November Update

Greetings,

The Lord God Almighty is great and worthy of our praise! His blessings on the ministry here in Belize are innumerable. What a privilege to see and experience the mighty hand of God moving and working in such power.

What a joy to see people coming to Jesus Christ day after day.  Recently we have been staying quite busy

going from river to river baptizing new believers every week. With this being the rainy season in Belize, the rivers have been quite swollen which makes for very swift water and a muddy slide to get into the water. As you can see from the picture, Randy and Pastor Rudy are standing between the trees and the bank of the river due to the flooding. In swift waters it takes two pastors to hold on to the person being baptized lest they come up out of the water a few miles from where they went down. Nevertheless, the baptism services and joyful celebrations continue…neither rain, nor flooding, nor occasional crocodiles will stop the baptisms. All in all, no words can aptly describe the excitement as our churches continue to grow both spiritually and physically.

(Everyone who attended the meeting)

(Randy with  9 pastors and 2 associates)

Because our heart’s desire is to win, baptize and make disciples, we have begun a new program for training our pastors and leaders. We will continue the individualized training given to the local pastors and churches in their villages, but we have also begun a program of joint training and education. Bringing everyone together not only provides a solid biblical foundation, but it also builds a strong fellowship between the churches, pastors, and leaders. Our first joint meeting was held in September. There are nine pastors and we had hoped to have anywhere from nine to twelve pastors/leaders in attendance. However, we were pleasantly surprised when twenty-three people showed up that morning. It was a fantastic meeting as people from all the different churches in various villages had an opportunity to get to know each other. Each of them came with such hunger and eagerness to learn more about God’s Word…even regarding the basics that we often take for granted. The meeting started around nine o’clock in the morning and by six-thirty in the evening the people were still not ready to leave.

 

As far as Gaither family news, we fortunately have not had any close encounters with critters in the house since the wush willy in Brandon’s bed. However, there have been a couple of sightings of crocodiles at the baptism services within 20ft of Randy while he was in the water. Randy has made it his personal goal to make sure all the pastors are very healthy, well-fed, and always between him and the crocs during the baptism services. With Brandon now driving, Micah has decided that he needs to get in on the action. Micah has become quite the authority on telling the driver when to speed up, slow down, and turn right or left. There is nothing like having a backseat driver that is only two years old! Brandon handles the extra direction from his little brother very well (the earphones in his ears help), but Sheila is less than compliant most of the time. Wonder why Micah always talks about “airplane” when he gets out of the car with her???

Blessings,

Randy, Sheila, Brandon, and Micah