July 26

 We're getting up each morning between 5 and 5:30 to get ready to leave for the school around 7:30.   This morning at 6:00, right outside our window, the neighbor came to cut down a couple trees.   This man lives up the road and he makes charcoal for a living.  He has to find trees to burn to make the charcoal, and our hosts let him chop a couple from their backyard.  A very interesting process - so we will have to walk over there one of these days and take a picture of his charcoal making system.

Don't know how that would go over in our neighborhood back home if someone started cutting down trees in our backyard at 6 am!

As we left the house there was this snail walking across the back porch.  It is about 4 inches long.
So many interesting creatures in this world!

Another hot day working in the library.  

A visit to the San Narciso Presbyterian Pre-School while the children were having recess.   They are so cute!   This is their new swing set the parents built as their project for the year.   This preschool meets in the lower level of the San Narciso church.  We missed "graduation" this past Saturday for those children going on to Infant I this Fall.   This pre-school is run by one teacher - Leidy, and she had over 20 three and four year old's this past year.  

And a sweet visit with Elsa and two of her boys.    Didi just graduated from 8th grade, and Eliezar is still in grade school.

We went out to dinner tonight - it was my turn to cook :) - at R.D.'s

Pray for Dale as he continues to prepare for this weekend's seminars (Friday night and Saturday).    Pray for us as we seek to encourage our friends here.  

Also pray for my family (mom, brother, sister and families) in Colorado Springs where fires are raging out of control.   It's tragic to see what the fire has consumed.

July 25

 Monday morning - time to get to work.  I was impressed with how tidy the library was when we arrived this morning.   Tidy, but dusty.  I got to work on sorting the book cards, but by the end of the work day, I had removed all the books from these three shelves, dusted, check the card pockets, mended several books with book tape and alphabetized and put back on the shelves.   These three shelves take you through the "G's" of the Fiction section of the library.  Lots of books missing and many need to be replaced because they are worn pretty bad.
 

 Dale spent the time in the other side of the room  getting prepared for his upcoming seminars - first ones this Friday night and Saturday.

Best part of the morning was seeing my friend Elsa!  She is still doing the Bursar/secretary job with her sister - and keeps everything well organized.   She also does some cooking for selling lunches during the school year, managing the snack bar,  and organizing and decorating for special events.     She is looking forward to July when she has her "vacation" time - getting to stay at home with her two children for a few weeks.  
I'm thankful for her dedication to her work at Cornerstone and the professionalism she has displayed  over the past 7 years. 
 It  always amazes me to see which machines are still working in the office each summer - the heat and humidity are so hard on electronic equipment.  The Riso machine (duplicator) we purchased 7 1/2 years ago, thanks to a generous donor back home, is now on it's last leg.   It is amazing to me that it has kept on working (withregular maintenance) this long!   There is an air conditioning unit  working in the office now, but they use it sparingly because of what it does to the electric bill.

It felt good to me after working all morning in the hot library to sit with Elsa and Karen in the air conditioned office for lunch, but Dale and Albert had their lunch outside in the shade.  Today was mucha calor.  (very hot)  It was at least 95 actual degrees last we checked, but, according to Accu-weather, 115 degrees feel like temperature.

Right now we are enjoying the coolness of a rain shower which just moved through.   The clouds below were forming as we ate our tortillas and beans for dinner.

Sunday, July 24

We attended church this morning in San Narciso.  The tradition has always been to have Sunday School in the morning and the worship service in the evening, but they have started a new tradition of having both Sunday School and Worship both in the mornings on the last Sunday of every month.   They also have designated it as the day they serve the Lord's supper. 
Alvaro preached on Ezra 7.  It was all in Spanish.  Didn't quite get the gist.  However,  it was very good to be back worshiping with our Belize church family!

