Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow

SO, we are now in Belmopan, and actually as I write this, we are on our way out, heading to Dangriga later on today, but while we have been in Belmopan here are some experiences, events, encounters and BLESSINGS that the Lord has lined us up with . . . . first off, we met with different pastors in the area, and stayed in a Nazarene church for two nights. Pastor Maganya, one of the greatest people we have met so far, shared with us stories of how he became a pastor around age 40, some cool dreams he has had, stories about spiritual warfare and just sharing wisdom from the wise, that we TOTALLY ate up. 

We stayed in our first church, in the babies room, on our air mattresses, and of course the shower only had one temperature: (*what's colder than cold?*) ICE COOLD! Quite the waker upper! I've never had a shower with so much exercise happening, jumping around lol

Ok, so I can't hold it in any longer. What is SO CRAZY, is that we woke up yesterday (Thursday Feb 8th) and there was a radio station outside of the church, and the owner wants to meet with us and come to the conference. He is also a political candidate running for something here in Belmopan  . . . AND THEN, somehow we got a call to meet with a bigshot in the area who owns a TV STATION, and we met with him (Louis Wade) and he wants us to come in and be part of a LIVE MORNING SHOW on TV!!! And do a 30 minute interview about our trip down here, about the conference, and it is also the type of morning show/tv channel that is shown around the WHOLE COUNTRY, and it also is where people can call in . . . . ah!!!! Tati and I walked out of the tv station building place, and were just like whaaaaat just happened!! pure shock. The Lord is clearly wanting to do something way bigger than the two of us. Please pray that we execute the tasks He has put and continues to put in front of us. I was reading earlier today in John 20, and THANK YOU LORD that you gave us our task AND YOUR POWER :22 *the holy spirit* - hallelujah!! 

They are also willing to put an ad/commercial together for us and air it for 2 or 3 weeks before this conference. Belize is obviously very small and the kind of place where a country-wide leadership conference is something people are actually interested in watching and learning about (that would never fly in the states! lol)

Picture I took in the parking lot on the side of a truck

Look who we ran into in Belmopan!! Our favorite papa Henry! 

He is so sweet. He is traveling around meeting with pastors teaching a class on Crisis Intervention as he was recently the fire chief over the whole country, and now as a pastor, he has lots of amazing counseling and crisis experience of his own.

 

Here is Pastor Norman 

By the way, I took a picture of my bags and belongings . . . probably because I am planning to take a picture of Tati's 100 bags in the future :) for comparison haha

We walked into what said it was a church and all it was, was an abandoned swimming pool! haha

pics while driving - they call this mountain the sleeping man . . . notice the nose and chin of a man lying down

My new Caged Honey Badger Friend! lol

I seriously loved this little guy!

There he is! cute little guy with a very long snout 

We met a priest and talked to them from this Anglican church! Definitely a new experience!!

Some random pics as we drive around in our hotbox

another one of these trees I love

As I said before, I love seeing hanging laundry . . . 

Sweeet!

OK, so after the longest day ever - and they are all long, thanks for my prayer of multiplying our time here and the Lord doing a multitude of work in and through us . . . . we decided to go to an actual restaurant our first night in Belmopan : 

This restaurant is Chinese, and called Yim Saan I think? Anyway, I tried Conch for the first time! And Tati learned Farkle for the first time. We laughed a LOT. It was a good little relaxing date :)

PLEASE notice this straight as the 1 fell on my shirt :)

Happy Conch likes to swim in Egg Drop Soup

Tati is very proud of this artsy looking photo of the dice

Tati won the game . . . . . . 

therefore this was the loser's fate:

The Lord has been so good to us, and is teaching me so much. I am forever grateful for those of you reading this who have prayed for me and this trip that will forever change my life! I can't explain the work that is happening in my heart, soul, and mind, and while I do have a new camera, and enjoy sneaking pictures while we are meeting people and driving around, this trip has brought so much life and freedom and clarity to my spirit. While we never have more than a few hours if even online, I hope to update more than just pictures and events, but many times that is all that is able to be posted in short amounts of time. And while we have had fun and awesome experiences, I have been so humbled and changed by the things the Lord has revealed to me about my life before this trip and my life after. More to come on all of this.

