Greetings,
The first two months of this
year have been filled with a lot of activity as the ministry continues to
grow. Several teams have helped us
minister to both the spiritual and physical needs of the people in Belize.
We started off the year with a team
from NW Arkansas who worked in the village of Otoxha. Otoxha is a remote village in the southern
part of Belize near the border of Guatemala.
This group has had a burden for the people of Otoxha and their need for a
church building as the structure they have been using is literally falling
apart around them. These college
students from AR braved the heat and humidity to dig the footing and pour a slab
for the new church building. Several
members of the local congregation came out to help as they are so excited about
their new building.
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| Villagers gather to watch the Jesus film in their native language |
As a result of a new program the
government of Belize has implemented, GEM has been assigned villages in the
southern part of Belize where we have been given the task of providing ongoing
health and wellness services. We hosted
a medical team from Tennessee (and one couple from Iowa) for two weeks in
January who came to help us meet these needs and requests of the
government. This team really had their
work cut out for them as they saw 1245 people in 9 different villages over a
period of 8 days. One village is not
accessible by road so the team had to walk for two to reach the village. Not only did this team minister to the
medical needs of the villagers, but they also distributed food and Bibles. Most importantly, they shared the Gospel to
many through personal testimony and by showing the Jesus film 28 times including 7 times in schools.
A second team from Tennessee (from the
same church as many of the people on the medical team) also spent two weeks in
Belize working down south. This was a
construction group consisting of three men.
They also had a burden to help construct a church building so they went
to Otoxha and picked up where the previous team had left off. By the time this construction team arrived
the foundation was dry, so they were able to begin building the walls. These guys completed all four walls ready for
the top beam to be poured. It is
wonderful to see teams from different areas coming together to accomplish a
common goal.
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| Brandon rock climbing in Albertville, AL |
As far as Gaither family news, we are
learning to fly by the seat of our pants….maybe a little more literally for
Randy. Randy has made several trips back
and forth between Belize and the states just since January. One trip back was to attend a mission
conference in Albertville, AL. This was
a fantastic weekend for the entire family.
The host church was generous enough to fly Randy in from Belize and
Sheila and the boys to AL from Little Rock and all four of us met up in the
Houston airport. It was a great weekend
of pampering, meeting old friends and new friends, hearing and sharing the Word,
and overall being blessed tremendously.
Thank you Albertville First Baptist for a wonderful weekend!
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| Micah getting ready for the day |
Blessings,
Randy, Sheila, Brandon, and
Micah
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