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January, 2004 - McDonough Presbyterian Church McDonough, Georgia - Our church sent 12 people, ranging in generations from Junior High to grandparents, to Orange Walk, Belize from January 3-9, 2004. 

We went down with Ben Mathes and Ellen Grand and had an incredible time serving and getting to know the people of Belize. We split up into groups, sending some to work with New Life Presbyterian School, 2 or 3 to build bunk beds for Honey Camp, and 3 to plant a garden at Honey Camp Lagoon. 

We also provided VBS one afternoon for the school children and one afternoon for the children who lived around the San Francisco Ministry, where we painted fingernails, played games, learned about being the light of the world, and took Polaroid pictures of each child for them to take home (we had to take A LOT of film). The kids and our group had a blast! 

At the school, we each went with a teacher and helped them in their classrooms however we could. Some of us taught art and English lessons, others led songs, read books or graded homework while getting to know the teachers and assistants, and still others tried to help with class discipline. The teachers had great needs for supplies and ideas. We participated in a teacher meeting the first day, trying to offer any ideas for teaching, discipline, lesson plans, and encouragement. We made a list of needed supplies and are sending more supplies with another group. Their greatest needs are notebooks, tape, staplers, pens, pencils, teaching aides, small toys for prizes, stickers, and other supplies we in America come by so easily and cheaply. We all became very close to the teachers and many of the students, and we miss them greatly.

We hauled down 5 or 6 bags of school supplies in individual packages for the children of New Life Presbyterian School and the children at the San Francisco Ministry. We included pencils, pencil sharpeners, glue, rulers, paper, erasers and Bibles in each pack and they were received with great joy. We took over 90 bags to the VBS at the San Francisco Ministry, expecting only 60 kids, and we still ran out, ending up distributing paper to those who didn't get a bag. It was disappointing and heartbreaking to run out, but the kids were still so thankful for the paper and were so sweet. We ended up distributing the rest of the bags to each of the classes at New Life School-the students were very excited and the teachers were grateful.

Those building the bunk beds had quite a task working with raw lumber, but made a fabulous product. Wagner, the carpenter they worked with, had great needs for tools and saw-blades, so one man in our group left all of the tools he brought for him to continue using. The "gardeners" at Honey Camp Lagoon, naming their work "God's Garden for His People," planted beans and other vegetables. They also encountered a tarantula! Some of us camped out in tents at the lagoon one night during a full moon, which was amazing.

We had two days off during the trip to explore and enjoy the country and people. On our first day in Belize, we took a boat ride up the New River to Lamanai Mayan Ruins, where we walked through the jungle, climbed to the top of the temples and saw crocodiles, iguanas and beautiful birds. On the last day, we took a small plane to the picturesque island town of San Pedro. We went snorkeling, lay in hammocks on the Caribbean beach and enjoyed life. 

The trip was life changing for each of us and we will never forget the people, the country and the experience of Belize.

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