You Better Belize It!

As I began to write this, I was on the flight to Belize!  Our first country is a well-known tourist attraction on its coast, but what’s rather upsetting is the damage that tourism has done to the rest of the country.  We are not going for the tourism or the scenery—although, we will see plenty of it and it WILL be gorgeous I’m sure.  We aren’t going for the pictures or the Instagram posts or the travel agenda.  We aren’t even going for the standard church mission agenda that says “We want to do this for a few days and reward ourselves while we are there with some time to enjoy the country!”  No.  We are going because we are called to share the Gospel with all people and make disciples of all nations.  There’s no agenda but to serve.  There’s no higher call than to love.  And, in serving and loving all people, we honor God.

My team, Magic Treehouse, has taken these three words to be our call and motto—LOVE, HONOR, and SERVE.  We are committed as a team to treat one another with this respect and to reflect this posture toward the people we meet.  I believe there is no greater act of kindness.  Every action we take must be guided by these principles.  We must ask ourselves the following questions:

“Is what I’m doing loving well?”

“Am I honoring this person?”

“Is this displaying an attitude of service?”

If the answer is not yes, we call one another higher.  Every person on my team and squad has committed to certain spiritual norms that we have created to develop among us a culture of Christ-like attitude and action.  I’m absolutely thrilled to see God move in our hearts in such a way that, when we walk into a room, the atmosphere shifts to reflect our new cultural norms.  As followers of Christ, we are called to change every room we enter and every life that crosses our path.  This Way is more than a religion.  It’s relationship with God and man.  It’s hope for all of creation and faith to see the Kingdom built here on earth.

It has been a very long launch weekend and we put so much time into preparing our hearts and minds for the year.  We left our launch conference with enthusiasm and a bit of healthy nervousness for what is to come.

(Thank you to every staff person at Adventures In Missions!  All your hard work is seen and appreciated because Lord knows we’d be lost without some help!)

We arrived at roughly 10:30am for our flight from Georgia to Orlando.  Said flight, however, didn’t leave until 9:45pm so we spent almost 12 hours in the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport just hanging out.  Our flight to Orlando then meant a 7-hour layover in Orlando International Airport.  We had a great start to that time, though, because we met a new friend.  We’ll call her “G”.  We retrieved our bags at baggage claim and gathered around to hear announcements from our logistics team.  Ashley (my partner in Worship Coordinating) had a word for us and led us in a prayer.  “G” was sitting near where we were praying.  When we finished, we noticed she had been praying with us.  A couple of us went over to her and began to chat with her.  She was waiting to reunite with friends that she had known for around 50 years and they were going to spend the week together.  We asked how long she had been a Christian since we noticed her praying and she said she had been building relationship with the Lord from the age of 7.  We had a great conversation and found out she was a 5^th grade Sunday school teacher at her church!  So cool!  More announcements happened (cutting in on our conversation with “G”) but no one was paying attention because “G” went RUNNING (70-ish year old woman, right) and bear hugged her friend who had finally arrived!  Everyone was suddenly clapping as we were all so touched by the reunion.  It was so, so sweet!  Isn’t it incredible that God puts people in our path that are walking the same way we are so that he can bring a smile to our faces??  He astounds me.

We did our best to sleep off the layover, but one group had to check-in at 4am.  I was in that group.  It was a bit of a wake-up call to say the least…  We flew in two groups and met up briefly in Miami.  The other group left Orlando after us, but they stayed less time than we did in Miami so, by the time I woke up from my second multi-hour nap they were gone.  By 12:45pm, we were flying out from Miami and entering BELIZE!!!  It was so exciting to see the ocean and the cays and islands that lined the coast!  We landed, got through customs and security, met up with the rest of our squad (that had left earlier), and, finally, met our contact who drove us to our base!  I’m actually finishing this post right now as I sit at the kitchen table!

I absolutely cannot wait to get started working with all our partners here in Belize!  We will be partnering this month with Legacy Youth Movement, Marlo’s House of Hope, and Youth With A Mission (YWAM) Belize!  We officially start on Monday (October 15^th)!  Everyone we’ve already met is so warm and kind, so I have no doubt this will be such a great place to begin our World Race!

Thank you for reading!  I love you all and will be in prayer for all of you back in the States!

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ANNOUCEMENT: Even though I’ve made it to the launch requirements, I still have financial goals to meet and, due to our busy schedules, these dates will come faster than we think!  November 30^th is the $13,000 financial goal.  I’ve posted about my current funding but, in case you missed it, I’m at $11,148!  This means I only need $1,852 to reach my November goal!!  That is completely doable!  HOWEVER, my PERSONAL hope, goal, and prayer is that I will be FULLY FUNDED before the November financial goal, which means I’d need to fundraise $7,052.  Please be in prayer with me over this and consider donating (via the DONATE button at the top of my blog page) to help me reach this goal!  God is totally in control and I’m believing he is going to multiply those loaves and fishes to fill this exact need!