Once again as usually, another week has passed. Its funny how that happens once a week. It was another good week. Where to begin? Well Monday I only teach two classes so I got a lot of planning and preparing for the week done. And not having the crusade gave me a lot of time and each night I got really prepared for my classes. Which made classes go really smooth this week. Plus I'm getting use to everything now and know what works better than other things, and its really coming along. It feels really nice.
On Tuesday Mr. Cabanas (the principal) was able to pick up my package for me at the post office in Belmopan. I didn't know who it was from and to my surprise it was from my old academy, Paradise Adventist Academy. It was really nice and quite a surprise. If any of you from PAA read this, thank you so much, it was a nice spirit lifter. There was a lot of post-it notes which I am thankful for, and paper clips, pencils, school stuff etc which is useful. They also gave an overhead transparency pen, and it made me totally think, why am I not using overheads. So I've set it up and I'm totally going to use overheads this next week in classes. I'm pretty excited for that actually.
Friday was a holiday here this past week which was nice too. But its not the same as back home where everyone is getting a week off for Thanksgiving, I miss the holiday seasons. No Thanksgiving for Matt =(, well I'll be thankful, just no feast. I really like food, so that will be a shame =P. Anyways, ADRA gave the church for the community two hundred pound bags of beans and people from the community have been coming for it. Thursday afternoon not many people came because it was raining. Friday morning was holiday so I slept in a little bit, until seven something and I went outside my house because I had to go to the restroom, and I see a man standing outside of the church. I figured he was there for beans, so I went to the restroom and went back into my house and put more clothes on and grabbed the keys to the building where the beans were. I came back out and met with him. He didn't speak English, and I speak very little espanol. In fact what I said, "No hablo mucho espanol." But I was able to use my little bit of Spanish I know and was able to communicate with him and give him some beans. It was a really nice way to start the day and to be able to serve someone and be used by God. It's nice to know that God gives us what we can handle. =)
Then later that night we had our small groups meeting that we have split our church into. We (Landeros and I) went to the Vasquez family's house. There house is small and its a dirt floor, and I believe there's 10 in there family. Then there was another small family. There was 19 of us in all. It was in Spanish too, so I spoke a little bit more. Then after the meeting they gave us food. Which was really nice of them and there's so many of them, I didn't want to be rude and tell them, I don't eat meat. They're new members and I don't want to offend them and I don't want to come across as I am better than you, so I ate it. Now today, I paid the price a little bit. I'm not sick, just a little upset. But it was worth it and I hope I did the right thing, and I have a funny story out of it now.
Yesterday the church was F to the ULL, super full! It was really nice to see. Oh, and my Sabbath School class is HUGE!!!! There's like 20 or so, and they really aren't youth age so I really need to change my planning. They're more, junior and early teen aged. I'll have to plan more for that next week. Sabbath was good as a whole, and I really enjoyed it. I really do enjoy life here. Now I miss everyone, but life is good. The church is growing, and I'm super busy with school and church, and that's honestly about it ha ha. It's really good though, I do have a purpose and that's to serve! Thank you everyone for reading and keeping me in your prayers. Thank you Thomas family for commented on my last post. It was nice and encouraging, I was really wondering if I should keep blogging. (hint hint others. Please comment!!!) Ha ha, well I shall share more eventually. Maybe sometime this week, or if not, as usually I'll post next weekend probably. Oh, tomorrow I have a field trip, so that will be an adventure. Alright take care and God Bless!! Offer still stands if anyone wants to help here. =P
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
3 months!
Oh my its been a long time! Its been two weeks now. A lot has happened. A whole crusade has gone by. I'll give you some highlights and some happenings of these past two weeks. It's been busy and has gone by super fast. Two weeks ago I went to the bush! We chopped down trees to use as poles for the tent we set up for the Crusade. We had to march, cut, and climb our through. Then we cut down some trees. Then the most fun part happened, we had to carry the trees out of the bush, climbing and maneuvering our way through. Honestly, it was fun. It was really tiring too but I'm happy I've done that and can say I have. We didn't go too terribly far into the bush either. Probably teen fifteen minutes into it. Oh, and we woke up at 5 in the morning to go, that's another thing I forgot to say. We got back around eight or so started setting up the tent. We didn't get everything finished until about one I believe.
