The End of the Rainbow!!!

We found it!! Ha ha!! How exciting!

But first let me tell you the circumstances. Belize gets a lot of rain at different times of the year. This is one of those times. This last week we have had LOTS of rain. Flooded some bridges and rearranged portions of the dirt, gravel, clay, rock, road that we drive to get to our house. In fact, just last night we heard from a worker repairing the area leading up to the bridge that crosses the Mullins river by our house, that crossing the bridge would do us little good because farther up the road, another river has diverted and has gone right through the road.

Such is life here in Belize.

Anyhow, we had gone to Belmopan, the capital city, where one of the pastors' classes is being taught. Rain descended on the galvanized tin roof off and on during the day, briefly interrupting the ability to hear, but such is life here in Belize.

After class we dropped one student at the bus station and then turned towards home. Starting our return journey under sunny skies was nice as we had not seen the sun during the prior week. As we made our way into the Maya Mountains, the weather conditions quickly changed and brought some more rain into our path. Then, as we passed through a small area of rain and were just entering into the village of Armenia, we spotted it - a beautiful rainbow directly in front of us!

We always seem to smile and enjoy these unexpected pleasures. For Christians, the rainbow is that ever continuing promise that God will not destroy the earth by flood again. It is a comforting promise.

Well, this rainbow was a special joy as we have a Nazarene church in this village. We looked to see where the end of the rainbow was headed as it seemed close to the road itself. My first comment was that it was on the opposite side of the road from where the church is located. Then, as if the rainbow heard our comments and was personally responding, the bottom end of the rainbow MOVED.

I am not kidding!

Now, I know it is simply an adjustment of the angle of the shimmering water droplets in relation to out position in viewing them, but....the rainbow moved!

And the end of the rainbow was clearly seen by both Becki and myself...to our great astonishment, the end of the rainbow was sparkling away right in front of our eyes - on the hood of our truck!!

Never, have I been so close to a rainbow produced by nature's effects (without my spraying a hose into the air...). It was a fun little pleasure after a long day of teaching. I'm not declaring that there is a promise connected to our truck, but there could be. It has carried us a whole lot of miles here in Belize. I'm also not saying that the proverbial 'pot of gold' is our truck, but it is major blessing to us as the training of pastors presses forward in 3 scattered locations. Nor am I saying that we are the recipients of that 'pot of gold' - but I should perhaps reconsider that...

God has blessed us incredibly.

We are the recipients of so many blessings. Many of you reading this have blessed our lives in numerous ways. Thank you for being used by God in such special 'end of the rainbow' ways! In addition, God has personally added so many, many blessings that we truly cannot count them all.

May you find God's rainbow of blessings in your life this week.

~ Ray & Becki

BOLD Young Lady!

I recently was asked to speak at a Youth Conference here in Belize. So I did.

I was the speaker for Friday night - the lead-off guy. The whole 2 day event started with me. Not to set any pressure on me or anything but they gathered 50 teens in a room and said, "Okay, they're all yours!"

Not only that, but I learned shortly before arriving that I was slated to do a Bible Story Session - not a regular talk or message. So.........................off we went.

(If you are not familiar with Bible Story telling - it is avery interactive and dynamic way to teach the Bible - and fun too!)

50 teens who had no idea who I was or why I was doing this strange sort of presentation.

50 teens who did not even fully know what they should expect for the weekend.

50 teens looking at this aging white guy wondering if they made a good choice for their freetime!

On top of that - I felt strongly that the Lord was leading me to do the story of the Rich man and Lazarus. Remember that one? The Rich man who wasted all his days decided how to spend his money...and Lazarus, the poor man, who was covered with sores and had been dumped on the rich man's doorstep. His life consisted of hoping for scraps from the rich man's table while his only friends --- were the dogs that came and licked his sores! (UGH! That gets me every time!)

The story is really about Hell - imagine that. You go to a Youth Conference and the first thing you hear about is Hell! Yeah - just had to trust that God had something special in mind.

I think He did.

We heard a lot of positive feedback afterwards. They liked the aging white guy and his story. That's nice, but it gets better.

Just today we learned that a young girl who was there was strongly impacted.

She is Catholic, 13 years old and was apparently captured by the story of how this poor man was carried to heaven while the rich man, who had everything while on earth, ended up in Hell and in torment.

Like the part about the rich man begging for help and how he was denied it, just as he had denied help to poor, sore covered Lazarus, who had been waiting right outside his door, day after day.

And that there was a great chasm between heaven and hell and that no one could cross over from heaven to hell - even if they wanted to. And that no one could cross over from hell to heaven either.

The story caught her attention - and compelled her into action. How do we know? Because she told one of the ladies that worked at the Conference that she went home and said to her whole family,

"Listen, everybody, come sit down. let me tell you what I learned about God today!"

Praise God for the simple boldness of a child.

Praise God for obedience.

Praise God that His Word continues to go forward...

.....through aging white guys telling the stories that Jesus told..

.....and through young girls who are passing those stories along to the next generation!

Blessed to be serving in Belize,

~Ray & Becki