Christmas greetings,
“Christmas is not a time for
shopping. It is a time for being thankful, sharing, and giving to
others.” These words came that out of
the mouth of our 5 year old (who is wise beyond his years) continue to resonate
over and over. Rather than getting
caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we are reminded to
stop and give thanks to our Heavenly
Father for the greatest gift of all times…His son. We also want to express what a great joy and
privilege it is share the love of
Jesus Christ with others and share
with all of you the wonderful blessings God has bestowed upon us and the
ministry in Belize. The giving of time and resources that we
have witnessed taking place this past year is beyond words. What a wonderful way to celebrate the birth
of our Lord…basking in His love!
One of our primary focuses
this year has been on teaching and training the pastors and leaders of the
churches who are part of GEM. Randy has
been spending a significant amount of one on one time with the different pastors
mentoring them in their walk with God and their service as a pastor. In addition to the individual time, we had
another amazing weekend conference in October with an even greater number in
attendance than we had at the July conference.
There was literally no vacant bed in our dorms and the team assisting
had to stay off campus. What a dramatic
change from the complacency often experienced stateside to see the almost
desperate hunger for more and more of God’s Word! What an exciting weekend of fellowship and
spiritual feasting. Special thanks to
First Baptist Albertville, AL for sponsoring this event and making it all
possible. 
We have hosted many, many
wonderful teams over the past 7 years and 18 teams in 2014 alone. However, not much has been said about one
man’s burden and dream for the people in one particular village in Belize. GEM has a church and a preschool in the
village of More Tomorrow. Although we
have been able to bring villagers to the saving knowledge of the Living Water,
we have not been able to provide water to sustain life on this earth…until
now. An engineering student from the
University of Arkansas visited Belize with a team of fellow engineering
students. This group took water samples
and found that the water people were drinking in More Tomorrow was literally
poisoning them. With no clean drinking
water, the villagers relied on rain water collected in buckets or water drawn
from the river. Though this student soon
graduated, he had a vision that went beyond just “testing the waters” both
literally and figuratively. He continued
to press forward, developed plans, and raised the funds necessary to provide
clean drinking water to this village. As
a result, a water well was drilled and a tower with a 2500 gallon tank was
constructed and erected onsite in October. Thank you Father for giving this man
the vision and providing the means to accomplish the goal!
All in all, 2014 has been our
greatest year yet regarding the number of people we have seen give their lives
to Christ. Randy has baptized
approximately 50 people recently with at least that many more still waiting to
be baptized. September begins the rainy
season in Belize and the rivers became so swollen that we had to suspend
baptisms until the waters recede to a safe level. What an issue with which to be faced…look out
crocs, here we come!
We are also thrilled about a
weekend training workshop hosted by a team from Alabama for all of our
preschool teachers. The teachers
received great instruction and materials to use to carry out the new ideas and techniques
they were taught. Not only were our
teachers equipped with knowledge, they were provided with many much needed
tools of the trade.
The Gaither family is also
excited to be back together for this Christmas season as Randy, Sheila, and
Micah are currently stateside. As a
matter of fact, we are trying to stay very close together in order to deal with
these chilly temperatures. To go from
91° to 19° in 48 hours is a bit of a shock to bodies which have developed very
thin blood after living in Belize. As
previously mentioned, Micah is trying very hard to keep us all in line and we
are desperately attempting to stay off the “naughty list” while Brandon is
trying to survive another semester of finals.
All joking aside, we are so very thankful for all of God’s blessings and
for such a wonderful year. We wish all
of you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year.
Merry Christmas!
from Randy, Sheila, and Micah
Tax deductible
contributions may be made to GEM at PO Box 348, Bismarck, AR 71929
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