon the Lord for a renewal of spiritual and physical strength. He soon becomes jaded. He does not feel the uplifting, inspiring influence of God's Spirit. He is not quickened by fresh life. His jaded frame and tired brain are not soothed by personal contact with Christ.  {LHU 263.4} 

     "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord" (Psalm 27:14). "It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord" (Lamentations 3:26). There are those who work all day and far into the night to do what it seems to them needs to be done. The Lord looks pitifully upon these weary, heavy-laden burden-bearers, and says to them, "Come unto me, . . . and I will give you rest. . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30) (letter 83).  {LHU 263.5}

Our life is to be hid with Christ in God; and if it is thus hidden, in His hands it will be converted into a lamp which will shed upon the world a bright and steady light. . . . But though time is short, and there is a great work to be done, the Lord is not pleased to have us so prolong our seasons of activity that there will not be time for periods of rest, for the study of the Bible, and for communion with God. All this is essential to fortify the soul, to place us in a position where we shall receive wisdom from God to employ our talents in the Master's service to the highest account (Youth's Instructor, Feb. 3, 1898).



No Thanksgiving!

~Belize does not celebrate Thanksgiving~

So in order to be able to actually have a big dinner with many souls attending we will be doing it on Sunday.

We are supposed to make some of our favorite dishes (no beans & rice) and bring to eat potluck style at the mission building. We will some poor families there along with some of the newly baptized church members.

We have been busy as usual and the days seem to meld together at times:

The kids are plugging away at school work and helping out with chores, church, projects, & kids outreach.

My time seems to be getting more limited, now that I will be adding radio hours a few days each week. I know that will be a great blessing to me. I am also trying to get a church Christmas program organized and see how we do? People here are so hesitant to help with anything but I'm praying that this will be a way to break down some more walls. I believe that we will have this program for our church service on December 24 and then I believe we will invite the surrounding neighborhood to come in the afternoon and do it again for them. Please pray that people can be reached and blessed by this outreach.

Chris is still working for the ambulance and he's gone at least 2 nights of the week pulling 24 hour shifts. He is on Temp. status right now and so any income he does get is probably less than the migrant workers make up in the states doing fruit? However, anything is helpful and he knows that he has to put in this time being new and all. He also has been going to the orphanage 2 days each week to get a med system set up as well as health profiles for each child. Last week he couldn't go because Leonie was gone. So we worked on paperwork and computer stuff here. Next week he is teaching down in Punta Gorda for 2 days & pulling a 24 hr.shift-so I think he will be gone 3 nights in row! We are constantly praying for him while he is in Belize City...........its dangerous there. He said that since he wears his scrub top and stethoscope around his neck that people there call him "doc" and seem to leave him alone!

Amidst all the filth and poverty there is a beauty here that can soothe any soul. The flowers, trees, butterflies, dragonflies,  and birds are so gorgeous; sometimes it hard to fathom that people have to live in these conditions in such a place?

One day I happened upon a man with tropical flowers and for a few dollars I was able to bring some home.

I look forward to some day being able to have some flowers on my veranda and to plant a couple garden boxes on the roof. Mainly just some herbs and greens that you can't get here.

Today is piano lesson day and we are all going to start practicing Christmas music that will accompany the Christmas program in a few weeks.

Next week the Moore's arrive and the Comm's will be here too. WE are all excited to see friends from home!



Blessings & Praise!

~Praise God~

I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.  Psalm 86:12

Glorify the Father in all we have and do! God supplies for his children but we are not to let satan's doubt enter our minds. We are to stand faithful and true on God's word to us.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, [and] into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, [and] bless his name. Psalm 100:4

We need to praise God daily in our worship and be ever so thankful for God keeping his children safe and cared for. Everything we have belongs to God and too often we forget that! Sing praises unto the Lord in worship and keep a song in your heart throughout the day. 

The Lord has made ample provision that the heavenly graces shall be abundantly supplied to all, that the truth as it is in Jesus shall hold the first place in the heart and shall ever occupy the soul temple. Then there will be thorough devotion to God, and all true believers will become fishers of men. They will pray for wisdom, and will walk in accordance with the prayer: “Ye are the light of the world.”“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”Letter 48, 1897. {CTr 231.6}

As christians it is our actions and the way we live that minister to others. We are to be examples of Christ's love to ALL, not just the people we feel comfortable with. Let Jesus, the Light, shine through us daily to all around us.

Our Father in Heaven has numbered the hair on our heads and makes notice of each sparrow that falls. WE are so important to God and he longs for our full heart! It is my prayer daily that I and my family live as Christ wants us to, and listen to the impressions of the holy spirit, even if we feel uncomfortable!

~God's Blessings to all~

Baptisms & Ordination

Praise the Lord!

Chris was ordained elder in the church here last Sabbath. The service was really nice and Chris preached his first sermon!