 We had lunch at one of Romalda's sister's homes in Patchekan.   Rice & Beans & stew chicken, but also one of Dale's favorites - Rellano (a black soup with a slice of sausage/egg mixture and a piece of chicken, eaten with fresh corn tortillas). 
After a cooler morning, the heat did not disappoint.   We are thankful for how welcome people make us feel - even when they don't really know us.
The above picture is Romalda with one of her eight sisters and her mother.  The one to the right is another sister, who reminded me a bit of my own mother in looks. 

Tonight we went with Albert & Romalda to their church in Patchekan.   They have been without a pastor for many years and the ruling elders take turns preaching.  Tonight's message, also all in Spanish, was on Acts 12 where Peter had escaped from prison and showed up at the home where his friends were praying for him, and they didn't believe he was at the door.   A lesson on how often we pray earnestly about situations, but aren't really ready for His answers.

The mosquitos sure were enjoying a feast during the church service tonight!

Tomorrow we will go to school early in the morning to get to work on the library.   Albert says it is ready for some intensive care.  Pray for us this week that God will give us servant's hearts and listening ears.

July 23, 2012

 A typical Saturday morning in Belize.   I went with Romalda to town to pick up fresh vegetables at the market and some chickens and groceries at the Chinese store.   Town is always a bustling place on Saturday mornings.   Dale and Albert stayed home to work on their computers.

Before lunch Dale and I took a little walk to look at the subdivision going on with the acreage next door.   This is a view of Albert's home we have never been able to take before because behind me used to be a wall of trees and brush.   There is now a road lined with zericote trees (pronounced ser e coat a).   That is the wood they use to carve all the wooden boats and bowls that they sell to tourists. Looks like the Zantingh's will eventually have new neighbors!   I was watching carefully for snakes.

Mid afternoon we drove to Orange Walk for a 6th Form (8th grade) graduation ceremony  at New Life Presbyterian school.   Albert was to be the speaker at the graduation.    This school (Pre-K - 8th grade) was not doing so well 6 years ago - but Ruth Ku became the new principal and was the right person for the job.  The school has 245 students and uses every desk and chair they have.  It is housed in a three story building connected to the Orange Walk church.  The recently completed auditorium is on the 3rd floor - it has a brand new steel roof!  It was a climb to get up there!

The ceremony was supposed to start at 4 pm, but it was more like 4:30.   It was pretty hot, but thankful for the fan that was placed behind us!





This is Ruth Ku, who used to work at Concepcion School and was a good friend to our daughter Cydney was she was her in 2000.


Below is her daughter who we knew as a baby.

One of the male graduates.   

Her is Albert speaking on the class's theme verse - Ezekial 36:26.    He spoke to the graduates about the importance of letting the Lord give us new hearts of flesh, filled with his Spirit  -  Hearts that will never die, hearts that live their lives for God's glory.


Afterwards, we made the 25 mile trip back north, stopped at Cactus Plaza for some salbutes, panuchos, tortas and Dale's horchata.

We are now looking forward to church tomorrow morning in San Narciso.   

June 22, 2012

We were in Pittsburgh this morning - this evening we are in Belize!   God was good to give us a safe trip down.   We had only one glitch in our travel.    When we arrived in Atlanta and were beginning to deplane, a lady collapsed in the aisle at the front of the plane.   Even though we were a few minutes early, we didn't get off the plane for another 30 minutes - leaving us less than 30 minutes to get from that gate  to the furthest terminal and gate away.  As we walked up to the deserted gate, the two gate attendants were there asking, "McLanes?"  They hurried us on to the plane and shut the door behind us, only to make us all sit there another 45 minutes while they added fuel to the plane.   Despite the 45 minute delay, we arrived in Belize on time and made it out of the airport with no problems.   

We are thankful for our good friends the Zantingh's for always welcoming us into their home.  We are thankful for the opportunity to be here and ready to see what God has in store for us during the next couple weeks.   We are also thankful for cold showers and looking forward to a good night's rest. 

June 22, 2012

Always a gecko chirp to welcome us.

June 17, 2012

God willing, only five more days until we are back in Belize!