Greetings,
It has been a wonderfully
busy summer! As we are just stopping
long enough to catch our breath, we realized that we haven’t sent out a
newsletter since June. Wow! So much to share…where do we start?
The summer began with a team
from Fellowship in NW Arkansas. This
group ministered in the village of Otoxha which is in the southern part of
Belize near the Guatemala border. Not
only did they minister to the folks in the village through food distribution
and door to door evangelism, but they really put their backs into their work
and dug the footing and poured the cement to prepare for a concrete slab for the
construction of a new church building.
This team is so excited about the work in Otoxha that they have already
scheduled a date to return early in 2013 to work on the next stage of the
building.
The village of More Tomorrow was
really a buzz this summer too with several teams and lots of work taking
place. A team from 1st
Baptist Albertville in Alabama ministered to the children through VBS
activities and built a playground for the new preschool complete with swings
and a really cool slide. As you can see
from the picture (right), the equipment has been thoroughly Micah inspected and
approved. In addition, Grace Community
Methodist Church in Arkansas decided to make the preschool in More Tomorrow
their project for VBS. This wonderful
group of youngsters did not travel to Belize, but they raised enough money to
furnish the preschool with tables and chairs… children helping children. To top it off, an individual from Tennessee
graciously donated the funds to complete the final construction and furnishings
for the preschool and bathrooms. With
all of these folks working together to help us, we were finally able to open
the preschool in More Tomorrow. The
preschool opened on August 31st with a total of fourteen students
enrolled. We have been working on this
project for about two years and are so excited to finally have it open! Through the efforts of many of you over the
course of two years we are now able to provide preschool education through a
Christian curriculum at absolutely no cost to the students/parents. Thank you to everyone who helped make this
possible!
The preschool is not the only exciting
news from More Tomorrow. Another team
from Arkansas (Zion Baptist) built benches for the church. Since the construction of the church
building, the congregation has been sitting on dilapidated benches or on the
concrete floor for services. We now have
beautiful new benches. The folks were so
excited when they arrived at church on Wednesday for the midweek service and
saw the new furniture. This team not
only worked hard on constructing benches, but they also ministered to the
children and adults alike through VBS activities both in More Tomorrow and
Frank’s Eddy. This was the first team to
ever conduct a VBS in Frank’s Eddy and
the villagers were thrilled and truly blessed by all the activities and the
love shown by this group. The folks at
Frank’s Eddy are already looking forward to “next time” (hint, hint). In addition, this team also brought down to
Belize children’s Bibles for the preschool students at both More Tomorrow and
Valley of Peace that were purchased with funds raised from the VBS children at
Zion. Once again, children are
ministering to children. 
Pictured left: a preschool student at More Tomorrow carrying the Bible she received
the first day of school and Mr. Santos (head teacher) helping another student
read his Bible.
Our “Veteran VBSers” as we
call them from Corinth Baptist in Tennessee also came down again this summer. This group has been coming down for several years
ministering to children and adults alike.
This year, however, the team stayed at our southern campus and conducted
VBS for children and Bible studies for adults in Dump, Jalacté, and San
Pablo. They did a great job pioneering
the way as they shared the message of Jesus Christ through various
activities.
With summer coming to an end,
it also means a few changes for the Gaither household. Brandon has begun his last year of high
school (where have the years gone?), and we decided it was best for him to
complete his senior year of high school in the states. So, Sheila, Brandon, and Micah have returned
to the US for the duration of the school year while Randy will be traveling
back and forth between Belize and the US.
It is a toss up between Sheila and Brandon as far as which one is the
most thrilled about no more home school.
Micah has been enjoying spending more time with Nana and Grandpa and has
quickly learned to spot the “Golden Arches” from a mile away. Randy, on the other hand, has been busy with
the wildlife that has decided to make our home their home in Belize including a
black jaguar that was hanging out under Sheila’s car in the carport. Hachi (our dog) was a bit upset about the
jaguar under the car and the monkeys on the trampoline so he decided to make
the welcome mat his new chew toy to remove any temptation from other
wildlife.
God has blessed tremendously
and there is so much more to share, but not enough space on the paper. More to come in the next newsletter…stay
tuned.
Blessings,
Randy, Sheila, Brandon, and
Micah
No comments:
Post a Comment