August 15, 2009

August Update

Greetings from Belize,

Wow! So many amazing things have taken place this past month it’s hard to know where to begin. Once again we have had several great teams here in the past few weeks who have worked on construction projects, vacation Bible school, door to door ministry, dental care, and food distribution.

We started off the month of July with a construction team from South Carolina. This group did a great job working on the internet café in Valley of Peace. Thanks to all of their hard work the only things the building lacks now are doors, windows, paint, and chairs. After that it will be ready for the installation of the computer equipment which will help the young folks in the village with their education.


The second team this month was from TN. They ministered to the children in More
Tomorrow and Valley of Peace through Vacation Bible School. What a blessing they were to both villages! Attendance averaged 51 in More Tomorrow and 220 in Valley of Peace. Believe it or not, the team did not run away at the sight of 220 children in one location. Instead, they worked great with the children and everyone had a wonderful time. Members of this team also went house to house in the two villages sharing the love of Christ with people in the homes. Through these combined efforts there were 7 folks saved in More Tomorrow and 24 folks saved in Valley of Peace.

As mentioned in our June newsletter, a young man from Fort Smith, AR took on the task of constructing our church building in More Tomorrow as an Eagle Scout project. You can see from the picture that we now have a very nice church building in that village.
We are currently working on plaster, doors, windows, and facer boards and hope to have it completed by the end of this week in time for a dedication service on Sunday. The people in the village are so proud of their new church building that one man has even been sleeping in the church to make sure nothing is bothered until the building can be completed and secured. That’s one time it is ok to sleep in church…ha!


One of the great things about being a part of God’s family is getting to work with your brothers and sisters in Christ. We have been fortunate to meet some wonderful people that work with neighboring ministries here in Belize. This last month three different ministries worked together to meet several needs in the village of More Tomorrow. We were hosting a team from AR on our northern campus at the same time a nearby ministry was hosting a team from AL. Prior to their arrival, a dentist traveling with the AL team contacted Randy about providing dental care to the people in the villages. Randy was able to make arrangements with a third ministry that has dental facilities/equipment available so that people were able to receive much needed dental services free of charge. Some members of the AL team held a vacation Bible school for the children in More Tomorrow while the other members of their team helped the construction team from AR with our new church building. In the evenings we held revival services, and the last night of the revival the AL team distributed beans, rice, mosquito nets, and shoes to everyone in the village. It was wonderful to see so many people from different ministries and different places working together to share the love of Jesus Christ.

As far as family news is concerned, the four of us are doing great…a little tired at times, but having a great time. Micah is sitting up, trying to crawl, and in to everything he can roll his walker near. The other three of us are like athletes in training learning to leap over obstacles in a single bound, snatch things before little fingers get there, and change a diaper on a rolling baby in less than 30 seconds. Otherwise, Brandon is counting the days on the calendar until home school starts back again…not with excitement but with dread.

Blessings,
Randy, Sheila, Brandon, and Micah Gaither