July 10

 I think we last posted on Sunday morning - it was raining and Sunday school had been cancelled.   We spent a few more hours watching the puppies, putting out the trash, cleaning up, packing and Alvaro came to pick us up around 11.   We stopped at the neighbors to give them the key and got about 1/3 of the way to San Narciso (14 miles away) when Dale realized he had forgot his computer case back at the Zantingh's, so we turned around and stopped at the neighbors for the key before going back to the house for the computer.   Once we finally got to the Pott's house, where Elsa had made us a delicious lunch of chirmole with rice and horchata to drink.

 About 3:00 we all loaded into the bus (driven by Zair) for the 5 mile trip out to San Victor for the worship service.   Dale and Alvaro had gone on ahead to get the sound system set up.   Several of the women had prepared rice and beans for a dinner afterward.  A team from Florida had arrived on Saturday, and they also were going to follow us to San Victor where they would be spending this week working on a roof over the classrooms that were added last year to the San Victor church building.

Here Elsa is giving the driver of the team van directions to San Victor.   They decided to just follow the bus out.

 And here is what the road looked like for the 5 mile trip.   There was a lot of standing water in the cane fields from the rain that had fallen all morning.

The San Victor church was full for the service (having the 12 member team helped) but also several families from the village showed up, and the folks we had brought from San Narciso plus another truck load that had made the drive.

Alvaro did an excellent job, preaching in Spanish and English, on Ezra 8 about how the people of Israel and the Levites gathered for their trip back to the temple in Jerusalam. 

 After the service the Cokes and rice and beans were served up to the crowd and a very good time of fellowship was had.

Here is Elsa and Veronica dishing up the food.
We got to chat with another of our former students who had recently gotten married, his wife expecting a baby girl soon, and they have started attending church pretty regularly.  We encouraged them to continue to be involved with the church.

 Afterwards, we loaded everything back on the bus and made the trip back to San Narciso.    We had to say our good-byes to our Belize church family and they told us that we are such a blessing to them because we return every year to visit them and encourage them.   It is surely them who are a blessing to us!    Pray for the faithful members in the Belize Presbyterian churches that God would give them the patience and endurance they need in a very difficult culture.   It is a struggle for many of them to be faithful to the church, because they need leadership who will teach and model the Christian life.

This is a playground we passed at the San Narciso RC School - just to give you an idea of the rainfall we had on Saturday and Sunday.

We got up Monday morning and got ready to leave for Belize City.   But first Elsa and I went to get gas from the gas can man; stopped by the tortilla factory to pick up some masa for the empanadas the ladies were making for the team's Monday lunch; and took the masa over to Rosaura's house, where she and Alicia were already busy shredding the fresh cooked chicken for the empanadas.   I wish I had my camera along, the owner of the tortilla factory invited me in to see his tortilla machine and how it worked.  Fascinating!

Dale spent the last hour chatting with Alvaro over a breakfast of homemade tortillas with refried beans and scrambled eggs. 

A long day of travel with no real problems, but not enough time to eat more than the peanuts offered us on the flights.  

We are now home again!