We had 3 baptisms, a family, and it was so nice to see them giving their hearts to the Lord.The husband is on fire for the Lord and feels called toward lay evangelism.

Tonight at prayer meeting time we had 4 more baptisms. A married couple, a young lady, and an elderly lady that had to be lowered into the baptistry in her wheel chair. Bless her heart! She learned of the Sabbath truth through Faithfm and wanted to be baptized before it was too late. What a testimony- and the water was so cold.

Her grandson brought her but he thinks us Adventists are crazy.......she used to be a Nazarene up until just a month or two ago.

As usual my truck bed was full of kids that we pick up along the way to meetings or church. Tonight they brought me a tarantula in a box so I could take a picture, but I didn't have my camera and made them throw the box out of the truck! How thoughtful of them.

Sabbath we head up to Corozal for the anniversary of the repeater station there.

Spiders of the Night

I saw my first tarantula last Wednesday night coming home from prayer meeting. The creepy creature was crossing the road in the dark. This specimen was a baby but it was bigger than anything back home in the states that I've ever seen!

Well, I was sooooo lucky again tonight on the way home from children's outreach. This time nature didn't hold back and we got a jumpy, quick moving, full size tarantula!!! This one was as big as my hand with my fingers spread apart.  I shone the headlights on it and we all got out of the truck to look at it. The hairy beast started running toward us so we ran back to the truck, screaming!

Bobbi finally killed it by kicking it sideways and then I ran over it for good measure. I will have to start taking my camera at dark so I can take a picture.

Sorry mom, if you read this, I was trying to keep the giant spider horrors from you!!

On the positive side I have never seen anything around our home.

Joy in Babes!

Everyone loves babies and little kids, right?

Jakob came to our house the other day for about 1 1/2 hours while Dennis mowed the lawn and Stephanie got a little break. She's expecting baby #2 in 2 months.

Anyway, he is so funny to watch and he is just so darn cute!!!

We all really enjoyed him and had some good laughs. Brings back memories of when my kids were little, how time fly's.

I guess he ended up having so much fun that he came back the following afternoon and played some more. Such fun and happy times watching little ones.

Jakob would say "beep beep" or "toot toot" when he would drive the big tonka truck by if you were in his way. Oh, he loved the beanie babies-loaded them in his truck and would back it up and dump them out.

He loves all my kids, especially the girls.

Reaching Out

We have been meeting more and more people here. Especially since we started a youth class at church, more young people come.

I finally saw where some of the kids live and its really heartbreaking. They live in dirt floor houses and who knows where they bathe?

We love them and they are good kids just craving Jesus in their lives. Good christian friends are hard to find here.

Finding out that your fellow church members aren't able to get work but yet they are praising God for the little bit they have.

Makes one feel bad that we can't do more?  I know that we can't help everyone but we can help some of them. Pray for us to be strong and to be good examples here.

Any donations are welcome for kids or projects. 

Homemade Crackers

Here in Belize most packaged foods go stale or soggy very fast so we don't generally buy them. One day the kids talked me into making herb crackers, so I found a recipe on line and gave it a try.

We all liked them and the dogs really went crazy for them. I wouldn't say all the effort that went into them was worth it but it was something different.

One day I looked up a Greek Pita bread recipe and I attempted that last Sunday and they turned out good. So now we not only get pita once in a while but it will also serve as a very good pizza crust.

I guess I should say that most days we eat fruit, veggies, rice, and beans. We have been eating a lot of raw cabbage almost to the point of being sick of it!

Love the fresh foods though.

Solar

Faithfm had a very gracious donation of six solar panels. Praise the Lord!

Last week Mat went up and helped put in the concrete footings. A couple days later they went back up and put up the solar panels. This will reduce costs for the Pine Ridge repeater station, which will definitely help.

They had some obstacles to overcome.



Time Goes Fast

Whew!

Tomorrow is already Thursday........

Just got in from Wednesday evening prayer meeting. We started a new series on DVD and it ran a little late tonight.

Chris is on his second shift for the week and he did his instructors course today as well. He worked at the orphanage Tuesday and is going again tomorrow.

The kids have been plugging along with their school work, music lessons, chores, playing and helping out where they can.

This week Addy has been training me for the radio. I will be doing 3 afternoon praise and song request slots each week. So I will be on the air live.....I hope I can do a good job. I never thought this was something that I would do but I'm really looking forward to it.
Addy will also teach me to run other programs so if they need to go somewhere I can hold the fort down for several hours.

We are all hooked on apple bananas and eat several at a time. They are really tiny bananas and they actually have an apple taste mixed with banana! I get 20 at a time for $1 US and they are gone in 1-2 days.

I am learning to cook some of the Belize dishes and to make homemade tortillas. They are sure good but time consuming. Who am I kidding? All the cooking here is very time consuming because you do everything from scratch. Well, I do get bread from the hospital here and there just to help me out.

Love to all our family and friends.....we are praying for you!