Prepare for picture overload! I have TONS of pictures and I am horrible about narrowing them down, but I am going to try very hard to do that. Maybe if I break the post up into several different parts, it won't be too bad.
Our church helps support the congregation in Belmopan, Belize. This was my third trip to make to Belmopan. I have not been since 2010, so I was VERY excited to finally get to go back. This year, our flight left a little earlier than it did on my prior trips. Even though it meant my alarm going off at 4am, I really think I liked the earlier flight better than the noon flight we have taken previously.
Michael and I ready for take off!
We landed in Belize City around lunch time. It was raining and rained off and on most of the day. Michael and Ryan guarded the luggage while Evan and Rod went to get our rental van.
Here we are all packed in the van. There were a total of 13 of us. From Blossom: Evan, Mel, Erin and Ryan Butler, David and Vicki Childres, and Rod, Michael and myself. There were 3 from the Rockwall congregation that went: Charlie and Angie Stone and Mackenzi Olmstead. And one man, Johnny (not sure of his last name) from a congregation in Tennessee.
Since we landed so early, we were able to take our time in getting to Belmopan. We stopped at Old Belize, one of our favorite places to stop, right outside of Belize City.
Belize does not have daylight savings time. So it gets daylight EARLY. Like at 5:30am! And once the sun is out, this girl can't sleep. That is hard on a night owl.
This is the view of the church building from our hotel room.
I went to class on Sunday morning with the kids. I just wanted to observe and see if they needed anything. And they needed everything. They had no supplies at all. The teacher was Ms. Diane, and she read them a Bible story. I think I counted 28 kids in this one class, which is about normal for them. When they have two teachers, they break the kids into separate classes - one for younger kids and one for older kids.
These top two pictures are the two classrooms. There is possibility for a 3rd classroom if it is ever needed. The bottom left is the baptistry, and the bottom right is the kitchen that is used to prepare communion.
We went over early Monday morning to get everything set up for VBS. Evan was the "ring leader." Michael and Ryan were in charge of games. Mel (with Makenzi as her helper) and I (with Erin as my helper) alternated between teaching the Bible story and doing the crafts. Vicki and Angie prepared the lunches for everyone each day. Johnny (and I think David and Charlie alternated) helped one of the members of the church go and pick up kids every morning and take them home in the afternoons. And Rod, David, and Charlie helped fill in where needed and made sure everything ran smoothly.
Since this was our first time to do a VBS there, none of us really knew what to expect. But over the week, we all worked together and it went great!
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