I got to talk with a lot of people too which was nice. I miss all of you and its really nice to communicate. But its so hard to find time and it takes a lot of time. Especially these past two weeks. But yeah then I was exhausted the rest of the day and had to go to the crusade. The week went pretty well, nothing too extraordinary happened. But Thursday was a great day! In the afternoon, teaching was a lot of fun. I was able to joke and be serious at the same time and the students were paying attention and trying and understanding and that's so nice. It was encouraging. I was so tired at the end of that day though. It was raining so we had the Crusade in the tiny church, so I'm pretty much sitting right in front of the speaker, straight up in my chair, sleeping. Ha ha, I couldn't help it. I was out! Straight back and everything. That was funny to talk about and laugh about.
Friday I went to Calcuta, northern Belize. I went with Alondra's mom who helps with the kids during the week. We went right after school to catch the bus. We arrived just in time at Belmopan to catch the bus to Belize City. That bus ride was only about an hour long and it was a nice bus and we got seats. Then once again, right when we arrived in Belize City, we had to run to the next bus. It was packed! I got the last seat. Now it was a horrible spot, but I got the last seat. It was right where the wheel is so you don't have any leg room, and it was next to this HUGE lady. I was crammed in there, and the worse part about that was, sense we had to hurry up on each bus, I hadn't been able to go pee so my bladder was full! I was crammed, and ready to burst. The ride seemed to take forever. This bus would stop everywhere and like every 5 to 10 minutes to pick up more people. It took about 4 hours until we reached our destination! I quickly went to some trees and relieved. Then everything was better. There was a time were I was trying to tell myself, it'll be alright. This pain will be so worth it for how good it will feel when I get to use the restroom. Unfortunately that wasn't true. =P
I really didn't do much in Calcuta. I went to church then next day and ate and sat around a lot. The weekend was a lot of sitting which was unfortunate. I also ate some dairy. Which happened to activate some poison wood I apparently got when going into the bush the week before. Poison wood is similar to poison oak. That weekend it got really bad. It engulfed my body from the waist up, all the way to my face. Monday I went to the doctor and got a shot, some medicine, and some lotion. That was pretty miserable. Its pretty much gone now except its on my hands and my fingers. They itch and are rubbed a lot and irritated because they're my hands and when you handle things its going to happen. But I'm surviving and its going well.
Then something really special happened this past Friday. Friday November 12, 2010. Danielle and I have been dating for one year!! That's so crazy and amazing! Oh my, I've already written and said so much about it, not publicly, and its so wonderful. Especially how much we have grown as individuals, and together! How we are able to still be in our relationship, yet take a year off and serve others and be working for God. It's not easy, but its so worth it and so great! I am so grateful and so in love and I believe we are blessed so much and God is taking care of us. =D
Then another wonderful and special event happened yesterday! 41 people got baptized! Within the past 4 weeks 50 people have been baptized. Our church has more than doubled. Our church isn't big enough to hold everyone. That's an issue, a great issue to have, but we need to figure that out. Anyone want to donate money or know a church that could be a mother church and support us? That would be nice. But it's wonderful praise God!! We have so much work now added to our already full plates. Praise God! We are so exhausted. Praise God!!! We can't do it, we need help of God. Praise God!!! It's easy for me to get overwhelmed with everything that we have to do, but that's the problem. We don't have to do it, we only have to be willing to be used, God will do it. We are working, doing all this work, for credit, to be acknowledged. No, we are doing this for God! Yeah, sure I'm tired, exhausted, behind in everything, feeling incapable, but God isn't. That's why I'm here. Please continue to pray and support me, the church here, the school. We need it and if there's anything that you want to do personally feel welcomed. If you want to come and teach here from January on, feel free. One teacher is going to be leaving, plus we could use another teacher as is. If you want to support with money, WE NEED IT!!! We barely scrape by each month, if its coming and doing manual labor, WE NEED IT! We need new buildings, fix ups etc. If you want to preach or help train laity, or help give Bible studies, or give a crusade, WE NEED IT! If you want to pray, WE NEED IT!!! Thank you for everything. And another wonderful thing that I should share is, that PUC raised some money for the damages done during the hurricane and will be sending the funds soon hopefully. They said they raised over $350! So that's wonderful! These are some happenings of the past two weeks and my life. I miss you all and love and miss you again and would love to hear from you. So please comment, it's really encouraging and makes me feel loved and listened too. Please share it with other too. Thank you once again. Much love and prayers! Oh, and I've been here for 3 months now. Crazy!
