THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME...THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME...

There really is no place like home!!  It most times feels like Belize is 'home' now to us.  But at Christmas, for me, Becki, home is where the grandkids are.  And that is in Ohio...a VERY COLD Ohio.  We both are very happy to be here, but I have to admit that the cold is a huge challenge...especially for Ray.  He is one big popsicle, even when we are indoors!!

We have had an amazing time already seeing old friends, calling old friends

(thank-you, Chief!!!) having meetings with future Belize visitors and enjoying family. Oh, and eating out!  What a beyond huge treat this is for us!!  With more than chicken, rice, and beans on the menu, we are having fun eating anything but!! So many of you have offered  'if there is anything we can do...'   Well, we may take you up on some of those offers in the future!!  So thanks in advance for your willingness!!

We have to admit that we have not missed the consumer frenzy that you all have been forced to endure.  We have enjoyed little to no frenzied shoppers, no blaring 'holiday' music, no UGH!! messy traffic & frigid weather.  Rather, a joyous, heart warming report of several churches gathering together for a rally for Christmas eve and Christmas day in Toledo District, Belize.  Difficult travel, no prior sleeping arrangements, no thoughts of 'I hope I get'.  Just a gathering of Jesus lovers getting together like family to celebrate His Birthday.  The true meaning of this season....

Ray and I would like to wish you a Blessed Christmas and join in with you all to wish

a great big HAPPY BIRTHDAY JESUS!!

Life and Death

I have in my mind's eye     a       very         gripping        picture - 

that I wish I could share with you. In the moment that it presented itself to me, I found that I just could not invade the somberness of that moment to ask if I could take a picture. so, allow me to attempt to describe it to you. It is a picture worth a thousand words, although I will try to help you see the moment in far fewer words.

I had been delivering sandals donated by our church to villages in the southern part of Belize. I stopped at one more house to leave a box of sandals as well as some materials for the children's ministry at this mission church. It was a very enjoyable time, not only delivering these gifts but sharing the occasion with a couple of other Belizean men.

We pulled into the yard where we would make the delivery, smiling and enthusiastic. To our surprise, several people were in the yard, almost as if they were waiting for us. 

They were waiting...       as it turned out,          but not for us. 

The joy we had in our hearts vanished like a puff of smoke as the reality of the scene in front of us made it's way into our conscious minds.

The several people were loosely gathered around    

                                                                                           a     simple      wooden       casket. 

A man came to see what we wanted, recognized the pastor who was with me and explained that his father-in-law had died during the night. They were preparing for the funeral and burial to be held in just a few hours. (This is a rather quick process here in Belize.)

We explained our purpose, departed from the vehicle, made our delivery and went to stand near the casket with the family members that had gathered there. Two young adults were just beginning to apply varnish to the plain light wood to dress it up a little. They worked in near silence as the others looked on. It was a bit of a surreal moment for me, seeing, not a professional mortician at work in a room separated from sight behind walls or thick curtains in a safe and comfortable funeral home - but two family members painting varnish onto the casket of a loved one, while other loved ones watch and wait. 

The picture that strikes me the most is this:

I am standing near the head of the casket. The two family members are painting on the varnish, beginning at the top and reverently working their way down and around. Other family members are nearby. Occasional hushed conversations may be heard. Right in the middle of the scene is one other person. She is elderly. She is sitting by herself on a chair next to the casket. She is not speaking to anyone nor is anyone speaking to her. She wears the wrinkles of many, many years across her sunken face. She wears a red blouse and blue skirt. She is sitting somewhat slouched with both her arms and her legs crossed. She merely watches what is happening around her but is not a mere observer. Her husband is in that casket. 

Just last night, they had watched the grandchildren play around the house - and remembered when they were young enough to play like that. Just last night, they had talked of good memories and future days with the parents of those children. Just last night, she had gone to sleep with him next to her, as they had for thousands of nights before. 

Yet this was to be their last night together. Death slipped in during the night and stole from her. The thief, as all thieves do, did not ask permission, did not give warning nor even spare her feelings. Just like that, it was all over, just last night.

She sits there, sad, alone in the midst of other family. 

     Alone in her thoughts,       alone in her pain,       alone in many ways....

                                                                                                    and they are etched into her face. 

I cannot read them all but I see them. I see them in the dark emptiness that is in her eyes. 

I see them and so much wanted you to see this also. 

I could not break into the sacredness of this moment though.