Hallelujah Hattieville !

SO, Sunday Feb 5, Tati and I left Belize City and headed to Hattieville, a village outside of the city. We stayed with Pastor Mark Somerville and his wife Sheri and their two super fun and crazy kids MJ and Shadrach. The experiences just keep getting richer on this trip.

this is just us driving . . . after a long hot Sunday

I can't really describe the level of poverty in Hattieville, as you can see and smell sewage in front of everyone's yards . . . and I didn't get enough pictures. . . but as soon as we brought our bags into their house, we stuffed everyone into our cars and drove to church that night!

Shadrach and MJ

 

Look who's reppin' ! 

Muscles

    

So we get to church, and this small small small little church is FULL of children, and there is a drummer, and Sheri is leading worship and someone on a really old keyboard held up on a chair - basically this place brought me to a place that has changed my life. As we reapplied bug spray, as we were SO tired from the long day, the worship started and lasted hours and hours! Some of the kids had tambourines and passed them around when they got tired, but it was SO AMAZING. THE SPIRIT CAME! And I felt overcome with joy and praise for the Lord. We were dancing, doing motions, and as fifteen to twenty little poor kids were just dancing and getting down, and Tati and I were with them just getting lost in the worship, it was SUCH A JOY!!! As the last song was sung and it helped to bring the energy down, I sat on my seat with two or three little kids on both sides of me, and I just closed my eyes and started crying. I just felt like I was in heaven. I know it has got to be so much fun, so much energy, and I was just refocusing my world and my life, thinking, "How in the world did I get HERE?" Surrounded by love, by people who have nothing, but they have Jesus and the CHILDREN! They looooove Him. I just KNOW that heaven is full of laughing, giggling, whispering children.

During the lesson I asked the kids on my left and right (as they were distracted and unable to pay attention *I'm as usual in that boat with them*) to write in my journal anything they felt like God wanted to tell me. . . . another humbling experience that brought tears to my eyes. 

The next day Tati and I stopped by the nursing home in the town for our friend Angie who we saw in Grandbury - she knows and loves a lady named Olga that we stopped by and said hello to.

Here is a picture of her and Angie that was up in her room 

 Wheelchair

Another amazing encounter we had was with a lady in the room next to Olga's named Christina, and she shared with us her love for Jesus. We got to pray for her hurting hip and neck, and asked the Lord for healing for her body and heart. She was SO sweet, and when Tati prayed for her I could not help but start crying, just SO humbled and in awe of her love for Jesus. She pulled out this picture of him from under her bed, and started kissing his picture over and over and over again. She kissed that picture

probably 30 times. 

Check out Tati's cold turtle blanket thing that I guess you add water to and it gets cold. . . .quite the fashion statement

  We then drove back to the church to meet Mark and Shadrach, and we goofed off for a little while Tati and Mark did real business, and Shad and I did our own business . . . 

 

OH and GUESS WHAT - He likes Bieber haha

p.s. Here is a Stunna video of the dancing kids themselves :

http://youtu.be/pYmx7Z9Lmoo

I wish I could tell you how crazy and energetic these kids were. . . . haha

 And of course.... I got my hair did . . .  I kept it in for atleast one night . . . it was just necessary for the Belizean experience . . . but it didn't stick with me  :)

As we drive around with Pastor Mark, I had a lovely backseat experience

I am practicing my face for when the boys say "hey bay-bays". . . . we then look at them with this face

riiiight on

Goats crossed the street!

Pastor Floyd and Pastor Mark! Boys two of the coolest dudes we have come across so far. 

Leaving Pastor Floyd's House

This is Pastor Floyds CHURCH!! so cool