I got to talk with a lot of people too which was nice. I miss all of you and its really nice to communicate. But its so hard to find time and it takes a lot of time. Especially these past two weeks. But yeah then I was exhausted the rest of the day and had to go to the crusade. The week went pretty well, nothing too extraordinary happened. But Thursday was a great day! In the afternoon, teaching was a lot of fun. I was able to joke and be serious at the same time and the students were paying attention and trying and understanding and that's so nice. It was encouraging. I was so tired at the end of that day though. It was raining so we had the Crusade in the tiny church, so I'm pretty much sitting right in front of the speaker, straight up in my chair, sleeping. Ha ha, I couldn't help it. I was out! Straight back and everything. That was funny to talk about and laugh about.
Friday I went to Calcuta, northern Belize. I went with Alondra's mom who helps with the kids during the week. We went right after school to catch the bus. We arrived just in time at Belmopan to catch the bus to Belize City. That bus ride was only about an hour long and it was a nice bus and we got seats. Then once again, right when we arrived in Belize City, we had to run to the next bus. It was packed! I got the last seat. Now it was a horrible spot, but I got the last seat. It was right where the wheel is so you don't have any leg room, and it was next to this HUGE lady. I was crammed in there, and the worse part about that was, sense we had to hurry up on each bus, I hadn't been able to go pee so my bladder was full! I was crammed, and ready to burst. The ride seemed to take forever. This bus would stop everywhere and like every 5 to 10 minutes to pick up more people. It took about 4 hours until we reached our destination! I quickly went to some trees and relieved. Then everything was better. There was a time were I was trying to tell myself, it'll be alright. This pain will be so worth it for how good it will feel when I get to use the restroom. Unfortunately that wasn't true. =P
I really didn't do much in Calcuta. I went to church then next day and ate and sat around a lot. The weekend was a lot of sitting which was unfortunate. I also ate some dairy. Which happened to activate some poison wood I apparently got when going into the bush the week before. Poison wood is similar to poison oak. That weekend it got really bad. It engulfed my body from the waist up, all the way to my face. Monday I went to the doctor and got a shot, some medicine, and some lotion. That was pretty miserable. Its pretty much gone now except its on my hands and my fingers. They itch and are rubbed a lot and irritated because they're my hands and when you handle things its going to happen. But I'm surviving and its going well.
Then something really special happened this past Friday. Friday November 12, 2010. Danielle and I have been dating for one year!! That's so crazy and amazing! Oh my, I've already written and said so much about it, not publicly, and its so wonderful. Especially how much we have grown as individuals, and together! How we are able to still be in our relationship, yet take a year off and serve others and be working for God. It's not easy, but its so worth it and so great! I am so grateful and so in love and I believe we are blessed so much and God is taking care of us. =D
Then another wonderful and special event happened yesterday! 41 people got baptized! Within the past 4 weeks 50 people have been baptized. Our church has more than doubled. Our church isn't big enough to hold everyone. That's an issue, a great issue to have, but we need to figure that out. Anyone want to donate money or know a church that could be a mother church and support us? That would be nice. But it's wonderful praise God!! We have so much work now added to our already full plates. Praise God! We are so exhausted. Praise God!!! We can't do it, we need help of God. Praise God!!! It's easy for me to get overwhelmed with everything that we have to do, but that's the problem. We don't have to do it, we only have to be willing to be used, God will do it. We are working, doing all this work, for credit, to be acknowledged. No, we are doing this for God! Yeah, sure I'm tired, exhausted, behind in everything, feeling incapable, but God isn't. That's why I'm here. Please continue to pray and support me, the church here, the school. We need it and if there's anything that you want to do personally feel welcomed. If you want to come and teach here from January on, feel free. One teacher is going to be leaving, plus we could use another teacher as is. If you want to support with money, WE NEED IT!!! We barely scrape by each month, if its coming and doing manual labor, WE NEED IT! We need new buildings, fix ups etc. If you want to preach or help train laity, or help give Bible studies, or give a crusade, WE NEED IT! If you want to pray, WE NEED IT!!! Thank you for everything. And another wonderful thing that I should share is, that PUC raised some money for the damages done during the hurricane and will be sending the funds soon hopefully. They said they raised over $350! So that's wonderful! These are some happenings of the past two weeks and my life. I miss you all and love and miss you again and would love to hear from you. So please comment, it's really encouraging and makes me feel loved and listened too. Please share it with other too. Thank you once again. Much love and prayers! Oh, and I've been here for 3 months now. Crazy!
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