The protective barriers of much of North American society are not in place here. Life...and it's shadowy companion, death...are in many ways, much closer to people here. I saw it up close and personal today and wish you could see what I saw.

Death makes life more precious. Enjoy it.

~ Ray

Happy Feet!!

I had a rare privilege this week. Our church in Grove City Ohio, Grove City Church of the Nazarene made it possible. Actually the children made it possible. They wanted to do something to help the children in Belize, so they raised money...selling paper flip-flops. 

That's right - paper flip-flops were traded for paper money, which was sent to Belize to purchase real flip-flops or sandals to be given to children here. Many of the children here run barefoot on rocks that pierce the sensibilities of every North American parent who has ever watched them playing here on the rocky ground. The children don't really mind. They rarely even think about it. They are children. They run, they play, they have fun, all the stuff that children do.

Sometimes their feet get hurt. Sometimes they stub a toe or a sharp rock cuts into the hardened sole of their foot - and North American parents who may be to witness the incident experience their own pain. In fact, their hurt may be equal to or beyond that which the little child experiences.

Those North American parents have children of their own back in the states. So, when the children's department decided to raise money to help children in Belize not cut their feet, it cut to the consciences of many North American parents and they bought paper flip-flops...by the hundreds!

Now, hundreds of real flip-flop sandals have been purchased and given to pastors in various villages to give to the children who live and play there, amid the rocks and grass and sharp sticks. Hundreds of smiles are being flashed across faces as they try on their new sandals and go  for a test run! 

Bright colors, fun designs and even some squeeky soles are being handed out to adorn the feet of these beautiful children. In each case, I told the pastors that children in the U.S. raised the money to provide these gifts to the children of Belize.

The verse just came to mind, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring the Good News."

There are a lot of beautiful little feet, with big, big hearts  ----  in Ohio...

Thank you for making this Christmas time a little more special for many little feet here in Belize!

Blessings from Belize!

~ Ray & Becki & Rachel

Church in a Shed

Yes, you read that correctly. Yesterday, this was said to me. "In a little while, we are going to go to Maya Canter to see if we can fix up this man's shed so we can have church there because the crowd is getting large."

Church in a shed?!?!  

Understand, this is not mockery or anything demeaning. This is the result of a miracle in the making (maybe I will tell you more about that later...). The current state of things is that a new Nazarene church is being planted in this village and the house they are meeting in is too small. Last Sunday night when I was there - there were about 30 or more people inside (small room) and a good number outside as well, standing, leaning, sitting on the porch rail, whatever they could find.

The lengths that some people will go to in order to 'have church' are quite encouraging!

The man who opened his home, was raised a Catholic, not overly involved though and just recently, went through a life-or-death situation. He chose Jesus - for his eternal life - and God chose to add to his physical life. Now, he and many members of a nearby Nazarene church, are pleading with family and neighbors to also make the same life change.

"Let's spend the afternoon trying to fix up the shed so we can have church tonight!"

I suppose Jesus started in a little space not much different than this shed, so it seems fitting...

Makes me wonder what we might be willing to do if we understood the souls that hang in the 

balance...   ~ Eternity is a real long time ~

Happy to be serving in Belize,

 ~ Ray & Becki

Thanksgiving with The Indians

Our first Thanksgiving in Belize - was WONDERFUL! My brother Carl came from New Jersey and in between working like a  crazy man on lots and lots of projects -he also did most of the cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. Leah and Tabor came back from Ohio for another visit as well. So we had some family and friends here from the U.S. - as well as some of our new Indian friends from here in Belize.

It struck me as we gathered together that we had something in common with the 1st Thanksgiving held in the colonial states. The Pilgrims celebrated making it through the long hard winter along and the long summer of learning to plant and tend crops in this land far different from where they had lived. They celebrated with their new friends that had shown them how to live in that land - how to manage to survive and even thrive there in a strange new place.

I felt so honored to have some of the many Indian friends we have met come to share out Thanksgiving meal with us. It truly touched my heart as I thought about how they have helped us and blessed us during our months in Belize. We all ate heartily, read from the Scriptures about thanksgiving and shared some of the many things we have to be thankful for. It was a beautiful expression of what the intent of the day is meant for.

(And we did not even have to think about getting up early to go shopping the next day! woohoo!

 Don't miss that at all!)

Do miss many f you though and hope we can see many during a short trip back to the states over Christmas time.

Blessings from Belize

~ Ray & Becki